Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Meandering in theory . . .

Today is the birthday of Niels Henrik David Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962), physicist. He is best known for his investigations - contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics.

Niels Bohr received the 1922 Nobel Prize for physics for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them.

"What is it that we humans depend on? We depend on our words... Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. We must strive continually to extend the scope of our description, but in such a way that our messages do not thereby lose their objective or unambiguous character ... We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word "reality" is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly." - Niels Bohr

"Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are." - Niels Bohr

"Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it." - Niels Bohr

"There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them." - Niels Bohr


"Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real." - Niels Bohr

"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." - Niels Bohr

Bohr image source (1)
Bohr stamp image source (1)

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