By Jack Sheehan
Two people that I have learned about and have also liked to learn more about are Democritus and J.J. Thomson. I chose these two great minds because I believe that they are the most different from each other as all the scientists I learned about, yet they also have some similarities.
Democritus was unique because he had no teachings and no technology that allowed him to study the atom. Yet his great mind and philosophy lead him to discover that the atom existed even though he couldn’t see it. Democritus realized that atoms were indestructible. He also thought that atoms came with different locks and attachments. One thing that is very important about Democritus’ theory is that it is still a parallel to what scientists believe today! Democritus literally gave birth to the modern science of atoms.
J.J. Thomson is another very important name in the ladder of the atomic revolution. Although maybe not as important as the man who started it, Thomson jumpstarted or restarted Democritus’ theory of atoms after it had been forgotten over a thousand years before. Not only did Thomson uncover Democritus’ long forgotten work, but he figured out a missing link. J.J. Thomson figured out the electron. Even if Thomson put the electron in the wrong place, he still was the first one to find it. He proved every scientist to come before him wrong when he proved to them that atoms were not indivisible, by discovering the electron. On another experiment that many scientists had failed, he created a beam of atoms. He said other scientists had got it wrong because they put too many gasses in their Crookes tubes.
These two of the world’s most important atomic scientists have proved points on a ladder that will go through history. Even though this seems near impossible, the top of the ladder has not been reached yet. It could take millions of years to be understood.
