The writer recounts to her friends how it came about that a group of people, concerned by the nuclear issues of their time (the early years of the 21st Century), looked into the whole subject with a “feminine gaze”, and saw how there was a metaphysics of the atom that the scientific method could not see or register. The outcome of this approach opened the door to seeing how the atomic particles are social and sentient, the same as us humans. And how we have Humanity have the potential, and indeed the responsibility, to care for them and their world.
This essay was a finalist in the How We Saved the World essay contest, where people wrote as if it was 2050 when the world was working, saying how we got there starting with something they did. Here's the intro to this presentation of results, with links to the other finalists and an invitation to make comments about the contest.
A good deep friendly look back at where we have come from.