If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in ...

The British poet and alchemist Thomas Norton used the word "attoms" in his 1477 poem, The Ordinal of Alchemy. Historian Howard Markel explains how Norton came to use the word, and points out earlier ...

Stenger, an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii, argues in this quick philosophical treatise and history of atomic theory that the existence of the atom proves that God doesn’t ...

Four hundred years before the birth of Christ, the renowned Greek philosopher, Democritus, suggested that all matter is composed of tiny, discrete, indivisible particles Four hundred years before the ...

The terms theory and model are defined, and students learn how a theory remains valid. Atomic Theory: The Development of the Atomic Theory: The terms theory and model are defined, and students learn ...