- Lived:
- c. 460–370 BCE · Abdera, a Greek city on the coast of Thrace
- Tradition:
- Pre-Socratic Greek; atomism — the last and greatest answer to the question "what is everything made of?"
- The Big Idea:
- Everything that exists is made of tiny, unbreakable particles — atoms — moving through empty space. No plan, no purpose, no magic: just atoms and void.
- In their words:
- "By convention sweet, by convention bitter; by convention hot, by convention cold; by convention color: but in reality atoms and void."
- If you remember one thing:
- Twenty-four centuries before modern physics, a man reasoned his way to the atom using no equipment but logic — and every one of his books is lost.