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

Chapter 504 Antimagnetic
Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg have always been called the Three Low Countries. They are very close to each other. While there was still time, Li Yu took a train to the Netherlands with Onnes and Lorenz.

Looking out the window of the train, it is easy to think of the German offensive route during World War I. It is indeed a geographical necessity that they chose to take a detour here to attack Paris.

Onnes saw that Li Yu was in a daze and asked curiously: "Li, what are you looking at?"

Li Yu said: "Nothing, just looking at the scenery."

"The scenery is really good," Lorenz said. "Every time I take the train, I choose to sit close to the window."

Li Yu changed the subject and asked: "Who will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics this year?"

Lorenz said: "As expected, it should be Professor Jean Perrin from France."

Li Yu said: "Professor Peilan really deserves this medal."

According to history, the 1911 Nobel Prize should have been awarded to Wien, based on his Wien formula for blackbody radiation.

But now that Li Yu has stepped in and demonstrated the correctness of Planck's formula, it is naturally impossible for the Nobel Committee to award the award to Wien.

As for Planck, the Nobel Prize Committee does not dare to award the prize for the time being, because his theory contains the ghost of "quantum", which is really difficult to deal with. No consensus has been reached, so it can only be shelved for the time being.

On the other hand, Jean Perrin just concluded the atomic theory through experiments, so there is nothing wrong with giving him a Nobel Prize.

Jean Perrin won the Nobel Prize more than ten years in advance.But it’s okay, Li Yu wants to train a Chinese to take the Nobel Prize vacancy vacated in 1926.

In history, Wien, who won the Nobel Prize in 1911, is indeed a bit less well-known.

He has been introduced before, but in fact some biographical books that introduce the centenary winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics will skip Wien in 1911 (Darren, the Nobel Prize winner in 1912, was actually a friend of the award) , has little to do with physics, but he is introduced in the book)...

The reason is naturally related to Wayne's excessive behavior during World War I.

Before World War I, in what could be considered an era of scientific globalization, European scientists did not have much of a national concept. It was common for them to communicate with each other, and they had no worries about their positions.

After World War I, there was chaos, and the scientific community was forced to take sides, but most of them did not take any actual actions, just pretending.

Wien's performance is too similar to that of German scientists Leonard, Stark and others during World War II.If he had lived until World War II, he would probably have been a nerdy person engaged in "German Physics" just like them.

So if Wayne didn't win the award, he didn't win it. After all, there are still qualified winners.

Li Yu, Onnes and Lorenz came to Leiden University.

Li Yu said: "I read in the newspaper that Professor Onnes had completed the preparation of liquid helium a few years ago."

"Yes," Onnes said. "When it comes to liquid helium, I think of the story you told about synthetic diamonds in Brussels. Two years ago, I also obtained a kind of white scales in the experiment. Crystal. So I immediately sent a telegram to Professor Dewar in the UK to inform me that I had completed the liquefaction of helium.

"The Times followed with a front-page headline, and even American newspapers proclaimed 'Onnes of Leyden University has isolated a metal previously thought to be a gas!'

"I soon discovered that this was also an error. The experiment was wrong, and what I got was actually mixed liquid hydrogen."

Lorenz laughed and said: "It was quite a joke at the time. Fortunately, half a year later Professor Onnes obtained real liquid helium, otherwise the entire Leiden University would have been unable to hold its head high in front of the British."

Onness said: "That's for sure. Professor Dewar will definitely hold on to this matter. And if he completes the preparation of liquid helium ahead of me, my efforts will be in vain."

Li Yu said: "Is everyone in the scientific community this confused now?"

"What does volume mean?" Onnes didn't quite understand.

Li Yu said: "The competition is fierce."

Lorenz said: "The competition is indeed fierce. After all, helium is the only gas that has not been completely liquefied. If you can do this, it will probably be a Nobel Prize."

Onness said: "Simply preparing liquid helium is nothing to talk about. I recently discovered some interesting things at low temperatures. For example, the resistance of mercury suddenly disappears in the low-temperature environment of liquid helium. And it disappears very suddenly, not all at once. It disappears little by little, but suddenly disappears when it reaches about 4.2K.”

