Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 351 The 90s generation replaces the old with new people
After listening to Chen Muwu's "guessed" theory of the most likely nuclear reaction, the expression on Eddington's face could not be said to be one of disappointment. He just felt that both the reactants and the products were different from what he had imagined.

But when he thought about it again, he was quickly relieved. The reason why physics is a science based on experiments is because all theories should pass the test of experiments before they can be called correct theories.
It's just that helium-4 didn't appear, and it's not that nuclear fusion reactions didn't occur. And if it's true what Chen Muwu said, then the discovery of tritium nuclei or helium-3 can be regarded as a big achievement.

"Chen, you are saying that deuterium nuclei and deuterium nuclei undergo a fusion reaction together to produce a tritium nucleus? But does this reaction not conserve mass and charge?"

Before he could feel disappointed, Eddington's brain had returned to the state of thinking.

"Yes, it seems that it is not conserved at present," Chen Muwu nodded, "So after the reaction is completed, in addition to tritium, one more proton will be added to the product. In this way, the relative atomic mass before and after the reaction is 2+2, one is 3+1, both are 4; and the charges before and after are also +2, and the mass and charge have become conserved.

"If nothing else happens, Professor, you think that the real source of the protons and oxygen-17 produced by the nuclear transmutation of alpha particles and nitrogen atoms should be another reaction, which is the fusion of deuterium and deuterium to produce a tritium. And a proton.”

The experiments conducted on the particle accelerator have barely come to an end at this point.

But if Chen Muwu has students who work hard to move bricks without complaint, this experiment can actually go further.

For example, use deuterium nuclei to bombard pure ammonium chloride that does not contain deuterium atoms, and use protons to bombard deuterated ammonium chloride that does not contain hydrogen atoms and only contains deuterium atoms.

Another method is to use accelerated alpha particles to bombard ammonium chloride to see if the alpha particles can accurately hit the nitrogen atoms inside the ammonium chloride crystal lattice, thereby causing nuclear transmutation.

But now it is the summer vacation at the Cavendish Laboratory. Students and staff are on vacation, and Chen Muwu has no one available around him.

You can't drag Kapitsa, who is staying at Cambridge University to get married, into a laboratory to be a stud, right?That would be unreasonable.

Fortunately, Chen Muwu and Eddington are not in a hurry to publish this experimental paper. They just want to first figure out what the nuclear reaction equation in the sun is. Now they have a general direction, so they are no longer trying to ensure rigor. And eager to conduct the next step of confirmatory experiments.

Ancient archery masters could kill two birds with one stone, and today's experimental master Chen Muwu can also discover the equations of two nuclear reactions in one experiment.

This put Eddington, who had been looking forward to the results from the seaside of Cornwall, in a dilemma: "Chen, now a new problem has arisen. Deuterium atoms and deuterium atoms can fuse to produce tritium atoms, and they can also fuse with hydrogen atoms to produce helium." -3 atoms.

"Then what kind of reaction is happening in the sun above our heads?"

Chen Muwu wanted to tell him directly that it was the latter, but he couldn't put his words into words.

"This...I'm not sure. I think we need to accurately measure the precise atomic masses of the two newly discovered atoms, tritium atoms and helium-3 atoms, before we can determine whether both reactions have mass before and after. Loss of energy-releasing reaction.

“There were people in the Cavendish Laboratory who were far more skilled and better than us at measuring precise atomic masses.

"I will try to send a telegram to Professor Aston, hoping that he can end his vacation early and return to Cambridge University to help us make an accurate measurement of the masses of these two newly discovered atoms."

In fact, it doesn't have to be that troublesome at all, because at the current level of human physics, the only way to obtain the accurate mass of an atom is to use a mass spectrometer.

If the cloud chamber connected to the end of the particle accelerator is replaced with a mass spectrometer, the precise masses of tritium and helium-3 can be calculated from the data obtained.

