The Frightening Discovery of the Void in the Atom
When I hear to-day protests against the Bolshevism of modern science and regrets for the old-established order, I am inclined to think that Rutherford, not Einstein, is the real villain of the piece. When we compare the universe as it is now supposed to be with the universe as we had ordinarily preconceived it, the most arresting change is not the rearrangement of space and time by Einstein but the dissolution of all that we regard as most solid into tiny specks floating in void. That gives an abrupt jar to those who think that things are more or less what they seem. The revelation by modern physics of the void within the atom is more disturbing than the revelation by astronomy of the immense void of interstellar space.
A. S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (2005-05)
Notes
More frightening than the vastness of space.
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immense void, Frightening Discovery, to-day protests, abrupt jar, tiny specks, arresting change, real villain, old-established order, modern science, interstellar space, modern physics, atom