When I am reborn, I just want to be a top student

If we use an intuitive object to describe the knowledge system of modern physics, it would be more appropriate to use various buildings of different sizes.

Each building represents a theoretical system of physics, and each floor of each building represents a field or direction.

However, only four of these buildings can be called edifices in architectural history!
Classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory, relativity, quantum mechanics.

Since we have mentioned the knowledge system of modern physics, the evaluation of physicists is naturally indispensable.

Wang Donglai also has a rough standard in his mind for classifying great physicists in history.

If it were Wang Donglai in his previous life, he would definitely not be able to do this.

However, he possesses extraordinary abilities such as the [Memory Palace], so he can make accurate evaluations.

He is a master who single-handedly led the construction of a building.

There are only three physicists at this level: Newton, Maxwell and Einstein.

Next, he played an important role in the completion of a certain building or made important overall optimization to it after its completion, or led the completion of a relatively important building other than the four buildings. He can be said to be a master.

Typical physicists include Galileo, Thomas Young, Faraday, Lorentz, Bohr, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Dirac and others.

Even if Einstein had not invented the theory of relativity, he could still be evaluated at this level based solely on his contributions to quantum mechanics.

There is another person at this level, and that is Mr. Yang.

In 1954, Yang and Mills collaborated to propose the famous Yang-Mills theory.

Three years later, Li Zheng won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "parity non-conservation theory".

The standard model established by Mr. Yang directly connected the originally isolated floors of the quantum mechanics building. In terms of contribution, he can definitely be regarded as a master.

At present, there is a very important thing in the physics community, which is to break the barriers between the quantum mechanics building and the relativity building and merge them into a new building.

In today's world, if any physicist can accomplish this task and obtain experimental verification, he will become the fourth ancestor after Einstein.

After the Grandmaster comes the Master.

The criteria for evaluating a master is whether one has played a certain role in the completion of a building, or added a new floor to a building. One can be called a master.

For example, Eddington and Schwarzschild are the founders of quantum chromodynamics and quantum electrodynamics.

After the master, comes the expert.

The assessment criteria are even simpler: if one can build a new room on one floor of a building, then he or she is an expert.

As for most physicists in today's physics community, let alone experts and masters, according to Wang Donglai's theory, they are at most apprentices doing decoration in a room on a certain floor of a certain building.

So, when the discussion on the Large Hadron Collider initiated by the Institute of High Energy Physics was in full swing online, attracting the attention of people from all walks of life.

Old Yang spoke!

As early as 2012, Mr. Yang had opposed the construction of a large collider, which had a budget of billion yuan at the time.

In this year, European scientists discovered the 'Hissger' particle at the Large Hadron Collider. This strange particle can give other particles mass and is closely related to the origin of matter, dark matter and the evolution of the universe.

Because of the results, many domestic scientists have proposed the idea of ​​building a circular electron-positron collider in order to accurately study the Hissger particles.

However, after this suggestion was put forward, it was clearly opposed by Mr. Yang.

The reason for opposition is simple. China's most urgent need is to cultivate high-level basic physics talents. It has the largest population in the world, but very few talents in the field of physics.

Spending huge amounts of money to build a large collider has not brought as much benefit to the development of domestic physics as imagined, and the gains are far less than the costs.

Amid Mr. Yang's opposition, the matter was shelved.

However, Wang Yifang never gave up on this point.

Immediately after being elected as an academician, it was brought up again.

This time, with the momentum of becoming an academician, the legitimacy of building a large collider has been greatly enhanced and the momentum is even greater.

Mr. Yang is old and rarely appears in front of the media.

This time, the opposition was not expressed directly in front of the media, but an article was published through personal channels.

"It is not appropriate for China to build a supercollider today"

In the article, Mr. Yang listed several legitimate reasons.

For example, learning from the failed experience of the Bald Eagle in building a large collider, the cost is beyond imagination.

