When Professor John Martin announced on August 2 that he had successfully verified mankind's first man-made nuclear experiment, Sun Yuan had already finished his activities in New York and arrived at the famous Yale University.

The history of modern Sino-American higher education exchanges can be traced back to the thirties of the 19th century, and Yale was the first to do so. Among the foreigners who went to China in the 19th century to dig for gold, the American Congregationalist missionary, who later became the American minister to China, and served as a professor of Yale Sinology after returning to China, was one of them, he came to China in 1833, returned to the United States in 1877, and stayed in China for more than 40 years. After graduating from Yale University in 1832, Brown went to Macao, then part of China's Guangdong Province, where he served as principal of Morrison School, a school founded by British missionaries. In 1847, when Brown returned to the United States, he brought three outstanding Chinese students, including Rong Hong, to study in the United States. In 1850, Yung Hong was admitted to Yale University. In 1854, Yale University awarded Yung Hong a bachelor's degree, becoming the first Chinese to receive that degree in the West.

In addition to Rong Hong, a large number of outstanding Chinese talents, such as Zhan Tianyou, Ma Yinchu, Yan Yangchu, Kong Xiangxi, Gao Shangyin, Yan Fuqing, Li Jitong, Yang Shixian, Shi Ruwei, Chen Jia, Wang Jiaji, Tang Yao, Yang Zunyi, and Ying Kaizhi, also studied at Yale University. Currently, Chinese students are Yale's largest group of foreign students, so much so that the current president, Richard ? Levin said with emotion: "The loss of Chinese students will overshadow Yale." ”

In a brochure celebrating Yale's 300th anniversary, there is this passage: "For 200 years, Yale University has maintained friendly relations with China, and this deep affection and long history have played a unique role in the cultural exchanges between China and the United States. The educational undertakings and academic achievements jointly established by Yale and China have played a tremendous role and cohesion, which has not only enriched the all-round development of Yale University, but also changed the fate and future of countless alumni. Yale's relationship with China is not only the earliest international engagement in the university's history, but remains crucial as Yale enters its fourth century. ”

Because before, Sun Yuanqi had never been to Yale University, and he had only glanced at it a few times in film and television works, not to mention that he was very unfamiliar with Yale University, even the city of New Haven, where it is located. Therefore, Sun Yuanqi told Mr. Mike Donaldson of the Yale Alumni Association that he was "very familiar" with Yale and did not need to be greeted by Yale University, and that his itinerary was not very sure, and he would contact the university after he arrived in New Haven.

In this way, when Sun Yuan was in New York at first, he had a general understanding of the situation at Yale, and then arrived in New Haven City in advance, in the name of "need to rest", he was familiar with the surrounding environment, and he would not make a big joke at that time.

After two days of walking in and around Yale, Sun Yuanqi felt a little confident before sending a telegram to Yale University, saying that he had arrived in New Haven and hoped to be in contact with the university.

Soon, Mr. Mike Donaldson accompanied a few people to the hotel where Sun Yuanqi was staying.

Mr. Donaldson warmly introduced several guests to Sun Yuanqi: "Mr. Johnson, this is Mr. Mace Gerald, vice president of the Yale Alumni Association. ”

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you, Dear Mr. Mace Gerard." Sun Yuanqi said very enthusiastically - at least pretend to be very enthusiastic, and then shake hands.

"Me too." This Mr. Gerrard was dressed very formally, with the style of an English gentleman.

"This is Mr. Justin Hough, Assistant to the Principal."

Well, this is a young man in his thirties, young and promising at first glance, and well-educated. It is also a greeting, a handshake.

"This one is Mr. John Ax, a physics professor at our school, you should have seen it." Mr. Donaldson introduces the last guest.

