"The history of science shows that sharp definitions lead to trouble. Dogmatism in science is usually mistaken, because the conviction of certainty expresses a psychological compulsion, never any truly compelling reasons or facts. When a view attains wide popularity and seems obviously beyond question, its decline has usually begun or will begin very soon. In 1892 W. W. Rouse Ball of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was well informed on competent opinion—J. J. Thomson was also at Trinity—wrote: "The popular view is that every atom of any particular kind is a minute indivisible article possessing definite qualities, everlasting in its properties, and infinitely hard." Rouse Ball wisely added descriptions of two rival atomic doctrines: Boscovich's point centres, and another based on twists in an elastic solid aether. Four years later the hard everlasting atom began its rapid exit from physics."