TIL: The first critique of von Neumann's 1932 proof that a hidden variable theory of quantum mechanics was impossible came from Grete Hermann.

Sadly, her work went unnoticed.

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It was thirty years later, in 1965, that John Bell showed that von Neumann’s proof was wrong. The foundational questions that we started asking again after Bell's work might have been tackled thirty years earlier had it not been for the ignorance Hermann’s work faced.

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Incidentally, Grete Hermann was Emmy Noether’s first doctoral student. She continued to make immense contributions to mathematics, philosophy and physics, and to the cause of social justice, education and political action till her death in 1984.

Image: Springer

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