Read PART 1 here!

“That’s impossible.” My dad trudged back in. “Atoms can’t be killed.”

“Yes yes or so we thought until I came up with an idea that could prove Dalton’s Atomic Theory wrong!”

I could tell he was trying hard not to laugh, but I was too excited to care.

“I told you, that’s not possible-” he started again.

“No no no, listen to me!” I interrupted. “In the textbook, it says most atoms cannot exist independently! What if we force them to be independent? According to you, an atom will go into stasis, but WHAT IF THEY DIE?”

“Atoms cannot die!”

I waved his sentence aside. “Yeah yeah but remember my vacuum experiment? In that there’s a sodium chloride molecule (oh, which is salt, by the way) and we’re left with ONE very lonely chlorine atom. Now, like I was trying to explain, the chlorine atom CANNOT SURVIVE BY ITSELF. Then what else can it do but die?”

I smiled triumphantly. 

My dad just blinked.

“It will remain independent for as long as it needs to,” he said again, as if he was explaining simple facts to a fourteen year old instead of a revolutionary chemist who just proved John Dalton wrong.

“I TOLD YOU, ATOMS CAN’T EXIST BY THEMSELVES!” I shouted.

“And I told you they don’t need to do that because there are atoms everywhere! They combine with any atom they find!”

“I DON’T- whatever,” I said furiously, crossing my arms. “Believe what you want. But when I throw this bombshell on the IUPAC and win a Nobel Prize, don’t come apologizing!”

He sighed.

“How come no one has tried this before, hmm?” I demanded. “What good are those so-called brilliant chemists and physicists if they haven’t even thought of this?”

“They must have tried this,” my dad said in a small voice. “But realised that atoms can survive by themselves for as long as they need to.”

I threw my hands up in frustration. “And we’re back to the same thing again. This is basically an argument going in circles. Okay, let’s just say some things should be left unanswered.”

He nodded gratefully. “Okay, I’m gonna go now-”

“WAIT. I made another scientific breakthrough!” I exclaimed. Sometimes, I just can’t fathom how annoying I am.

“Now forget about all of my previous vacuum tests. Say we have one carbon dioxide molecule in a vacuum. So. What if we forcefully separate the carbon and the oxygen atoms? WILL WE END UP WITH AN OXYGEN MOLECULE?”

“Obviously.”

I beamed. “Then we can create oxygen out of carbon dioxide! Seriously, these scientists act like they don’t know anything. Why haven’t they made oxygen and released it in the air instead of just spreading awareness about global warming? That is much more helpful than just sitting and complaining about carbon dioxide.”

“You’re right, they can do that,” my dad agreed. “But they can’t on a large scale. It’s not that easy.”

“Really?” I asked sarcastically. “So it’s way too hard, but making a rover that goes to Mars isn’t, hmm? WHY CAN’T THEY USE THEIR BRAINS FOR SOMETHING USEFUL?”

“Going to Mars is useful in the long term!” he protested.

“Yep, unless we all die of excess carbon dioxide before we can discover the long term advantage of life on Mars. Yay.”

My dad shook his head, unable to deal with my craziness. 

“Bye,” he said, and escaped into his room before I could come up with another brilliant (okay, crazy) idea.

Meanwhile, what did I do?

Try to forget about proving the world wrong and concentrate more on my chemistry test.

And that, dear reader, was the end of the insane chemist inside me.