> Atom's were after all a relatively recent discovery in 1827 Atoms were controversial well past that. Their existence was not definitively settled until Eins

> Atom's were after all a relatively recent discovery in 1827 Atoms were controversial well past that. Their existence was not definitively settled until Einstein's work on Brownian motion in the early 20th century (which, incidentally, is what he won the Nobel Prize for, not relativity — Update: turns out I got that wrong. See child comment.). The controversy around the atomic theory was so intense it drove Ludwig Boltzmann to suicide [1]. [1] https://paperpile.com/blog/ludwig-boltzmann/ https://paperpile.com/blog/ludwig-boltzmann/