God and the atom

Description

This is the fascinating story of one of science's most enduring and triumphant ideas - from its genesis to the 21st century. In this history of atomism - from Democritus, considered by many to be the father of modern science, to the recent discovery of the Higgs boson - physicist Victor J. Stenger chronicles one of the most successful scientific hypotheses ever devised. Originating separately in both Greece and India, the concept of the atom persisted for centuries, despite often running afoul of conventional thinking. Until the 20th century, no direct evidence for atoms existed. Today it is possible to actually observe atoms using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope. In "God and the Atom", Stenger makes the case that the total absence of empirical facts and theoretical arguments to support the existence of any component to reality other than atoms and the void can be taken as proof beyond a reasonable doubt that such a component is nowhere to be found.