After returning from Sun Jianai's mansion, another day later, I was sitting cross-legged on the bed and planning whether to visit Mr. Conger at the American Legation today or tomorrow, when I heard a commotion outside the door. Hurriedly got up, and before he put on his shoes, he heard Lao Tong's loud voice: "Mr. Sun, the Minister of the United States is visiting——! ”

Sun Yuan was startled, pulled his shoes and walked out, and saw Lao Tong leading a few foreigners into the courtyard, and when he looked carefully, it was Mr. Conger and his wife, Ding Yunliang, and two other faces that were very unfamiliar. He hurried up to him and said in English, "Good morning, everyone." After speaking, he whispered in Chinese to Lao Tong: "You help me go out to find some snacks, I will entertain guests, and the money will be given to you in a while." ”

Lao Tong sang the promise, turned around and went out.

Mr. Conger stepped forward and shook Sun Yuanqi's hand: "York, I haven't seen you for a long time. I'm sorry for this surprise visit. ”

Sun Yuanqi smiled and said, "It should be me who said sorry." I was thinking about whether to visit you today or tomorrow five minutes ago, and you came ......"

I also met Mrs. Conger and Mr. Ding Yunliang. The next two, a young man in his twenties, who looked quite similar to Mr. Conger, shook hands and introduced himself: "I am Thomas Conger, and it is an honor to meet you." ”

Sun Yuanqi thought for a while: Yes, Mrs. Conger said that she was going to Cambridge to see her son, and I thought it was this Thomas. He replied, "You're a Cambridge student, right?" Mr. Conger has always been proud of this. When you meet for the first time, please advise. ”

The other, a young man in his mid-thirties, seemed to be an energetic scholar. "My name is Rutherford, and I used to teach at Cambridge," he said in a British accent: "My name is Rutherford, and I used to teach at Cambridge......

Sun Yuanqi's eyes suddenly widened, and he looked at the big bull in the physics world in front of him with admiration, and held Rutherford's right hand tightly with both hands: "Look up for a long time!" "It looks like a mountain is looking up. The heart said: You don't need to introduce yourself, I know you well, for example, you are about to teach at McGill University in Canada...... I'm sorry, Lu Daniu, I have "borrowed" from some of your most important achievements!

Rutherford, born on August 30, 1871 in Nelson, New Zealand, had 12 brothers and sisters, but was in good health, and at the age of 18 was awarded a scholarship to attend a New Zealand university. Later, he was qualified to study at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. In 1898, he went to Canada as a professor of physics at McGill University, where he spent nine years, during which time he made significant contributions to the study of radioactivity. In 1907, he was appointed professor of physics at the University of Manchester. In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on radiochemistry. In 1919 he became a professor at the University of Cambridge and director of the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1931, the King of England conferred on him the title of Lord. He died on 19 October 1937 and his ashes were buried next to Newton's grave in Westminster Abbey.

Rutherford was not only a famous scientist, but also a great educator. He is approachable and amiable, encouraging students to come up with new insights and discoveries. Among his students, there are more than a dozen Nobel Prize winners, including Bol, Chadwick, Kocroft, Kapitsa, etc.

In this courtyard, there are few guests except students on weekdays, so there are no tables and chairs in the main house. The west wing is a place where students gather, with tables and stools. While speaking, Sun Yuanqi introduced everyone into the west wing and let everyone sit. Because students often come, there are tea bowls and teapots, and because there are no servants, Sun Yuanqi has to do it himself. After waiting for the tea, Lao Tong also brought pastries over. After everyone sat down, Mr. Conger slowly said what he meant:

In the middle of September, Mrs. Conger missed her Tommy, who was sitting next to Thomas, on a passenger ship bound for Europe, carrying with her Sun Yuanqi's paper "Experiments and Conjectures on the Structure of the Atom".

At that time, there were no Boeing 747s, neither Airbuses, nor intercontinental railways, and even the venerable minister's wife had only first class on passenger ships. From Beijing to Shanghai, to Hong Kong, through the Strait of Malacca, stopping in Mumbai, India, and then drifting in the Indian Ocean. It then enters the Mediterranean Sea from the Suez Canal, goes ashore in Marseille, France, crosses France, and crosses the English Channel by another steamer. In this way, after more than a month of bumps, I finally arrived at the London docks.

