For centuries, waves meant mediums: water, air, strings. When light behaved like a wave, theorists posited a luminiferous aether—weightless, transparent, everywhere, holding galaxies the way water holds ripples. It was too neat to ignore and too slippery to measure. This essay follows the aether from respectable necessity to discarded scaffolding, and asks what modern builders—of theories, products, and teams—can learn from a medium that wasn’t. 🌌
Once upon a time, the living world was thought to be governed by a special spark—vital force—that set plants and animals apart from mere chemistry. Vitalism held sway for centuries. Then nineteenth-century laboratories synthesized urea from inorganic feedstock, biochemistry bloomed, and the “spark” dimmed into metaphor. But it didn’t vanish. Walk through today’s wellness aisle and you’ll hear its echoes: energy, balance, toxins, nature knows best.
In the early 1700s, European chemists embraced phlogiston theory—the idea that combustible materials contained a fire‑like principle released during burning or calcination. It was elegant, teachable, and, for a while, useful. Then Antoine Lavoisier measured mass gains during combustion and argued for a new actor—oxygen—collapsing the old frame and founding modern chemistry. (Phlogiston theory, Antoine Lavoisier, Oxygen) (more…)