Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 409 148 is not recognized by the chemical community

After using the organic solvent methanol to extract and separate the iodine-like elements that have been condensed after evaporation, you only need to extract the iodine-like elements from the solution, and everything will be fine.

How do you say "specialize in a field?" Bierman's next operation dazzled the five physicists and chemistry laymen present.

In short, after a long period of time, a small amount of black powdery crystals finally appeared in the glass dish.

"If nothing else, this should be the iodine-like element No. 85 that was just extracted from the bismuth metal target."

Professor Bierman, who had been busy for a long time to extract such a little thing, said to everyone present with some pride.

"Take pictures! Take pictures quickly!"

It was Chen Muwu who was the first to react. Although the sublimation temperature of iodine is at least several hundred degrees Celsius, it is also an unstable radioactive element and is constantly decaying.

Decay also releases heat, promoting the evaporation of iodine-like elements.

If we don't take photos quickly to record the impact, there may be no solids left in the glass within a few hours. The iodine-like elements will decay and sublimate into gas exchanges and enter the air.

The black and white photos with not high resolution, the photos of iodine-like samples taken can only be said to be better than nothing. It can be regarded as a record of a new substance produced using a cyclotron in the laboratory of the Prince's College in Stockholm.

But whether this new substance is iodine-like element No. 85 actually requires further testing.

However, Professor Bierman patted his chest and looked confident.

Because he had just used the method of sublimation and then condensation to extract iodine-like substances from the product mixture. Compared with the operation of separating iodine from impurities, it cannot be said that they are not at all similar, or they can be said to be completely consistent.

The physical and chemical properties are similar to that of iodine, and the possible atomic number is near element 85.

So if the thing they created is not a halogen element from Group VIIA, then what could it be?

Bierman was really trying his best. After listening to Chen Muwu's analysis and learning that this element was likely to evaporate quickly, he immediately took the time to conduct several specific experiments, confirming that the new product iodine did have the properties of halogen elements. nature.

All experimental signs indicate that everyone in the laboratory has indeed created a new element in the cyclotron.

But only Biermann, an authority on chemistry, thought otherwise.

There was some worry on his face: "Dr. Chen, I advise you not to be happy too early.

"You use accelerated alpha particles to bombard bismuth metal targets to produce element 85. From my preliminary opinion, this should be an indisputable fact. If it is not a new halogen element, it is absolutely It is impossible to show the properties of halogen elements.

“But in fact, we chemists have different opinions on whether the new substances produced in this way can be regarded as new substances.

"Dr. Chen, this matter still has something to do with you.

"Last year at Cambridge University, you published a paper on the second isotope of hydrogen. The method used in it is to use an accelerated deuterium atom to attack another deuterium atom fixed on the target, and then obtain Superheavy hydrogen, the second isotope of hydrogen.

"There may be no objection to your approach in the physics community, because from a microscopic perspective, a new atom that is different from any other atoms has been discovered.

"But in the chemical community, your approach triggered a big discussion among us.

"It was felt that an element not yet found in nature and synthesized in 'invisible quantities' should not be considered a fully valid element.

“Previously, many people thought that superheavy hydrogen could not be regarded as the second legal isotope of hydrogen.

"And now you have produced the iodine-like element No. 85 in a cyclotron. The same problem it encounters is that it is not found naturally occurring in nature, and it is still synthesized in an 'invisible amount' element.

"In addition to the above two items, there is an additional item regarding iodine-like elements, which may be the reason why chemists resist it.

“Everyone believes that all radioactive isotopes are unstable isotopes of certain elements, and only those isotopes that are not radioactive, or areotopes with very long half-lives, can be called elements.

"Who wouldn't want to admit that a radioactive isotope that decays rapidly is just as legitimate as a stable isotope?"

Why are these chemists so stubborn?

And when there are laymen like Chen Muwu who, from a layman's perspective, use a layman's method to cross the professional threshold, and insiders like them initiate challenges, the insiders become even more stubborn.

To discover new elements and isotopes, we must find naturally occurring sources in nature, and cannot use artificial synthesis?

If chemists had always adhered to this concept, they would not have been able to extract element 85 from nature for hundreds of lifetimes, but it would have been possible to extract the second isotope of hydrogen, superheavy hydrogen.

Because the proportion of iodine-like substances existing in nature is about one part in hundreds of billions of billions. Others only know how many zeros there are after the decimal point, but this one does not know how many billions there are.

Superheavy hydrogen is slightly better than iodine. The superheavy water containing superheavy hydrogen contains about one billionth of all water in nature.

When people first discovered iodine-like and superheavy hydrogen in nature, they shot arrows first and then drew targets. New elements were discovered from the bombardment and collision of particle accelerators, and then they began to search for them in nature.

If no one knew about the existence of iodine-like and superheavy hydrogen, naturally no one would be free to travel through mountains and rivers to find things that may not exist.

Professor Bierman was worried, but Chen Muwu was indifferent.

He didn't care whether chemists admitted that he had discovered a new element. The result he wanted was just to confirm that chemists like Bierman had indeed discovered a new element.

The iodine-like element has shown chemical properties that are different from those of element 83 bismuth, element 84 polonium and element 86 radon, but similar to those of iodine, so it is undoubtedly the fifth halogen element.

Thinking of this, Chen Muwu said: "Professor Bierman, thank you for coming all the way to test this new substance for us from a chemical perspective.

"I would like to ask if you would like to stay in Stockholm for a few more days?

