From spring to summer, Sun Yuanqi's days were as plain as water. During the day, classes are given to students in different grades of primary and secondary schools. In the evening, the students of Chongshi Middle School will come to discuss various issues while sorting out the lecture notes for class. Sometimes, it is just small talk, and many students regard "Mr. Sun" as a "bosom sister" and "all-knowing doctor", and discuss all issues with him, from study to life, from the past to the future. In the eyes of the students, there is no problem that can stump Mr. Sun, who can always see through all the fog and see the essence of things.

Only in the dead of night is that it is your own time. Sun Yuanqi would hide in his study alone, correct homework, write lecture scripts and teaching materials, sometimes answer letters from foreign scholars, and most importantly, sort out everything in his memories of that world, from physics, mathematics, chemistry, to electronics, computers, and even all kinds of important things that can be remembered. Until late at night.

Because time flies too quickly, Sun Yuanqi feels that he has integrated into this chaotic era, and the century in which he has lived for more than 20 years is not getting closer and closer, but getting farther and farther away. Parents, girlfriends, classmates, teachers...... The figure that used to hover in dreams has gradually blurred. He was terrified that he would forget about that life as a dream and lose himself completely. Only through constant reminiscences and non-stop records can we barely keep a sense of sobriety.

After solving the problem of food and clothing in this world, Sun Yuanqi tried to integrate into the absurd years in front of him on the one hand; On the other hand, he stubbornly stuck his spirit in the original years. In the eyes of those around him, Mr. Sun is approachable and amiable, but also depressed and detached. At any moment, you can find that lonely and depressed look on his face, which is very inconsistent with his youthful appearance.

This melancholy look added to the students' curiosity and admiration for Mr. Sun: why is a young man who is ambitious and successful in his studies so depressed? Is it because of family, or has it seen through everything?

It was not until the end of June that the ordinary life was broken by a pile of mail from the American Legation.

Cruise ships to and from the east and west coasts of the Pacific Ocean return every month, so mail often arrives in piles. Sun Yuanqi's first two papers were full of weight, so some scholars wanted to discuss with him the frontier of physics in this area, and Sun Yuanqi was also happy to reply and always gave good answers. On two or three occasions, many scholars wrote to him, asked him questions, praised him for his great knowledge, and warmly invited him to write articles and even give lectures. For requests in this regard, Sun Yuanqi always politely refused.

In addition to the sample issue and remuneration for the paper "The Functional Relationship between Radiation Intensity and Wavelength of Light" sent by Science, the mail at the end of June also included several letters and a package. Carefully examining the package, it was Rutherford sending it from Canada.

Since I said goodbye to Rutherford in Tianjin, it has been half a year, and there has been no contact between them, I don't know what Rutherford is busy with? Hurriedly opened the package, it was really rich in content, and at the top was a letter written by Rutherford. Sun Yuanqi opened the letter and read it carefully:

Dear York,

Are you okay now?

Although when we parted, I promised to write to you as soon as I arrived in Canada, and the letter was not written until this time and sent to you. First of all, please forgive me for my dishonesty. Hopefully, this letter may bring you some good news to pardon my sins.

My journey was smooth, and the Pacific Ocean was as its name suggests, and I arrived safely in San Francisco, a beautiful city on the west coast of the United States. Thank you very much for that booklet, it is so wonderful that I completely forget the rush and fatigue of the journey. On a ship, on a train, in a horse-drawn carriage, pondering your fascinating arguments, often ignoring the scenery along the way, in fact, your thesis is the best scenery.

When I arrived in the United States, I would sit with professors and scholars from various universities to discuss natural science issues, and your thesis was at the heart of our conversation. Although they were stunned at first—and I suppose I must have looked stupid when I first read my paper—the theory was like a bolt from the blue to the natural scientists who had learned from it, but in the end, they were undoubtedly conquered, and they bowed down to your paper and became faithful to you.

When I arrived in McGill, Canada, I immediately set about preparing experiments to verify the results you envisioned in your paper. This delayed me for more than a month. The final results of the experiment conclusively confirmed your suspicions. Yes, you're right! Suffice it to say that in terms of the knowledge of the periodic table, you have surpassed its inventor, Mr. Mendeleev.

