Given the knowledge available 2000+ years ago, atomism was a surprisingly good idea. Yah, they got a lot of the details wrong, but that basic idea that reality is made up of basic &quot;building blocks&quot; that combine into the larger structures we can observe is basically correct.<p>The philosophers that invented atomism probably thought about how the might see their <i>atoms</i> directly. I wonder how many &quot;crazy&quot; ideas were dreamed up that sounded impossible, that are now easy experiments to do today.<p>Theory is important, even if it sounds impossible <i>today</i>, because we have a history of redefining what is &quot;possible&quot; throughout the history of science.