Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 72 21 The first electronic photo

For nearly a month, Chen Muwu's daily activities consisted of repeating the process of "purifying the liquid - filling the container - observing the spectrum - recording the data - taking pictures".

Occasionally, when it was cloudy and rainy, and the experiment was put on hold, he had to seize this time to write the experimental paper.

The current busy state reminded Chen Muwu of the time when he was working in the laboratory when he was just a graduate student, but this time, his boss was himself.

Ye Gongchao occasionally came to Cavendish Laboratory to look for him a few times, either to read a few English poems he wrote recently, or to tell Chen Muwu what new things happened at home and abroad recently.

In the early hours of May [-]th, the Beishang express train on the Jinpu Railway, which was the blue-steel train that Chen Muwu used to take when he went to Bei University to give lectures, derailed near Lincheng, Xiandong Province. The bandits intentionally sabotaged and hijacked all the men, women, old and children in the car, including many foreigners, the most famous being Powell, the editor-in-chief of the "Miller Review" in Haihai, and the only son of the American oil tycoon John Rockefeller. John Rockefeller Jr.'s sister-in-law, Lucy Aldridge.

Hearing this news, Chen Muwu felt a little scared, because with the full efforts of the Sulian government, the Trans-Siberian Railway has been completed. If he had chosen to come to Europe by train, it is very likely that he would appear on this trip On the Jinpu Line train.

……

Tuesday, May 22.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin, also an alumnus of Trinity College, Cambridge, became Prime Minister.

On the same day, the German mark continued to depreciate rapidly. Within a day, the exchange rate between the US dollar and the mark fell from [-]:[-] to [-]:[-].

Also on the same day, the excited Kapitsa brought the equally excited Blackett to the laboratory to find Chen Muwu and told him that they had taken the first clear picture of the trajectory of recoil electrons in gamma ray scattering photo.

"What a beautiful photo!"

Chen Muwu couldn't help but praise, he was finally relieved.

Chen Muwu finally didn't have to repeat experiments over and over again in this dark room. Regarding the scattering of visible light, he had already done experiments on six kinds of liquids under three different frequencies of light. He even made two kinds of substances in solid, Comparative experiments in the liquid and gas three-phase state, and took many spectral photos, this number is enough for him to write a thesis.

In fact, Chen Muwu could have written a paper and published it after observing the scattering spectra in pure water and pure ethanol, but he was afraid that his experiment would go too smoothly, which might arouse suspicion from others, so he had to drag it on again. long time.

Chen Muwu asked Kapitza and Blackett to take a few more clear photos of recoil neutrons for future use in writing papers.

And he himself spent another two days, took the written paper on visible light scattering, went to the office on the second floor of the Cavendish Laboratory, and found his immediate boss Rutherford.

Although Chen Muwu's third paper is called a paper, it is actually more like a record of experimental results.

It fully records the phenomenon of wavelength change after light is scattered by different liquids: in the scattered light, there is a spectrum with a frequency of ν±Δν symmetrically on both sides of each original incident spectral line (frequency is ν) Line, the frequency difference Δν has nothing to do with the incident light frequency ν, it is determined by the nature of the scattering material, each scattering material has its own specific frequency difference, some of which are consistent with the infrared absorption frequency of the medium.

He also pointed out that this frequency change is very weak, about one-thousandth of Rayleigh scattering.

Moreover, the scattered light is polarized, and the current theory cannot explain where this polarized light comes from.

Rutherford was very happy after reading Chen Muwu's thesis, and he said loudly with a smile on his face: "Okay, okay! Young man, you have brought us another one in less than a month since you came to the laboratory. Big surprise!"

Chen Muwu, who was standing beside Rutherford, felt deafening.

Rutherford's voice was surprisingly loud, and because he often disturbed other people in the laboratory doing experiments, the researchers had to hang a "Please speak softly" signboard on the ceiling of the laboratory to come. Obscurely reminded their immediate boss.

But judging from the current situation, this reminder board is useless and useless at all.

"It's just a little work, Director." Chen Muwu said modestly.

"Let's go," Rutherford stood up and patted Chen Muwu on the back, "Take me to see your experimental phenomenon."

After all, the two walked out of Rutherford's office and came to the dark room where the experimental equipment was placed.

When Rutherford saw two sharp bright lines in the eyepiece of the spectrometer, he couldn't help but be amazed: "Beautiful spectral lines! Let me just say, in our laboratory, apart from radioactivity, I would rather Saw some other novelty!"【1】

……

"Listen, the old crocodile is praising that Chinese genius again."

In the open laboratory on the side, Kapitsa, who heard Rutherford's loud voice, had an envious expression on his face, and complained to Blackett, who was in the same group as him.

Blackett still had a paralyzed face, but his tone was very excited: "But Sir, you are right, Chen is indeed a genius. Without him, how could I publish the first in the Journal of the Royal Society right now?" A paper?"

Blackett was very grateful to Chen Muwu, and occasionally he wondered if he would invite Chen Muwu to his home in London during King George V's birthday holiday next month.

Kapica ignited his fighting spirit: "It seems that Chen's third paper is about to be published, and we have to work harder to not be left behind too much by him."

"Yeah." Black nodded.

……

Chen Muwu later told Rutherford in the laboratory that he wanted Rutherford to be the corresponding author of his paper, so that it would be easier to submit the manuscript to the editorial office of the Royal Society’s Journal of Natural Sciences.

But Rutherford told Chen Muwu that his worries were completely unnecessary, because as long as they saw that the letter was sent from the Cavendish Laboratory, those editors would know that this place name is the guarantee of the quality of the paper.

Putting the thesis in an envelope and putting it in the mailbox, Chen Muwu walked along the Kang River to Mrs. Brown's rented room.

The weather at the end of May was already very warm. The rowers on the River Cam, wearing Cambridge's unique light blue sportswear, were training hard and actively preparing for the competition.

At the end of June and the beginning of July, when the Spring Festival semester is over, they will go to the Thames River in London to compete with the Oxford University rowing team for a battle of honor.

*****
[1] Author's note: Rutherford did say such a sentence in history, but it was not Raman scattering that was praised (because Raman did not conduct experiments in the Cavendish laboratory), but Edward Appleton He and his student Miles Barnett discovered the ionosphere in the atmosphere through radio signals in 1924. The former also won the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics for this feat.

(End of this chapter)