When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that the complexity of atomic phenomena can only be adequately expressed in a creative and nuanced way, similar to poetry.
Niels Bohr's quote highlights the intricate and abstract nature of atomic science, indicating that traditional language often falls short in capturing the true essence of atomic behavior. By comparing scientific descriptions to poetry, Bohr implies that both require a level of interpretation and creativity to convey deeper truths about the universe.
In practice
In a presentation about quantum mechanics, this quote can illustrate the complexity of atomic interactions.
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.
I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind.
We scientists have fantasies of being uniquely qualified to make great discoveries. Alas, reality is cruel: most of us are replaceable. For the vast majority of scientific contributions, if scientist X hadn't achieved it that year, scientist Y would have achieved the same result or something very similar soon thereafter.
You canβt say A is made of B or vice versa. All mass is interaction.
At the last dim horizon, we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. The urge is older than history. It is not satisfied and it will not be oppressed.
Nagasaki destroyed by the magic of science is the nearest man has yet approached to the realization of dreams that even during the safe immobility of sleep are accustomed to develop into nightmares of anxiety.
The earth also is spherical, since it presses upon its center from every direction.
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