The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology - Image: pikisuperstar/Freepik

In 2025, we celebrate a century since the birth of quantum mechanics, recognized as one of the most successful theories in the history of physics. Although the development of quantum mechanics began around 1900, when scientists started discovering phenomena that classical physics could not explain, it was around 1925 that researchers such as Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger formulated the theoretical framework still used and verified today.

Over the past hundred years, what began as a scientific inquiry driven by the curiosity of young physicists about how nature behaves on the atomic scale evolved into a technological revolution known as the First Quantum Revolution. This revolution led to groundbreaking inventions such as laser beams, microelectronic transistors, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultraprecise atomic clocks that make the GPS system possible.

According to a 2001 estimate by physicists Max Tegmark and John A. Wheeler, about one-third of the United States' gross domestic product (GDP) was linked to technological innovations rooted in quantum mechanics. Today, with the ubiquity of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices, the global economic contribution of quantum-based technologies is likely even greater.

To mark the centenary and to celebrate the scientific and technological impact of quantum mechanics the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ 2025).