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Happy birthday quantum mechanics! I got a ticket to the ultimate physics party

Nature reporter joins hundreds of physicists on a remote island to celebrate Heisenberg’s enlightening trip there 100 years ago.
By
  1. Elizabeth Gibney
An aerial view of the island of Heligoland in the North Sea.

Physicist Werner Heisenberg is said to have made his breakthrough in quantum mechanics while visiting the island of Heligoland in 1925. Credit: Günter Gräfenhain/mauritius images via Alamy

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As the ferry pulled into the dock at the North Sea island of Heligoland, I wondered: did German wunderkind Werner Heisenberg — who famously formulated the mathematics behind quantum physics here in 1925 — also arrive wanting to throw up?

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01860-z

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