178 Quotes About Atoms


  • Author Sam Kean
  • Quote

    Also unlike a planet, an electron—if excited by heat or light—can leap from its low-energy shell to an empty, high-energy shell. The electron cannot stay in the high-energy state for long, so it soon crashes back down. But this isn’t a simple back-and-forth motion, because as it crashes, the electron jettisons energy by emitting light.

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  • Author Sam Kean
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    When you do the math and examine how much energy is produced per atomic union, you find that fusing anything to iron’s twenty-six protons costs energy. That means post-ferric fusion* does an energy-hungry star no good. Iron is the final peal of a star’s natural life.

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  • Author Hendrith Smith
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    Our hands have held the life of every atom, and our eyes read the stories, of each soul. Our mouths have spoken words, as old as speaking, and our feet have walked through the centuries of old. Our essence has embraced so many others, from the bumbling bees, to the comets in the skies. Star dust, is the stuff, of which we’re made of, and there ain’t enough words around, to describe.

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  • Author Marcus Chown
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    It was like bouncing tennis balls off a mystery piece of furniture and deducing, from the direction in which the balls ricocheted, whether it was a chair or a table or a Welsh dresser.

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  • Author Anne Clendening
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    Fact: You are part Shakespeare. You are part Jack the Ripper. You are part dinosaur. You are part of a star that exploded way back at the beginning of time. On one level, you've already lived forever,. There is no separation.

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  • Author Henry Moseley
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    In the last four days I have got the (results) given by Tantalum, Chromium, Manganese, Iron , Nickel, Cobalt and Copper ... The chief result is that ... the result for any metal (is) quite easy to guess from the results for the others. This shews that the insides of all the atoms are very much alike, and from these results it will be possible to find out something of what the insides are made up of.

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