Thomas received a telegram from his mother from France and was on the dock to meet her. When they met, they inevitably talked to each other and introduced their lives after parting:

"In the capital of China, I saw a lot of interesting and incredible things, such as the little feet of the ladies......

"And their hygiene, it's so bad, once......

During the conversation, Sun Yuanqi said: "I also met a Chinese, very young, about the same age as you, claiming to have a master's degree in physics from Yale University." ”

"Does Yale have a master's degree in physics?" Sitting in the carriage, Thomas asked casually.

"Who knows? However, the young man seems to be quite educated, has good English, and should have a higher education in the United States. Mrs. Conger continued, "When he came, he gave me a paper and asked me to help him get it to Nature!" ”

"Oh? Nature is very serious about submissions. "Thomas was curious.

"Why don't you take a look first? I hope not to joke, but I brought it here from the far East. Mrs. Conger was a little uneasy. In a pile of luggage, I turned out Sun Yuanqi's paper. Fortunately, Mrs. Conger was very responsible, and even after a long journey of more than a month, the paper was still intact.

Thomas took the paper and looked at it roughly. The front is the experimental design and experimental results, and naturally there is nothing wrong. Seeing the conjecture about the atomic structure later, his brow furrowed.

Mrs. Conger kept an eye on Thomas. Seeing that he frowned, he was a little apprehensive: "Tommy, is there a problem with his paper?" ”

Thomas shook his head and explained, "The previous experiment shouldn't be too much of a problem. As for the latter conjecture, it is not very accurate. Although I also studied physics, I didn't study this direction, so I didn't understand it very clearly, and naturally I didn't know whether the thesis was right or wrong......"

"Well," said Mrs. Conger...... hesitated.

Thomas saw his mother's mood and smiled and comforted: "There is a young and promising professor in Cambridge who is very good at atomic physics, and he is preparing to become a professor at McGill University in Canada recently, so he should not have set off yet. Let's go back to Cambridge and ask him to review the paper before deciding whether to send it to Nature. Isn't this a matter solved? ”

Mrs. Conger thought that it was a good idea, and that she had completed the task entrusted to her, without delaying her efforts or making jokes. So they went to Cambridge together.

Rutherford was going to teach at McGill University in Canada at the end of September, but before leaving, he saw a paper published in the American "Science" entitled "Experimental Research on Uranium, Polonium, and Radium Radiation Rays", the author is named YorkJohnson, I have never heard of this person, look at the mailing address, and he is still a diplomat, but most of the results he came up with are consistent with the papers he has written, but they are better. Putting aside the matter of going to McGill, he rushed into the lab to verify the results of YorkJohnson. Naturally, the results speak for themselves. At that moment, he felt a deep sense of frustration.

Just then, Mrs. Conger and Thomas knocked on the door of the laboratory. When Rutherford opened the door, he saw his student leading a middle-aged noblewoman, thinking that it was an admiring visitor, and hurriedly explained his intention. As soon as Rutherford heard that it was a matter of the paper, and the author was still YorkJohnson, he was interested, so he hurriedly invited him into the room, took out the paper, and read it carefully.

What a great bull Rutherford is! After reading it, he knew the value of the article, ordered the paper to be copied again, called his group of friends, and discussed it while experimenting; The original manuscript was accompanied by his own recommendation and sent to the journal Nature by Thomas.

The editor of Nature magazine read it, but like the original Thomas, he couldn't make up his mind. They have always been rigorous, and they have always been cautious about papers that they don't know whether they are correct or not, and even if they have Rutherford's recommendation, they will only publish them in "letters from readers". Fortunately, α particle scattering experiments were not difficult to do, Rutherford quickly validated the data in the paper in the lab and quickly reported his results, which led to the presumption that YorkJohnson's conjecture about the atomic structure was plausible.

"Nature" and "Science" are both weekly magazines, and the difference between these two papers is only one or two months, but they have successfully established a microscopic atomic structure model, which has caused great repercussions in the Western physics community, and for a while, there have been many discussions.

Rutherford listened to Mrs. Conger's description of YorkJohnson, a Chinese, and was very curious about him. Knowing that Mrs. Conger and her son Thomas were coming to China for Christmas, they came to China together, intending to transfer to Canada.

When he arrived at the U.S. Embassy in China, Mr. Conger only knew that Sun Yuanqi was now teaching at Beijing Normal University or a certain middle school, but he did not know Sun Yuanqi's specific residence. After waiting for a few days, Rutherford couldn't stand still, so he had to ask Mr. Ding Weiliang first. Ding Yunliang is a warm-hearted person and is also interested in physics, so he volunteered to lead everyone here.

