If quantum mechanics is right, there is no way to get around the uncertainty principle. The reason that the electron’s probability wave spread so much after we confined it, Heisenberg would argue, is that its momentum became almost completely indeterminate. In a manner of speaking, it headed off in all directions.
The power of the new quantum mechanics in giving us a better understanding of events on an atomic scale is becoming increasingly evident. The structure of the helium atom, the existence of half-quantum numbers in band spectra, the continuous spatial distribution of photo-electrons, and the phenomenon of radioactive disintegration, to mention only a few examples, are achievements of the new theory which had baffled the old.
What quantum mechanics tells us, I believe, is surprising to say the least. It tells us that the basic components of objects – the particles, electrons, quarks etc. – cannot be thought of as "self-existent". The reality that they, and hence all objects, are components of is merely "empirical reality".
Several of Thomson’s colleagues thought he was joking when he argued that the electron was smaller than the atom and was a constituent of every atom; to many scientists, the idea that there could exist matter smaller than the atom was inconceivable. Yet he was proved right.
And, just like it should in all stories about philosophers, it ended up in complete chaos. In all their previous discussions they hadn't even asked themselves whether such a simple object as a brick, much less an electron, is an "essential object."
The role of the Higgs interaction is remarkable — if electrons could not get mass via interacting with the Higgs field then atoms would be the size of the universe and our world could not exist. Further, when electrons do get mass via the interaction with the Higgs field, quantum corrections make them so massive they turn into black holes unless some new physics yet to be discovered allows them to be stabilized at their actual mass.
It is clear... that the electrons—those minute particles whose size is to that of a bacillus as the size of a bacillus is to, say, the whole earth, and whose properties we may yet measure with the greatest precision— that these electrons are one of the most important foundations of our whole world structure.
H. A. Lorentz has found out the Relativity theorem and has created the Relativity postulate as a hypothesis that electrons and matter suffer contractions in consequence of their motion according to a certain law. A. Einstein has brought out the point very clearly, that this postulate is not an artificial hypothesis but is rather a new way of comprehending the time-concept, which is forced upon us by observation of natural phenomena.
The rigid electron is in my view a monster in relation to Maxwell's equations, whose innermost harmony is the principle of relativity.
The electron: may it never be of any use to anybody!
Thomson's lecture drew from Fitz Gerald the suggestion that "we are dealing with free electrons in these cathode rays"—a remark the point of which will become more evident when we come to consider the direction in which the Maxwellian theory was being developed at this time.
Since it appears that all negative electricity is made up of equal particles and since it is very probable that any atom can be exactly neutral it follows that the amount of positive electricity in any atom must be an exact multiple of the charge of one negative electron. This makes it probable that positive electricity is also made up of equal parts, but so far they have not been obtained free.
It is not an unusual phenomenon in the history of science that views which were once considered antiquated and out of date suddenly come into favor again, though in a more or less modified form. An extremely interesting case of this kind is presented by the revolution in our ideas of electric phenomena which has taken place within the last 10 years...