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

Chapter 666 Cute little black hole
Tang Feifan could not run away and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Banting and MacLeod in 1923.

It is rare in the history of the Nobel Prize to award the prize so soon after achieving the results, because the whole world understands what this means.

There are also many wealthy people in the United States like the Xi family in Shanghai who have diabetes and are waiting for the release of life-saving medicine.

Even if there is no genetic engineering, they can still afford to rely solely on extracting insulin from pigs, dogs and other livestock.

Li Yuxian asked Tang Feifan to give an academic report at Datong University, and invited many medical bigwigs from Peking Union Medical College, Shanghai Harvard Medical School, Xiangya Medical College and the Chinese Medical Association to participate. Wu Liande himself would definitely come to support him.

Not only people from China, but also the consulates of many countries in Shanghai came to observe.

In the past, great discoveries in the medical field were usually first announced in Europe or the United States, but now, for the first time, they are announced in China.

After listening to the report, Wu Liande said excitedly to Tang Feifan: "You are China's Pavlov! Congratulations!"

"How dare I compare with Mr. Pavlov? The only thing they have in common is that they both use dogs for experiments," Tang Feifan said modestly, "I owe my achievements to the inspiration of Academician Li Yu."

Li Yu smiled and said, "I just said a few words to inspire or not inspire you. The credit is all yours."

"No, no, no!" Tang Feifan said firmly, "I finally understand why Wu Jun and Bingzhi emphasized your role many times in their article on the discovery of bacteriophages. Although there are only a few sentences, they are truly like gold!"

Xi Lusheng in the crowd squeezed over and said excitedly: "I don't quite understand what I heard. Is diabetes mellitus curable?"

Li Yu said: "Boss Xi, please be patient. It has not yet gone through clinical trials. Your daughter can wait until a safer time to take the medicine."

"Whatever is clinical or not, treat it as soon as there is a way!" Xi Lusheng said anxiously.

Wu Liande came forward to explain to him: "Boss Xi, I am Wu Liande, chairman of the Chinese Medical Association. According to the medication guidelines, there is no clinical verification, and you cannot use the medication at will. Your daughter is not serious enough to be a clinical trial subject."

Li Yu comforted him and said: "There is already the dawn of science, just wait carefully."

Xi Lusheng’s daughter would not be able to use insulin until at least 1922. Although she might only have 70 or 4 pounds left at that time, she could eat relatively normally from then on and then rely on insulin injections to live to be over years old, but the cost was The cost of more than one insulin injection is really not something that ordinary families can afford.

Anyway, it must have been saved, and the Xi family was extremely grateful to Li Yu and others.

After Tang Feifan finished his report in China, he went to the University of Toronto with a letter of introduction funded by Li Yu to conduct the next clinical work on insulin with Banting and MacLeod.

Li Yu helped China get another Nobel Prize.

Li Yu himself has no shortage of Nobel Prizes, and he will be able to win at least one more in the future, becoming the only person in human history to win three Nobel Prizes.

This is enough. Although I can get more, it is not necessary. I still help other people in the country to improve their overall strength.

-

After seeing off Tang Feifan, Li Yu continued to give lectures at Datong University for a while, mainly on cutting-edge physics, such as the theory of relativity.

The theory of relativity is really hot, and there are many people who are willing to listen. It is a little easier than quantum mechanics, and even freshmen who have just entered their freshman year like it very much.

After Li Yu finished speaking that day, he answered questions as usual. A freshman raised his hand and said: "Mr. Academician, I, Zhao Zhongyao, are very interested in the black holes you talked about. I have a question that I would like to discuss with you, but it may be a bit absurd."

Well, I finally met Zhao Zhongyao.

He is the physicist who Li Yu will help win the Nobel Prize for the discovery of antimatter in the future - Zhao Zhongyao deserves this Nobel Prize.

Li Yu said: "Physics has encountered many seemingly absurd problems in the past ten years or so. You can just say it."

Zhao Zhongyao said: "I calculated it privately yesterday. According to the Schwarzschild radius, a black hole with an atomic-sized event horizon would have a mass of 10 trillion tons. If such an atomic-level black hole fell on the earth, what would it be? Will it destroy the earth?"

In the eyes of ordinary people, it is a worrying question, but this question is indeed quite interesting.

Note: If it is formed by stellar evolution, the black hole has a lower mass limit, and there cannot be an atomic-sized black hole. But according to the later Big Bang theory, at the beginning of the universe, that is, at the time of the Big Bang, it is very likely that many such tiny "primordial black holes" were created at the same time.

