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

Chapter 330 The First Meeting of Top Bosses

"My God, a third-level patent officer? And temporary!?"

Planck was very surprised when he saw Li Yu's call back, "I'm not even a lecturer at a university, so why would Li Yu, a mysterious oriental scientist, be so interested?"

However, since Li Yu had repeatedly recommended it to him, and promised to publish a Star Wars spinoff as soon as possible, under such temptation, Plank decided to give this young temporary worker a chance.

"Mr. Einstein, my name is Max Planck, I am an academician of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and a professor of physics at the University of Berlin. Li Yu mentioned to me that you have used my quantum theory to study some interesting things. Viewpoint, I hope you can send it to me for a look.”

Einstein was going crazy with excitement when he finished reading the telegram at home. He hugged his wife Mileva and said happily: "My God! Finally a professor is willing to read my paper, and he proposed quantum theory. Planck himself!"

Mileva was also happy for Einstein: "You must copy the paper well today, and I hope the calligraphy you have practiced during this time will not be in vain."

Einstein kissed Mileva, and then sat down at the table: "I think I will send a thank you telegram to Li Yu, he has helped me a lot!"

Sending a letter from Bern, Switzerland to Berlin, Germany is very fast, after all, it is a neighboring country.

After Planck finished reading the final paper, he couldn't help taking off his glasses, looked up again, and said to himself: "What are you kidding! Not only did I use my Planck constant, but also Reiner The test of virtue!"

Planck called his assistant Laue: "Hurry up, get Professor Leonard!"

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If you choose a person with the worst reputation in the history of physics, Philip Leonard is definitely in the top three.

He was the Nobel Prize winner in 1905, but he spent the rest of his life in Hitler's Nasty Party and had a close relationship with Mustache.Like Mustache, he was a staunch anti-Semite and violently attacked a group of Jewish scientists represented by Einstein.

Even came up with the so-called "German physics".

Many scientists at the time, including Einstein, didn't bother to talk about politics, thinking it was pretty stupid.

But Leonard has since completely mixed politics and science together, not at all like a famous Nobel Prize winner.

Anti-Semitism in Germany was horrendous during the nasty period. Even Planck was inexplicably proved to have "one-sixth of Jewish ancestry" and was accused of spreading heresy to Jewish scientists.

If it weren't for his great reputation and being a German, it would be really difficult to deal with.

In order to maintain the German Physics Society during World War II, Planck had no choice but to make a huge concession to sodium brittleness.

Fortunately, Mustache was only 15 years old at this time, and he was still dreaming of being a painter.So Leonard has not yet found a political confidant, so he is relatively restrained.

Leonard is currently also an academician of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and a professor of physics at the university, so his status is not much lower than Planck's.

Leonard was very tall, and when he came to Planck's office, he asked, "Professor Planck, are you looking for me?"

Planck took out Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect: "I told you before that your reputation is not as low as you said yourself. Someone is very interested in your experimental results and has done it. Lots of citations."

Leonard was not in a hurry to read the paper, but said, "I hope I will no longer be a mouse stealing apples."

Plank was slightly displeased: "Leonard, haven't you passed Roentgen's hurdle yet?"

Leonard said: "Why did you go in the past? Now everyone only knows Roentgen, Roentgen, Roentgen! The newspapers also blindly sing about him! But he obviously plagiarized my achievements. If there is no my improved cathode ray tube, how could he Discovery of X-rays!?"

Plank poured him a glass of red wine: "You should always learn to look forward, maybe you will get a Nobel medal in the future."

Leonard said: "The Nobel committee would rather award the medal to a Polish woman than to me. Can't these people see that I'm the one who planted the tree and everyone else is just picking the apples! Without me, they wouldn't even be able to pick apples!"

Plank picked up the glass and touched him: "Take a sip of brandy first."

Leonard raised his hand and exchanged respect with Plank, then drank it all in one gulp.