"You have to do the experiment several times to make sure you don't make the same mistake again," Lorenz said.

Onness said cautiously: "Of course I understand that more metal experiments need to be carried out."

Li Yu knew that this was the discovery of superconductivity, so he said, "Can I borrow the laboratory to do some experiments? Maybe I can help."

Onness did not stop him: "Without your help, we would not have gotten so much helium from the United States. If you want to use the laboratory, it will be no problem."

"Thank you." Li Yu said.

The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered by Onnes, but Onnes did not discover low-temperature diamagnetism, limited by scientific concepts, and did not discover the quantum Hall effect.

Li Yu plans to develop low-temperature diamagnetism first.

In this way, it is estimated that he and Onness will win another Nobel Prize in two years...

It is quite exciting to participate in the last highlight moment of classical physics such as superconductivity.

Unfortunately, although these two phenomena are very interesting and have great physical significance, their practical significance is currently almost zero.

Because the conditions for realizing superconductivity are too harsh, such a low-temperature environment can only exist in the laboratory.

Moreover, the first application of superconductivity was diamagnetism, but it still had to wait until room-temperature superconductivity appeared more than half a century later.

Li Yu strives to live until then and help the Chinese win another Nobel Prize.

The experiment is not difficult to do, as long as there is a low temperature environment, and there is no need to engage in theoretical research.

Anyway, the theory can't be solved. At least before Li Yu traveled through time, the mechanism of superconductivity had not been explained clearly.

Li Yu felt that it was indeed a bit easy to win the Nobel Prize.

At Leiden University, Li Yu and Onness completed the experiments of disappearance of resistance and zero magnetic field respectively.

Diamagnetism was originally discovered by Meisner in history and was called the Meissner effect. It seems that the name will be changed to the "Li Yu effect" in the future.

It's just that the bigger ones may not be called that, because Li Yu has done too many great scientific actions and the name cannot be used at all, otherwise it will cause confusion.

It didn't take long for the two of them to write separate papers and publish them in the "Annals of Physics".

Even if the principle is unclear, superconductivity is a great discovery in physics, enough to attract great attention from the physics community.

However, because it is difficult to repeat this experiment, we have to wait for demonstrations from other laboratories for the time being. Therefore, it is only well-known in academic circles and is mostly unknown to ordinary people.

It was somewhat difficult to educate the public about superconductivity at the beginning of the [-]th century, and it was difficult for the superconductivity phenomenon to make waves again in the following decades. After all, these decades were dominated by quantum mechanics and relativity, and the light was too dazzling. ——

After leaving the Netherlands, Li Yu went to Paris and settled a royalties for the Star Wars series with Hachette Publishing House, which turned out to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This good time of "making money while lying down" could last until World War I. Li Yu also needed the money to start up domestic national enterprises as soon as possible.

By the way, he was also invited to participate in a flight competition organized by the French Aeronautical Association.

The French really attach great importance to airplanes and hold competitions at every turn. Today is quite interesting. Among the contestants is Raymond, the first female pilot to obtain a pilot's license.

Raymond's plane still used the round steering wheel of a car. She accidentally crashed during the competition, broke her leg and suffered a concussion. Fortunately, her life was not in danger, but she had to leave the competition for two years.

After watching the competition, Li Yu sighed helplessly again. The development of aircraft still has a long way to go, and his dream of flying an aircraft will have to be endured for a few more years.

Two days later, Li Yu was invited to attend the Nobel Prize award night, and he happened to go to Stockholm with Marie Curie and Jean Perrin.

Jean Perrin said: "I heard that Academician Li Yu has a small island near Stockholm?"

Li Yu nodded: "The area is not large."

Marie Curie said: "I have seen it, but it seems that compared with Kang Youwei Island next to it, it still lacks the charm of oriental architecture."

Li Yu covered his head and said, "I have never been to Mr. Kang's island."

Marie Curie said: "It's not far from your island. There is a small garden on it. Although I have never been there, the pictures in the newspaper are very good."

Li Yu was not as leisurely as Kang Nanhai, so he said, "I want to have a place to do experiments and research in the future."

Naturally, he did not dare to talk about the next two world wars.