Primordial black holes are basically unobservable, so some scientists speculate that dark matter is primordial black holes.

In addition, even if it is only the size of an atom, or a hundred million times smaller, the original black hole will not evaporate due to Hawking radiation. So if the Big Bang created primordial black holes at the same time, they could easily survive to this day.

Li Yu said: "The mass of an atomic-sized black hole is almost equivalent to that of an asteroid with a diameter of 28 kilometers. If such a large asteroid hits the earth, I am afraid that the entire human civilization will disappear."

Zhao Zhongyao said in astonishment: "I was just thinking about it, but it's so serious?"

"That's not the case, because you are imagining a small black hole the size of an atom." Li Yu picked up the pen and did some calculations on the blackboard. "If this black hole is in our room, such as on the podium, I will leave it alone." At only 1 meter, I will be subject to a huge gravitational force of 40 g. This number is very terrifying, larger than the surface of a white dwarf star, and can easily pull me over and crush me into a pile of atoms.”

Zhao Zhongyao said: "Is it so destructive?"

Li Yu said: "But gravity attenuates very quickly, after all, it is a long-range force. Your distance is about 10 meters from the podium, and the gravitational force you receive has weakened to 4000g.

“Beyond 100 meters, there are only 40g.

"If you go further, there is only 1000g left at 0.4 meters, which is very safe."

Some students said: "It turns out it's not that scary, I just ran away!"

"Indeed," Li Yu continued, "if this atomic-sized black hole falls on the earth, because its density is far higher than that of the earth, in its eyes, the entire earth will be like air without any resistance, and the small black hole will instantly Falling into the center of the earth.”

Zhao Zhongyao said: "Will the entire earth be slowly swallowed by it?"

"No," Li Yu said with a smile, "After falling into the center of the earth, the small black hole will not stop, but will travel to the other side of the earth due to inertia.

"Then it falls back to the center of the earth. Repeating this process, the small black hole will perform simple harmonic motion inside the earth for a while until its kinetic energy is exhausted and it will stay in the center of the earth.

"Other than causing some moderate earthquakes, small black holes will not cause any substantial harm to the earth."

Zhao Zhongyao was surprised: "There won't be any substantial harm?"

Li Yu said: "Because in front of it, the Earth is a giant. The Schwarzschild radius of the Earth is only as large as a marble, but it is far larger than an atom. Although the density of a small black hole is amazing, its appetite cannot swallow the Earth." One student said: "People are so weak that they are like Japan, a small country trying to occupy China!"

"Your association is very good." Li Yule said.

Zhao Zhongyao asked again: "If this small black hole stops at the center of the earth, won't it continue to swallow up the matter in the center of the earth?"

"It is true, but the speed is unimaginably slow, so don't worry," Li Yu said. "The event horizon of a small black hole is only as large as an atom, and the range of interaction with external matter is about that large. Although the temperature of its surface It has 600 million degrees, but it is too small. The power of the accretion disk is only... less than 1 watt!"

Zhao Zhongyao said: "Less than 1W? Then even the light bulbs above our heads can't light up?"

"Yes," Li Yu said with a smile, "So even if there is a black hole in the center of the earth, it is very safe."

In the era before Li Yu traveled through time, some scientists speculated that there might be atomic-level black holes inside stars.

Zhao Zhongyao: "Mr. Academician said this, I feel relieved!"

"You are really 'worrying about the earth and the ball'," Li Yu praised. "The future of physics will be inseparable from this kind of thought experiment. Today is a perfect introductory course. I hope you will make more use of thought experiments in the future to learn more about theoretical physics." Learning is very meaningful.”

Li Yu paid special attention to Zhao Zhongyao. After many years, he would not let the Nobel Prize that should be obtained fly away.

-

After returning to the office after the lecture, Li Yu saw a letter from Sweden on the table, inviting Li Yu to nominate this year's Nobel Prize winner.

Li Yu wrote down Einstein's name without hesitation.

He has nominated Einstein several times. Not only Li Yu, but also many scientists have nominated Einstein, but the Nobel Prize committee has not accepted it.

This year is a good time, because Eddington has just verified the correctness of the theory of relativity by observing a solar eclipse.

Li Yu appended to the letter: "Just imagine, if Einstein's name does not appear in the list of Nobel Prize winners 50 years later, what will public opinion think? Einstein's inability to win the Nobel Prize will have a negative impact on the Nobel Prize itself. Authority will cause far greater harm than Einstein himself not receiving the award."

