Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 111 Opening of the Solvay Conference

All the big scientists who attended the meeting came to Brussels from all over the world after a long journey.

We can't let them have not rested and adjusted. On the first morning of the opening of the conference, they started to discuss and study some boring theoretical and experimental knowledge as soon as they came up.

So this morning, the organizers of the meeting reserved ample time for everyone to socialize with each other.

After all, people come from all corners of the country. Apart from occasionally writing letters with a few close friends, you can basically only see each other's names in various periodicals and magazines.

The oldest on site is the chairman of the Solvay conference, Hendrik Lorenz.

He was the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1902. He is 70 years old this year, but he is still in good spirits and well-dressed.

Lorenz stood outside the gate of the venue, welcoming every incoming physicist.

He and Rutherford were old acquaintances, so after seeing an East Asian man next to Rutherford, Lorenz naturally knew that this was Chen Muwu.

After shaking hands with Rutherford, Lorenz, who was leaning on crutches, smiled and said to Chen Muwu who was beside him: "You must be Sir Rutherford's subordinate, the Chinese genius who has been in the limelight recently."

Chen Muwu hastily stretched out his hands: "Professor Lorenz, I am Chen Muwu, but I really dare not call you the title of Chinese genius in front of you. It may only be because I was lucky that I accidentally discovered several experimental phenomena." .”

Because there were many physicists waiting to enter the venue behind him, there were not a few polite words between him and Lorenz.

After following Rutherford into the venue, Chen Muwu discovered that his mentor had already become a figure at the level of Taishan Beidou.

The people in the venue were divided into two groups, one group surrounded Rutherford, and the other group surrounded another highly respected Mrs. Curie.

Chen Muwu scanned the venue like a curious baby, but he didn't see any acquaintances he had seen in textbooks before.

German physicists such as Planck and Einstein did not appear, and neither did Bohr.

He wanted to find someone to ask what was going on, but the teacher beside him, Rutherford, was talking with physicists from all over the world, and Blackett and De Broglie were the same as himself. Is a newcomer to the meeting for the first time.

After searching around, Chen Muwu could only inquire about this matter with Langevin who was relatively free.

Langevin obviously knew the reason, so he simply told Chen Muwu how unpopular Germany was in Europe after the First World War. Even German physicists became famous because of the fire at the city gate. Affected pond fish.

"But what about Dr. Einstein? Didn't he already quit his German nationality?" Chen Muwu asked in confusion.

"Although the facts are true, and he was indeed invited to this meeting, Mr. Einstein still considers himself a German. Since other German scientists are not invited to the meeting, he himself should not come to this meeting."

Einstein had a deep love and hatred for Germany. Although he was boycotted by German physicists because of his Jewish ancestry, when German physicists were boycotted by the whole world, he also behaved like Like Planck, he resolutely chose to stand with everyone.

"However," Langevin continued, "if you want to meet Einstein, you can go to Germany with me after the meeting is over. I just plan to go to Berlin to visit my physics colleagues there."

Hearing Lang Zhiwan's proposal, Chen Muwu didn't think whether he should agree to him or not.

After all, the summer semester is only one month away, but my graduation thesis has not yet been settled.

Moreover, I don't know if I need to apply for another visa to go to Germany, and the time is too late.

Let's talk with teacher Rutherford after today's meeting is over.

"Thank you, Professor Langevin, for your proposal, let me go back and think about it before I give you an answer."

"It's okay, as long as you can give me a message before the meeting is over."

At this moment, another person came to say hello to Rutherford. He spoke with an English accent similar to Chen Muwu's, and he knew that the visitor was an American with a noble New York accent.

"Sir Rutherford, hello, my name is Owen Langmuir, from the General Electric Company of the United States."

Chen Muwu keenly caught such a message, General Electric, who opened his mouth like a lion, hated him so much that his teeth itch.

However, how come there will be people from General Electric attending the Solvay meeting?
In fact, the experimental departments of various large technology companies are also a force that cannot be underestimated in physical and chemical experimental research.

Just like in AT&T's Bell Labs, Davidson was able to conduct electron diffraction experiments, so it is not so strange that General Electric's laboratory has several scientists with profound scientific research skills.

Although Chen Muwu didn't know Langmuir in front of him, he later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry as a General Electric engineer.

Langmuir continued: "Sir, a few months ago, we received a letter from the Cavendish Laboratory, asking about a kind of drug that was just designed and manufactured by our laboratory some time ago. The price of the vacuum pump. But after the reply, there is no further information. I don’t know if you know such a thing? Or is the person who wrote the letter a liar who came out under the banner of Cavendish Laboratory to cheat of?"

