Quotes About Quantum

the success of relativistic quantum field theory offers no reason to believe that there is any such thing as a relativistic quantum field.

conservation of energy and matter

Many of us have no grasp of quantum theory, or Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, but this does not in itself lead us to oppose these theories! Darwinism, unlike 'Einsteinism', seems to be regarded as fair game for critics with any degree of ignorance.

If you think you understand quantum theory . . . you don't understand quantum theory.'*

David Deutsch, in The Fabric of Reality, embraces the 'many worlds' interpretation of quantum theory

Our imaginations are not yet tooled-up to penetrate the neighbourhood of the quantum. Nothing at that scale behaves in the way matter—as we are evolved to think—ought to behave. Nor can we cope with the behaviour of objects that move at some appreciable fraction of the speed of light. Common sense lets us down, because common sense evolved in a world where nothing moves very fast, and nothing is very small or very large.

On the basis of Lorentz's theory, if we limit ourselves to a single spectral line, it suffices to assume that each atom (or molecule) contains a single moving electron.

String Theory describes energy and matter as being composed of tiny, wiggling strands of energy that look like strings. And the pitch of a string's vibration determines the nature of its effect.

All the quantum physics experiments have occurred chiefly on the atomic scale and we are taught to believe that nature's laws are consistent.

The possibilities that are suggested in quantum physics tell us that everything that we're looking at may not be in fact there, so the underlying nature of being is weird.

Quantum field theory arose out of our need to describe the ephemeral nature of life.

Nature was not satisfied by a simple point charge but required a charge with spin.

We will have to abandon the philosophy of Democritus and the concept of elementary particles. We should accept instead the concept of elementary symmetries.

A kiss is a moment of quantum leaps, a moment of shared joy, and a moment of bliss.

Consciousness resides in the gap between electrons, protons, and neutrons.

We are musical notes emanating from the quantum string section of a grand symphonic orchestra.

I do not even know what a matrix is," Heisenberg complained to Jordan. As

Quantum physicist John Wheeler expressed it this way, when discussing the search for the clockwork mechanism that runs the world, "There may be no such thing as the 'glittering central mechanism of the universe' to be seen behind a glass wall at the end of the trail. Not machinery but magic may be the better description of the treasure that is waiting.

In other words, atoms and elementary particles and matter itself all are probabilities and possibilities, to which we ourselves give form.

Does quantum physics really say, he asked, that the moon doesn't exist when no one is looking at it? He found the idea that matter was described by probabilities especially upsetting. "God does not play dice with the universe!" he declared. To which Bohr supposedly replied, "Albert, don't tell God what to do.

But there was one thing more about quantum physics that thoroughly annoyed most of the scientists who truly understood its implications. Because it dealt so intimately with the nature of matter—and reality—quantum physics also had quite a few things to say about things that, until recently, were strictly the preserve, not of physics, but of metaphysics . . . of religion, and—whisper it softly—of philosophy.11

The atoms or the elementary particles are not real," Heisenberg said. "They form a world of potentialities and possibilities rather than one of things or facts.

Physicist Pascual Jordan added, "We ourselves produce the results of measurement." And, by extension, he meant reality itself.

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking is reported to have said, "Whenever I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I want to reach for my gun.