"Let's write a paper together. The topic of the paper is of course the discovery of new elements, how about it?" Bierman frowned and thought for a while: "Dr. Chen, of course you can write a paper, but where do you want to submit it? As far as I know I feel that your paper is likely to be rejected by several of the most famous chemistry journals in the world for the reason I mentioned before."

Rejected? It doesn't matter.

Chen Muwu even wished that one day even the world's physics magazines would reject his manuscript, so that he could legitimately run a "Journal of Prince's College" in Stockholm.

Now he still plans to do this. The paper he wrote is not recognized by the chemical community, and no chemical journal accepts publication. This is Chen Muwu's best opportunity to start a journal on his own.

"Professor Bierman, don't worry, I have no intention of submitting a manuscript to a chemical journal. You chemists are so stubborn. I hope that one day you can become more innovative.

"I just hope that you can help me write the paper about the chemical properties of the new substance. The other parts of the paper about where this new substance comes from will be written by me myself.

"Please rest assured that your trip to Stockholm will be well rewarded."

Bierman really wasn't doing it for money, he was mainly doing it to promote the development of science.

However, Bierman couldn't help but ask: "Dr. Chen, where do you plan to publish your paper? Is it the Transactions of the Natural Sciences of the Royal Society, or Nature?"

"Yeah," Chen Muwu nodded, "I will contact them in both of the above magazines, if I don't want to publish a paper in them, but I want to place an advertisement in them.

"As for where you asked me about where this paper will be published, we at Prince's College in Stockholm plan to independently run a "Journal of Prince's College" and publish it in Chinese, Swedish and English."

The name of the journal proposed by Chen Muwu in his answer shocked Biermann as much as the fact that he had used a cyclotron to produce new elements that humans had never found in nature.

Is it possible to run a specialized academic journal just as a matter of fact?

If it cannot be recognized by scientists around the world, isn't it just a useless effort that wastes people and money?

What should we do then?

However, Bierman then thought again. Chen Muwu in front of him dared to establish a school as big as Prince's College, so setting up an affiliated academic journal for Prince's College was really not a big deal.

Biermann agreed to Chen Muwu's invitation to write an academic paper. He thought that even if the circulation of the "Journal of Prince's College" was not high, he would just be the one to ask other academic magazines to reprint it.

It cannot be said that Chen Muwu established an academic journal on a whim, but that he had already made relevant plans.

Moreover, the important paper currently in Chen Muwu's hands is not just the discovery of iodine-like elements. Each of the next several papers to be published will be more blockbuster than the previous one.

He is not worried at all that he cannot make "Journal of Prince's College" famous in the world of scientific research in a short period of time.

Chen Muwu no longer did it himself when it came to writing the thesis.

He just provided a general idea and handed over the writing of the paper to the other four people.

After all, they were also fully involved in the construction of the cyclotron and the use of the cyclotron to produce an artificial synthetic element in human history.

Chen Muwu thought for a while and decided to split this into two papers.

In this way, the first issue of "Journal of Prince's College" will at least look better in the catalog.

Bierman's paper on the purification and testing of iodine-like elements was also published separately, so that "Journal of Prince's College" suddenly had three papers.

He provided the other five with a good environment for writing papers, and he drove to find little Marcus again.

Chen Muwu wanted to inquire about the procedures required to run such an academic journal in Sweden.

After all, the right to run a newspaper is not something that a country can easily obtain, and Chen Muwu will definitely not do such illegal things as running a newspaper privately. He strives to be a good and law-abiding foreigner in Sweden.

Although the words were high-sounding, Chen Muwu's real intention in going to see little Marcus was to hope that he would use the power of the Wallenberg family behind him to help him get the relevant application procedures for the "Journal of Prince's College" as quickly as possible.

After obtaining the procedures, Chen Muwu began to write letters and telegrams in his own name to all over the world, and paid them to place advertisements in newspapers and magazines for the "Journal of Prince's College" to be released soon.

Professional academic journals such as "Transactions of the Natural Sciences", "Nature", "Annals of Physics", "Journal of Physics", etc.;

"The Times", "Daily Telegraph", "Manchester Guardian", "New York Times" and other most famous newspapers in the world.

All published in Stockholm Prince's College's upcoming academic journal "Journal of Prince's College" edited by Chen Muwu.

We hope that interested readers from all over the world can write to the editorial office to subscribe.

Authors who are interested in submitting academic papers in various disciplines to "Journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" are also encouraged to write in and submit their papers. Once accepted, there will be generous royalties.

Submitting articles to academic journals and receiving royalties is still relatively rare in the world today.

But as long as it can improve Sweden's status in the world's academic world, neither the Swedish Crown Prince nor the Wallenberg family will mind spending more money.

Chen Muwu obtained the newspaper application procedures and placed advertisements in major well-known academic journals and popular newspapers around the world. Next, he has other things to do.

Basically, Chen Muwu would go to the dock in Stockholm every day and ask if there were any cargo ships that had recently sailed from the Netherlands.

"Huang Tian paid off," he finally returned to Stockholm Prince's College with the liquid deuterium he ordered from the low-temperature physics laboratory of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

What Chen Muwu thought was that while Biermann was still in Sweden, it would be better to simply discover element 43 using a cyclotron.

This also saves the chemistry professor with whom I have a good rapport from having to travel back and forth between Copenhagen and Stockholm next time.

He had already personally visited Uppsala University in advance and borrowed the molybdenum metal he needed from there.

While everyone else was writing papers, Chen Muwu planned to do the experiment himself.

(End of this chapter)