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

After several years of construction, Datong University already has very high-level facilities, not far behind the top universities in Europe and the United States. After all, Li Yu spent a lot of money to get there.

After Li Yu gave a lecture that day, he unexpectedly discovered that two people had returned from abroad: Bingzhi and Wu Jun.

Wu Jun was personally selected by Li Yu.

Both studied biology and had just received bachelor's degrees in biology from American universities.

Li Yu was quite surprised: "Didn't I tell you to study for a doctorate abroad?"

Bingzhi said: "The world is so unstable now. We heard that the Japanese were fighting in Qingdao again. It was exactly the same as what happened in Lushun ten years ago. We are really uneasy. We came back to see if we can help."

Li Yu said: "I have emphasized many times that you have what you have to do."

"Sir," Wu Jun said, "Nowadays, even students from Cambridge University and the University of Paris are joining the army. How can we sit back and watch?"

Li Yu felt like his head was pounding. Although Britain, France, and Germany lost many college students during World War I, and many scientific researchers died in vain on the front lines, they had been strong for so long, had accumulation, and could afford to squander.

I have finally trained a few foreign students, how can I play like this?
Li Yu's tone became stern: "Do you think China is short of soldiers or college students?"

"Of course I am a college student," Bingzhi said, "but this does not mean that I cannot serve the country."

"How do you want to repay the favor?" Li Yu said, "The presidential palace abides by its neutrality, what can you do?"

Bingzhi was speechless for a moment: "I..."

Li Yu didn't give him a chance to quibble: "Do you think the path of scientific research is too difficult and are you afraid? Do you want to be a big-headed soldier who only needs to obey orders?"

Bingzhi and Wu Jun were young people after all. How could they stand such provocation? They immediately said: "I'm not afraid anymore!"

Li Yu said: "Then get a PhD and come back and see what Dr. Wu Liande did a few years ago!"

Wu Jun was relatively thin-skinned, but his brain worked very quickly, and he quickly calculated the steps: "Sir, you can do research anywhere during the doctoral stage. You can graduate as long as you come up with a doctoral thesis, and we can continue when we come back."

Li Yu asked: "How will I do experiments and write a paper when I come back?"

Wu Jun said: "We took a look and found that the experimental conditions here are no worse than those outside. Plus, there is Harvard China Medical School. If there are any problems, we can verify them at any time."

“Their focus is not biology,” Li Yu said.

Wu Jun said: "We study microorganisms, and medical school can definitely help."

Li Yu suddenly had an idea in his mind, "Microorganisms...you can really try it more. I have a good topic. Are you interested?"

Bingzhi asked: "What topic? Do you also know about microbiology?"

"Just a brief understanding. I usually like to read various scientific magazines," Li Yu said casually. "Currently, the most advanced biological laboratories are studying bacteria. More than ten years ago, scientists discovered another microorganism smaller than bacteria. , named the virus.”

Wu Jun said: "Sir, you want us to study viruses?"

Li Yu said: "That's right."

Wu Jun thought: "But there are few ways to study viruses. They are too small to be seen with a microscope."

Li Yu said: "It is indeed small, smaller than the wavelength of visible light. From a physical perspective, the principle of optical microscopes relies on the scattering and absorption of light, and the resolution capability is about two to three hundred nanometers."

Although Wu Jun and Bingzhi heard that Li Yu added the word "optics" before the word "microscope", they did not pay too much attention to it, thinking that it was just his habit as a physicist.

Bingzhi said: "Even at the Pasteur Institute, it is difficult to study viruses."

"Indirect methods can be used," Li Yu said. "Isn't the virus discovered through indirect evidence?"

Wu Jun said: "Indeed, tobacco mosaic virus and bovine foot-and-mouth disease virus can pass through bacterial filters, so they were confirmed to exist."

Li Yu said: "We can use this idea. Although I don't know how to do specific biological experiments, the principle is always the same."

Wu Jun felt that what Li Yu said was feasible, and he had already begun to think: "Which virus can we start with?"

Li Yu said: "I think we can find another way of thinking and not study the virus that causes the disease."

"But if you don't get the disease, you don't know whether there are viruses as pathogens." Bingzhi said.

"Science is all about experimentation, and many discoveries come from accidents, including physics," Li Yu said. "According to scientific deduction, viruses are too small and basically rely on parasitism. I suddenly thought, can viruses parasitize bacteria?"

