Lesson 1.2 Atoms, Information & Energy

Look around you. A desk, a glass of water, the air you breathe, the phone in your hand, and you yourself all of it is made of the same tiny building blocks called atoms. Atoms are so small that millions could fit on the tip of a pencil, yet everything in the universe is built from them. When we say “atoms matter,” we mean it in two ways: atoms are matter, and they truly matter to understanding everything else. But atoms on their own aren’t the whole story. Two more ideas work alongside them everywhere in the universe: energy and information.

• Energy is the ability to make things happen; to move, heat, light up, or change. The food you eat gives your body energy. Electricity gives your devices energy. The Sun
pours energy onto the whole planet. Nothing changes or moves without it.

• Information is organised facts or instructions a message that means something. A recipe is information. A song saved on your phone is information. The instructions that
tell a plant how to grow are information too. Here’s the exciting part: these three ideas tie the natural world and the digital world together. Your body is made of atoms, runs on energy from food, and follows information stored inside you. A computer is also made of atoms, runs on energy from electricity, and follows information called software. Different materials, same underlying ideas. Once you see atoms, energy, and information at work, you start to notice them everywhere.

Key Idea: Everything is built from atoms, powered by energy, and guided by information in nature and in technology.