What really matters for me is ... the more active role of the observer in quantum physics ... According to quantum physics the observer has indeed a new relation to the physical events around him in comparison with the classical observer, who is merely a spectator.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the active role of the observer in quantum physics, contrasting it with the passive experience of classical physics.
Wolfgang Pauli highlights the significance of the observer in quantum physics, suggesting that the act of observation influences physical events. Unlike classical physics, where the observer is seen as a mere spectator, quantum physics assigns a more dynamic and interactive role to observers, indicating that their involvement can shape the reality they observe.
In practice
In a physics lecture about quantum mechanics, this quote could be used to illustrate the concept of the observer effect.
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
That's not right. That's not even wrong.
Physics is very muddled again at the moment; it is much too hard for me anyway, and I wish I were a movie comedian or something like that and had never heard anything about physics!
The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
I confess, that very different from you, I do find sometimes scientific inspiration in mysticism ... but this is counterbalanced by an immediate sense for mathematics.
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.
I took biology in high school and didn't like it at all. It was focused on memorization. ... I didn't appreciate that biology also had principles and logic ... [rather than dealing with a] messy thing called life. It just wasn't organized, and I wanted to stick with the nice pristine sciences of chemistry and physics, where everything made sense. I wish I had learned sooner that biology could be fun as well.
I think that the discovery of antimatter was perhaps the biggest jump of all the big jumps in physics in our century.
To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination. He can perhaps say what the experiment died of.
Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.
Symmetries are the playing field on which the physical world works and which determine the rules of the game. The symmetries of nature determine for us things that remain constant, that can't be changed. Those are the guideposts in physics, the quantities like energy and momentum.
The roads by which men arrive at their insights into celestial matters seem to me almost as worthy of wonder as those matters in themselves.
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