Wu Jun and Bingzhi felt their whole bodies tremble, as if they were struck by thunder: "Sir's idea is so wonderful! Regardless of whether it can be parasitized or not, it is a perfect subject!"

Li Yu said, "I'm just talking casually."

For people like them, "just saying something" is very effective, and Li Yu basically doesn't need to waste any time on the rest. They naturally know what to do.

Li Yuquan treated it as a "big job" and tested it.

The two immediately started brainstorming:

"Many people in Shanghai have been suffering from dysentery recently. I think it is most convenient to use Shigella dysenteriae."

"Harvard Chinese Medical School and major hospitals are very good at collecting samples. Let's work separately!"

"Meet in the laboratory later."

"By the way, sir, we need to borrow the biology laboratory in the university!"

Li Yu smiled and said, "Just use it."

What Li Yu wanted them to do was naturally the famous phage.

This little thing has a great reputation, but it was first discovered quite early.

Next year, in 1915, a French scholar named Walter accidentally discovered that some parts of the bacterial colonies in the bacterial culture dish became transparent, that is, the colonies disappeared.

Filtering through a bacterial filter and then dropping the dilute solution into a normal bacterial petri dish will still cause this phenomenon.

So he speculated that the diluent might contain some kind of virus, enzyme, or other protoplasm that could cause the bacteria to become sick and lyse, thus making the colonies transparent.

Two years later, in 1917, the British scientist Du Huier also independently discovered this phenomenon.

He conducted more rigorous experiments than Walter, and it was he who gave the name "phage".

It needs to be said that the British man Di Huier was an amateur biology enthusiast who had no formal university education and basically relied on self-taught.

It's just that after the two of them discovered this phenomenon, they did not study it in depth.

It is said that given the scientific research conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was indeed difficult to conduct in-depth research.

Viruses have always been a bit mysterious.

While they were researching, Li Yu went to meet Zhang Yuanji and then sent a copy of the film to a cinema in Hongkou.

Zhang Yuanji heard that there was a new movie to watch, and he immediately followed it with great interest.

The first cinema in Shanghai was built in Hongkou, built by the Spaniards during the Guangxu period. After that, Hongkou became the center of cinemas in the Republic of China.

Influenced by Hong Kong movies, many people always feel that Hongkou is a Japanese concession. In fact, it is a Shanghai public concession, but there are indeed many Japanese. ——In addition to the Japanese, there are also many Jews living in Hongkou. Zhang Yuanji told Li Yu: "Last year, the Spanish, the founder of the theater, left Shanghai, and the Japanese took over and renamed it 'Tokyo Mobile Cinema.'"

"Tokyo?" Li Yu felt a little off-putting upon hearing this.

Zhang Yuanji said: "The Ministry of Industry and Industry Bureau also felt that the name was unpleasant and asked the Japanese to change it to 'Hongkou Mobile Cinema' as soon as possible."

"This sounds more pleasant to the ears." Li Yu said.

The movie theater wanted to buy a copy, but when Li Yu heard that it was run by a Japanese, he immediately raised the price. The Japanese have no choice but to accept high prices.

The video is not long, so I finished it quickly. After coming out, Zhang Yuanji felt very interesting.

Li Yu asked: "Brother Xiaozhai, does he also want to enter the film industry?"

At that time, Zheng Zhengqiu, the father of Chinese film, came to see him, and it was Zhang Yuanji who brought him.

"I do have some ideas," Zhang Yuanji said, "but I haven't figured out the way yet."

"It's simple," Li Yu told him. "It's nothing more than equipment, script, director, and actors. Anyway, it's just a short film. It doesn't cost much."

Zhang Yuanji asked: "How much should I invest to start with?"

Li Yu said: "It may cost 100,000 yuan initially, but once it is put into operation, it can be repaid in two or three years."

Zhang Yuanji said: "It is indeed worth a try. It would be better if there were more movie theaters in the country."

Li Yu said: "In addition to movies, you can also make short news clips and the like. Anyway, there are too many themes. As long as they are made, there will definitely be a market."

Zhang Yuanji understood that this was a typical blue ocean market, and the sooner he entered it, the better, so he said: "I will set up a cinema department when I get back to do research."

It is said that in 1917, an American brought film equipment to China and wanted to invest in a production factory, but he was unable to find a businessman to cooperate. The Commercial Press finally obtained his filming equipment for only 3000, thus starting his film career.