I feel that it is a crime for me to treasure and keep your papers for myself, a grave crime against the natural sciences, which will hinder the development and dissemination of the natural sciences, and will also hide the brilliance of your incomparable genius, which must be made available to many scholars and enthusiasts. That's exactly what I thought. So, without your permission, I can't wait to print it all out, even though I don't know much about the second half of your paper. Here, I hope you can forgive me for being reckless.

Now, I am going to send this paper to the physical societies and chemical societies of various countries, and although it is still unknown, the sensational effect it has caused is predictable. Of these, five are for you, and as the author, you can correct the errors we made in printing so that we can revise them when we reprint them.

However, some reviewers who have read your first two papers have said to me when they see your pamphlet: "YorkJohnson is undoubtedly a fine young physicist, and if he were to write only half of his paper each time, without adding his fantastical conjectures, I would not hesitate to replace 'excellent' with 'excellent' at once." "It's funny, isn't it?

One more thing. My colleagues at McGill University, and especially myself, are very interested in you and would like you to take the time to teach or lecture. What about your opinion?

Well, don't disturb your precious research time. Greetings to the Honourable Mr. Conger on my behalf.

We look forward to your next paper.

Yours

Rutherford

1898.5.20

PS: I saw your paper "Radiation Intensity as a Function of Wavelength of Light" in the latest issue of Science, which is very good. Critics, however, seem to have found another strong corroborative proof.

Sun Yuanqi put down the letter, and sure enough, he saw five books in the package, which were his own papers published by McGill University Press, with "[China] YorkJohnson written on the cover." When you open it, the first half of the paper, almost every page has Rutherford's footnotes. At the end of the first part, a report of Rutherford's experiments is attached. In the second half, Rutherford barely touches a word, presumably because he "doesn't know much about the second half of the paper."

This thin book, when I hold it in my hand, it feels heavy.

Rutherford's deliveries also included several newspapers and magazines with interviews with Rutherford, as well as scholarly comments on Sun Yuanqi's papers or follow-up research. When I opened a random copy, it was the German Journal of Physics, and there was a page in it that was bookmarked by Rutherford. Flipping to that position, the article is in German, I can't read it. Fortunately, Rutherford was very attentive and seemed to know that Sun Yuanqi had never learned German, and had already written the main points in English on his bookmarks:

…… We note that YorkJohnson, a Chinese physicist, has made useful contributions to the study of atomic structure over the past year. His experiments were ingenious and practical, and the results were rigorous and meticulous, and the experimental study of uranium radiation rays and α particle scattering showed the internal structure of atoms, which was an important work. Incidentally, YorkJohnson was the first person to study physics in China and the Far East, and he changed our view of the barren and unproductive academic community in the Far East. Of course, we also have to note that the first half of Johnson's papers are so Elegant; graceful, noble; exquisite), so that people can't be picky; But the second half is so fantastic (utopian, whimsical; Bizarre, outlandish), the whole is subjectivist conjecture without theoretical basis and experimental proof. We solemnly point out here that physics is a rigorous discipline that does not require fantasies and dreams, and is the preserve of poets and poets. ……

After reading this comment, Sun Yuanqi smiled a little heartlessly: This group of strict Germans is really cute! But who would have thought that in another world, Planck was the first to put forward the hypothesis of the energy nurturon, and Planck was a German; Subsequently, Einstein put forward the hypothesis of light quanta, and Einstein was also German.

Another journal was Scientist, which had a reporter interviewing Rutherford, who first mentioned YorkJohnson of IPRT as a young and creative physicist who had done a lot of groundbreaking work.

I looked through the other newspapers and found nothing new, so I packed up the letters, newspapers, periodicals, and books. Prepare to write a reply to Rutherford. I don't know if it's because of the dissatisfaction with the criticism of the Journal of Physics, or the reflection on the current development of classical physics, or the guilt of "plagiarizing" Rutherford's work. In the letter, Sun Yuanqi made a certain critique of classical physics, pointing out the difficulties it faced, in order to stimulate Rutherford's interest in atomic physics.

