"In the second half of the 20th century, a conceptual tsunami swept through physics. The discovery that our world emerges from a microscopic world of molecules, which emerges from an even more microscopic world of subatomic particles (which in turn emerges from even stranger stuff) triggered the rewriting of our theories of matter."
From here
"The Navier-Stokes equations presume that fluids are continuous substances that flow perfectly smoothly, no matter how much you zoom in on a point. But in fact, fluids are amalgamations of molecules and atoms. As you zoom in, you’ll eventually discern tiny blips in the flow due to this grainy nature, blips that the classic fluid equations lop off."
