Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 387 126 More precious than gold

The more Chen Muwu thought about it, the more he felt that the museum was feasible, but he didn't want to tell the Swedish Crown Prince on the other side of the table about it just yet.

He still needs to do more research on this plan. What if it is easy to send cultural relics and exhibits abroad but difficult to send them back to China?

What Chen Muwu wanted to avoid was not only the fear that the cultural relics transported to Sweden would become like the British Museum in later generations. Various precious cultural relics could not return to their own countries, and they could only film "Escape from the British Museum" to express their frustration. with some protest of his own.

He was also afraid of another point, that is, these cultural relics might have been stolen and taken to the island in 48 or 49 by the fleeing Baked Bun authorities under various pretexts.

——Just like those cultural relics in the Forbidden City.

The National Palace Museum on the island has been criticized by many people for how casually and carelessly it treats cultural relics in the future.

Chen Muwu even knew of many cases of them destroying cultural relics. He turned a porcelain from the Song and Yuan Dynasties into pieces with just a beating, without knowing how to cherish it at all.

If the cultural relics he carefully protected still couldn't escape this ending, Chen Muwu felt that there was no need for him to work hard for decades. In the end, it was all in vain.

Except that Chen Muwu felt a little depressed because he talked about the museum and thought of the cultural relics, the dinner he and the Crown Prince of Sweden had was generally very harmonious and enjoyable.

When they parted at the end, the Crown Prince of Sweden emphasized again that he would start preparing to confer a knighthood on Chen Muwu after he returned, and would definitely give him a Swedish knighthood next year.

After meeting with his friend and sponsor, Chen Muwu once again returned to the construction site of Prince's College on the outskirts of Stockholm.

He did not tell his other partner Marcus Jr. what the Crown Prince of Sweden said to him during the dinner a few days ago.

Because although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that he himself will bear the entire cost of this cyclotron, who actually paid for the money that should be paid by the Swedish Crown Prince in name is Sima Zhao’s heart. Know.

The Wallenberg family paid hundreds of thousands of crowns to let Chen Muwu build the world's first cyclotron in the physics laboratory building of the Prince's College in Stockholm.

As a result, this machine was finally named His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Cyclotron because it was built under the leadership of the Crown Prince of Sweden. Even if the Wallenberg family didn't mention it, they would definitely be very unhappy.

And this unhappy mood cannot be vented on the future King of Sweden, and it will definitely be blamed on Chen Muwu.

Therefore, Chen Muwu must not propose the naming of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's cyclotron, but should find a way to let Marcus and the Wallenberg family decide for themselves.

Returning to the construction site, Chen Muwu saw the power of money.

In order to build an insulating environment that meets the regulations as soon as possible for the laboratory where the cyclotron will be installed in the future, Marcus Jr. gave a bonus to let the Swedish construction workers work overtime.

After the purchased mica sheets were delivered to the construction site, within a few days, an insulated laboratory covered with mica sheets and approved by Cockcroft appeared in the physics laboratory building of Prince's College.

However, what is very embarrassing is that Chen Muwu and the others, not to mention the cyclotron themselves, even the cyclotron model that they said they would trial-produce first, is still not even a scratch, which is in stark contrast to the speed of the construction and decoration workers. Compared.

They customized various parts they needed from factories around Stockholm, and also went to the Royal Institute of Technology to find a lot of ready-made physics equipment. They reluctantly assembled these things at the end of November and prepared to assemble a 15-centimeter The cyclotron model, or test machine, came out.

However, once the time came to the end of November, the Nobel Prize atmosphere in Stockholm immediately became intense.

In an era when entertainment activities were scarce, the Nobel Prize award ceremony, speeches, and a series of residual enthusiasm and preparations before the event were regarded as a major event in the capital of this Nordic country.

At the same time, this also makes the festive atmosphere here come much earlier than other countries that only celebrate Christmas once.

The Christmas party for the citizens of Stockholm can be said to have started in early December.

But this also shows that two of the three people who won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year, Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft, have become increasingly busy in Sweden and have less time to do research in the laboratory. It becomes less and less.

Another of the three winners, Professor Wilson, also from the Cavendish Laboratory, also arrived in Stockholm more than ten days before the award ceremony.

Chen Muwu still asked Marcus to send someone to meet him at the train station in the city, and invited Professor Wilson to Prince's College.

Chen Muwu has no intention of recruiting Professor Wilson to Stockholm. This is because he is British and middle-aged. He has already settled in Cambridgeshire and has taken root. Even if he invites him, he is probably Professor Wilson would not agree to this.

Moreover, a person's scientific research age is always limited. For mathematics, it is okay, but for physics, the physics that can be famous all over the world is basically made before they are forty years old. The most famous result of an academic career.

Professor Wilson is already over forty years old, and his most outstanding contribution to physics in his life is the invention of the cloud chamber, which can conveniently observe the trajectories of microscopic particles.

If he were invited to Prince's College in Stockholm, then it would probably be nothing more than serving as a mascot in the school to add one more Nobel Prize winner among the physics faculty. .

And if you want a mascot, wouldn't someone with a greater reputation like Einstein or Marie Curie be better than Professor Wilson?

Professor Wilson did not live in the hotel arranged by the Nobel Prize organizing committee for the winners in downtown Stockholm, but came to Prince's College. In fact, he was entrusted by Chen Muwu.

He invited Professor Wilson from Cambridge University to work with Blackett in the Cavendish Laboratory over the past month to build an improved cloud chamber, which will be completed in the future. used together with a cyclotron.

