Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 9 09 Defiant Edit

Seeing Chen Muwu's long list of thesis titles, Eddington was a little disappointed to find that the content was not about general relativity, but about light and electrons.

But entrusted by others, he must be loyal, and the things that Einstein confessed must be done beautifully for him.

So he still took the paper, returned to the editor on duty and asked, "Did this paper fail your review?"

The editor on duty looked at Eddington like a monster: "Why should I review a paper written by a monkey? There are all waste manuscripts on that shelf, and they will be discarded together when a certain amount is accumulated."

Founded in 1798, the Philosophical Journal is one of the oldest scientific journals in the UK.

Because of its long history and great reputation, it has attracted many great scientists to publish papers on it.

Because more and more scientists are publishing papers on it, the reputation is further expanded.

The two complement each other, making the "Philosophical Journal" gradually reach the status of Taishan Beidou in the academic circle.

Not to mention China, India, and Malaya, even American physicists want to publish a paper on it, which is quite difficult.

American physicist Van Fleck once recalled: "In 1922, when I learned that my doctoral dissertation was accepted by the British "Philosophical Journal", I was very happy, because more people would read my dissertation." article."

Is it because the Second World War has not yet started, and although the United States has money, it is still the little Anglo-Saxon cousin on the other side of the Atlantic.

The academic center of the world has to look at the authentic old Europe with twelve gold stars inlaid on the Zhenglan flag, especially the United Kingdom and Germany.

That's why the editor on duty has such a big tone. His ancestors were rich and he has crazy capital.

Eddington had no choice but to reveal his identity: "I am a Fellow of the Royal Society and Arthur Eddington, Director of the University of Cambridge Observatory, entrusted by Dr. Einstein to recommend this paper for publication. At the very least, you need to find a few reviewers to review it, so that you can decide the life or death of this paper, right?"

"Okay, Eddington Fellow (FRS) [1], since you insist, let's review this paper," the editor on duty took the paper from Eddington, and then changed the subject, " But we can't waste reviewers' time, so it has to go through our initial review."

After all, he is an editor of a well-known journal, and his academic background is not weak, so there is no pressure to read an academic article.

He briefly flipped through Chen Muwu's paper, then raised his head and smiled playfully, and said to Eddington, "Sorry, Brother Eddington, I'm afraid this paper won't even pass my first review.

"Dr. Einstein explained the photoelectric effect, saying that the energy of light is just like thermal radiation, and that's all. At least Millikan's experiment verified this point. I have nothing to say.

"However, the Chinese person recommended by you actually swears in the paper that light is a kind of particle, which is really ridiculous!

"I really don't know, is he deliberately making such lunatic remarks to attract attention, or is he saying that China is really barbaric, ignorant and uncivilized, and they don't know Huygens' wave theory at all?
"How much favor did you and that Einstein receive from the Chinese to recommend this paper for him so hard?"

Being ridiculed by such an unknown person, Eddington, who has always thought highly of himself, had never been insulted like this before, and immediately felt an unknown fire.

The remaining gentlemanly demeanor prevented him from stretching out his slap to slap the other person's face. Instead, he changed the route of his slap, slapped the table heavily, picked up the paper and cursed with the editor's nose: "Okay, okay! You are not the only journal in the UK, let's wait and see!"

Come in good times, and come back in defeat.

Because he failed Einstein's entrustment, Eddington felt that he was very shameless, and he didn't even go to the Royal Society, so he went back the same way and took the train north to Cambridge at King's Cross Station.

On the return train, a frustrated Eddington passed the time by reading the papers of the Chinese, whom he had never met.

Although he is an astronomer by profession, he also has good physics literacy. In addition, the physics knowledge involved in Chen Muwu's thesis is not advanced, so Eddington read it fairly easily.

Before getting off the train, he finally understood that the Chinese had put forward a very new theory, but there was no experiment to verify whether the theory was correct or not.

As long as his theory can be proved to be correct by experiments, the publication of the paper should be unimpeded.

Speaking of experiments, the University of Cambridge has the most famous physics laboratory in the world today, the Cavendish Laboratory founded in 1874.

After Eddington received his master's degree from Trinity College in 1905, his first job was to enter the Cavendish Laboratory to study problems related to thermal radiation.

Although he left experimental physics shortly after and turned to astronomy, the Cavendish Laboratory can be regarded as his half family.

Back in Cambridgeshire, after leaving the train station, Eddington did not go back to his own observatory, but went straight to Trinity College by the River Cam with Chen Muwu's thesis.

He was coming to visit Sir Joseph Thomson, Director of his laboratory at Cavendish and now Head of Trinity College.

As a graduate of Trinity College and a former researcher at Cavendish Laboratory, Eddington can be said to be Thomson's double descendant, and the relationship between the two is naturally very harmonious.

After the meeting, there was no need to exchange too many polite words, so Eddington cut to the chase: "Sir, I went to London today and came back full of anger."

Then he briefly recounted to Thomson what he had seen and heard at the editorial office of the "Philosophical Journal" during the day, emphasizing how arrogant and defiant the editor was.

Then he said that this paper was recommended for publication by Einstein, who was giving lectures in the Far East, and the content in it was also full of real talents. He proposed a very novel theory, and praised Chen Muwu, who had never met before, to the sky.

In the end, Eddington put forward the purpose of his trip, which was to ask Thomson if he could help in designing experiments to verify this theory.

Thomson himself is an experimental physicist. In addition to discovering electrons and proposing the atomic structure of the raisin pudding model, Thomson's main achievement is Thomson scattering.

What is Thomson scattering?
In simple terms, it is a low-energy photon colliding with a non-relativistic free charged particle.

And what is written in this paper by Chen Muwu?
It is a high-energy photon colliding with a non-relativistic free electron.

It can be said that Chen Muwu's paper extends Thomson scattering to the high-frequency level to a certain extent, and it is difficult not to attract the attention of Thomson, a great scientist.

*****
【1】Note to the author: Fellowship of the Royal Society (English: Fellowship of the Royal Society, referred to as FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is awarded by the Royal Society of the United Kingdom to "for the natural sciences including mathematics, engineering physics and medicine". The honorary title of an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of science.The British "Guardian" called the Fellowship of the Royal Society "an honor equivalent to the Oscar's Lifetime Achievement Award". Every year, many institutions hold a celebration ceremony for the award of the title of Fellow.The canonized person does not have the title of "Sir" or "Dame", but the English abbreviation "FRS" of the honorary title can be added after the name.At this time, Eddington had not been knighted as a lower order of knighthood, so the title after his name was only FRS.

【2】Note from the author: that is, J·J·Thomson.

(End of this chapter)