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

Chapter 259 Nomination
Not long after, Li Yu was approached by another person whom he had met before: Katz from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

"It's great that you are in Germany, otherwise I would have to go to Beijing to find you." Katz said.

"Why are you looking for me in such a hurry?" Li Yu asked.

Katz said: "There is good news for Mr. Academician! After internal discussions and the King's proposal, the Academy of Sciences has decided to nominate you as a candidate for the next Nobel Prize in Physics."

"Aren't you not in charge of East Asian affairs?" Li Yu asked.

"The person who was originally in charge of East Asian affairs is also a part-time job. Because, ahem, there are not many scientific developments worthy of attention in East Asia," Katz immediately continued, "But you, an academician, are different. With your achievements, the Academy of Sciences Still decided to nominate!"

Li Yu knew in his heart that there was a general arrogance in Europe at this time, especially when it came to technology. No one was really convinced, and the United States didn't take it seriously.Of course, the United States in the early twentieth century was indeed not strong.

Li Yu asked again: "What is the reason for the nomination?"

Katz said: "In view of your brilliant achievements in thermodynamics, the pioneering development of the law of entropy increase for the second law of thermodynamics and the formulation of the more critical third law of thermodynamics."

Li Yu can roughly guess that it is because of this, but it is indeed worthy of the Nobel Prize level.

As for the black body radiation formula, there are still some controversies after all, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences may not have fully figured it out, so naturally no nominations for quantum mechanics will be made.

Although the Literary Prize and the Peace Prize have been controversial many times in history, neither of these two items is under the control of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

When it comes to physics and chemistry in their old profession, the Academy of Sciences is quite cautious.The awards are all in areas where they are more confident.

For quite a long time thereafter, there was no prize for the theory of relativity that is familiar to everyone. When Einstein won the Nobel Prize for the photoelectric effect, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences even emphatically stated that the reason for the prize was not because of the theory of relativity!
Because the theory of relativity did not have enough experimental support at that time, and Einstein gave too many conclusions, which made it impossible to award the entire theory of special relativity or general relativity.

When Wien won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1911, the Nobel Prize jury stated that he proposed the Wien formula because of his contribution to thermodynamics.

Even if it's wrong...

That is to say, until then, the Nobel Prize Committee still had some disapproval of quantum mechanics.

Fortunately, now that Li Yu has finally given the correct derivation of Planck's formula, it must be earlier in time.

But in any case, we have to wait for the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to fully understand it.

At this time, Li Yu was nominated for the Nobel Prize for "classical physics", which is of course a good thing, because it is always too advanced and too divorced from reality.

Moreover, with his status in the classical physics community, there are many invisible benefits for him to continue to develop quantum mechanics in the future.

Katz took out a letter from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and handed it to Li Yu: "This is an official letter."

Li Yu took it over: "Thank you."

Katz said with a smile: "If Mr. Academician can win the Nobel Prize in Physics, he will really be an authority in both mathematics and science!"

Li Yu said: "Now it's just nominations."

Katz said: "Mr. Academician has great hopes. The internal discussion on whether to nominate you earlier is because the nomination alone is almost a certainty."

Li Yu understood that it was because he was a Chinese and came from the backward Qing Dynasty that the jury was concerned.

In the eyes of most people, people with such high scientific achievements should have been educated in Europe for many years, and they will also become a European nationality.

— But Li Yu obviously didn't have such an idea.

This made the jury hesitate for a while.

It's just that Li Yu's name is too big now. If Li Yu is not nominated, the Nobel Prize jury feels that it will lose its authority a little bit.

Katz sighed again: "I really envy you, you are so young!"

Li Yu said: "There is still a long way to go."

Katz asked: "Academicians will have more scientific achievements in the future?"

Li Yu smiled and said, "Just wait and see."

The nomination brought this time is for next year's Nobel Prize, which means that it will take at least one year before the award will be awarded.

However, many institutions already want to award Li Yu a separate award.

It's just that what Li Yu didn't expect to come first was the literary award...

The French Academy of Letters (the name at this time was actually the Academy of French Inscriptions and American Letters, which is actually the Academy of Letters, one of the five institutions of the French Academy) wanted to award Li Yu the Literary Medal for the "Star Wars" series.

After learning the inside information, Hachette Publishing House, the largest publishing group in France, immediately sent people to find Li Yu.

Hachette Publishing House has a great influence in the French publishing industry and its publishing capacity is very strong.

They have long seen the best-selling ability of the Star Wars series, and they don't want American publishers to intervene too much in their business in Europe, at least to compete.

It happened that Li Yu himself arrived in Europe, and immediately sent the company's representative, Louis Xiao, to negotiate with Li Yu.

