Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 293 32 Chen Muwu summons his troops to investigate

Rutherford and Chen Muwu kept chatting in the preparation room of the particle accelerator until Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft finished taking photos of the cloud chamber with a magnetic field added.

The old man talked enthusiastically about the scenery of his hometown, New Zealand, and how he would have to wander on the sea for more than two months. At the same time, he also expressed his envy that Chen Muwu could take the train directly back to his country.

Xiao Chen agreed on the surface, but what he was thinking in his heart was that taking a long-distance train for more than ten days is not much better than taking a boat.

And if you encounter a short-sighted border prosecutor who detains you at the border for careful interrogation, you might be able to get into the newspapers just like me.

Chen Muwu, who was appointed at a critical moment, or could only be said to be appointed on a temporary basis, had no simple preliminary plan in his mind for the half year that Rutherford would leave the Cavendish Laboratory next year.

The general direction is definitely to carry out various experiments, but if Chen Muwu has any decision-making power on the laboratory's route, he himself feels that it is unlikely.

He is nominally the interim director of the laboratory, but it is estimated that Rutherford will not let go of the financial power, and it is still in the hands of Chadwick.

——But even if Chen Muwu wants to delegate power, he does not have the time and energy to manage in detail the whereabouts of every expenditure in the Cavendish Laboratory.

After adding a magnetic field, the cloud chamber photo is developed in the darkroom.

From the photo, you can see the thick and short trajectory again - this time it is not a straight line, but an incomplete approximate circular motion - and then you can calculate the new matter produced after the collision of protons and lithium atoms. , what kind of thing is it?

After getting the photo, Chen Muwu pointed to the arc above and showed it to Rutherford: "Teacher, look, after adding a magnetic field, new matter is produced after the collision, which is deflected in the magnetic field, and the direction of deflection is the same as The proton beams that do not hit the target are directed in the same direction.

"It can be seen that this new substance, like protons, is positively charged and cannot be the electrically neutral particle that exists in your hypothesis."

Hearing what Chen Muwu said, Rutherford felt a little disappointed, but after all, he had achieved results. The particle accelerator was not useless, and it was probably a gratifying thing.

Moreover, a talented student like Chen Muwu was able to create an artificially accelerated proton beam in addition to the only natural particle source, alpha ions, and it seems that the results have been achieved so far.

As long as Dr. Chen, who should now be called Acting Director Chen, does not leave the Cavendish Laboratory, there is no doubt that the level of physics at Cambridge University will flourish.

It probably won’t be long before we find the mysterious electrically neutral particles hidden in atomic nuclei.

Deeply in love, Rutherford patted Chen Muwu on the shoulder: "Let's go, it's almost time today, it's time to finish work and go back to rest. Ask your two students to go back together, thanks to you and them two , so that our Cavendish Laboratory can be far ahead in the world. After the paper is published, if I have not set off to return to New Zealand, I will find an opportunity to invite you to my home."

It was common for Chen Muwu to visit and eat at Rutherford's house, and even stayed in the guest room until late talking.

But for Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, this was the first time that the Cavendish Laboratory's top talker had shown such great kindness to two unknown juniors, so maybe More or less flattered.

Cockcroft, who first followed Kapitsa and then served under Chen Muwu nearly a year ago, even had a question in his mind:
This strong man from New Zealand with a big beard looks very friendly. After actual contact, he doesn't feel like the crocodile in Kapitsa's mouth, or as unbearable as Oppenheimer said.

Chen Muwu and Rutherford went first. Although the remaining two people had finished the experiment, they had to stay and tidy up the laboratory before leaving.

Although Rutherford did not advocate continuing to work after work, the next day, Zhao Zhongyao still handed over the results of the late-night measurements and calculations to Chen Muwu's office.

This cannot be said to be a Chinese person. Ten thousand years is too long. Seizing the day is clearly an excellent quality in people.

What could the new matter produced by bombardment be if it were not alpha particles?
Even though he already knew the correct answer, Chen Muwu still had to pretend to be surprised.

"Amazing, really amazing! I didn't expect this experiment to go so smoothly.

