A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 117 First Arrival in Sweden
Before leaving, Li Yu sent a telegram to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Since Zhang Deyi still had to go to London, he still took the British cruise.

Markov and Lyapunov came to the pier to see him off in person, and Markov said reluctantly: "Your arrival has really brought a touch of aurora-like color to my mathematics in St. Petersburg."

Li Yudao: "It is my honor to be invited to St. Petersburg Royal University. In the future, if I have the opportunity, I will invite you to visit my country."

"That would be a great honor for me, too."

Markov actually knew very little about the Qing Dynasty, only that it was very backward, but what he valued was not the strength of the country.

Lyapunov also said: "We have left the address of your husband, and you must keep in touch with us in letters and telegrams in the future."

Li Yuzheng had this request, and said happily: "That's great, there will be problems in the future, and I will inevitably disturb you two."

Although the two are not that famous, their mathematics level was definitely at the top in the early twentieth century.

Lyapunov said with a smile: "Why bother, we have been academic friends forever since then!"

The siren sounded melodiously, and Li Yu waved goodbye to the two of them.

Stockholm is very close to St. Petersburg, only more than 700 kilometers away. According to the current speed of [-] to [-] knots of passenger ships, it can be reached in one day and night.

Although it took 4 days in St. Petersburg, it was still only about 20 days overall.If it is by sea, I am afraid that it is still drifting in the Indian Ocean at this time.

The captain was very experienced, so he deliberately extended a few hours and landed on time at [-]:[-] am.

Of course, he did it on purpose. Who told Sweden to be so close to the Arctic Circle, there is a certain degree of polar night phenomenon, and the sunrise time is about 08:30, which is too early to see anything.

Of course, the sunset time is also early, and the daily light time is less than 7 hours.

If Russians and Nordics like to think, there is really no way. When the electric light network is not popular, everyone is really boring in the dark.

Fortunately, Li Yu stayed in St. Petersburg for four days, and was more or less used to the polar night. After all, St. Petersburg University also had electricity and lights.Otherwise, for a modern person who has grown up in a fast-paced life, it would be crazy for him to face the 17-hour night every day!

So depressed, if someone really came to hijack him, maybe the Stockholm Syndrome could be cured.

Fortunately, Stockholm has many islands and beautiful scenery, which can be called the Venice of the North. One of the great joys of life is sailing during the day.

Li Yu disembarked at the port of Stockholm, while Zhang Deyi continued to sail westward to England, so the two said goodbye for the time being.

Someone was picking up the boat at the pier, but Li Yu really couldn't recognize him, and he couldn't post the location, so he had to play the strategy he had just arrived at St. Petersburg Railway Station: wait for the rabbit!

At least Li Yu's height is still acceptable, 1.8 meters, which is just the average height of Sweden, so that people won't be invisible.

It is well known that the average height of the countries in the Nordic circle is very high, especially the Netherlands, which reaches an astonishing 1.85 meters (adult male).I don't know how it grows, isn't it to say that calcium can be supplemented by exposure to the sun...

Li Yu's strategy was very successful. It didn't take long for him to see someone approaching him.

"Excuse me, are you Chinese?" It was an old scholar in his 50s who asked.

Li Yu replied, "That's right."

The other party said, "Then you are Yu Li, oh, Li Yu?"

"That's right, I am Li Yu." Li Yu said.

"Great, fortunately you are not difficult to recognize! I am Leffler, the Royal Mathematics Advisor."

Li Yu immediately shook hands with him and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, please come and greet me in person."

In addition to native Swedish, Swedes generally speak English very well.So Li Yu could speak English with him directly.

Sweden later produced many big bands that are popular all over the world, such as ABBA, the only top band that was once comparable to the Beatles.They can be popular all over the world, so naturally they sing in English.

Leeffler said: "I was still surprised when I received your telegram yesterday. Why did it come from St. Petersburg?"

Li Yu explained: "I was invited by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and St. Petersburg University, and I happened to be able to take the railway. This way I can save ten days of voyage. Wouldn't it be better to arrive earlier."

"I didn't expect you to convince the Russians, it's really not easy." Leffler said.

"It's also thanks to the books you helped me distribute, otherwise I wouldn't have been treated so well." Li Yu said frankly.

Leeffler said: "It's all your own credit! Recently, we have received letters from many mathematical institutions all over the world, and they all praised your "Fractals and Chaos". The 1000 copies we printed were sold out long ago. The next time you came, I was going to discuss with you about publishing the second edition."

