Isaac Newton was a remarkable Eternon. His insights became the foundation of modern science.  Newton’s mechanistic theory is clear and vigorous. All events occur in an unchangeable space through an absolute time. Passive matter follows objective rules of nature. Forces acting at a distance can be calculated and used to describe the motion of heavenly bodies with precision.

Newton’s success was possible because our world is regular and predictable. At least in ordinary life, when we never go down to the level of atoms or particles. Nevertheless, it gradually became apparent that not everything in the Cosmos was as regular and predictable as large objects. Newton’s successors found it necessary to investigate atoms and particles.

One of these successors was another outstanding human Eternon: Albert Einstein. Einstein produced  the Theory of Relativity where space and time are not absolute but are relative to the observer’s velocity. Some physical quantities, in particular the velocity of light, remain nonetheless independent of the observer and allow the existence of universal principles.

On the whole, Einstein’s revolutionary ideas complete rather than overthrow Newton’s classical physics. Particles and fields obey somewhat unusual rules, but these particles and fields are for real. A prime consequence of the Theory of Relativity is the equivalence of mass and energy. In bringing this extraordinary fact to humanity, Einstein has unveiled the primary feature of Eternons.

Quantum physics was born in 1900. The physicist Max Plank was studying radiation and postulated that luminous energy was emitted in discrete quantities. He named each packet of energy a quantum. At the time, energy was thought to be a continuous flow. The notion of separate drops did not agree with such view. But Einstein used quanta to explain the photoelectric effect and established that light is not solely a wavy radiation, it is also a shower of particles.

Quanta erase the distinction between fields of energy and particles of matter. They offer a more unified picture of the Cosmos, totally in line with Eternism. While classical physics looks at the wholesale characteristics of energy, quantum physics explores its retail side. There is obviously much to this side since handling quanta has led to the development of many practical applications. We now live in the age of quantum lasers, quantum computers, quantum organisms, and quantum brains.