- The first paradigm shift that I find interesting is the revolutionary change of thought between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. As someone greatly interested in physics, it’s interesting how classical mechanics cannot explain many natural phenomena. Quantum mechanics is the explanation for phenomena that occur at the smallest scales of energy for subatomic particles. Quantum mechanics came to be because of the failure of classical physics to explain things like wave=particle duality. It has greatly changed the way that physicists and other scientists
- I think another interesting paradigm shift was the pre-atomic bomb and post-atomic bomb ideas of war. After the US dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviets showed that they could also replicate that destruction, the consequences of a world war became much more dire. Instead of hundreds of thousands or millions of dead soldiers, a world war could lead to world annihilation and a nuclear winter. I think this shift in public attitude was mostly in response to the fear that the Cold War caused and the aftermath of the bombs on Japan.