Access

Book Review

Nature 411, 636-637 (7 June 2001) | doi:10.1038/35079667

Changing times

Joseph W. Dauben1

The astonishing idea that motion, transformation and change are impossible goes back to the Greek philosopher Parmenides and his twin assumptions: "what is, is" and "what is not, is not". Atomists such as Democritus asserted that nature was founded on two essential entities — matter and the void.