Although the number of publications is small, mathematics books can be sold out, which is considered a rare spectacle in the early twentieth century.

The reason, of course, is that Li Yu's chaos theory combined with the easy-to-understand and quite magical "carp effect" is famous all over the world.

Li Yu said with a smile: "It just so happens that I am going to add some content this time. I have already written the manuscript on the way, and I can polish the second edition."

Leeffler said excitedly: "Great! It's great that you have the manuscript on file. Now there are a lot of letters urging the book from all over the world. Even many social science institutions and even literary groups are asking to buy this book. It's really hard for us. I believe that the publishing houses are almost unable to withstand the pressure."

"Uh, if you're in a hurry, you can just reprint it."

Li Yu did not expect that he would be so popular. In his assumption at the time, the publication of mathematics papers would not cause such a sensation as astronomy and physics.

In fact, it is thanks to the press releases of Pu Lande, Shi Liangcai and others. They are all well versed in the essence of mass communication, and they report on the simple and explosive parts of the paper, and the chaos theory itself is anti-commonsense. , It is very eye-catching, the "carp effect" is easy to understand, and the principles explained are extremely profound, which can be used in many other disciplines. After several waves of operations by newspapers and news agencies, Li Yu was pushed into the fire again.

It seems that it is really useful to know their communication talents, otherwise Li Yu would not be able to achieve such a public effect.

Leeffler shook his head and said: "No, the first edition was published in the name of our Royal Academy of Sciences, mainly for purely academic organizations. It was originally planned to be published within a year, but I didn't expect it to be published in less than a month." It was sold out. But from now on, you will be the only one signing the second edition, and the number of publications will also increase greatly. According to the estimate of the publishing house, it will be at least thirty times that of the first edition, which is [-] copies. Just do it."

Hey guys, that's a pretty incredible number for early twentieth-century scholarly writing.

However, considering that at St. Petersburg University, students of other majors could not buy this book, they could only copy it by hand, which indeed shows that there is quite a market.

Leeffler continued: "It just so happens that we have invited several mathematicians to come here this time. We will review your new manuscript and publish it as soon as possible. Everyone can't wait."

Li Yu said, "That would be the best!"

Leeffler said: "Because the second edition is issued by a special publishing house, it involves the issue of manuscript fees. They will negotiate with you in person. Let's go to the palace first, and the king is still waiting for us."

The two sat in the carriage and wandered in Sweden with a hint of lazy and comfortable sunshine. They drove in a leisurely manner. Anyway, Northern Europe is in this slow-paced state of enjoying life.

Leeffler added: "You came a little later. Not long ago, the king personally awarded the Nobel Prize, and the scene was extremely grand."

"It's a pity," Li Yu said regretfully, "Professor Lorentz and Professor Zeeman should be the ones who won the prize in physics this time?"

Leeffler said: "Yes, they are all from the Netherlands, not far away. Mr. Lorenz even spent Christmas in Stockholm before leaving."

Li Yu said: "I feel even more pity when you say that. It would be nice if I came earlier."

Leeffler said: "It's a bit of a pity, because a lot of interesting things have happened during this period. You know, the chemistry prize went to Professor Fischer, and the Physiology and Medicine prizes went to Dr Ross. "

Li Yu nodded. He had heard the names of these people before. Needless to say, Lorenz and Zeeman, Lorentz made a great contribution to the transformation of the theory of relativity.This time, he and Zeeman won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the Zeeman effect, which paved the way for the later development of quantum mechanics.

Fisher was doing the synthesis of sugars and purines, and was an early researcher in the synthesis of proteins from amino acids.

Ross discovered that the source of malaria infection is mosquitoes, which contributed a lot to the research of infectious diseases.

The Nobel Prize is the biggest event in Sweden during this period, and there are heated discussions in the streets and alleys. Levler and Li Yu naturally chatted more, and he continued: "I don't think you will be able to guess the winner of the Literature Prize."

Li Yu frowned: "I really didn't think of it."

Leeffler said: "If it weren't for the end of the awards, I would never have thought that the literary award would be a historian, Monson! I don't know if you felt it when you were in St. Petersburg. Many people wrote to us to complain. The second Why was the last literary award not awarded to Mr. Tolstoy?"

"Ah... this!" Li Yu was a little surprised. He had never heard of Monsen, but Tolstoy's name had long been heard, so he immediately asked, "Why?"

