The Atom That Never Existed: Bohr's Model

The Bohr model is baseless and oversimplified. Werner Heisenberg, who was working in Bohr’s lab as a postdoctoral researcher, developed the principle which showed that electrons do not orbit the nucleus in well defined circular orbits. This is commonly referred to as the Uncertainty Principle: It is not possible to precisely determine the momentum, or energy, and the position of a particle simultaneously.

"The individual who has from childhood visualized the atom in the manner pictured by Bohr...cannot be expected to look with enthusiasm on the prospect of life without a nucleus. We can, of course, remind him that the Bohr atom has long since vanished from the scene and that the 'official' atom of modern physics cannot even be imagined, so the experts say, much less pictured. We can also point out that 'atomic energy' and 'atomic physics,' the terms that will have to be substituted when the nucleus is discarded, are already in common use." ~D. B. Larson, The Case Against the Nuclear Atom (August 1962) http://www.reciprocalsystem.com/cana/cana04.htm

“In the face of a fact there is only one possible course of action for the scientist, namely acceptance, no matter how much the fact may be at variance with his anticipations, and no matter what havoc it may wreak on his carefully thought-out theories.” ~Bridgman, P. W., Mid-Century, edited by John Ely Burchard, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1950, page 230.
The scientific method, as it came into being during the Enlightenment period, is a method of thought known as empiricism or as the empirical method. Under the terms of empiricism, all conclusions are, must, and can be drawn from observable evidence and from observable evidence only. Evidence must precede any and every conclusion to be drawn from it. Then, if sound logic governs in the relationship between evidence and the conclusion drawn from it, that conclusion will be irrefutable.

"A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." ~Max Planck