Planck smoothed things over and said: "At the beginning, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was going to award the prize to Pierre, but Pierre said that if it was not awarded to his wife at the same time, he would refuse to accept the Nobel Prize, so the Swedish jury will be the winner. Madam Rie's name was added."

Last year, in 1903, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three people for the first time at the same time, in recognition of the Curies and Becquerel's breakthroughs in radioactivity.

Leonard didn't buy it, and said angrily, "These Vikings!"

Plank patted him on the shoulder: "Don't always be so extreme. I have told you many times that scientific research should not consider too many other factors. It should be yours, and it will always be yours."

Leonard snorted coldly, noncommittal.

Planck picked up Einstein's paper and handed it to him: "Look at this, I immediately thought of you."

After Leonard finished reading, he immediately said: "It's total nonsense! The energy of the photoelectric effect must come from inside the atom, how could it come from light? Oh, and he also used your Planck's constant. Didn't you say that the quantum Just a mathematical assumption that has nothing to do with physics?"

Planck said: "But I can't find any mistakes in it, and the magical oriental science giant Li Yu also endorsed him, and personally corrected the mathematical content in it, and I can't find the problem. That's why I asked you to come."

"Let me come?" Leonard said, "If you want to listen to my conclusions, all I can say is nonsense! He even used the theory of particles to explain light. What is the difference between his approach and re-proposing the theory of the center of the earth? Open history Reverse?"

"Don't be so excited for now," Planck said, "I didn't take it seriously at first, but after Li Yu's recommendation and after reading carefully, I found that this young man's physical intuition is terribly good, and he is so quick-witted." , is a rare genius."

"Genius?" Leonard asked back, "I don't know who wrote the paper, the British? Those guys like to hold on to the particles, so as to reverse the case for their spiritual leader Newton."

There is some truth to what Leonard said.

If you take a long-term view, you will find a very interesting phenomenon: most of the views of the theory of microparticles were put forward by the British.

Nearly 300 years ago, the contemporaries Newton and Huygens were representatives of the particle theory of light and the wave theory respectively.

However, since Newton, the theory of particles has gradually declined, and the theory of fluctuations has finally won a big victory.

But it doesn't end there, and the theory of microparticles continues to hold sway in British scientific circles.

For example, the Brownian motion was proposed by the British Brown;

Dalton, who first proposed atomic theory in chemistry, was also an Englishman;

There are also electrons (Thomson), protons (Rutherford), neutrons (Chadwick), all discovered by the British;
Even later, the theories of antimatter positron (Dirac) and Higgs boson (Higgs) were first proposed by the British.

In contrast, the European continent at the same time generally believed in the ether theory.

Lorentz was already very close to the theory of relativity, but he would rather spend his time proving that the ether would expand and contract than give up the ether view.

As for Fresnel, Helmholtz, Hertz, Leonard, etc., all believe in ether!
In other words, Boltzmann is a "heterogeneous", but how many people in continental Europe believe in his atomic theory?Historically, Boltzmann was even forced to commit suicide.

Therefore, the two Germans, Einstein and Planck, proposed quantum theory. For the European continent, it can be said to be very deviant, and they are under great pressure.

This also explains why Planck chose to be cautious.

He said in public more than once: "Quantum is just a pure hypothesis, and I didn't think about it too much."

This is a famous quote from Planck himself.

He really only regarded quantum as a mathematical hypothesis, and he didn't dare to go one step further.

After all, Planck was already in his 40s when he proposed the quantum theory, and he didn't like to be competitive, so he chose to hide his edge.

But Einstein was different.

Einstein is now young and vigorous, and just a temporary patent officer, eager to make a difference so that he can enter the university and become the physics professor of his dreams.

Planck turned the paper to the first page and said to Leonard: "The author of this photoelectric effect paper is called Einstein, and he is currently a temporary third-level patent officer in Bern, Switzerland."

"Einstein?" Leonard pondered for a moment, "Listen to the name, is it a Jew?"

Plank said, "Does it matter?"