Leeffler seemed to have guessed Li Yu's reaction long ago, and shrugged his shoulders: "The award was awarded by the Faculty of Arts, who knows what they are thinking, it can't be said that they can't understand Russian. I just found out recently that the literature award judges Mr Wilson, the permanent chairman of the committee, seems to be very prejudiced against Mr Tolstoy."

Li Yu asked, "What do you think? Who should win the award?"

Leeffler said: "Although I don't like many of the aggressive policies of the Winter Palace, I have read "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection" many times, and I must vote for it in my heart. To Mr. Tolstoy."

It is very common for scientists nowadays to like literary works. Reading classics and poetry is a routine activity in various academic salons, even if it is not a literary salon.

Even Nobel himself was a lover of literature, so he wrote in his will to set up a literary award, which is a very romantic story about a chemist.

Of course, as an inventor of dynamite, he made a will to set up the Peace Prize, which is also a manifestation of a scientist's own extremely high scientific literacy.

It's just that Mr. Nobel has long been buried in the ground, and he doesn't know how to operate it in future generations.

In Li Yu's era, it was normal for men in science and engineering to love literature and art. Even when one of his classmates from the physics department took the postgraduate entrance examination for the re-examination, the interviewer saw his introduction mentioning "reading many literature books", and he immediately became interested. Throughout the interview process, he was asked about literature-related topics.

He was also very strange, and even more strange that he passed.The reason given by the tutor is: "He has read thousands of literary works, which can provide inspiration and aesthetic help for future scientific research and experimental exploration."

Well, it turns out that the family structure is too big.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that the re-examination is often just a process. His classmate's postgraduate entrance examination score is ranked first...

Literary awards are a matter of opinion, and there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people.

Since ancient times, there is no first in literature and no second in martial arts.

It can basically be applied to science. It is relatively easy to judge the size of achievements in scientific research, but literature is really too difficult to judge, and even the judging criteria are hard to say.

Li Yu asked curiously, "Is there any conclusive report from the jury for this literary award?"

Leeffler just picked up his pipe and took out a copy from his bag: "You can see for yourself."

Li Yu turned to the report section of the Literature Award. Hey, I couldn't help laughing after reading it. The content turned out to be:
"Even someone who admires many of Tolstoy's works may ask: How can such a writer embody a pure ideal? His greatest work, "War and Peace", considers the blind Chance plays a decisive role in major historical events in the world...he even denies religion in many works..."

The content of the summary report is: "Tolstoy falsified the New Testament with a semi-rationalist and semi-mystical spirit, although he was extremely ignorant of the Bible."

Li Yu is really a little speechless, no matter how you look at it, it is all absurd!
He even rejected Tolstoy on the matter of religion.

Tolstoy himself did not believe in religion and some absurd knowledge in his later years, and formed his own unique belief - self-improvement.Therefore, on February 1901, 2, the Russian Bishops' Association officially announced the decision to excommunicate Tolstoy.

However, Wilson, the permanent chairman of the Swedish Academy's Literary Prize Review Committee, based his criteria on the premise of religious norms and religious sentiments, denying Tolstoy the possibility of winning the prize. I don't know whether he is in line with the spirit of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

In fact, as early as 1901, when the first literary award was held, Tolstoy was a big hit, but unfortunately he was not selected.

Once the results were announced, there was an uproar in Sweden that year, and many newspapers published articles by domestic celebrities criticizing the Faculty of Letters and supporting Tolstoy.

Strindberg, a well-known native Swedish writer, even published an article in the "Swedish Daily" saying:

"The vast majority of members of the Swedish Academy are malicious, conventional, and ignorant people, but for some reason they have become judges. These gentlemen's artistic concepts are as naive as children's. They think that only in the form of poetry, It is best to write something that rhymes in the form of poetry. Tolstoy has always been known for describing the fate of characters. Since he is a painter of historical pictures, they will not think that Tolstoy is a poet. Don’t let The reason why he won the award turned out to be: he never wrote poetry!"

Hey, Li Yu didn't know what to say.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Tolstoy was an undisputed top master in the literary world and Mendeleev in the chemical world, but neither was able to win awards.It is a great pity for the Nobel Prize itself.

　The epidemic will be unblocked starting tomorrow, so you don’t need to be a volunteer anymore, you can resume normal updates~
　　I will make up for what I owe in the past few days~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)