This work presents parallel histories of the development of two modern
theories of condensed matter: the theory of electron structure in quantum
mechanics, and the theory of liquid structure in statistical mechanics.
Comparison shows that key revelations in both are not only remarkably similar,
but even follow along a common thread of controversy that marks progress from
antiquity through to the present. This theme appears as a creative tension
between two competing philosophies, that of short range structure (atomistic
models) on the one hand, and long range structure (continuum or density
functional models) on the other. The timeline and technical content are
designed to build up a set of key relations as guideposts for using density
functional theories together with atomistic simulation.Comment: Expanded version of a 30 minute talk delivered at the 2018 TSRC
workshop on Ions in Solution, to appear in the March, 2019 issue of
Substantia (https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/subs/index
