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

Chapter 176 Influence
Once things were organized, things went very quickly.

Li Yu first submitted a manuscript to Pulitzer, talked about his academic research, and mentioned that he would publish an epoch-making paper in the journal "Science"; in addition, he also wrote that he would publish a book based on the universe model, Science fiction with a grand story background.

But Li Yu's publicity ability is obviously not comparable to that of Pulitzer.

Pulitzer's "Le Monde" is really powerful. It added a new editorial, which highlights that Li Yu has obtained the status of foreign academician of the Royal Society, and then publicizes his various achievements.

It’s still that people who specialize in newspapers will promote, first set up people, and don’t rush to promote "Science" and "Star Wars".

The reader mentioned "Science" magazine after the appetite was lifted, and it was blown to a high status.

The Association for the Advancement of Science also provided additional funds, and this edition of "Science" with Li Yu's papers was printed in many copies.

Taking advantage of his reputation for discovering Pluto, these articles are all in the field of astronomy, which directly caused a sensation in the scientific community.

The key is that there are so many great discoveries in the first issue, and this issue of "Science" exploded directly, and many years later, it is impossible to find so many high-quality and heavyweight discovery papers in a single issue.

The news between Britain and the United States was relatively smooth, and soon Europe also showed great interest in this issue of "Science".

According to what Li Yu said, the Society for the Advancement of Science shipped tens of thousands of magazines to Europe early on.

The Atlantic Ocean is not particularly wide. Currently, the distance between the east coast of the United States and Europe is usually four to six days depending on the destination, depending on the sailing capacity of the ship.

Then Pulitzer's "World News" mentioned Li Yu's new science fiction novel "Star Wars: A New Hope". The key point is that Pulitzer also very cleverly told a small part of the storyline, but it was quickly closed.

This is so fun!
It was exactly the same as the announcement of the movie later, and the readers' expectations were completely full.

In short, through Pulitzer's professional means, not only "Science" immediately gained a place in the scientific circle, but even "Star Wars: A New Hope" was sold out as soon as it was published.

Harper Collins Publishing Group has not seen such a hot sales scene for a long time, it is not weaker than Mark Twain and Conan Doyle.

The book is priced at US$2, and it is not thick, but HarperCollins Publishing House made some illustrations according to Li Yu's idea, and unexpectedly these illustrations became a catalyst.

After all, science fiction always has a small threshold, and illustrations can perfectly let readers understand the knowledge and settings of the universe.

Thirty thousand copies of the first edition were printed and sold out in just two days.HarperCollins was also convinced, and the editor-in-chief James directly increased the printing volume of the second edition to 15 copies.And quickly found that Li Yu was about to obtain the distribution rights in Europe, and the sales in Europe would not be lower than in the United States. After all, influenced by Verne and Wells, the readership of science fiction in Europe is now very large.

James has been really busy during this period, and he hired an illustrator to add more illustrations, and redesigned the cover, and the major distribution points of ITU in the United States are ready to put on the shelves.

However, Li Yu only saw the booming sales in the newspapers. What was even more powerful was the publication of Li Yu's "Derivation and Discussion on the Black Body Radiation Formula" by the Journal of the Royal Society. .

Everyone dreams of dispelling the two dark clouds, but it turns out that Planck and Li Yu are the ones who make it happen.

All of a sudden, the physics community fell silent, and everyone immersed themselves in checking Li Yu's derivation process and trying to understand its meaning.

But after a short period of calm, there was a heated discussion.

Planck must have been the first to respond. He directly supported it, saying that only quantum theory can explain black body radiation.

On the other side, the army in the field of thermodynamics is also very strong. Wien, who proposed the Wien formula, is very unconvinced about this. He is now a professor of physics at the University of Würzburg.

His position is to succeed Roentgen, which is enough to show that his status in the scientific community is not low.

Wien is considered a veteran in the study of thermodynamics and electromagnetism, and cannot accept the so-called "discontinuity" at all.

Although Li Yu did not emphasize "discontinuity" in the article, many people still extended it to this.Wayne issued an article to refute it, and claimed: "Are we humans like earthworms, segment by segment? What an absurd explanation!"

