Abstract
PRESENT-DAY physics is in a state of flux. Rival theories have been advanced with startling rapidity to explain the ultimate structure of the atom—in so far as such an explanation may ever be possible. In their present state, such theories are of a professedly mathematical complexion and unfitted for universal consumption; some old conceptions are being discarded and others are being resuscitated. In a supplement to our issue this week, Prof. H. S. Allen gives a sketch of the rise of the quantum theory and in general terms its present position. To many who desire a clear statement of the case, such a summary will be interesting, but in a measure disappointing. As Prof. Allen points out, the position is as yet by no means cleared up. Are we to regard light as corpuscular or undulatory, or both? Has the electron an objective existence? Are the ultimate processes of Nature reversible or not? These are some of the questions to which an answer is eagerly awaited. We are in the position of a man standing before a looked safe which contains the answers to all the riddles of the universe. Around him are uncountable stacks of keys. By patient trial he has found some which nearly fit the lock. Perhaps the right key is among those which he has chosen and the non-success of his efforts to open the safe is due to faulty manipulation of the key. Perhaps, after all, the right key has yet to be tried.
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News and Views. Nature 122, 896–900 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122896a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122896a0