After talking for a while, Sun Yuanqi finally understood everyone's intentions. As he spoke, Rutherford looked around the room, saw that there were a few rudimentary experimental instruments, and asked hesitantly, "...... is here?" ”

Sun Yuanqi was also a little embarrassed: "Before the official opening of the Beijing Normal University Hall, I was a physics teacher in a middle school, so this room is my laboratory, or classroom, well, a simple InstituteofPhysicalResearchandTeaching ......"

Rutherford was even more puzzled: "Then how did you get your experimental data?" ”

"Experimental data? Do you mean the data of the paper? In a blink of an eye, Sun Yuanqi thought of the answer, "When I was in the United States, I had already completed the experiment, but there was no reasonable conclusion. Recently, I came up with a conjecture that matched the results of the experiment, and I wrote a paper. ”

After that, Rutherford asked some physics questions, but fortunately, these answers did not need to be made up by Sun Yuanqi, so he answered them one by one.

It was nearly noon, and the group of uninvited guests got up to say goodbye. Sun Yuanqi wanted to leave them to eat together, but they probably saw that the owner was alone in the house, so they politely refused. At the same time, both the Conger family and Rutherford invited Sun Yuanqi to visit the embassy around Christmas, and they only agreed.

During Rutherford's visit, Sun Yuanqi casually said the name "IPRT" (Institute of PhysicalResearch and Teaching), and the most famous physics research institution in later generations inadvertently appeared. It became known to the world two months later in the journal Scientist Men when a reporter interviewed Rutherford, who first mentioned YorkJohnson of IPRT when describing recent developments in physics. It was the first physics institute in China, and Rutherford had the honor of being the first international scholar to "visit" the institute.

As for the establishment time of the IPRT, there are different opinions, and there are three representative ones:

First, it is believed that it was founded on August 16, 1898, that is, the first day that Sun Yuanqi lived in the courtyard. This view is mainly held by researchers of the history of the private Kingshim University. They believe that the earliest entity of Jingshi University was the IPRT. In this way, their school history is a few months longer than that of the famous National Peking University. The evidence is the author's unit published by Sun Yuanqi in Science.

The first is that this statement appeared in the diaries and memoirs of Han Yu and Chen Jide in early November 1898, because Han Yu and Chen Jide were the parties to the establishment of IPRT, so their views were officially adopted.

First, it is believed that it was founded in December 1898, that is, around the time of the establishment of National Peking University. This view was put forward by the National Peking University History Research Association, and it has been repeatedly stated that Sun Yuanqi's mailing address "Kingshim University" published in Science is a clerical error by the American Minister Mr. Conger; IPRT was originally a research institute of Peking University and is inseparable from Peking University. Evidence? The former site of IPRT is in the Beiping University School, do you still need evidence?

In the following days, Sun Yuanqi visited the U.S. Legation several times out of admiration for Rutherford, or for other reasons. In the course of the discussion, Sun Yuanqi always inadvertently mentioned the views of later generations on the structure of the atom, which amazed Rutherford.

One afternoon after Christmas, Rutherford solemnly said to Sun Yuanqi: "York, your genius understanding of the structure of the atom has been published in Science and Nature. But in the course of our conversation, I found that you have more discoveries and deeper understandings, and these results are enough to shock the world and make the development of natural science more rapid. But why didn't you publish him? ”

Sun Yuanqi shrugged his shoulders and said helplessly: "Those things are still just theories—or conjectures, which need time and experiments to prove." If I had written them, I would have been unable to find a publisher to publish them. Even if it is published, it will be placed alongside Verne's work and will be regarded as a science fiction book. ”

Rutherford was still serious: "No! Just like the α particle scattering experiment you designed, although there is only a 1 in 8,000 probability of bounce back, it does exist, it just requires a lot of experimentation and careful observation. In the same way, theories need to be constantly proposed, even if only a few are correct. The process of negating the wrong, that is, the process by which we approach the right. ”

Sun Yuanqi was a little moved, and felt that if some basic theories were expounded, it would indeed make the development of science and technology better, so that this generation of great scientists could focus on a more cutting-edge position, and mankind might be able to obtain more truth and knowledge. The butterfly effect says that a flap of a butterfly in South America can lead to a hurricane in North America.

"Perhaps, I am the butterfly......"

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