The founder of Hachette Publishing House is called Louis Hachette, and this little Louis is the second-generation head after that, which is enough to show the importance he attaches to Li Yu.

Little Louis is a businessman with good eyes and ears. He quickly found Li Yu's foothold in Berlin. After introducing each other, Little Louis said: "Mr. And the distribution in Europe will be smoother. And we have the local convenience that American publishers don't have, and the operation will be better after that."

Li Yu just found out about winning the Literature Award, which was much more unexpected to him than winning the Nobel Prize, so he asked in surprise, "Why haven't I heard about it?"

Little Louis said with a smile: "The letter from the French Academy of Letters is on the way, and it should be received tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

Li Yu said, "So you knew it in advance?"

Little Louis was quite frank, and said: "For business, it is always beneficial to know some news in advance."

Li Yu asked again: "Then what do you mean by convenience?"

As soon as he mentioned his professional field, Little Louis immediately talked eloquently: "If it is printed in the United States, firstly, there is no advantage in price, and secondly, there is no way to better design the cover and illustrations to attract Europeans. The more important thing is that they are far away from home. In the Americas, timeliness is not strong. But we have the largest printing factory in France, which can guarantee that the market will not be out of stock. And you have to believe that our ability to translate works is better than that of the Americans, who don’t know what literature is!”

The French are still quite vain in these respects.

Li Yu said, "There is already a translation in French, isn't there?"

Yu Deling has given the French version.

Little Louis said: "We want to add more illustrations, because Mr.'s works involve a lot of novel sci-fi content. To make it easy for a larger group of people to understand, it is necessary to have both pictures and texts. This requires some adjustments. And our Spanish Chinese, Russian, German and Italian translation ability is also outstanding, far above the Americans."

Li Yu felt happy, the little Louis in front of him really didn't pay much attention to the Yankees.

However, it is indeed beneficial to have Europe's own publishing house publish it, so Li Yu said: "Okay, I accept your proposal."

Little Louis said: "You will definitely be satisfied with our operation! A good cover and more illustrations can increase the sales of science fiction works by more than one level, and the profit will also be greater."

This kind of professional work is left to them, Li Yu said: "Let's sign the contract."

Little Louis quickly took out the prepared contract: "I have already written it, you can sign it."

Li Yu picked up his pen and suddenly thought: "Is the medal of the Faculty of Letters awarded to me alone or including Miss Bicheng?"

"Oh?" Little Louis asked in surprise, "I always thought that Bicheng was also a man, so 'Lu Bicheng' is the name of a Chinese female author?"

Li Yudao: "That's right, and the Star Wars series wouldn't be so vivid in language without her polish."

Little Louis said excitedly: "Great! It can be a big selling point! I have already thought of a better cover design, which must highlight the mysterious oriental woman behind the great scientist and science fiction writer. My God, it is so eye-catching!" "

Li Yu said: "In business, anything is fine, where are the medals?"

Little Louis said: "Actually, according to the information I got, Ms. Bicheng is a bonus medal, but if the Faculty of Arts knows that she is a woman, I'm afraid it will only be awarded to you."

Li Yu said: "If this is the case, I cannot accept this medal."

Little Louis wondered: "I can't influence the decision of the French Academy of Letters, and it's not a big deal, as long as you..."

Li Yu said: "It's not a trivial matter. Let me emphasize it again. If it is only granted to me, it is absolutely unacceptable!"

Little Louis spread his hands: "I can't do anything about it, you can only discuss it with the Faculty of Arts in person, but I think it's better not to disobey their decision."

Li Yu knew that there was no need to continue discussing with him about the Faculty of Arts, so he signed a commercial contract first.

Lu Bicheng heard their conversation, and after little Louis left, he came over with a cup of black tea and said to Li Yu, "If you can't win an award because of me, I will feel uneasy."

Li Yu said with a smile: "A medal from a liberal arts academy is nothing more than a medal. But if they give up the award because of you, I will definitely not accept such an insult."

Lu Bicheng asked: "The most you can do is insult me, why are you so anxious?"

Li Yu said, "Of course not, because...because..."

Lu Bicheng blinked and asked, "Because of what?"

Li Yu immediately replied, "Because you are very important!"

The back of Lu Bicheng's ears turned red: "Why am I important? You...you drank this cup of tea first."

Li Yu said: "Of course you are important. Without you, this science fiction novel would never be completed."

Lu Bicheng's hand trembled, and the teacup she was holding almost fell, but the hot water spilled her hand, and she let out an "ouch" in pain.

Li Yu quickly took the teacup and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

Lu Bicheng shook his hand: "It's not important!"

After speaking, he went back to the room alone.

Li Yu froze in place, took a sip of his tea, and murmured, "Tsk tsk, women are really fickle and unpredictable."

"Ah bah, it's a little hot!"

(End of this chapter)