After Langmuir finished speaking, Chen Muwu was a little embarrassed.

Does this mean that enemies don't get together?Why didn't you reply? Do you really not know, or are you pretending to be confused?
Rutherford took a deep breath of the pipe, and then exhaled the smoke from his mouth deeply: "Do you know Chen Muwu?"

"The one who just discovered the Yellow Emperor Star a while ago?"

"That's right," Rutherford pointed to the student standing beside him, "It's him, he's the one who wrote to you asking to buy a vacuum pump."

Langmuir looked along Rutherford's fingers, and then saw Chen Muwu, and De Broglie standing beside Chen Muwu.

Although he didn't know Chen Muwu, he recognized the rich man who came to buy a vacuum pump not long ago: "Your Excellency de Broglie, I didn't expect you to be here."

Rutherford continued to mend the knife: "That's right, it was he who bought the extremely expensive vacuum pump for us and brought it to the Cavendish Laboratory, so that Chen and Louis could complete the long-designed vacuum pump." Experiment. With our Cavendish's financial resources, we really can't afford a vacuum pump that costs up to [-] U.S. dollars, which is more expensive than gold."

Langmuir obviously also heard the sarcasm in Rutherford's words: "Sir, we really didn't know that you wanted this vacuum pump for experimental use. If you knew, even if the company's board of directors refused to agree, I think Mr. Edison I will also pay for one for free. After all, it will be an honor for us at General Electric to cooperate with Cavendish, the greatest physics laboratory in the world."

Chen Muwu quietly rolled his eyes, and secretly cursed in his heart, why didn't he say such a thing earlier!

Now that De Broglie's money has been paid, the experiment is done, and the paper has been published, what's the use of such meaningless afterthoughts!

"Forget it, forget it, this matter is over, let's cooperate again next time we have a chance!" Rutherford smoothed things over.

Behind Langmuir, there were still many people queuing up to greet him, and he didn't want to waste any more time on this American.

Langmuir also retreated to the side knowingly, and smiled awkwardly at Chen Muwu: "I'm sorry, Mr. Chen, this is really a misunderstanding, otherwise, after this meeting is over and I return to the United States, I will let the company's Colleagues refunded the money, and this vacuum pump is counted as sponsored by General Electric, how about it?"

Before Chen Muwu could speak, De Broglie, the big sponsor, took the lead in expressing his attitude: "There is no need, Mr. Langmuir, now we have completed the experiments with this vacuum pump, and even the papers have been published in journals. It’s too late to add a paragraph thanking your company later. What’s more, it’s only a few thousand dollars, and it’s not a lot of money, so there’s no need to spend so much trouble.”

He also didn't give Langmuir a good attitude.

"Chen, Mr. Blackett, let's stop standing here, and go to other places in the venue to say hello to the teachers and seniors."

Chen Muwu also wanted to go around for a long time, so he followed suit.

Langmuir, who wanted to come up to say hello, whether it was at Rutherford's place or at Chen Muwu and De Broglie's, had a hot face and a cold butt, so he could only leave in resentment.

In the venue, Chen Muwu met another senior student of Trinity College, William Henry Bragg, also known as Old Prague. He couldn't remember how many Nobel Prizes in physics he had seen. Winner.

It’s different from using Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to ridicule the wave-particle duality of light in front of reporters. Old Prague has already seen Chen Muwu and de Broglie in the latest issue of "Proceedings of Natural Science". the published paper.

He was very interested in this experiment, not only because Bragg's law named after him was used in the thesis, but also because this experiment was very similar to X-ray crystal diffraction, and it was precisely because of this experiment that Old Bragg and himself His son Bragg Jr. won the Nobel Prize together.

"Chen, when I heard you mention that electrons also have volatility, my first reaction was that this idea is really ridiculous. But I didn't expect that you could do the experiment so quickly, and you also got a Fast and good results."

"Sir Bragg, thanks to the Bragg's law you proposed, I was able to think of using diffraction to prove the wave nature of electrons."

"Chen, don't exaggerate my role, that law has been published for so many years, why has no one thought of using electrons to do experiments during this period of time?
"I have to say that your arrival has brought vitality back to the British physics community that is about to become a stagnant pool. It makes me feel like I have returned to the time when Lord Kelvin and my teacher Rayleigh III were still alive. The British physics community is still fresh in my memory.

"But now, if it weren't for your appearance, I think we would be surpassed by the United States in less than 30 years, and we would be severely left behind."

(End of this chapter)