  Atomic physics and hadron physics are both based on Yang Mills gauge theory;
in fact, quantum electrodynamics can be regarded as the zero-color limit of
quantum chromodynamics. I review a number of areas where the techniques of
atomic physics provide important insight into the theory of hadrons in QCD. For
example, the Dirac-Coulomb equation, which predicts the spectroscopy and
structure of hydrogenic atoms, has an analog in hadron physics in the form of
light-front relativistic equations of motion which give a remarkable first
approximation to the spectroscopy, dynamics, and structure of light hadrons.
The renormalization scale for the running coupling, which is unambiguously set
in QED, leads to a method for setting the renormalization scale in QCD. The
production of atoms in flight provides a method for computing the formation of
hadrons at the amplitude level. Conversely, many techniques which have been
developed for hadron physics, such as scaling laws, evolution equations, and
light-front quantization have equal utility for atomic physics, especially in
the relativistic domain. I also present a new perspective for understanding the
contributions to the cosmological constant from QED and QCD.