As soon as they met, Wilson smiled unceremoniously and complained to Chen Muwu: "Dr. Chen, you are really good at calculating. An old guy of my age has traveled all the way to Sweden to receive a Nobel Prize, and I still have to wait. At the same time, I can work part-time as a postman and deliver the things you want all the way."

There was no hint of complaint in Wilson's words. He was just joking with Chen Muwu, who was very popular in the Cavendish Laboratory.

Wilson also knew what was the decisive reason why he won the physics prize this time.

Although the cloud chamber shines in physics laboratories around the world, many of the important results achieved through the cloud chamber are inseparable from Chen Muwu and his partners. For example, Chen Muwu conducted precise gamma ray scattering experiments and proved that light is a particle;

For example, Blackett, with the help of Chen Muwu, found the first manually completed nuclear transmutation in human history in the cloud chamber photos;

Another example is that the cloud chamber shined with the cooperation of the particle accelerator, which discovered many new particles and many new nuclear reactions. The particle accelerator was led by Chen Muwu and his two assistants Zhao Zhongyao and Kao. Completed by Croft;

……

Wilson could cite many such examples. He felt that if it were not for Chen Muwu, then he might have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the cloud chamber, but the time might not be as fast as it is now.

——He didn’t know that even if Chen Muwu hadn’t been there, he would have won the award this year, and the reason for winning the award would only be gamma ray scattering, not as many as he imagined.

"Professor Wilson, thank you for your hard work."

Chen Muwu said politely while smiling apologetically.

"Dr. Chen, after the Solvay Conference, you did not go back to the Cavendish Laboratory but came directly to Sweden. What are you going to do here? I was entrusted by Sir Rutherford this time. Come to find out more about this matter."

Wilson did not hide it, but directly told everything Rutherford asked him to do in a joking tone.

He knew that instead of sneaking around in private, it would be better to explain the matter straight to the point, and then mention the name of his teacher Rutherford, so that Dr. Chen would not lie to excuse himself.

"Oh, that's right. I was entrusted by someone to build a particle accelerator for this school in Stockholm."

Sure enough, just as Wilson thought, Chen Muwu did not lie to him.

——It’s just that I didn’t tell the whole story.

Is a cyclotron a particle accelerator? Of course it is!

Fortunately, the current model of this machine has not been installed yet. Wilson had seen the electrostatic particle accelerator at Cambridge University. Chen Muwu was afraid that if he saw the shape of the accelerator changed from a spherical to a cylindrical shape, it would cause a problem. Follow him and ask questions.

After guiding everyone to install the custom-made cloud chamber, Wilson stayed one night with Chen Muwu and others in a hotel on the outskirts of the city.

The next day, he, Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft left the vicinity of Prince's College and returned to downtown Stockholm.

Because the award ceremony is approaching, as new Nobel Prize winners, they always have to accept interviews from some reporters, and cooperate with various departments in Sweden to do some public welfare activities, such as going to primary and secondary schools in Stockholm to teach young students Give lectures to cultivate their interest in physics and science.

The reason why Chen Muwu was clear about this matter was because he had done this kind of thing before.

Before parting, Chen Muwu specifically told them that no information about his stay in Stockholm could be disclosed to these reporters from all over the world.

Even if he accidentally lets it slip, he must not tell reporters his exact location.

He was not afraid that the cyclotron construction work he was secretly engaged in would be revealed in advance. He was just afraid that after the news spread, a bunch of reporters would come in to ask him questions and disrupt his work schedule.

What Chen Muwu wants is that he will not attend any Nobel Prize-related activities, but will use the time when the world's attention is focused on the Stockholm City Hall to speed up the progress of secretly developing the cyclotron and strive to complete the machine as soon as possible. come out.

Of course, the dinner and award ceremony are still going to be held. On the one hand, the Crown Prince of Sweden will definitely invite him, and it is hard to refute the other party's face.

On the other hand, Chen Muwu was still thinking about his foundation, the foundation that raised money to support education in the Far East.

Temporarily losing his right-hand man in the Cavendish Laboratory, Chen Muwu began to work as an experimental partner with the Curies.

He may still be a little uncomfortable with it, because although they are his relatives, this is the first time they work together.

The younger Curies and his wife did not have so many scruples. They devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the laboratory, striving to build a cyclotron as soon as possible. After learning the technology, they went back to build such a machine for the Radium Institute.

The top priority is to assemble this fifteen centimeter experimental model.

In the entire model, the most expensive part was not the custom-made D-box in the factory, nor the electric and magnetic field generating devices they made themselves, but the radioactive particle source.

Sweden is not like Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands, which are powerful countries in physics research. Each country has many universities and laboratories that are famous for physics research.

It is also not like its neighboring country Denmark, which is full of love and hatred. Bohr, a strong man from the sky, can single-handedly drive the development of physics in the entire country.

Even Uppsala University, the best university in the country, is not located in the urban area of ​​the capital Stockholm, but is located in Uppsala, a satellite city northwest of Stockholm, just like Cambridge is in London.

Currently, there is only one university in Sweden with professors specializing in radioactive physics.

The particle source used in the fifteen centimeter cyclotron model they built was borrowed from the physics laboratory of Uppsala University.

Chen Muwu, who still wanted to deliberately conceal his identity, did not come forward. Instead, he asked Frederic, who could speak French, which is more commonly used in Europe, to go north.

But even if he showed that he was a Ph.D. from the University of Paris, a researcher at the Radium Institute, and the son-in-law of Marie Curie, the relevant personnel at Uppsala University were unwilling to lend them the precious particle source.

In the end, I had to leave a large deposit there to lend this particle source, which was more expensive than gold, to Stockholm.

(End of this chapter)