The First Atom in the Universe I

This was one of a series of studies for The First Atom in limestone, and The First Atom in multimedia. Hydrogen was the first atom born out of the Singularity or the Big Bang. Hydrogen is still the most abundant atom in the universe. Stunningly, hydrogen is the building block from which all the 118 elements of the periodic table and the 1200 isotopes have been built. From these elements, the incredible diversity of the cosmos and all of life has developed. The hydrogen atom has electron shells around its nucleus which are probability distributions. Given Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the observer effects the observed, so the pure hydrogen atom is impossible to see undisturbed. So, this rendition is actually impossible to visualize, which made doing this sculpture irresistible.