Anyone who can contemplate quantum mechanics without getting dizzy hasn't understood it.
Interpretation
Understanding quantum mechanics challenges our conventional thinking and can be overwhelming.
The quote by Niels Bohr humorously suggests that quantum mechanics is inherently complex and perplexing. It implies that if one can fully grasp its intricacies without feeling disoriented, they may have missed the true essence of its bewildering nature. This highlights the difficulty of comprehending concepts that defy everyday experiences and logical reasoning.
In practice
This quote can be used in a lecture to emphasize the challenges of teaching quantum physics.
When asked ... [about] an underlying quantum world, Bohr would answer, 'There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.'
An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation.
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.
Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.
When searching for harmony in life one must never forget that in the drama of existence we are ourselves both actors and spectators.
And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn't yet understood the first thing about it.
In the original introduction to the word meme in the last chapter of 'The Selfish Gene,' I did actually use the metaphor of a 'virus.' So when anybody talks about something going viral on the Internet, that is exactly what a meme is, and it looks as though the word has been appropriated for a subset of that.
The human brain is an incredible pattern-matching machine.
Genome design is going to be a key part of the future. That's why we need fast, cheap, accurate DNA synthesis, so you can make a lot of iterations of something and test them.
From a certain temperature on, the molecules 'condense' without attractive forces; that is, they accumulate at zero velocity. The theory is pretty, but is there some truth in it.
Where we have good, testable explanations, they then have to be tested, and we drop the ones that fail the tests.
Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans favour research using embryonic stem cells and yet politicians continue to pander to the outspoken religious minority that is hampering efforts to develop this potentially valuable technology.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.