Math! Science! History!
Math! Science! History!
Gabrielle Birchak
REPOST: How John Dalton's Atomic Theory Changed Science Forever
11 minutes Posted Jul 8, 2026 at 9:00 am.
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Show notes

I'm revisiting one of my first episodes: the story of John Dalton, the self-taught Quaker schoolteacher who never attended university yet gave modern atomic theory its first real momentum. Barred from English universities for his faith, Dalton turned stubborn curiosity into world-changing science, mapping colorblindness before anyone understood it and sketching the first table of elements in a notebook. This is how one weaver's son carried science from a Cumberland village to the Large Hadron Collider.

You'll learn:

  How a Quaker weaver's son barred from university built the foundation of atomic theory

  The stockings mix-up that led Dalton to discover, and later name, colorblindness

  Why his five-element notebook sketch from 1803 still echoes inside the Large Hadron Collider

 

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Music & Closing Credits

Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved.

Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers


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Until next time, carpe diem!

- Gabrielle