Atom & Qi The atom is the smallest portion of a substance that is not perceivable by human senses. The notion of atoms was conceived by ancient Greeks and was developed over thousands of years of scientific inquiry. The concept of qi as the most basic substance of which the world (everything) is comprised, was understood by the ancient Chinese. Both ¡¥atom¡¦ and ¡¥qi¡¦ are believed to exist by human beings and both are considered to be unseen objects (until we could see atoms recently). However, they lead to different interpretations of natural phenomena: the concept of the atom was developed in relat