Leonard didn't say much, but he still expressed his attitude: "I don't accept this temporary patent officer's thesis point of view. When he becomes a university professor, he is qualified to propose shocking content. It’s just grandstanding.”

Planck spread his hands: "Okay, but what if he's right?"

"Impossible!" Leonard said decisively, "I know best from my own experiments!"

It has to be said that Leonard is indeed a genius in experimental physics.It's a pity that his theoretical foundation is a bit stretched. He has made a very good experiment, but he can't go further.

Leonard asked again: "I heard that you recently met people from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Who is most likely to be nominated for this year's Nobel Prize?"

Of course, Plank knew that what Leonard really wanted to ask was whether he had hope, so he replied: "As far as I know, you were nominated. But Roentgen, Lorenz and Lord Kelvin nominated Li Yu together. You know Yes, two of them are Nobel Prize winners, and their nominations carry weight."

"What?!" Leonard was very angry, "Could it be that the most important physics prize among the Nobel Prizes, after being awarded to Polish women, is going to be awarded to the backward Qing people? Is this still a high-ranking Nobel Prize?! "

Leonard really doesn't think highly of all Asians...

Planck said: "But it is undeniable that Li Yu's achievements are worthy of the Nobel Prize. Otherwise, if he is not even qualified, the Nobel Prize itself will lose its authority."

Leonard opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he changed it to: "Professor Plank, have you nominated anyone?"

Plank laughed: "I'm not even eligible to be nominated."

It is true that anyone can be nominated for the Nobel Prize, and it makes sense for Leonard to think about it.

The people on the Nobel Prize jury are not willing to enter, and it is difficult for them to get in the back door.Unless the Prussian Academy of Sciences negotiates, but a country's Academy of Sciences will basically not do this kind of thing. If others find out, it is not an ordinary embarrassment.

However, although Planck cannot become a nominee, he can write expert reports to the nominees as an expert, and these expert reports will eventually be collected by the Nobel Prize jury as the basis for the review.

It didn't take long for Leonard to leave Planck's office angrily.

After he left, Planck wrote another letter to Einstein, hoping to meet him in person.

After Einstein received the letter, he came to Berlin without stopping.

Entering Max Planck's spacious office at the University of Berlin, seeing those tall log bookshelves and several square-sized desks, Einstein was envious.

This is his dream working environment!Not the little desk at the patent office full of review papers.

"Professor Planck, hello." Einstein took off his hat and saluted.

Plank said, "Don't be restrained, sit down."

"Professor Xie." Einstein sat across from his desk.

"I hear you used to live in Berlin?" Planck asked.

"Yes, Professor Planck," Einstein replied, "many members of my family are still in Berlin, including my mother."

"Then why did you go to Switzerland?" Planck continued.

"Because I think the more democratic environment in Germany is suitable for me to do some physics research. And, to tell you the truth, I have already obtained Swiss citizenship." Einstein said truthfully.

"Are you Jewish?" Plank asked.

"Is there anything wrong with that?" Einstein said.

"Of course there's no question, I'm just asking," Planck said, "because I'm curious how you can write such an excellent paper while working in a patent office. A temporary patent officer can do this." This situation really confuses me.”

Einstein replied: "Professor, I think about physics problems every day. Not only this, but I have many other wonderful ideas."

"It's good for young people to be motivated," Planck said. "I've read your paper. Since Mr. Li Yu has made corrections, at least there won't be too many problems in mathematics. So I focused on reviewing the When it comes to the quantum part, I want to say that your formula is very beautiful."

Einstein said happily: "Professor Xie's compliment!"

Planck added: "But I want to warn you one more thing, its publication may attract a lot of criticism, so you must try to perfect every word as much as possible, because it is too shocking."

Einstein said: "I will definitely remember your teachings."

Planck finally said: "As for its publication, I will choose the best time at my discretion."

With Planck's words, Einstein felt reassured that his trip to Berlin was not in vain.

(End of this chapter)