"Next, we only need the accurate mass data of these types of atoms to calculate whether the mass loss before and after the reaction and the energy generated are consistent with Einstein's mass-energy equation."

Measuring the precise mass of individual atoms and their various isotopes is what chemists are currently engaged in.

Just look for a chemistry textbook and you can basically find the corresponding data in the table.

But for Chen Muwu, he doesn't need to do the troublesome work of finding books.

He and Zhao Zhongyao went to the office of Professor Aston, who was also in the laboratory. The latter happened to be the world leader in atomic mass measurement and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this.

Chen Muwu is well-rounded in the Cavendish Laboratory, and Aston has a good relationship with him.

This is because after the latter completed the electron diffraction experiment, he generously gave the highly precise and expensive vacuum pump to the former.

High vacuum is also important for accurate measurement of atomic mass with a mass spectrometer. After receiving the vacuum pump, Aston made certain improvements and imitations of it, thereby making the mass spectrometer he invented even more accurate.

Therefore, the atomic mass data measured by Aston is undoubtedly the most authoritative in the world.

The cause that Chen Muwu inadvertently planted has finally come to fruition today.

The Cavendish Laboratory has always been a whole. Yesterday it used the cloud chamber invented by Wilson and improved by Blackett, and today it uses Aston's measurement data.

After getting permission, as soon as Chen Muwu entered the office, the host made a joke about the guests: "Ah, hello, Mr. Acting Director, hello!"

It seems that the teacher should have discussed it with many people in the laboratory before making this decision.

There was no mockery in Aston's words, it was all heartfelt praise.

But hearing an old man nearly 30 years older than himself call himself that, Chen Muwu felt that it was still a bit too dreamy.

In order to save trouble, I didn't want to turn over the book, but the result was such a slightly embarrassing situation.

"Professor Aston, please don't do this..."

After explaining his purpose, he quickly obtained the precise atomic masses of hydrogen, lithium and helium atoms he needed from Aston.

When he handed the paper filled with data to Chen Muwu, Aston asked him another thing.

"Is the accelerator you invented and the experiment you performed another Nobel Prize-level discovery?
"If you ask me to say that you should win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for your previous discovery of hydrogen isotopes, I also specially nominated it to Sweden, but the result was like nothing happened."

Chen Muwu had already looked away from the Nobel Prize. The first one got it so early, and the second one was hard to come by.

And what's the use of striving for fame and profit, as long as you have a clear conscience.

A few years later, if he is evaluated as saying that not giving Chen Muwu a second Nobel Prize is not a loss to Chen Muwu, but a loss to the Nobel Prize, then this trip will not be in vain.

But when Aston mentioned the Nobel Prize nomination, he thought of something else.

"Professor Aston, what is the process of this nomination? Now I also have the right to nominate, right?" "Of course, but I want to remind you one thing, this year's Nobel Prize winners have been announced. If you nominate now, you can only win the Nobel Prize next year at the earliest.”

"I still know that, Professor."

The Nobel Prize is not an Oscar, and it will not use the boring awarding method of having celebrities compete on the red carpet and gather together until the last minute to announce the final winner.

For scientists, their time is very precious, and no one has the time to let the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences waste it like this.

Therefore, the jury will announce the list of Nobel Prize winners two months in advance every year, and may even hint at the winners in advance, so that the winners can have enough time to rush to Sweden to receive the award.

In an era when entertainment activities are scarce, the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony is another carnival for the people of Stockholm before Christmas.

Aston explained the nomination process to Chen Muwu in detail, which is nothing more than informing the Swedish jury of his nominees and reasons by writing a letter within the specified time.

After leaving Aston's office, Chen Muwu handed the note with the atomic mass in his hand to Zhao Zhongyao and asked him to calculate it quickly.

After returning to the office, he lay on his desk writing letters one after another.

The reason why Aston asked how to nominate for the Nobel Prize was because he remembered that when he returned to China, he had thought of nominating Lu Xun for the Literature Prize.

But the problem is that Lu Xun's works seem to have not been translated into English on a large scale. If you want to participate in this Western award, it seems that only Chinese works are not enough.

So he first wrote to Lu Xun and asked if his works could be translated into English and distributed abroad.