As long as anyone has received higher education training and has a certain amount of experimental foundation, anyone is fully capable of doing this, including Chen Muwu, the acting director of the Cavendish Laboratory, but everything must be done with authority.

During his experimental career, Aston measured the precise atomic masses of hundreds of elements and their isotopes, and wrote these data in books and published them.

Moreover, he has the blessings of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the two auras of the Cavendish Laboratory. Physicists and chemists have always used Aston's data as their standards for conducting experiments. It is regarded as a model.

Letting Professor Aston measure these data will make their experiment more convincing.

Chen Muwu did this for the sake of the experiment, not because he felt tired from doing experiments or on the way to the experiments for several days and wanted to be lazy for a few days.

After explaining his idea to Eddington, the other party agreed with Chen Muwu: "Chen, you should stay in the laboratory and continue to organize the experimental data. I can't help myself. This telegraph office is still mine. Go ahead."

Eddington fully followed Chen Muwu's idea and signed his name at the end of the telegram.

Inviting two people together will always carry more weight than one person.

Eddington quickly returned, and when he came back, he found Chen Muwu typing frantically at the keyboard of a typewriter.

"What are you doing? Writing a thesis?"

"No, no, no," Chen Muwu shook his head at Eddington while typing blindly, "I wrote a letter to the editorial department of Nature to tell them that the Cavendish Laboratory had just discovered another discovery. Two new isotopes.”

The Cavendish Laboratory is the highest holy place for physics research in the UK. It has the most trust in this research institution, accepts the submission of papers in the laboratory most unconditionally, and will publish the papers as quickly as possible. It is not the Royal Academy's "Nature" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but another journal, Nature.

The good relationship between the Cavendish Laboratory and Nature magazine is inseparable from the good relationship between the two generations.

In the early days, Rutherford's large number of submissions made the journal famous.

Later, he successively took charge of the laboratories at the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Cambridge, and the results obtained in the laboratories were continuously supplied to "Nature".

Later, Chen Muwu was born in the Cavendish Laboratory. He inherited the advantages of his teacher and submitted an article to "Nature" every now and then, announcing what new results and achievements had been made in the laboratory. Discover.

The news of the successful construction of the world's first particle accelerator was first announced to the world through "Nature".

"Give me a peach and give me a jade." Thanks to Rutherford and Chen Muwu, Nature's status in the scientific magazine world continues to rise. Of course, they will also give special treatment to the Cavendish Laboratory. .

Now, basically all papers and newsletters sent from laboratories can be published in a prominent position in Nature within a week.

What Chen Muwu is writing now is just a newsletter. It is impossible for him to write a paper in such a short time, and it is completely unnecessary.All he has to do is use the platform of Nature magazine to announce to the world that Professor Eddington of Cambridge University and himself have discovered a new isotope of hydrogen and helium.

As for how it was discovered, we will not go into details yet. Please look forward to the publication of more detailed and specific papers and you will naturally know.

After typing, Chen Muwu took the paper off the typewriter and handed it to Eddington for him to review.

"Professor, take a look, is there anything missing here that needs to be added?"

"Chen, weren't these experiments and the detailed analysis after the experiments all done by you alone? You don't need to bring my name. You are still young now, and you need to have enough results to support your career. hour……"

Eddington shut his mouth knowingly as he spoke. Perhaps his words made some sense when faced with others' preaching, but standing in front of him was the youngest Nobel Prize winner with many talents. There is a high probability that he will win the Nobel Prize for the second time, be the discoverer of the Yellow Emperor Star, the proposer of the theory of universe expansion, and the winner of several Olympic gold medals...

Such a trivial little experiment was really not worth mentioning to Chen Muwu.

"Professor, if you hadn't ended your vacation early and returned to Cambridge from the southern seaside to urge me to do experiments, I might not have started doing it now! You don't have to refuse, these experimental results are the credit of the two of us.

