Have you ever felt an atom? Being made of atoms ourselves, we are always in contact with them, both in our own bodies and in every aspect of the physical world. But we don’t feel them, per se. Even when you lay your palm on the top of a table, you’re not actually feeling atoms – you’re feeling the repulsion of the electrostatic field created by the electrons that whiz around the periphery of every atom at speeds approaching that of light. They create a negative charge that prevents other atoms – also possessing negative charges – from getting too close together. At that level of detail, the whole world of “hard” surfaces becomes something akin to unthinkable numbers of tiny same-pole magnets trying to jam themselves together. They can get close – but not too close.
The physics of the “untouchable” atom opened the door to the first real attempts to be able to “feel” matter at the atomic