If the original author agrees, Chen Muwu will find a translator for the translation.

It would be great if Ye Gongchao was still in Europe. He could write best-selling books, and translation would naturally not be a problem.

However, although Ye Gongchao was away, Lao She was still at the University of London.

After not seeing him for a few years, it was time to find an opportunity to visit him again.

After the English translation of Lu Xun's anthology is published, it will not be too late to persuade this Shaoxing fellow not to resist the Nobel Prize.

After writing the letter to Lu Xun, Chen Muwu took out the typewriter again and continued writing the letter to Einstein.

He said that the proton bombardment experiment was successfully conducted using a particle accelerator. The Cavendish Laboratory experimentally proved the correctness of the 21 mass-energy equation for the first time 1905 years later.

Even though Zhao Zhongyao has not yet calculated the final result, Chen Muwu has this confidence.

He asked Einstein to pay attention to a recent article from the University of Cambridge in the German journal "Annals of Physics", which contained photos of reactive cloud chambers and detailed descriptions.

The successful completion of this experiment also allowed Chen Muwu to find the source of the paper he had promised to submit to Planck, so that he would not be a person who breaks his promise.

The reason why Einstein paid attention to the articles from Cambridge instead of his own name was because Chen Muwu deliberately did not want himself to appear in the author column.

Shortly after the two letters were written, Zhao Zhongyao also gave the calculation results.

In fact, it is a simple addition and subtraction to calculate the mass loss, then multiply it by the square of the speed of light, and then compare it with the kinetic energy of the two emitted alpha particles. As long as the error between the two is within a certain range, love can be proved Einstein's mass-energy equation is correct.

Now that the experiment is done and the results are very correct, all that remains is to write a paper.

Chen Muwu told Zhao Zhongyao his idea of ​​publishing it in the "Annals of Physics", and the latter had no objection to it.

It's just that neither he nor Cockcroft's German level is up to par, so in the end, Chen Muwu will have to do it for him.

After the particle accelerator is built, it is impossible to just do such an experiment and then put it aside.

Now everyone in the Cavendish Laboratory may not realize the importance of the particle accelerator, or they may not have thought about what experiments to use such a big thing, so the efficiency of use is not too high.

After everyone realizes how useful this killer tool is, it is estimated that if you want to use a particle accelerator, you will have to submit an application form at least half a month or a month in advance, and then there will be a long waiting process.

Taking advantage of the fact that particle accelerators are not used so frequently now, just as Rutherford told him, Chen Muwu also told Zhao Zhongyao to change the lithium target to beryllium and boron and continue to repeat the experiment.

There is also the Como Conference in Italy early next year, and he also asked two people to attend it together.

Chen Muwu's idea was to kill three birds with one stone: first, to show the number of members of the Cambridge School; second, to let them see the world together; third, since Rutherford wants to sell machines to the outside world, these two people are the best living advertisements. .

Progress is going well on the particle accelerator side, but something is happening on the quantum field theory side.

Not because the subject is too difficult, but because Christmas is coming soon.

Heisenberg and von Neumann both stayed at Cambridge University from May and June until December, spending half a year at Cambridge University.

They definitely couldn't stay in the UK on such an important day as Christmas, and the two of them had to prepare to go home.

After the Gregorian New Year, the two of them will probably not return to Cambridge University, but will go directly to Italy to attend the conference.

As for what happens after the meeting, let’s wait until it’s over.

Chen Muwu sent Heisenberg and von Neumann, who had returned to Germany together, to London, and then stayed back to prepare for the first World Table Tennis Championships starting on December [-].

Before the game, he stopped by to visit the Duke of York.

This trip was not for the purpose of establishing a relationship. On the one hand, Chen Muwu wanted to find a connection with this industrial prince and see if he could help contact the oil company.

On the other hand, he also had a slight intention of asking questions: before returning to China, he told the Duke of York about car seat belts, and the other party also agreed to help contact Rolls-Royce.

As a result, there was no news from the car manufacturers until the end of the year.

Kapitsa couldn't wait long ago, and now Chen Muwu can't wait either.

He had to ask the Duke of York, what was going on?

(End of this chapter)