In the next issue of the newspaper, the Holy Decree section published an "Edict on Persuading Invention and Creation", which was Zhu Youxiao's speech at the Ordnance Bureau. Of course, after the revisions of Xu Guangqi and Ye Xianggao, the speech has changed beyond recognition, but the main idea has not changed at all. Moreover, there is a paragraph in the editor's note: In accordance with the Holy Decree, patent institutes were established in Jingshi and Nanzhili, and the inventions and creations of the people of the whole country could be appraised in the patent institutes, and those who wanted to invent and create only needed to put forward ideas, and after passing the examination, they could provide funds for creation, but they needed to have corresponding mortgages. If you do not have or are unwilling to mortgage, you can conduct research at the Jingshi Research Institute, and the Institute will provide all the necessary expenses.

The establishment of the Patent Institute was in progress, and Zhu Youxiao was in the process of unifying weights and measures at this time. First of all, he created the modern balance, because of the existence of scales, so the Ming people easily understood the scale.

After the balance was made, Zhu Youxiao asked the Ordnance Bureau to forge a pound of steel, which was carefully weighed by the balance. Then a piece of steel was made for a tael and a penny.

The units of length and volume were also treated in this way, and a steel ruler was created, the smallest unit was the centimeter, then the minute, the inch, and the ruler. A liter, a hea, a spoonful, a pinch of steel was made.

Zhu Youxiao ordered each chief secretary to send a set of steel blocks and steel rulers to enable various localities to calibrate the weighing instruments. The Ordnance Bureau continued to produce steel blocks weighing one cent and one centimeter. With the current ability, even one centimeter is already the limit.

By this time, the glass factory had already made the glass tubes containing mercury. Zhu Youxiao asked people to put the glass tube into the ice-water mixture, and carved the mark, and then put it into the boiling water, and carved the mark. Divide the middle segment into 100 segments, and this becomes a Celsius thermometer.

Of course, this thermometer is obviously not called a Celsius thermometer, Zhu Youxiao called it a thermometer. With this method, a thermometer of 500 degrees can be made, of course, the steam temperature of the steam engine has not reached 500 degrees, so it should be enough in a short period of time.

Unified weights and measures play an extremely important role in economic and scientific research, and Zhu Youxiao wants to make the whole country use unified weights and measures, of course, this is a gradual process, and it is not very realistic to promote it in the past ten or eight years. However, Zhu Youxiao believes that it is not difficult to use unified weights and measures when conducting scientific research.

And Zhu Youxiao asked Mao Yuanyi to run a new newspaper, called "Daming Science Daily", which is an internal newspaper with a small circulation scope, mainly the Beijing Normal University Hall Research Institute and the Ordnance Bureau, in the first issue of the journal, first introduced what science is.

Science, which refers to the study of different disciplines, refers to the formation of a gradually complete knowledge system through detailed classification and research. It is a general term for the knowledge system of human exploration, research and comprehension of the laws of change in the universe. Science is a system of knowledge based on testable explanations and orderly knowledge that makes predictions about the form, organization, etc., of objective things. Science also refers to the subject itself of knowledge that can be rationally explained and reliably applied.

This explanation is rather awkward, but Zhu Youxiao really can't think of how to translate it in classical Chinese, and Xu Guangqi's translation will make ordinary people not understand what it means at all, so he simply uses the vernacular to explain.

Perhaps influenced by the interpretation of science, Science Newspaper is written in the vernacular throughout. In the first issue of the newspaper, Zhu Youxiao put forward the following general principles that should be followed by scientific research methods: 1. The openness of research procedures; 2. Objectivity of data collection; 3. Controllability of observation and experimental conditions; 4. Systematization of analytical methods; 5. Reproducibility of the conclusions obtained; 6. Foresight of the future.

As for scientific research methods, Zhu Youxiao also wrote an article to elaborate on it. He believes that in conducting scientific research, the first thing is to recognize the existence of problems. For example, when studying the motion of an object, one should first pay attention to why the object moves the way it happens, i.e., why the object moves faster and faster under one condition (accelerated motion) and slower and slower under another (deceleration motion).

The second is to identify and eliminate the non-essential aspects of the problem. For example, the smell of an object has no effect on the motion of the object.

The third is to collect all the data you can find that is relevant to the problem. For example, some balls can be intentionally rolled off some inclined planes; In doing so, you can use a variety of balls of different sizes, change the surface properties of the balls, change the inclination of the inclined plane, and so on. This deliberately designed situation is an experiment.

Fourthly, with the collected data, it is possible to make some kind of preliminary generalization, so that they can be explained as concisely as possible, that is, in some concise language or in some mathematical relationship. This is also a hypothesis or hypothesis.

Fifth, once you have a hypothesis, you can speculate about the results of experiments that you did not intend to conduct. Next, you can start these experiments to see if your hypothesis is valid.

Sixth, if the experiment achieves the desired results, then your hypothesis has a strong factual basis and may become a theory, or even a "law of nature".

Zhu Youxiao summed up one sentence: bold assumptions and careful verification are the basic methods of scientific research. There is a lot of knowledge in this world that we don't understand, and we can understand it through scientific research methods.

Zhu Youxiao understands that his intelligence can be regarded as a medium level at most, and compared with the Ming people, he has more than some knowledge. Therefore, he should give full play to the little things that are stronger than this generation, and combine them with the wisdom and wisdom of the Ming people, so that the scientific and technological level of the Ming Dynasty has made great progress.

He called on everyone to focus on the study of the laws of nature, and some things that are commonplace on weekdays actually have profound truths in them. Knowing this matter is an important way for the sages to teach everyone to explore the truth, as long as they understand all the truths in this world, they can better understand the world. One day, no candles are used to light lamps, and cattle and horses are not used to plough the land, so that the Ming people can live a good life like the rule of three generations.

The purpose of "Daming Science News" is to let everyone put forward wonderful ideas, exchange their research experience with each other, and hope to let everyone's ideas collide and produce new sparks. Scientific research is a long-term process, but communication is very important. In the first issue of the newspaper, a part of Galileo's "Dialogues on Floating Bodies in Water" was published, and the missionaries promised that every time a missionary came from Europe, he would bring the latest books to the Ming Dynasty to corroborate his research work.