Quantum Physics

As quantum mechanics turns 100, a new revolution is under way

5 physicists discuss the future of quantum research and technology

An illustration of a person on a ledge looking over colorful waves and peaks.

Beginning in 1925, Werner Heisenberg and other physicists laid the foundation of quantum mechanics.

La Boca

By Emily Conover

One hundred years ago on a quiet, rocky island, German physicist Werner Heisenberg helped set in motion a series of scientific developments that would touch nearly all of physics. There, Heisenberg developed the framework of quantum mechanics. At the time, quantum theory was just a loose collection of ideas about the quirks of physics on the scale of atoms.