The Secret Molecular Life of Soap Films

Today we take for granted that all matter consists of atoms and molecules; however, at the beginning of the 20^th century, there was still vigorous debate over the existence of such discrete quantities. Many researchers argued in favor of the continuum hypothesis—the idea that matter is infinitely divisible. Even fundamental atomic laws such as John Dalton’s 1804 law of multiple proportions could be incorporated, with some theoretical gymnastics, into a continuum-consistent theory.