Madame Curie said: "By the way, I would also like to thank you and Mr. Einstein for speaking up."

Li Yu smiled and said, "That's too polite."

Marie Curie came to Stockholm under pressure. Originally, the Nobel Prize Committee did not want her to come to receive the award in person because of her scandal, but Marie Curie insisted that these had nothing to do with her scientific achievements.

Coupled with the support issued by Li Yu and Einstein, the Nobel Prize Committee finally agreed to Mrs. Curie’s presence.

At this time, Madame Curie looked haggard and very pale, which could be seen as the result of long-term radioactive experiments.

After arriving at Stockholm City Hall, Li Yu discovered that there was a camera filming, and he was invited to deliver an invitation speech to Marie Curie.

This is a representative of honor. Li Yu said to everyone on the side of the rostrum: "Madame Curie, I don't need to introduce it to you too much. She is very famous now. This haggard but enthusiastic woman has always insisted on Her great career has lasted 25 years, which must be admired. Now, we invite her to make a grand debut."

The side door opened, and Madame Curie slowly walked to the stage, bowed to everyone, then sat down in front of the loudspeaker and began a speech:
“Dear Swedish academicians and distinguished guests, I am very happy to have the opportunity to share my research results and thoughts with you here.

Radioactivity research is an emerging field in which we explore the wonders of nature.The discovery of radioactive elements was the first step in this field and provided us with an opportunity to explore deeper.In my research, radium is a very important element, and its discovery and research provided a huge impetus for the development of radioactivity research.

I would also like to mention several new scientific disciplines that are developing, such as nuclear physics and quantum theory, which I just studied in depth at Solvay not long ago. I think they are related, and even radioactivity is related to microscopic fields are closely related.

New science requires the dedication and efforts of a large number of scientists, and we need to constantly explore and discover new knowledge and technologies.I believe that we have a lot of work to do and a lot to discover and explore in this area.

I also want to mention a very important scientist-Li Yu.

His name is familiar to everyone and has always been resounding in the halls of science.Just a week ago, he made another amazing discovery in low-temperature physics with Professor Onnes of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

In my opinion, he is an outstanding scientist whose work has provided us with a lot of inspiration and guidance.

New scientific workers make the future of new scientific fields full of hope.

My hypotheses and theories will also provide a backbone for future research and a method for finding new elements.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that everything we do in radioactivity research is to better understand the natural world and improve human life.We need more scientists and researchers to join us and explore deeper mysteries together.

Rather than making extra-scientific guesses based on a person's origin and gender.

thank you all! "

There was warm applause from the audience.

Li Yu never expected that Madame Curie would mention him and even speak highly of himself at such a grand Nobel Prize award ceremony.

I felt somewhat flattered in my heart.

At the dinner, Li Yu expressed his gratitude to Madame Curie.

Madame Curie just smiled slightly and said: "I speak from my heart, and I always think that you are more persistent than me."

Li Yu could only pick up a glass of red wine and said: "Everything is in the wine!"

-

After leaving Stockholm, Li Yu went to Germany to meet Cai Yuanpei, who was studying abroad, and then took a boat to the United States.

Counting the days, things were going to change in China. He had to deal with the matter quickly and return to China.

Although the Revolution of [-] was a revolution with a low degree of bloodshed, it was ultimately a change of dynasty, and we had to prepare countermeasures.

And a man who was supposed to be in the eye of the storm is now in the United States - Mr. Nakayama.

As soon as he got off the ship, Li Yu saw the news of the Wuchang Uprising published in the newspaper.

Lao Mei was quite fast and got the news only two days later.

At this time, Mr. Zhongshan was still raising money in Denver, Colorado, in the central United States, and had just learned about the Wuchang Uprising through newspapers.

Li Yu finally contacted him via telegram, and Mr. Zhongshan said he would come to New York to meet Li Yu in a few days.

Such a big event happened in China, but Mr. Zhongshan still had to stay in the United States for a few days because he had to complete the fundraising task quickly.

It just so happens that Li Yu is rich...

Moreover, for Mr. Zhongshan, the news in the country is not very clear yet. Li Yu has the communication technology and must know the things happening in the country the fastest.

(End of this chapter)