Birth cries of atoms
3670167
185846682
2008-01-21T11:14:34Z
Icarus3
282222
provide birth+death years for Millikan to give a general chronological context
[[Robert Millikan]] (1868–1953) pursued the theory of '''birth cries of atoms''' for many years, to explain the origin of [[cosmic rays]]. According to the 'birth cry' theory, cosmic rays (now known to be fast-moving charged [[Subatomic particle|particle]]s) were [[photon]]s created by the generation of new [[atoms]], and (in later modifications of the theory), the destruction of atoms as well. He investigated the [[energy distribution]] of cosmic rays, trying to establish a correspondence between the most common energies of cosmic rays and the atomic energies of the most common elements in the universe. Millikan considered his 'birth cry' theory [[natural theology|natural theological]] evidence of the continual intervention of [[God]], whose creation of new atoms balanced the increase in [[entropy]] due to the [[second law of thermodynamics]].
The birth cry theory loosely shares the idea of continuous creation of matter with the [[steady state theory]]
There is presently observed another form of radiation which is technically a signal of the formation of the first atoms in the universe. The [[cosmic microwave background radiation]] was recognized after its discovery in the [[1960]]s to be the remnant of the decoupling of atoms from [[photon]]s which [[free stream|freely streamed]] after the surface of last scattering.
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[[Category:History of physics]]
[[Category:Obsolete scientific theories]]