Part 8/10:

His final years were marred by a debilitating condition that robbed him of his sight and his ability to engage wholly with the world around him. The isolation he experienced during these years compounded his despair, and despite moments of triumph in his career, including nominations for the Nobel Prize, he ultimately succumbed to his mental anguish.

Boltzmann's fleeting moments of joy culminated in a trip to the United States in 1905, which he documented with sharp humor, yet shortly after, the profound impact of his depression became tragically evident in his suicide. His passing marked the loss of a visionary scientist whose atomic theories would eventually find validation through later experiments—in particular, the observation of Brownian motion confirming the existence of atoms.