The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist's job to find the ways in which these laws can serve the human will. However, it is not the scientist's job to determine whether a hydrogen bomb should be constructed, whether it should be used, or how it should be used. This responsibility rests with the American people and with their chosen representatives.
Interpretation
Scientists discover and explain natural laws, but ethical decisions about their applications belong to society.
In this quote, Edward Teller emphasizes the distinction between the role of scientists in understanding the natural world and the ethical responsibilities that come with the application of scientific knowledge. While scientists can elucidate how various laws of nature work, they are not accountable for the moral implications or societal decisions regarding the use of such knowledge, particularly in cases like the construction and use of weapons. That responsibility lies with society as a whole and its representatives.
In practice
In a debate about genetic engineering, one might quote this to highlight the ethical responsibilities of scientists.
In the history of physics, there have been three great revolutions in thought that first seemed absurd yet proved to be true. The first proposed that the earth, instead of being stationary, was moving around at a great and variable speed in a universe that is much bigger than it appears to our immediate perception. That proposal, I believe, was first made by Aristarchos two millenia ago ... Remarkably enough, the name Aristarchos in Greek means best beginning.
The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.
Today, nothing is unusual about a scientific discovery's being followed soon after by a technical application: The discovery of electrons led to electronics; fission led to nuclear energy. But before the 1880's, science played almost no role in the advances of technology. For example, James Watt developed the first efficient steam engine long before science established the equivalence between mechanical heat and energy.
Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.
No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.
I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous.
Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences.
When the problem [quantum chromodynamics] is finally solved, it will all be by imagination. Then there will be some big thing about the great way it was done. But it's simple -it will all be by imagination, and persistence.
Nature allows only experimental situations to occur which can be described within the framework of the formalism of quantum mechanics
A black hole really is an object with very rich structure, just like Earth has a rich structure of mountains, valleys, oceans, and so forth. Its warped space whirls around the central singularity like air in a tornado.
The scientist finds his reward in what Henri Poincare calls the joy of comprehension, and not in the possibility of application to which any discovery may lead.
We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids. This does not deny our humanity; it does not prevent us from pursuing the good, the true and the beautiful. But it would be a great mistake to ignore where we have come from in our attempt to determine where we are going.
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