I don’t know if it’s true or false.

But Zhang Yuanji definitely really wants to make movies.

-

Within a few days, Bingzhi and Wu Jun had preliminary results, which was quite fast. After all, they had a clear direction, not a blind test like other laboratories.

Li Yu came to the laboratory to see the results.

Through multiple sets of controlled experiments, the two of them proved that there is indeed a substance that can dissolve bacteria; then they conducted multiple verifications such as filtration, multiplication, and cultivation to confirm that it was a virus.

The experimental process is not complicated, but the conclusions obtained are exciting.

The hands of both of them holding the test tube began to tremble, and they didn't know how to write a paper.

Wu Jun's idea was very bold: "Sir, when Koch proved that bacteria can cause disease, Western medicine has made great progress; viruses can kill bacteria, didn't he find a panacea?"

Li Yu said: "Don't forget that viruses can also cause disease, and they are not so easy to control."

Bingzhi said: "It's a pity that we can't see its true appearance, which makes me feel itchy!"

Li Yu said with a smile: "There are so many things that humans can't see, and I can't see electrons and atoms."

"It's different!" Wu Jun said, "Atoms are the particles that make up all matter, including viruses. They must be too small to be seen."

Bingzhi said: "It is said that although a sparrow is small, it has all five internal organs. I really can't imagine that a virus that is so tiny can have any structure."

Li Yu said: "It's hard to say whether this thing is a living thing or not."

"Not a living thing?" Bingzhi said in surprise.

"I just think that living things must have microscopic structures no matter what. Once they are too simple to be simple, can they still be considered life?" Li Yu said.

Wu Jun said: "Mr.'s words are becoming more and more philosophical."

"Just treat it as a regular scientific discussion." Li Yu was actually deliberately guiding.

Wu Jun said: "If you think about it carefully, the structure of bacteria is already very simple, and viruses are an order of magnitude smaller. It is impossible to retain many bacterial structures. There can't be only one extremely small nucleus, right? But this structure should It’s very fragile, how can it form a living body?”

Li Yu said: "Perhaps they are born to exist only as parasites, so many cell organelles that maintain life are not needed."

"Sir's conjecture is very insightful," Bingzhi said, "but does nature allow the existence of a creature that needs a host to maintain life and reproduce?"

Li Yu's goal was achieved and he encouraged him: "The question you asked is very good and can be included in the paper. In addition, we can further study the parasitic relationship in the future."

Virus research was still a cutting-edge field in the era before Li Yu traveled through time, because it was indeed too mysterious.

According to the definition of biology, viruses can only be regarded as an existence between life and non-life.

——Cannot be counted as a living thing.

This conclusion is a bit creepy to think about.

According to the theory of biological evolution, organic macromolecules appeared on the earth billions of years ago, including RNA, DNA, proteins, etc. They were the first molecular life.

Later, for some unknown reason, some molecular life including "Luca", the most recent common ancestor of all living creatures, suddenly evolved into cells.

This process can be called the first great miracle of life.

——Some theories about why it is difficult to find aliens in the universe mention that there may be several very big obstacles to the evolution of life, resulting in life being very rare. The first big obstacle is this evolutionary process.

Cells are a complete dimensionality reduction blow to molecular life, and they quickly occupy the entire earth's ecosystem.

Therefore, there is a hypothesis that the remaining molecular life has evolved parasitic means, developed into viruses, and is engaged in an eternal struggle with cellular life.

This kind of revenge story sounds very passionate.

However, it is actually not very accurate, because many viruses are not ancient at all; in addition, modern biology has already made more discoveries, and even found that human genes have many fragments left by viruses.

In short, the research on this little thing will be too broad in the future.

Both Bingzhi and Wu Jun found it very interesting.

Wu Jun said: "Sir, please give this virus a name."

"Let's call it phage." Li Yu liked this name quite a lot.

"Bacteriophages," Bingzhi murmured, "mysterious creatures that eat bacteria... I agree!"

Wu Jun said: "It's concise and concise, and I don't have any objection to it."

Li Yu said: "You write your paper quickly and I will help you send it to "SCIENCE" in the United States and "Science Magazine" in China."

Bingzhi smiled and said: "SCIENCE? This trip back to China is so worth it. I have a doctoral thesis that is enough for graduation."