China is still a developing country with poor per capita GDP data and many problems that need to be solved urgently.

The Large Hadron Collider project will squeeze funding for other basic sciences.

After giving the reasons for opposition, Mr. Yang also mentioned in the article why many high-energy physicists would actively support the construction of a super collider.

High-energy physics is an emerging field after World War II. It has made brilliant achievements in the past 70 years, but there are still problems. Therefore, many physicists believe that the existence of supersymmetric particles is just a conjecture without any experimental basis, and hope to use the Large Hadron Collider to discover the conjectured particles.

Secondly, there is the construction of a super collider. If it can really advance high-energy physics by a big step, it will have real benefits for the lives of all mankind.

Finally, the Chinese Institute of High Energy Physics was established more than 30 years ago. However, after more than 30 years, China accounts for less than 1% or 2% of the world's important high-energy physicists. After the construction of the super collider, its operation and analysis will most likely be dominated by a large number of non-Chinese. By the time there are results and the Nobel Prize is awarded, the winner will most likely not be a Chinese physicist, which is tantamount to making wedding clothes for others in vain.

Mr. Yang spoke very directly without hiding anything.

At his academic status and age, he really doesn't have to think too much.

It can be seen that this article was written with a public interest in mind.

At the end of the article, Mr. Yang proposed two other research directions for high-energy physics besides large colliders.

The search for new accelerator principles and the search for beautiful geometric structures, such as those studied in string theory.

Research in these two directions is not very expensive, economical, in line with the general trend of world economic development today, and effectively reduces the financial investment pressure in high-energy physics research.

To be honest, when I saw this article by Mr. Yang.

Wang Donglai shook his head and said with a smile: "Mr. Yang is really a kind person. If these people on the Internet knew the chain reaction caused by supporting the construction of the Beijing collider, I don't know what their reaction would be."

After expressing his feelings, Wang Donglai let the matter go.

The debate over the Large Hadron Collider also shifted to Mr. Yang as he spoke out in opposition, with all the criticism originally focused on Wang Donglai now shifting to Mr. Yang.

The presence of such a physics giant brought the matter to the attention of higher-level leaders.

Therefore, not long after Mr. Yang's article appeared, a piece of news came from the capital.

The relevant departments will invite 11 relevant experts to hold a meeting and vote by raising their hands to express their opinions on the construction of a large collider.

In short, leaders will listen to the experts' advice, but the experts will need to vote by raising their hands.

Eleven experts will decide whether to build a large collider.

As soon as the news came out, people in the academic community began to speculate which experts would be selected.

Academicians Yang and Wang Yifang will definitely be selected.

The other nine names are hard to guess.

However, no one expected that Wang Donglai would be on this list.

Beijing.

In the meeting room of the relevant unit, everyone present glanced at Wang Donglai intentionally or unintentionally.

Everyone present knows about the debate between Academician Wang Yifang and Wang Donglai at the symposium.

At this time, including Mr. Yang, there were already two people who held firm opposing opinions.

At the same time, Wang Donglai was selected as an academician because of his achievements in mathematics, not physics.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't fit with the theme of this symposium.

Therefore, everyone was puzzled as to why Wang Dong was chosen to participate in this symposium and voted by raising their hands.

However, no one asked this question.

Soon, the leaders arrived and the symposium officially began.

"Today's matter is very simple. Everyone present here is an expert in high-energy physics. Regarding the construction of the Large Hadron Collider, I am here on behalf of the higher-ups to listen to your ideas and thoughts. You are all welcome to speak freely."

"This is just an academic discussion forum, not a battle of lines. I hope everyone can speak honestly and speak enthusiastically!"

The leader didn't waste any time and immediately set the tone for the symposium.

Academician Wang Yifang was not polite and was the first to speak up, saying, "Leader, Academician Wang Donglai is not engaged in high-energy physics research. I think it is inappropriate to choose this person to participate!"

I have to say that Academician Wang Yifang is brave.

