Matter is atomic ("Skeletal chemistry" 1 of 9)
Created by jrose,
last updated 2015-11-13
"This provides the currency of all chemical discourse. Richard Feynman once remarked that if he were to have to leave a message carved in stone that would put survivors of a nuclear holocaust on the fast track to our current scientific understanding, then he would scratch 'matter is atomic'. Without this fundamental understanding of the composition of matter, chemistry would be intellectually amorphous, so it must lie at the bedrock of our subject."
"Skeletal chemistry" article
This is one of the nine central ideas that Peter Atkins lays out in his 2005 article, "Skeletal chemistry." Each of the other ideas has its own list in SMILE.