"If there's no problem, I'll put this dispatch in an envelope, stamp it, and send it to London."

"Okay, okay." Eddington shook his head with both relief and helplessness, and agreed with Chen Muwu's approach.

Aston was the first to respond. In his call back to the laboratory, he pointed out that he would definitely return to Cambridge within three days, and then began the work of accurate mass determination.

After receiving this call back, Eddington finally felt relieved for the time being.

He knew that Chen Muwu didn't like to drink, but he still wanted to drag him to the Eagle Bar to have a few drinks to celebrate the first phase of the experiment.

Chen Muwu had no intention of agreeing. After receiving the call back, he immediately changed his mind. In the three days before Aston's arrival, he could just conduct the two sets of control experiments designed previously on the particle accelerator. .

——Anyway, spanking a child on a rainy day is just idle time.

As soon as Aston had measured the precise masses of tritium and helium-3, he could start preparing to write his paper.

Eddington didn't expect that Chen Muwu would become so serious in an instant, and he was embarrassed to mention drinking again.

In the next few days, Chen Muwu did experiments in front of the particle accelerator, while Eddington quietly observed through the glass in the preparation room. The main thing was company.

In addition to being an experimenter, Aston is also a sportsman.

Every winter, he either goes to Switzerland or Norway to enjoy the thrill of skiing.

In the summer, Aston also likes to travel during the longest holiday of the year, traveling to Europe, America, and even the Hawaiian Islands in Oceania.

Fortunately, he did not choose to travel far this summer, but returned to his hometown in Birmingham to spend his [-]th birthday.

"Arthur, after I received the telegram from you at home, I was really shocked. I thought, how could a great astronomer start studying things inside atoms? Then I saw the signature in the telegram. The name of Dr. Chen made me feel relieved.

"Dr. Chen, I heard from Professor Eddington that you have discovered a new substance. Let me take a look!"

Aston has a good relationship with Eddington and Chen Muwu, so he can joke like this when they meet.

Chen Muwu quickly handed over the photographic film of the trajectories of tritium nuclei and helium-3 nuclei in the cloud chamber that he had taken before. While handing it over, he did not forget to apologize: "Professor, happy birthday. I'm sorry to have to do this during the holidays. Use a telegram to call you back to school from home."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Is this something I need to apologize for? Chen, as long as you can discover new isotopes every day and let me live in the laboratory every day, I won't have any complaints at all."

After being polite, Aston immediately entered a serious state:
"You said this is an isotope of hydrogen with a mass of three, and this is an isotope of helium with a mass of three?"

When faced with the inquiry, Chen Muwu did not waste any time, but directly handed over the calculation process that he had prepared long ago.

Aston looked at the photo film and then at Chen Muwu's process. After going back and forth several times, he finally put down both things in his hands and gave him a thumbs up: "It's amazing, it's really amazing. Tell me, what's next?" What do you want me to do?"

Chen Muwu took Aston to the laboratory with the particle accelerator, followed by his old friend Eddington, who had been forgotten since the new person was introduced.

In the laboratory, Chen Muwu's next move made Eddington even more angry.

Why did Chen Muwu always refuse him in various ways when he said he wanted to go to the particle accelerator to attack him, and the word disgust was almost written on his face.

When he arrived at Aston, Dr. Chen not only invited him in politely, but also specially found a clean electrostatic isolation suit and carefully taught others how to use it in front of the particle accelerator.

When we were watching the stars together, we called her Xiao Tiantian. Now that she has a new person who can use a mass spectrometer, she becomes Mrs. Niu in the blink of an eye.

After sitting alone in the experimental preparation room and sulking for a while, Eddington finally adjusted his mentality and began to think about new problems.

Several experiments in recent days have shown that deuterium and hydrogen can be converted into helium-3 through fusion. In addition to this reaction, are there any other reactions in the sun?

Where did the deuterium atom with mass 2 come from in the first place?

(End of this chapter)