Not only Li Yu, but also Lorenz, Bohr, Planck and other big names have nominated Einstein this year.

Bohr's letter of recommendation was clear: "In the theory of relativity we see a most important advance in physics."

Later, Bohr had several major confrontations with Einstein, but he himself did not oppose the theory of relativity.

Lorenz figured out the extremely important "Lorentz transformation" in the theory of relativity more than 20 years ago. However, he still had some doubts about the entire theory of relativity. After observing the solar eclipse, he completely gave up. In his recommendation letter Said: "Mr. Einstein has become the first-class physicist in the world like Mr. Li Yu of the same age."

Even Ostwald, an opponent of atomic theory, sided with relativity, arguing that relativity covered basic physics and not just philosophy, as some of Einstein's detractors claimed.

With so many people supporting him, does it seem like Einstein is destined to win this year’s Nobel Prize?

Well, actually still not.

The Nobel Prize jury has been very wary of purely theoretical physicists for more than ten years.

From 1910 to 1922, three of the five members of the Nobel Prize in Physics jury were experimental physicists from Uppsala University in Sweden. They were all famous for their contributions to perfecting experimental measurement techniques.

Remember the feature "Experimental Measurement Techniques".

The jury was dominated by a group of Swedish physicists with a strong experimental bent. There is nothing wrong with attaching importance to experiments. Physics is inseparable from experiments no matter what. However, these people underestimate the importance of theoretical physics and even believe that precision measurement is the highest goal of this discipline.

It is for this reason that Planck was not awarded the prize until 1919 (the replacement 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics).

When the Nobel Prize Committee saw that so many big names in physics supported Einstein, it had to send someone to write an evaluation report on the theory of relativity.

The person they chose was interesting: Gulstrand, a professor of ophthalmology at Uppsala University.

Gulstrand won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and was an academic leader, but he did not understand the theory of relativity!

Gulstrand did not recognize the theory of relativity at all, and wrote a 50-page investigation report, claiming that the bending of light cannot truly test Einstein's theory, and the results are not experimentally valid; even if they are valid, they can Use classical mechanics to explain this phenomenon.

As for the orbit of Mercury, he believes that it is still unknown until it is further clarified whether Einstein's theory is consistent with the perihelion experiment.

He also said that the effects that special relativity can measure are "smaller than the experimental error limit."

Gulstrand was also good at designing precision optical instruments. In his view, according to the theory of relativity, the length of a rigid measuring rod actually changes relative to the observer! This is complete nonsense!

Those data obtained during the eclipse were also likely due to unreliable instruments due to equatorial temperature changes. ——Anyway, precise measurement is not enough.

In summary, Gulstrand asserts that the great prize of the Nobel Prize should not be awarded to a highly speculative theory. The public frenzy it generates now will soon subside.

Some people at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences realized that Gulstrand's report was a bit too simple. Most of the content was just speculation and did not give enough mathematical rebuttal reasons. But after all, Gulstrand holds a Nobel Prize and is a highly respected professor in Sweden, so he is not easy to offend.

In addition, Einstein's archrival Leonard, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1905 and later became a "sodium brittle physicist," also strongly opposed the theory of relativity and preached that the theory of relativity had not been experimentally verified.

Therefore, even after observing the solar eclipse and explaining the orbital motion of Mercury, the Nobel Prize committee refused to award Einstein the prize.

In order to calm the doubts of Li Yu, Planck, Lorenz and other big bosses, Arrhenius, chairman of the Nobel Prize jury, wrote to them personally to explain: "We refuse Einstein the award because his work is It is purely theoretical, lacks experimental basis, and is generally believed not to involve the discovery of any new laws.”

It is impossible for Li Yu and others to influence the decision of the jury, after all, the bonuses are distributed by others.

In this way, the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to another graduate of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich-Guillaume.

Guillaume was the director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and his scientific contributions were actually very modest: he convinced people that standard measuring instruments were more accurate, and discovered that metal alloys could be used to make high-quality measuring rods.

This just corresponds to the fact that the three members of the jury at this time focused on "experimental measurement skills".

Li Yu could only write to Einstein afterwards and lamented: "Everyone can see that the world of physics has begun an extraordinary ideological adventure, but people are surprised to find at this time that Guillaume's ideas based on daily research and conventional theoretical techniques The work he did was regarded as an outstanding achievement, and he was awarded the supreme Nobel Prize in Physics! Even those who oppose the theory of relativity will find Guillaume's selection strange. "