The term quantum mechanics was coined in 1925 by Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and Wolfgang Pauli. After 100 years, three physicists John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis were awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work showing how quantum mechanics works in the real world.
Experiments conducted by these three physicists in 1985 demonstrated the phenomenon of quantum tunneling and energy quantization in large-scale electrical circuits. Quantum physics phenomena had previously only been seen at the subatomic scale.
Electronic circuits using superconducting materials have been created with Josephson junctions that make them physically unconnected to complete the circuit. In a superconducting state, current flows without voltage because there is no resistance. But through the phenomenon of quantum tunneling, particles can cross physical barriers and voltage is detected, thus showing how quantum mechanics works on a larger scale and not just small subatomic particles.
This discovery led to the development of current quantum technologies such as quantum computers and quantum cryptography used by systems such as MyDigitalID in Malaysia.
In fact, Martinis and Devoret were involved in the development of quantum computers at Google that achieved quantum supremacy a few years ago. Martinis is no longer with the Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab but Devoret still holds the position of chief scientist at Google Quantum AI.
Yesterday's success makes Devoret the third Google employee to win a Nobel Prize. Last year Demis Hassabis and John Jumper won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for successfully predicting all the protein structures in the world with the help of Alpha Ford's artificial intelligence at Google DeepMind.