Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics between AMO theory and experiment and promoting AMO theory within the general physics community. It has been involved in some capacity in most of the National Research Council target areas, i.e. precision measurements and tests of fundamental laws, ultracold physics, the development and application of ultra-intense, short wavelength light sources, ultra-fast quantum control of atoms, molecules and electrons, nanoscience, and quantum information science. The Institute is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for Astrophysics and Harvard University. The Armstrong Report in 1987 on "The State of Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Sciences in the United
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics entertainment. One of the earliest steps towards "atomic physics" was the recognition that matter was composed of "atoms", in modern terms the basic unit of a chemical element. This theory was developed by John Dalton in the 18th century. At this stage, it wasn't clear what atoms were - although they could be described and classified by their observable properties in bulk; summarized by the developing periodic table, by John Newlands and Dmitri Mendeleyev around the mid to late 19th century. Later, the connection between atomic physics "and" optical physics became apparent, by the discovery of spectral lines and attempts