Dear Mr. Rutherford,

It's a pleasure to hear from you.

It was a privilege for me to get that immature paper into print. Thank you for your hard work in this process.

I have read the magazines and newspapers attached to your letter. I humbly accept the criticism of scholars against me. But these criticisms do not change my view of things in my previous papers, because they are an attempt and effort I have made in the dilemma facing physics.

Yes, physics is now facing a major dilemma, and the impact of classical physics theories on a series of experiments must be given sufficient attention. I believe that far-sighted scientists have realized that in the clear sky of physics, there is a large haze. This is not alarmism. Here, in terms of thermal and photodynamic theory alone, there are two huge dark clouds.

The first dark clouds emerged with the wave theory of light, a theory studied by Fresnel and Thomas Young. It includes the question: How does the Earth move through an elastic solid that is essentially an ether of light? The Michaelson-Morey experiment did not show any flaws in either the conception of the experiment or the implementation of the experiment, and the results of the experiment can be guaranteed to be reliable. So, how exactly should "aether drift" be explained? ……

The second dark cloud is Maxwell-Boltzmann's theory of the equal division of energy. The principle of energy equalization will not only lead to the "ultraviolet catastrophe" that I pointed out in my paper "The Relationship between Radiation Intensity and Wavelength of Light", but also encounter difficulties in the problem of specific heat of gases. According to the principle of energy equalization, it can be deduced that the specific heat of an object is a quantity related to the degrees of freedom of motion of molecules. At room temperature, the experimental and theoretical values are in good agreement with the theoretical values for solid and monoatomic gases. For diatomic and polyatomic gases, the measured values are significantly larger than the theoretical values. ……

The dynamics theory asserts that heat and light are both modes of motion, but the beauty and clarity of this theory are overshadowed by two dark clouds. Regarding these two clouds, for the second, I have published a paper proposing a solution; For the first flower, using the same method, I have come to a more or less credible conclusion, and I think you should be able to read it by the end of this year, early next year.

But in fact, there are far more than "two dark clouds" in the sky of physics, and physics has fallen into a serious crisis, and the storm of physics change is coming. The dilemma facing physics must be solved, and it must be solved. This great and arduous task must be undertaken by the younger generation of physicists. Experiments, experiments, and conjectures are all tools for progress, and we must dare to hypothesize and fantasize, and not be intimidated by criticism from the outside world. The medieval Dante once said, "Go your own way, let others say go!" This should be the motto of the new generation of physicists.

Hope you get better academically!

Yours

York

1899.6.28

Sun Yuanqi's letter, which originated from a long speech delivered by Lord Kelvin on April 27, 1900, was later compiled and published in the July 1901 issue of the Journal of Philosophy and the Journal of Science, entitled "The Clouds of the 19th Century Suspended Over the Theory of Heat and Photodynamics." Kelvin, who has always been known to be conservative, was puzzled but also optimistically predicted: "The dark cloud that obscured the light of the molecular theory of heat and light in the last quarter of the nineteenth century could be made disappear at the beginning of the twentieth century." ”

Yes, shortly after entering the twentieth century, the doctrine of the "wave-particle duality" of light was proposed, thus resolving that annoying dark cloud. But classical physics has also suffered the most serious challenges. In the first three or four decades of the twentieth century, physics made a comprehensive breakthrough, and branches of relativity, quantum mechanics, and particle physics emerged, which brought earth-shaking changes to human life.

Sun didn't pay much attention to the letter, because it was just a daily personal correspondence aimed at encouraging Rutherford, who was far away in Canada, to climb to the pinnacle of physics. In early August, upon receipt of the letter, Rutherford found the guidance to be of great significance, and after making appropriate additions and annotations, he sent it to the Journal of Philosophy, which was published in the September issue.

As a result, everyone is eagerly awaiting another paper by YorkJohnson to see how he solves the "aether drift" problem that has plagued scholars for a long time.

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