Atomism versus energetism. Scientific controversy at the end of the 19th century

Abstract

Learning on the atomic nature of matter is often equivocal in primary, secondary and universities too, due to the fact that they are focused on the evolution of the diverse atomic models throughout history, as if no one had ever questioned the corpuscular nature at stake. However, history itself developed along rather different paths: the scientific community did not acknowledge the atomic nature of matter until as late as the first third of the 20th century, and, for a while, there were such significant and triumphant rejections as the one led by the energeticists. These shortcomings are conspicuous in textbooks, popular science books and, generally, in the teacher-learning processes developed by teachers. The current paper, partially discussed in the closing lecture at the 7th International Conference of Research on Science Teaching – Science education for citizenship – held in Granada (7-10/09/2005) is intended to illuminate this misunderstanding. The conference was developed with printed and visual support which has not totally been reproduced here; among the essential data, I have selected that which allowed for a better reproduction, hoping not to have cut out excessively the original contents.