Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 354 93 Physics Nobel Prize Preview

"Are there any new trends in the United States recently? Especially I heard that there is an astronomer named Hervey at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin under the University of Chicago. He said that the sun may explode at any time. , how did Americans react to this?"

As soon as Cockcroft sat in the passenger seat on the left side of the car, Chen Muwu couldn't wait to ask him questions.

Because he and Eddington had recently completed various experiments on the nuclear fusion conjecture inside the sun, his first question was also related to this.

Cockcroft nodded: "After I disembarked in Southampton, I also read the Times and the Daily Telegraph in recent days. Dr. Chen seems to have made a decision on this matter." response?

“This matter is much more popular in the United States than it is in the UK.

"I think the reason for this situation is, on the one hand, because the responses from you, Professor Eddington, Sir Astronomer Royal Sir Dyson, President of the Royal Astronomical Society Professor Kings and others have largely appeased The mood of the British people, on the other hand, is because the level of superstition among the nouveau riche Americans is much higher than that of the British.

"——After all, their ancestors were the Puritans who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower. It is normal for them to be more superstitious than us British people."

Nowadays, when British people complain about Americans, they are still in a stage where they look down on each other. They are not at all like the people they used to be like later, when they would hug their thighs and act like dogs.

Cockcroft cursed Americans for being superstitious, but he didn't know that there were also many British people who were superstitious.

Didn’t those scammers from Soul Photography just come to the UK on the other side of the Atlantic after they could no longer deceive people in the United States, and continued to defraud a bunch of stupid and wealthy people?

Thinking of this, Chen Muwu, who was driving the car, sneered with disdain.

Cockcroft thought that he was agreeing with his own point of view, and that he was also looking down on Americans who were superstitious and ignorant of science, so he didn't take it seriously and continued to talk about what he had seen and heard in the past few months in the United States. :
“Americans believe that the moment the sun explodes is the day the world ends.

“That country was formed by immigrants from all over the world and black slaves and laborers who were trafficked from Africa and Asia, so there were many fallacies and heresies that were either loyal to the Bible or not.

"Latin America, south of the United States, is close to the equator. The indigenous people there have been worshiping the sun for centuries. I heard that there are pyramids in Mexico dedicated to worshiping the sun, which are different from those in Africa. .

"The ancient Mexicans slowly gave birth to a civilization called the Maya based on their worship of the sun.

"So since the absurd idea that 'the sun may explode' has been spread in the United States, some good people have found a saying from the Mayan culture, saying that the ancient Mayans have a calendar, and that calendar will end on The date 13-0-0-0-0.

"After converting the Mayan calendar to the Gregorian calendar, the corresponding date seems to be 2012, which seems to be December 2012, 12?
"——I can't remember clearly, because this statement is extremely ridiculous. But those Americans who exaggerate the Mayan culture so mysteriously believe that this point in time is the time when some Mayans who worshiped the sun in ancient times thought about the explosion of the sun and the destruction of the earth. kind of prophecy.

"Why will their calendar end at this moment? Because after the sun explodes and humans are exterminated, it will no longer make sense to discuss time."

After listening to Cockcroft's serious statement, Chen Muwu was so hesitant that he stepped on the brakes to the end.

Why did this absurd statement of 2012 appear so early?
That is to say, the current movies have no special effects and are all real shots, and his own film company has not yet been established.

Otherwise, Chen Muwu would have wanted to make a horror movie called "2012" and make a lot of money at the box office.

"It's so unreasonable, it's so unreasonable!"

Cockcroft kept chattering beside him for a long time, and Chen Muwu also cooperated by exclaiming.

"I think the end of the Mayan calendar you mentioned should be like the end of the year, and the calendar will end on December 12st. There is no difference.

"Can we say that the world will end on December 12st and tomorrow will never come? Of course not! Tomorrow just opens a new era."

"But many people in the United States think so, which is really helpless."

Cockcroft echoed.