Although it is not correct, Wien still understands the derivation of black body radiation, and many other people's objections are even louder.

Take Mr. Maher for example, he said: "Although I can't find the error in the text, I just glanced at it and I knew it was definitely not the case! This reminded me of the ingenious sophistry and paradoxes of ancient Greece, even if I look for it now No problem, I believe that the so-called quantum theory will never stand the scrutiny of time!"

Well, people didn't even take a closer look.

But it's not surprising. After all, Mach didn't even believe in atomic theory, so how could he believe in quantum? Isn't this just crossing the latitude.

Supporters such as Boltzmann directly mentioned the enlightenment of new scientific theories, "We can't always stand still. Stubborn blockers in the history of science are not uncommon, but they are like the heliocentric theory rising from the flames. Theories, under the baptism of time, will not fail to withstand scrutiny, but will only become a solid hammer to beat those ignorant heads."

He and Maher were very at odds, and there was no room for talking.

Of course, Mach could see that Boltzmann was pointing directly at himself, and shot back: "Who can prove that Li Yu and Planck are not clowns who popped up in the history of science, just trying to win everyone's attention through shocking theories."

Boltzmann was not to be outdone: "Please don't just refute, but also find out the mistakes in Li Yuwen. Otherwise, I will only think you are messing around like a street rogue or shrew."

Mach was so stunned that he couldn't speak, but he didn't want to suffer from this dark loss, so he quickly immersed himself in the study of that set of quantum theory in order to find out the point of refutation.

But Li Yu, as a traveler, is too familiar with quantum theory.He knows that the theory of force is not like the theory of relativity, which can be put forward in a short period of time. Its development is a long process, so we can't talk too much now.So there is not much extension at all, just use quantum assumptions and mathematics to derive the black body radiation formula.

Fortunately, Li Yu's Mathematics Online did not leave any loopholes.

Mach studied for a long time but failed to find out why, so he had to call Ostwald on his side to fight back together.

As the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909, Ostwald's level is acceptable, and he quickly refuted it with his own energy theory.

However, Li Yu also saw this article by Ostwald. He saw that there was already such a quarrel in Europe, so he just took advantage of this to write another article.Moreover, "energy is a portion" can be used to explain quantum theory. Li Yu used this to deduce it carefully from the perspective of energy and published it.

Of course, the article did not use Planck's fictional "energy quantum", but explained that energy has the smallest unit.

This is more rigorous. Strictly speaking, Planck's "energy quantum" was a false fiction, but it makes sense as the smallest unit of energy. After all, Planck also believed that "energy is a share."

Ostwald never dreamed that Li Yu would use the energy he mentioned, and the explanation was more perfect.People were directly confused, and for a while, they didn't know whether Li Yu was supporting his own energy theory again.

However, if you look closely, you can find that Li Yu is just explaining it from many aspects.

Both positive and negative seem to make sense!
But the smallest unit of energy is even more unacceptable, okay?
Ostwald, Mach and others felt that Li Yu was digging deeper and deeper, and they had to learn more related theories, but the more they learned, the more they felt that Li Yu was right...

It's like an endless loop, it's so pissing off.

These two are the most powerful of the opponents. If you can persuade them, it's OK, and the rest of them don't care.

Planck's excitement was really interesting to watch, he didn't make much of a move, Li Yu blocked all the spearheads, and he blocked them perfectly, he couldn't help sighing: "I once heard that Chinese people know Kung Fu, and there is something called Tai Chi , it seems that I have to study it more or less, and maybe there is incredible wisdom hidden in it."

Lord Kelvin and President Huggins also found it very interesting. They hoped to see this kind of debate in the scientific community. Only in the confrontation of ideas can the correctness of a new discovery be tempered.

Fortunately, Li Yu did not disappoint them. Now the scientific community has not found any flaws. It can only be said that Li Yu is too powerful.

Lord Kelvin said with a smile: "It's only been a few years since I proposed the two dark clouds. I didn't expect that there is already a theory that can explain the problem of black body radiation! I really can't wait to see when the other dark cloud will be dispelled."