Have I seen it? I've seen ghosts! I've only known you guys all over Yale University now, and you've only just met! Sun Yuan scolded, but said differently: "Yes, I have met you, Professor Aix, your course is very good. ”

Professor Aix blinked his blue eyes and looked confused, "Professor Johnson, have you listened to my lectures?" After thinking for a few seconds, he scratched his messy and gray hair: "I really can't remember, you know, in my eyes, all East Asians look the same, black eyes, black hair, yellow skin...... What Chinese, Japanese, there is no difference. ”

This meeting is over.

After everyone sat down, Sun Yuanqi avoided asking some questions that caught him off guard, and began to take the initiative to ask: "I am very happy to be back in New Haven, back to my alma mater, Yale. But because of the urgency of the schedule – I had just received a telegram from McGill University in Canada asking me to be a chair professor at the university in early September, and I said yes. Before that, I had to make a trip to MIT – so I think I might only have about two weeks. I'd like to hear your arrangement, or your opinion? ”

Mr. Justin Hough, a young assistant to the president, had a reserved smile on his face: "First of all, I would like to welcome Professor Johnson back to his alma mater for study and exchange, and your achievements are a testament to our school motto, 'Light and Truth'. You are the glory of your alma mater. As for the arrangement, the school and the alumni association have drawn up a rough schedule, and if we have time, we can discuss and revise it to facilitate your actions. ”

After that, he took out five bound schedules from the folder he had brought with him, kept one for himself, and respectfully distributed them to all of you.

"If you don't have an opinion, how about discussing it now?" Sun Yuanqi is also idle now, it is better to arrange his schedule first, and then take advantage of his free time to prepare a few papers, continue to write unfinished textbooks, and also collect some textbooks for universities, middle schools, and primary schools, and use them when he returns to China in the future.

No one objected to Sun Yuanqi's proposal. However, judging from the reactions of each person to the schedule, it can be seen that they seem to know the content inside and out; Only Sun Yuanqi opened the schedule and read it carefully. On the side, Mr. Hough detailed the specifics of each activity:

"Professor Johnson, do you need a break? …… Don't need it? Well, all the arrangements start tomorrow. ”

"Tomorrow morning, the main thing is to sort out your student file and re-issue your degree certificate, and there will be a ...... In the afternoon, the main tour of the campus is arranged......

The morning after tomorrow, the alumni association arranged a speech for all teachers and students in the school. You know that a young and promising alumnus will set a good example for the students in the school and spur them to better serve the school and society......"

"Starting July 25th, there will be a two-week workshop, and of course, the length of time is up to you. The details of the seminar will be discussed with you by Professor Aix......"

"On the last day, the alumni association has a farewell dinner that I hope you will be able to attend. ……”

"That's the general arrangement, do you have any questions?"

Sun Yuanqi looked at the schedule for a while, and felt that he was relaxed and left enough time for himself, and he was not too tired, so he nodded: "Mr. Hough, your arrangement is perfect, I don't have any doubts." After a pause, he turned to Professor Aix and said, "Mr. Aix, if you may, can you tell me a little bit about the seminar?" ”

"Yes, Professor Johnson." Professor Ax, who is nearly 60 years old, has a very good mind of "a master is a teacher", so he gave enough respect to Sun Yuanqi, who is only in his twenties in front of him: "We have found from recent academic journals that you are at the forefront of the world in the research of physics, chemistry and other natural sciences, so the members of this seminar are mainly faculty members and graduate students from various departments of natural sciences at Yale University, as well as some outstanding undergraduates, and I hope you can spend about two weeks to introduce the latest scientific developments to them." The seminar is an open-ended discussion, where you choose a topic and outline in advance, go back and prepare for two days, and then discuss it in class. Of course, you will be the one who will lead the seminar. Each session lasts about two to three hours. INTERVIEWER If I could, I would like to get the topic of the first discussion today. ”

Sun Yuanqi looked at the straightforward Aix, and felt that this old gentleman was really a pure scholar, so he got up immediately, took out the outline prepared during the lecture at the American Chemical Society a few days ago from his schoolbag with his voice, and handed it to him: "This is the outline, which should be enough for more than two discussions, if you want to determine the topic, the first time is called 'atomic structure', and the second time is called 'principle of chemical reaction'." ”

Ax nodded and solemnly put away his speech.

