Atomic Shells are also called electron orbitals

Atoms may be thought of as tiny wells of energy that require work to move away from or lack of resistance to fall into; at the core of the well we picture a nucleus that repels other nuclei.

Dialectical thinking is not a novel, nor a recent means of description.

What has happened in 20th century physics that bears directly on ecological problems is the duality of description inherent when comprehending elementary material particles. If duality is inherent on the sub-atomic and atomic levels of behavior, then comprehending how the world functions must involve similar reciprocal thinking when dealing with chemical reactions that drive, guide, and sustain life in all its complexity. Such complexity emerges out of simple arrangements in ever more variable combinations.

All atoms dually emit and absorb radiation. As atoms "shine" the particularity of their spectrum reveals their signature because the emission frequencies indicate a sort of signal distinguishing hydrogen from carbon, or oxygen from nitrogen.

But these atoms cannot emit unless they absorb radiation^1.

At elementary levels the universe self-constructs matter and energy so tightly that a dualistic understanding is basic to comprehending the oppositional characteristics in how carbon emits and absorbs radiation in specified or distinguishable frequencies. That is to say thinking in terms of opposites reveals that carbon absorbs in the ultraviolet frequencies (high energy; ionizing radiation) and emits in the infrared (low energy; heat radiation) frequency ranges. The situation is not either one, or the other; but it must be both for a full comprehension of nature's functional and systemic organization.

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