The Case Against the Nuclear Atom

The Case Against the Nuclear Atom

Since the beginning of the twentieth century we seem to have accepted, quite blindly sometimes, all experimental observations, whether they fitted into the general framework of Bohr and Rutherford, or not. Whenever they do not, present practice is to try and save the theory by adding further extensions and qualifications.

What Larson does, and with alarming simplicity, is to show that most of the “physical and chemical evidence” to which textbook writers refer, is equally consistent with many other hypotheses besides the theory of the nuclear atom, and is therefore no proof to any hypothesis. Where do we go from here? Bohr’s work was a marriage of Rutherford’s theory of the nuclear atom with Planck’s theory of the quantum. The decree that makes the divorce final is the abandonment of the last vestiges of Rutherford’s theory. All that is left is what came originally from Planck. We must go on from here, and the new atomic theory that replaces the nuclear atom must embody the quantum concept in some manner.

To all of us, steeped in the unquestioning adoration of the contemporary scientific method, this is a rude and outspoken book, which sometimes hurts. The frightening thing about it is that it rings true.

About the Author

Dewey B. Larson was an American engineer and theoretician born in McCanna, North Dakota. The author of several works on the fundamental nature of the universe and the originator of the Reciprocal System of theory, Larson developed a consistent and comprehensive theoretical framework to explain natural phenomena from sub-atomic particles to super-galaxies. By answering questions such as, “Why does light sometimes behave as a particle and sometimes as a wave?”, “What is the origin of gravity?”, and “How are galaxies and quasars related?” the breadth of Larson’s work is unmatched by any other scientific investigator, past or present.

His first publication, The Structure of the Physical Universe (1959) laid the groundwork for further endeavors. Updated and expanded in a series of volumes, Nothing But Motion (1979), Basic Properties of Matter (1988), and The Universe of Motion (1984), Larson presents an alternative paradigm of the universe where space and time are simply the two reciprocal aspects of the basic component of the universe—motion. In other works, Larson enumerates the shortcomings of modern physical science, including critiques of relativity, quantum mechanics, and the nuclear theory of the atom.