As soon as he opened his mouth, he questioned Wang Donglai's appearance.

The leader was not surprised. He glanced at everyone and explained, "Academician Wang Yifang, although Academician Wang Donglai only studies mathematics, mathematics has extremely common and important applications in many fields. I think this is also true for the Large Hadron Collider, so Academician Wang Donglai's opinion is also very important."

"At this symposium, the leaders also want to hear Academician Wang Donglai's opinions on the construction of the Large Hadron Collider in the field of mathematics!"

After hearing this, although Wang Yifang was somewhat unwilling, he still nodded in agreement.

Ignoring this matter, Wang Yifang began to express his own views.

"Our country's economy is developing rapidly. We also need to have a far-sighted strategic vision in cutting-edge scientific research. The importance of high-energy physics research to all mankind is unparalleled. Our goal is to revitalize China, and we must not lag behind the international level in the field of science."

"At present, although we are not a developed country and there is a shortage of scientific research funds, this is not an obstacle."

"The best time to plant a tree is ten years ago and now. Building a large collider now is our best opportunity. It will be the lowest cost year in the next ten years."

"The construction of a large collider will immediately make our country a world-class scientific research center. Based on my experience in Europe, with this world-leading large collider, we can attract thousands of physicists and researchers from around the world to come here to study and work."

"The importance of top talents is self-evident. The arrival of so many physicists in China will greatly promote the development of high-energy physics in China."

"With our country's population base and unique home advantage, we are fully capable of completing the task of building and training a high-energy physics talent team."

"Practice is the best teacher, especially in physics. If our students can get in touch with the world's top physicists and researchers without going abroad during their studies, and have the most advanced instruments for experimental learning, this will promote the development of domestic physics and cultivate a group of top physics talents for the country."

"From this perspective, we paid a financial cost, but what we gained was that thousands of physicists and researchers from around the world came to China to conduct academic research, and we were able to use this opportunity to train the next generation of physics students."

"Talent is priceless and its value cannot be measured. Once our research yields results or we cultivate a Chinese version of Einstein, we will lead the world in the next era of high-energy physics."

"The advantages this brings will be priceless."

"Leader, I have finished speaking!"

After saying that, Wang Yifang sat down.

It is obvious that Wang Yifang came prepared this time. He answered some questions in the arena and threw out reasons for cultivating talents.

I have to say, this statement does make a lot of sense.

Several other experts present showed expressions of approval, obviously moved by Wang Yifang's words.

After Wang Yifang finished speaking, it was Yang Lao's turn to express his opinion.

However, Elder Yang did not speak, but said to Wang Dong: "Xiao Wang, why don't you come and tell us!"

Wang Donglai was not restrained either. When he heard what Mr. Yang said, he nodded immediately.

He stood up slowly, looked around at everyone, and then said, "Old Yang and I have discussed many objections to the Large Collider."

"I don't want to repeat those objections here, I want to talk about others."

"As for the importance of high-energy physics research to all of humanity, this is a matter of opinion. I will not comment on it."

"I just want to say that when the Beijing collider was being built, research funding was in short supply, and the development of semiconductors and domestically produced large aircraft was halted."

"Now, the importance of semiconductors needs no further explanation."

“No one knows which direction the future will turn.”

"There are tens of thousands of laboratories and research institutes around the world that study biology, artificial intelligence, particles, materials, and the use of resources."

“No one can predict which field will see a qualitative breakthrough one day, thus ushering in a new era.”

"Our country's economy is developing rapidly, and there is a lot of money in the market. Didi Chuxing can spend tens of millions of dollars every day to seize the market, and Taotian Group can spend tens of billions to acquire a company."

"So why should we focus only on scientific research funding? We can obtain scientific research funding by cooperating with enterprises or soliciting sponsorship."

"In a word, the national scientific research funds are responsible for the bottom line, advocating comprehensive, more advanced and expensive projects, which can be fully funded through market-oriented means." (End of this chapter)