In this work we make an exposition on Greek atomism, as much in the original formulation by Democritus and Leucippus as in its Epicurean version, as well as on its direct or indirect influences over the development of modern physical thought. We make a brief presentation of the essential features of this doctrine and show how its rediscovery, at the beginning of Modern Age, offered, besides Cartesianism, an alternative to the Aristotelic world view then prevailing. We emphasize how this alternative conception, more congenial to the emerging new physical thought, spread itself amid scientific media and obtained living expression in the works of Galileo, Boyle and Newton, among others. We end with a short historical overview of the kinetic theory of gases, which, after the atomic hypothesis, set forth the basis for a quantitative microscopic description of matter. We also show how this theory provided the elements for a scientific explanation of the so called Brownian movement, achieving what many considered as the first experimental confirmation of the corpuscular view of matter.
atomism; kinetic theory; modern physics