WE-Heraeus Symposium: Revisiting the History of Quantum Physics

On the occasion of the centenary of quantum theory, this international workshop brings together world-leading experts to synthesize recent scholarship on the history of quantum physics. The workshop explores key themes including the genesis of quantum mechanics, its social, cultural, and institutional contexts, interpretation debates, the role of women in the field, and the postwar expansion of quantum theory into areas like quantum field theory, condensed matter physics, and quantum information. The event offers an opportunity to reassess the past century and shape a future research agenda for the history of quantum physics.

The quantum revolution and the Anthropocene - Text by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Renn

The year 2025 has been designated by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology^[1], “recognizing that the year 2025 coincides with the 100^th anniversary of the development of the methods of quantum mechanics that have led to its prominence in both science and technology today” (United Nations 2024). This occasion provides a fitting opportunity to revisit the long-term history of quantum mechanics from its beginning around 1900 to the Second Quantum Revolution in the second half of the twentieth century that is at the basis of its current prominence in science and technology.

The quantum revolution exemplifies how scientific revolutions actually unfold: not as sudden paradigm shifts, but as lengthy processes of knowledge transformation, the most radical consequences of which are often only recognized decades later. This insight is directly transferable to Anthropocene research, where we are also confronted with an epochal transformation whose full significance is only gradually becoming apparent.

In both quantum mechanics and Anthropocene research, the observer becomes an integral part of the observed system. Quantum physics teaches us that the separation between subject and object of knowledge is fundamentally problematic. Similarly, Anthropocene research shows that humans are no longer external observers of nature, but have become a geological factor that fundamentally changes the system they seek to understand.

The “second quantum revolution” (beginning in the 1950s) enabled technologies such as quantum computing and quantum cryptography, which will fundamentally change our information society. These technological developments are central to understanding the Anthropocene as a techno-social transformation and demonstrate how basic scientific research can have a society-changing effect with a considerable delay.