"By the way, Dr. Chen, the newspaper said that you conducted experiments on the source of solar energy in the Cavendish Laboratory. The success of the experiments refuted Hervey's wrong views. I am curious, what experiments did you do? "

"This is also thanks to the particle accelerator built by you and Zhao Zhongyao. While you two were away from school, I did many interesting experiments on it. Not only did I find another isotope of hydrogen with this machine, For superheavy hydrogen with a relative atomic mass of 3, an isotope of helium, helium-3, has also been found.

As Chen Muwu drove all the way north, he briefly described the process of discovering these two isotopes to Cockcroft.

"I have finished writing the specific experimental paper, but it has not been published yet. I want to save it for the Solvay conference in October. After I return to school, I will find time to show it to you."

"Sir Rutherford would be very happy if he knew about this, right?"

Rutherford had long proposed the experiment of bombarding deuterium nuclei with accelerated high-energy protons, hoping to remove the electrically neutral particles that are more abundant in deuterium nuclei than in hydrogen nuclei.

But due to various reasons (mainly because Chen Muwu secretly blocked it because he knew that neutrons would not be bombarded by doing so), the experiment was not put on the agenda of the particle accelerator for a long time. .

This matter is already known to everyone in the laboratory.

Unexpectedly, in the summer, Dr. Chen finally picked a time period when basically no one was at Cambridge University and no one was using the particle accelerator to conduct experiments, and completed this long-delayed experiment.

This is enough to prove how good the master-disciple relationship between him and Rutherford is, and he never dares to forget the teacher's instructions.

Although we failed to extract electrically neutral particles from deuterons, we obtained a new helium isotope and provided a new conjecture about the source of the sun's energy. It is also an incredible experimental result and is gratifying. one thing.

"I hope the teacher will be happy about this. But I think, John, you and Zhao Zhongyao should also be happy about this. Because the more results you achieve at the particle accelerator, the more likely you two will win the Nobel Prize in Physics." The bigger.

"This year's winners will naturally be announced in October. If nothing else, I think it's time for you to prepare your acceptance speech."

Originally, he was telling all kinds of gossip about his experiences after arriving in the United States in a very relaxed manner. Unexpectedly, he would end up eating melons. After hearing what Chen Muwu said, Cockcroft was shocked and had already said something in his mouth. The other words he had prepared were swallowed back at once.

"No...No, Nobel Prize? Chen, Dr. Chen, are you kidding me?"

Cockcroft, who had spent a long time organizing his words before coming up with such a sentence, was obviously shocked by what Chen Muwuyun had just said.

While shocked, he briefly fell into reverie, wondering whether he could really win the Nobel Prize.If it is true, then the gift Dr. Chen gave himself is much higher than the wedding gift he gave to Kapitsa!

Fortunately, I was transferred from Kapitsa to Dr. Chen. If I were still doing research with Kapitsa to this day, let alone the Nobel Prize, whether I could successfully graduate and obtain a doctorate now would not matter. Still an unknown.

"This is just my personal guess. The specific award situation depends on the final selection of the judges of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences."

After giving the patient a chicken blood injection, Chen Muwu began to look back for refills. He felt that he had said too much.

"But I still think that if nothing else happens, this year's award should belong to the two of you. As long as one of the people in Stockholm is not blind, they will never be interested in the achievements of this machine in just half a year. The results are ignored."

"Dr. Chen, I feel that it is not Mr. Zhao or me who has made a huge contribution to this machine, but you. Even if you win the prize, you should be at the top."

I?Then forget it.

Chen Muwu didn't have any hope in this matter.

Not to mention that he is still at the stage where he has just won the award and is not welcomed by the Nobel Prize jury.

Moreover, the Nobel Prize has never been awarded to three people. At best, it can only be divided equally between two people.

In that time, because of the limit on the number of winners, the Physiology or Medicine Prize was only awarded to MacLeod and Banting, and Best, who was hardworking and dedicated, could not be included in the award list, which led to the banting of Banting and Mac. Laud broke off.

