In the second conference of the “Intertwining Physics and History” series, organized by CREF, we have invited Giovanni Battimelli (former Associate Professor of History of Physics at Sapienza University of Rome), Giuseppe Mussardo (Full Professor of Theoretical Physics at SISSA in Trieste), and Edwige Pezzulli (physicist and science communicator) to retrace together—through the narrative of theories, experiments, collaborations, and conflicts between scientists—the fundamental stages that led to the birth of quantum mechanics at the beginning of the 20th century.

An unprecedented revolution in the history of physics, that saw brilliant minds like Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger challenged the certainties of classical physics, opening the doors to a subatomic world governed by surprising and counterintuitive laws.