“As with all quantum devices, a qubit is a delicate flower. If you so much as look at it, you destroy it.”
Source: Information, The New Language of Science (2003), Chapter 21, The Qubit, Information in the quantum age, p. 187
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Hans Christian von Baeyer 25
American physicist 1938Related quotes

The Wild Flag (1943)
Context: Each delegate brought the flag of his homeland with him-each, that is, except the delegate from China. When the others asked him why he had failed to bring a flag, he said that he had discussed the matter with another Chinese survivor, an ancient and very wise man, and that between them they had concluded that they would not have any cloth flag for China anymore.
'What kind of flag do you intend to have?' asked the delegate from Luxembourg. The Chinese delegate blinked his eyes and produced a shoebox, from which he drew a living flower which looked very like an iris. 'What is that?' they all inquired, pleased with the sight of so delicate a symbol.
'That,' said the Chinese, 'is a wild flag, Iris tectorum. In China we have decided to adopt this flag, since it is a convenient and universal device and very beautiful and grows everywhere in the moist places of the earth for all to observe and wonder at. I propose all countries adopt it, so that it will be impossible for us to insult each other's flag.

“When you look at a vacuum in a quantum theory of fields, it isn't exactly nothing.”
in video Meet Peter Higgs http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1019670 by CERN (July 2004).

“Can you look at a flower without thinking?”
4th Discussion with Young People, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (23 May 1968)
1960s

Du bist wie eine Blume,
So hold und schön und rein;
Ich schau dich an, und Wehmut
Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein.
Du Bist Wie eine Blume, st. 1

Seth Lloyd, cited in: Scott Dewing (2011) "Seth Lloyd on quantum computing" blog.insidethebox.org, 9/23/2011

“And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers.”
"Suzanne"
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Context: And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers.
There are heroes in the seaweed,
There are children in the morning,
They are leaning out for love,
And they will lean that way forever,
While Suzanne holds the mirror.

" Simulating Physics with Computers http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf", International Journal of Theoretical Physics, volume 21, 1982, p. 467-488, at p. 486 (final words)