Lord Kelvin certainly could not have imagined that the dark cloud of black body radiation would grow bigger and bigger, and even bring thunderbolts all over the sky.

President Huggins also felt that Li Yu was really amazing, "Have you read the newspaper? He published several great discoveries in the field of astronomy in the United States."

"Astronomy?" Lord Kelvin asked before he could light his cigar, "That's your specialty. What new discovery?"

President Huggins said: "It's not clear yet, but according to the reports in the newspapers, there are three major discoveries, and he also found extragalactic galaxies."

"Extragalactic galaxy!" Lord Kelvin said in surprise, "Could it be more powerful than the discovery of Pluto?"

President Huggins said: "It depends on his thesis. If that is the case, it is indeed a very powerful achievement."

In fact, the most powerful method is the method of Cepheid variable stars. If there is an astronomy award for the Nobel Prize, LeWitt can definitely win it.

But even if it doesn't win the prize, finding an extragalactic galaxy is a remarkable discovery, and one that deserves as much fanfare as the discovery of Pluto.

Lord Kelvin said: "What kind of head does he have? The more he looks now, the more he looks like Gauss or Euler in the physics world. The results are too numerous to count."

President Huggins said: "The other two discoveries are not easy to read in newspapers. The complete structure of the Milky Way and the theory of spectral redshift are very exciting. Fortunately, I heard that the book that published several articles by Li Yu is called "Science "Magazine will arrive in London soon, I want to take a good look."

President Huggins has a background in astronomy, so he must not let it go.

Lord Kelvin said: "Science? Never heard of it, the American Academy of Sciences?"

President Huggins shook his head: "It seems not. I haven't heard of any powerful journals from the American Academy of Sciences."

Lord Kelvin said: "It would be a surprise if three articles were posted on it. Since the steamer arrived in London first, we will try to keep some more."

President Huggins laughed and said, "I'm afraid the Germans and the French won't agree."

Lord Kelvin raised his beard: "I'm afraid they will do something!"

President Huggins laughed loudly: "You are really stubborn."

-

During this period of time, Li Yu has also gained a reputation in the United States. As President Huggins said, the discovery of extragalactic galaxies is indeed exciting. Kant once mentioned the concept of "universe islands". He did not expect that there are galaxies outside the Milky Way. Everyone was aroused interest, wanting to know whether the mysterious extragalactic galaxy is the same as the Milky Way, and observatories all over the world also began to observe the Andromeda Galaxy according to Li Yu's method.

The Society for the Advancement of Science receives letters from readers every day like snowflakes, and no one would have imagined that such an unknown magazine would suddenly make such a big move.

Li Yu took advantage of the opportunity and said in Pulitzer's "Le Monde": "Thank you, readers and friends! The future "Science" magazine will continue to present the most cutting-edge scientific results and become an absolutely excellent top scientific research journal."

Not only in the scientific world, ordinary readers now know Li Yu's name through "Star Wars: A New Hope", and the scope of this influence is much larger.

Today's readers have never read such advanced science fiction works, and they are completely attracted by the encounter between Skywalker and Princess Leia in the article.

However, literary works are more "complex" than scientific papers. This is the characteristic of literature, and there are many more people who can comment.

Many editorials mentioned that this novel was written by a Chinese, and that it was a story of the rebels fighting against the Galactic Empire, which is somewhat suspicious of insinuations.

Of course, Li Yu already guessed that someone would say that, even if he didn't make any metaphorical actions, someone will always over-interpret it for you, and you can't stop it.

Even if Li Yu wanted to cover it up, it would only make the story more fragmented, and Li Yu felt that it was like deception, which was useless.

So he can't control so much, he can't decide what others think.

Fortunately, the story itself is attractive enough, and readers don't care about colonization or not, occupation or not, this kind of resistance story is just right to watch!
And the story obviously leaves suspense, and there will be a follow-up, so there are endless voices looking for the next one.

Some of Li Yu’s translations in the article adopted the most classic sentences at the time, which was indeed too brainwashing, such as the sentence: "May the Force be with you", that is, "May the Force be with you".

It has directly become the mantra in the streets and alleys now.

(End of this chapter)