In honor of Democritus the national institution dedicated to research on peaceful applications of atomic energy for development in Greece is named the Democritus Nuclear Research Center. Much of Democritus' philosophy of atomism was demonstrated by modern science to be true. Likewise there would be other worlds with animal life, plants, and water and others without.
He argued that the lights of the Milky Way were the lights of distant stars, and that there existed other worlds, some with suns and moons, and others without.
Democritus also held to the belief of the existence of the “void” or empty space to which atoms or matter can move into. For example, the taste of a substance would be the result of the interactions of atoms with the atoms of our tongue. The properties of matter that we can perceive with the senses such as color, taste, and hardness were the result of the interactions of atoms that constituted a given substance and the interactions of atoms with our body. He also argued that atoms were in constant motion and could coalesce to form the larger bodies of matter that we can see, feel, and taste. He held that atoms were the tiniest of particles, too small to be perceived by the senses, of which all matter was composed, and that the atoms differed in size, shape, and mass. The postage stamp illustrated here was issued by Greece in 1961 to commemorate Democritus' teachings of atomism and the development of peaceful applications of atomic energy in the world.ĭemocritus was not alone in the teaching of atomism, but his writings on this philosophy were most extensive. The atom is also the basic unit of elements and is the source of nuclear energy. Modern science has demonstrated that atoms remain undivided in matter (in accord with the early philosophical teachings of Democritus) or in chemical reactions with the exception of a limited removal, exchange, or transfer of electrons. It was not until 20 centuries after Democritus did Rutherford, Bohr, Soddy, and others demonstrate the atom to be the smallest unit of an element consisting of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons equal to the number of protons in the nucleus. Thus the word atom is derived from the Greek atomos meaning indivisible. Democritus taught the theory of atomism, which held the belief that indivisible and indestructible atoms are the basic components of all matter in the universe.