Thus, the meeting had come to an end, and Mr. Mace Gerald, who had not spoken, suddenly said, "Professor Johnson, your expenses in New Haven will be covered by the Yale University Alumni Association. The salary for the seminar will be paid at the rate of $100 per hour. ”

Oh! It turned out that this one was the one who paid for it.

According to the habit of the Chinese, at this time it should be said: "Oh, how can you break the bank?" How embarrassing! However, when Sun Yuanqi started at the University of San Francisco, he began to be responsible for room and board by various units; When they arrived in New York, the American Chemical Society paid a lot of money for the time after the lecture in addition to the cost of room and board. Now, Yale is just following the rules, what else does Sun Yuanqi have to say? So, just say "thank you".

After that, everything went well: the next day, July 23, Yale University awarded Sun Yuanqi a Master of Science degree, in other words, Sun Yuanqi became a graduate of Yale. Built on July 25 in 1750 on the Old Campus, it is the oldest building at Yale University in the quintessential Georgian style. Now, in this lecture hall, a Chinese face the pride of the United States, pointing out the rivers and mountains, and inspiring words, while their teacher sits in the front row and nods while writing down something on paper. Then came the third lecture and the fourth lecture......

On the morning of August 2, the day of the fifth lecture, entitled "The Relationship between Radiation Intensity and Wavelength of Light," the same paper he published in Science last year. Sun Yuanqi believes that many people here must have read that paper, and it is estimated that all those who have read it have scoffed at the term "energy nurture". Even so, Sun Yuanqi still has to mention it, after all, this is the first time that the "quantum hypothesis" has appeared on the university podium, which is of symbolic significance.

Just as he was talking, there was a "squeak-" sound, and someone pushed open the door of the lecture hall and interrupted Sun Yuanqi's speech. For a moment, everyone's eyes were drawn to the door, but it was a man dressed as a postman standing timidly.

Could it be that this postman is also a lover of physics? Sun Yuanqi thought to himself. In order to avoid embarrassment to the people at the door, he immediately beckoned: "Please come in." ”

The postman shrunk his neck before he said carefully, "Mr. Yank Johnson...... Are you there? ”

Looking for your own? Sun Yuanqi felt a little surprised: "I am, what's the matter?" ”

"There's a telegram, please sign for it." The postman probably saw the scene clearly: a young Asian standing on a podium, giving a lecture to three generations of Americans, old, middle and young. Do you have classes? It's weird!

"Oh, okay." Sun Yuanqi walked out the door, took the telegram and began to sign. The telegram was sent from California, and when I looked closely, I realized that it was from Professor John Martin of UC Berkeley, and the content was simple:

"The alchemy experiment was a success, details will be communicated later."

Even if the experiment with clear results in the physics book is now successful through his own "guidance", the excitement in his heart is still inevitable.

Prior to 1969, Yale was only male and has only coeducational. Therefore, the synagogue was full of men with a strong desire to learn. The moment Sun Yuanqi went out, everyone couldn't suppress their curiosity and began to discuss, not knowing whether to discuss the topic just mentioned, or whether they cared about the content of Sun Yuanqi's telegram.

Sun Yuanqi walked into the podium, and everyone consciously stopped talking and stared at Sun Yuanqi, as if they wanted to peek into the problem of the telegram from their expressions. As the moderator of the seminar, Professor Aix felt compelled to stand up and ask, "Professor Johnson, is there something wrong?" Need to take a break now? ”

"No, thank you." Sun Yuanqi raised the telegram in his hand, "The telegram was sent by Professor John Martin of UC Berkeley, telling me that an important experiment was successful. In this way, we will need to make some adjustments to the next project - the original 'relationship between mass and energy' is a bit too esoteric, and it has not yet been accepted by everyone, well, in fact, I am the only one who thinks so. ”

There was a chuckle below.

