<human>:  How did the quantum field theory come about?
<bot>: It was developed in the 1930s by physicists such as Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, and Paul Dirac. It was originally called "quantum mechanics" because it was a theory about the behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level. In the 1940s, the term "quantum field theory" was coined to describe a generalization of quantum mechanics to the study of fields. Quantum field theory is a mathematical framework that describes the behavior of particles and fields at the atomic and subatomic level. It is the foundation of modern physics.