Atoms should be unstable. According to classical physics, electrons should spiral into the nucleus in a fraction of a second. Yet, atoms persist, and the universe exists. How?

Danish physicist Niels Bohr had an idea: electrons don’t move freely—they stay in specific energy levels, jumping between them in sudden quantum leaps. His model finally explained why atoms are stable and why elements emit light at specific colors. But Bohr’s atomic model had its flaws—it only worked for hydrogen and still couldn’t explain why electrons don’t just drift between energy levels.

This episode takes us through the bold, bizarre, and sometimes flawed ideas that shaped the first quantum atomic model and set the stage for something even weirder.

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