Everything you have ever touched is made of atoms, and atoms are almost entirely empty space. We trace how we worked out what atoms are without ever seeing one, why the solar-system picture on classroom walls is wrong, and what actually stops your hand passing through a table.

You'll come away understanding what is inside an atom, why electrons don't spiral into the nucleus, and how something made mostly of nothing manages to feel solid.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: Royal Institution atomic structure resources; CERN particle physics explainers; Feynman Lectures Vol. I.