Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect helped inspire the QM revolution. But I had Relativity in mind, the thing he's most well known for. As for his late

Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect helped inspire the QM revolution. But I had Relativity in mind, the thing he's most well known for. As for his later life, he was searching for the TOE, which is an ongoing thing. Problem is that harmonizing gravity with QM has proved very difficult. As for debating QM, it's quite possible that will eventually lead to a new understanding. That's why shut and calculate is insufficient to advance the field. You need the theoretical side spinning out ideas for the shut and calculate types to carry out experiments and plug the data into equations. Some of these ideas range into the metaphysical side of things until they can be empirically tested.