Divisible Atoms or None at All? Facing the European Contributions to Developments of Chemistry and Physics in China

Acta Chim Slov. 2016 Dec;63(4):S135-S145. doi: 10.17344/acsi.2016.2881.

Abstract

One of the most important Mid-European professor with more than six thousand academic descendants was the leading Slovenian erudite Jurij Vega. In broader sense, Vega's and other applied sciences of the south of Holy Roman Empire of German Nationality were connected with the mercury mine of Idrija during the last half of millennia. The Idrija Mine used to be one of the two top European producers of mercury, the basic substance of atomistic alchemists. Idrija Mine contributions to the history of techniques, their examinations and approbations is comparable to the other Mid-European achievements. The peculiarities of Idrija mining environment where people valued mostly the applicative knowhow is put into the limelight. The applicative abilities of Idrija employers affected the broader surroundings including Vega's Jesuit teachers in nearby Ljubljana and the phenomena of comparatively many China-Based Jesuits connected with the area of modern Slovenia. The Jesuits' Mid-European education and networks are put into the limelight, as well as their adopted Chinese networks used for their bridging between Eastern and Western Sciences. The Western origin of the scientific-technologic-industrial revolution(s) with causes for their apparent nonexistence in Chinese frames is discussed as another Eurocentric rhetorical racist question which presumes the scientific-technologic-industrial revolution(s) as something good, positive, and therefore predominantly European. The Chinese ways into progress without those troublemaking revolutions is focused for the first time in historiography from combined scientific, moral, religious, and economic viewpoints. The Chinese contributions to particular areas of research in chemistry and physics is focused to find out the preferences and most frequent stages of (European) paradigms involved in the Chinese networks. Some predictions of future interests of Chinese chemistry and physics are provided. The Chinese Holistic Confucian distrust in atoms is discussed as possible new paradigm which could rename the destructible divisible entities of future physics, and with more difficulties also of chemistry. The word atom meaning indivisible not compound entity is basically in contradiction with the characteristics of item it is supposed to describe. The suffix "a" provides a negation in Ancient Greek language. The suffix should be omitted to use tom (τομος) to manage the actual situation of a-toms (=Toms) as compound of elementary particles. In late 19th century after the European Spring of Nations actually two basically different concepts of atoms of chemists and physicists accomplished a kind of symbioses. The suggestion is put forward that while indivisible atoms soon became contradictions in physics, they still retain some value in chemistry which should be taken into account in the attempt to hange the name of atom. The research of human genome as the atom of genetics is similar in broader sense, while there is no basic problem with the nomenclature of genome. The genome manipulations are far less obstructed with Chinese traditions compared to Christian beliefs.