In most academic disciplines, there is often a single idea or discovery which makes everything fall into place.

All the things that didn't make sense before suddenly do when looked at through this new lens.

These eye-opening discoveries usually occur in the hard sciences, but one such

advancement also took place in the field of economics. Learn more about the marginal

revolution and how it changed economic thought on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. As I mentioned in the introduction, there are certain ideas, discoveries, which are fundamental to many scientific disciplines.

These are keystone theories through which you can analyze most everything else on that particular subject. A good example is

plate tectonics and geology. Once plate tectonics was understood, it suddenly

explained earthquakes, volcanoes, and the movement of the continents.

Understanding the structure of the continents.

Understanding the structure of the atom made sense of the periodic table and of chemistry.

Newton's theories made sense of gravity and motion.

Maxwell's equations made sense of electromagnetism.

The discovery of DNA made sense of biology and all living things.

Before these discoveries were made,

the understanding of various scientific disciplines was incomplete.

Some things didn't make sense or couldn't be made consistent with other known facts.

Economics also had its moment when a theory was able to make things click into place and solved one of the

fields longest outstanding problems. The statement of the problem is

often attributed to Adam Smith who wrote the Wealth of Nations in 1776, which is often considered to be the first real book on economics.

However, the problem actually dates back to Plato and was restated by other intellectuals such as Nicholas Copernicus and John Locke.

It's called the Diamond Water Paradox.

Water is one of the most important substances there is.

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