If Chen Muwu, Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft are finally nominated for the prize list for this particle accelerator, according to the jury's thinking, as the overall person in charge of the project, Chen Muwu will definitely have a quota.

And in order that the winners would not be all "inferior" Chinese but not a single white person, the second winner would naturally be Cockcroft.

In this way, Zhao Zhongyao will definitely become the one running with him like Best. This is a situation that Chen Muwu does not want to see.

Under Rutherford's leadership, the Cavendish Laboratory went on to win numerous Nobel Prizes in Physics.

If he is willing to pick peaches, no matter which achievement he signs, with his reputation and status, it will not be a problem to win another Nobel Prize that can prove his identity as a physicist.

But Rutherford never did this from beginning to end, probably because he was afraid that he would seize the opportunity for students to use the Nobel Prize as a springboard to success.

Chen Muwu didn’t want to explain the twists and turns behind the selection of the Nobel Prize to Cockcroft, so he chose to simply brush the matter over:
"Before the summer vacation, Mr. Chadwick and I had already discussed the issue of Cambridge University's Nobel Prize nomination this year. We all decided to nominate you and Zhao Zhongyao, and used various means to publicize and build momentum for you to help you win the prize. .

"I have worked so hard to plant the seeds, watered, fertilized and caught insects along the way, and watched them bloom and bear fruit. Now it is finally time to harvest."

During the second half of the journey from London to Cambridge, Cockcroft, sitting in the passenger seat, was distracted all the way.

He didn't expect to hear the news that surprised him as soon as he got off the ship, and he began to dream about what his future life would be like after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In an era without car navigation, Chen Muwu could only rely on the road signs erected on the roadside and drove more than 50 miles without any danger, returning to the University of Cambridge after being away for a few days.

He first dropped off Cockcroft, who had just returned from the United States, outside the gate of St. John's College, and then took a long detour and crossed the River Cam on a bridge that could pass cars on the outskirts of Cambridgeshire.

Chen Muwu moved the luggage and some food he brought from home into his room at Trinity College.

After leaving and returning, he got into the cab again and drove the Austin station wagon, which was still in the running-in period, to the door of Kapitsa's new home, which he had just moved to.

Di-

beep-

He squeezed the air bag a few times, causing the copper horn to ring sharply several times.

Shortly after the sound was heard, a window in Kapitsa's house suddenly opened, revealing an angry face.

The Russian was just about to curse the annoying guy who was making noise outside his window when he saw his good friend standing next to the cab with a smile and a wave to him.

Kapitsa swallowed down the curse words in Russian, English, French, and even Chinese that were about to burst out. Without saying hello, he put on his suit jacket, put on his shoes, and hurried out the door.

"Chen, why did you come back from London so early and why didn't you stay at home for a few more days?"

As a car lover, his eyes were quickly attracted by the brand-new Austin sedan. His hands unconsciously touched the waxed cucumber car surface, and he kept asking:
Is this your new car?Not bad!how much did you spend? "

"It didn't cost much. I just heard someone tell me that this is the best-selling car in the UK this year, and the space inside the car is quite generous. How about it? Do you want to go in for a test drive?"

Chen Muwu smiled and handed over the key in his hand. Kapitsa snatched it and rushed into the cab.

"Of course! Chen, get in the car quickly!"

Chen Muwu, who sat in the passenger seat, tightly grabbed the handle next to him, anticipating what Kapitsa might do next.

"The performance of your car is so good, can I do a few laps in school?"

As expected, Kapitsa raised this question.

Chen Muwu didn't feel sorry for Che at all, and nodded in agreement: "No problem, but!
"I want to remind you that this car is my wedding gift to you. Whether you drive it smoothly or not, from the moment the car key is handed over to you, this car has nothing to do with me. .

"Peter, happy wedding!"

(End of this chapter)