"Now, Professor Martin at UC Berkeley has experimentally proved a reaction model that I proposed, so I can rest assured that I can discuss it with you, because it has been proven correct by experiments. The topic is tentatively 'Modern Alchemy', and the outline will be told to you in a moment. Sun Yuanqi decided to use a gimmick to attract everyone's interest. Sure enough, even the well-educated gentlemen below began to talk to each other.

Satisfying everyone's appetite, Sun Yuanqi did not go any further, put the telegram in his hand on the podium, and continued the previous narration: "Okay, just now we talked about the 'ultraviolet disaster', and from what we just said, we know that all of them are the results of rigorous deduction under the framework of classical physics. But is this the right result? Obviously, this is a ...... that does not correspond to the results of the experiment."

The next morning, Sun Yuanqi was preparing the next day's speech in the hotel when there was a knock on the door.

When I opened the door, there were three people standing outside the door, two of whom Sun Yuanqi knew, and it was strange if they didn't know each other, Mr. Justin Hough, assistant to the principal, and Mr. John Ax, a professor of physics, who had just come a few days ago, and the last one I didn't know, but I was familiar.

The man looked at Sun Yuanqi looking at himself, smiled and stretched out his hand: "Professor Johnson, I am Professor of Chemical Engineering at Yale University, Benjamin Freeman. We've seen it at the workshop. ”

Oh, no wonder it looks familiar. Warmly shook hands, and then let the three of them into the house.

As soon as he entered the room, the young Mr. Hough immediately warmly congratulated Sun Yuanqi: "Congratulations, Professor Johnson. Professor Martin's experiments fully prove the correctness of the nuclear reaction theory you have discovered. This is an important step in the development of the natural sciences, in which you undoubtedly played a decisive role. Your alma mater, Yale University, is honored and proud of you! ”

The sedan chair was carried by everyone. Sun Yuanqi had to cheer up and socialize with them. Sure enough, just like "the monkey can't hold the peach in his mouth" and "the dog kennel can't hide the overnight steamed bun", similarly, this group of Yankees can't hold the words in their stomachs. After a few words, Comrade Hough explained his intentions: "President Smith McCal would like to meet with you to discuss cooperation—"

"Cooperation?" Sun Yuanqi has even seen figures at the level of vice premiers in the Qing Dynasty, and he will definitely not have stage fright at this time; There is no resistance to meeting with the principal, but when it comes to "cooperation", some monks are confused.

Sun Yuanqi's questioning sentence made the three Yale faculty members present a little sneering. Mr. Hough was a young man with a strong ability to resist blows and recover, and immediately replied: "Although Yale is known for its humanities, its style of emphasizing both the arts and sciences has also produced many world-class scientists, such as David Bushnell, the scientist who invented the submarine and torpedo in 1755......"

Yale University is famous for its humanities, arts, history, and law disciplines, and its law school, music school, and art school are second to none in the United States, but Yale's science and engineering programs are relatively weak among the first-class universities in the United States, and of course, they are not so bad that they are useless. In Sun Yuanqi's impression, Ernest Lawrence, who won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the world's first high-energy particle accelerator, the cyclotron, seems to be a Yale graduate.

It seems that Sun Yuanqi's unintentional words hit the sadness of the Yale people, thinking that he could not look down on their scientific research capabilities. At the moment, the only way to change the subject is: "As a Yale graduate, I really want to help my alma mater achieve some development in the field of science, but I don't know much about what Mr. Hough means by 'collaboration'." ”

In this way, the expressions of the three of them were slightly natural. Mr. Hough continued to answer questions: "On the question of how to cooperate, President McCarl would like to meet with you. Principal McKar hopes that the sooner the better, such as this afternoon......"

"Then this afternoon." Sun Yuanqi seemed to have an idea in his heart.

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