The Great Atom Debate: Ernst Mach, Ludwig Boltzmann, and the Battle for the Essence of Reality

The little-known story of how two of history’s greatest physicists waged a war over the existence of the atom and the nature of reality itself

Nearly 2,500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Democritus argued presciently, but without evidence, that all matter is made of tiny indivisible entities called atoms. Other sages, similarly lacking proof, suggested that nature is continuous. By the later nineteenth century, though science progressed, the question of nature’s basic ingredients remained...