"In fact, it is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say that the only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is unquestionably correct."

Almost since its inception, the development of quantum theory has been built by some of the greatest minds of their day. Some of the framework for this theory can be traced back to the following discoveries: 

• In 1897 the discovery of the electron proved there were individual particles that make up the atom.
• In 1900, the German Physical Society received a presentation by Max Plank on his version of the theory where he made the conjecture that energy was made of individual units which he referred to as quanta. Plank took his version of the quantum theory a step further and derived a universal constant which famously became known as Planck’s constant which is used to describe the sizes of quanta in quantum mechanics. Planck’s constant states that the energy of each quantum is equal to the frequency of the radiation multiplied by the universal constant (6.626068 × 10-34 m2 kg / s).
• In 1905, Albert Einstein theorized that not just the energy but the radiation was also quantized in the very same manner and summarized that an electromagnetic wave such as light could be described by a particle called the photo with a discrete energy dependent on it's frequency.
• Ernest Rutherford discovered that most of the mass of an atom resides in the nucleus in 1911. Niels Bohr refined the Rutherford model by introducing different orbits in which electrons spin around the nucleus.
• In 1924, the development of the principle of wave-particle duality by Louis de Broglie stated that elementary particles of both matter and energy behave, depending on the conditions, like particles or waves.

Many other people have since contributed to the advancement of the theory including Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli and Werner Heisenberg with the development of the Uncertainty Principle to name a few. Needless to say, the quantum theory is a combination of contributions of many great minds of science and thus cannot be attributed to any one individual. In short, the quantum theory allows us to understand the world of the very small and the fundamental properties of matter.

Our deepest understanding of the atomic world comes from the advent of the quantum theory. Having this deep understanding of the various elements of the theory allows us to do much more than just move atoms around or know exactly why things behave the way they do. The theory itself underlies the entire architecture of the world we see today and beyond. It has ultimately allowed us to develop the most advanced technologies to make our lives easier. The marvels of science that we see and use every single day including the Internet, your cell phone, GPS, your email, HD television—all of it—comes from our deep understanding of this theory.This theory offers a very different way to view the world they we live in—one where the simple laws of conventional physics simply don’t apply at all. Quantum theory is so eccentric and peculiar that even Einstein himself couldn’t wrap his head around it. The great physicist, Richard Feynman once stated that “It is impossible, absolutely impossible to explain it in any classical way”.