Lord Kelvin knew that Li Yu was going to release something new, and immediately asked excitedly: "What do you want to do?"
Li Yu said: "The hot topic right now is about radioactivity and rays."
Lord Kelvin said happily: "A very good topic! I remember the first paper I received from you was about X-rays."
Li Yu said: "What I want to do this time is more complicated. It is a big subject that combines experimentation with theory. Mr. Lord, President Huggins, you must have heard of the term 'Tellus Ray', right?"
Li Yu knew about it by reading the current article while on the ship - it was definitely not because he wanted to learn something, but simply to see how far science had progressed.
Lord Kelvin is a generalist in physics and naturally knows about this hot topic: "I have heard that two years ago, Rutherford wrote an article at McHill University in Canada, dividing the rays of radioactive elements into three categories: α , β and γ. It was also discovered that in addition to radium, polonium and uranium, various rocks and soils also have radioactivity, that is, telluric rays."
Li Yu said mysteriously: "If I tell you, they should not be called earth rays, but come from the universe. What is a more accurate name: cosmic rays?"
President Huggins, who is engaged in astronomy by profession, immediately said: "Impossible! With such a thick atmosphere on the surface, it will definitely absorb all the rays!"
Li Yu said: "The president's concerns are well-founded, but what if the intensity of this ray is greater than ever before? It is so large that it can easily pass through the atmosphere."
President Huggins was speechless for a moment: "But how can we prove that they come from the universe?"
Li Yu said: "So effective experiments are needed to prove this."
In fact, Lord Kelvin didn't really believe it because the idea was too far-fetched, so he said: "If this is really the case, I think the Holy See must be extremely excited, because there is something that is difficult to explain by science. You will not accept it because you want to The Holy See’s inexplicable position as an academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences deliberately conducted such an experiment?”
Li Yu smiled and said: "My Lord, don't worry too much. You are not afraid of other dark clouds, are you?"
Lord Kelvin paused and said, "I'm definitely not afraid. I'm even looking forward to it. If it's dark clouds, let me see a thunderstorm quickly!"
President Huggins said: "If you want to do experiments, you have to go to Cambridge University and use the Cavendish Laboratory. In Lord's honor, and because you are applying for a PhD at Cambridge, they will definitely let you use it. Lu Serfo just came back from Canada this year, and having him there may be of great help."
Li Yu said: "I dared to propose this idea just because I knew he was there."
Lord Kelvin said: "The more I listen, the more interesting it becomes. Let's leave for Cambridge now."
The three of them immediately got in the car and came to Cambridge University.
Thomson, director of the Cavendish Laboratory, saw Lord Kelvin coming again and did not dare to neglect. He smiled and said: "My lord, what experiments do you want to do today? Let me know in advance so that I can prepare for you."
"It was not me who did the experiment, but him," Lord Kelvin said, pointing to Li Yu, "I think even though you have never met, you are not too unfamiliar."
Of course, Li Yu knew the man in front of him who discovered electrons, and said respectfully: "Mr. Thomson, I'm Li Yu."
"You are the legendary Yu Li!" Thomson exclaimed in surprise, "I finally met the real person! If you want to use the Cavendish Laboratory, I will never frown!"
Kelvin smiled on the side and said: "It seems that you have more respect than me."
Thomson invited them into the laboratory. After listening to Li Yu talk about his idea, he said: "I think Rutherford and Richardson in the laboratory are familiar with what you mentioned."
He quickly called the two over.
Richardson's full name is Owen Richardson, who later became a Nobel Prize winner. In the famous photo of the Solvay Conference in 1927, Richardson is sitting on the far right in the first row.
The Cavendish Laboratory is really a scary place, with big bosses gathered there.
But now he is still very young, just an assistant in the laboratory, and his fame is not even as famous as Rutherford (now Rutherford has some minor fame).
At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was not easy to get a position as a professor's assistant.
Richardson was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a fellow of Trinity College two years ago. He was also a young man who showed talent early, so Thomson let him enter the laboratory.
I have to say that Thomson is also a big bole.
And Rutherford in front of Richardson was even more terrifying.
Although Rutherford only won one Nobel Prize in 1908, in chemistry, he was actually eligible to win two more physics prizes.
The alpha particle scattering experiment that was featured prominently in later textbooks was done in 1911 and is definitely eligible for a physics prize.
In 1919, he completed "alchemy" for the first time in human history - obtained new atoms through particle collision, and named the word "proton" for the first time! It is also a Nobel Prize-level achievement in physics.
In addition, he is good at guiding students, and 12 Nobel Prize winners have worked or studied under him. When he was in charge of the Cavendish Laboratory, he was nicknamed the "Nobel Prize Kindergarten".
The "Director" Rutherford's background was very ordinary, coming from a peasant family.
He was born in New Zealand. New Zealand at this time was not a good place, it could be called a wilderness. In fact, it is still sparsely populated in later generations, but the natural scenery is good, otherwise the "Lord of the Rings" series would not have chosen New Zealand as the filming location.
The key point is that although the only Nobel Prize that Rutherford won was the Chemistry Prize, he seemed to have taken few chemistry classes when he was young...
It's really a bit magical.
I went to Rutherford University in New Zealand. The current universities in New Zealand are really not that good. They are not much different from the universities in Qing Dynasty that have just started.
Rutherford majored in mathematics in college and minored in physics.
Because I chose physics, I had to have a graduation project experiment to get my degree. For this reason, Rutherford chose a difficult topic: the influence of high-frequency magnetic fields on metallic iron.
Note that this is just a university graduation project experiment.
Rutherford's articles can now be found on the Internet, and a casual look at them will make you convinced: even though more than a hundred years have passed, I still have to sincerely praise his experimental design level for being ridiculously high.
The graduation topic chosen by Rutherford was probably not answered by many people until the time before Li Yu traveled through time. People who have studied electrodynamics at most may refer to a "skin depth", which means that only a thin layer on the surface of iron is magnetized.
But what is this depth? How many others can speak up?
Rutherford's experimental idea was very clever. He used the dissolution rate of iron in nitric acid. There were many specific details, but it was extremely wonderful.
A hundred years later, in the 21st century, how many college students will be able to come up with such an experimental design after graduation? But Rutherford did it more than a hundred years ago, and he was truly an experimental genius.
He was simply born to do physics experiments. ——Although he actually won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (the laughing and crying expression suits him so well)!
God will always look after those who work hard and are talented.
At that time, the UK happened to have a graduation project funding project: as long as students from the Commonwealth countries obtained the quota, the UK would provide financial subsidies for them to continue their studies at the university of their choice.
This funding program only gives New Zealand one place.
So Rutherford continued to deepen his graduation project, and based on this, he invented a magnetic field detector, later called the "Rutherford Detector", which could measure nanosecond-level current pulses. This kind of precision could only be achieved by Marie Curie's radiation dose test and Michelson's interference experiment at the same time.
You must think Rutherford is firmly in first place, right?
It's a pity that he got second place...
The first place was an old chemist who invented a way to extract gold from minerals using cyanide.
To be honest, if you were a judge, you would also choose him. Who can resist the temptation of gold?
But I never expected it! This old man actually felt that the amount of funding was too small, so he gave up the opportunity to study abroad and became a civil servant!
So don’t think that only Chinese people like to take the public exam...
Then, Rutherford got his spot as the second-place substitute!
This incident was later interpreted into a very famous story:
It is said that in 1895, Rutherford, who was digging potatoes on the farm, received a notification from the University of Cambridge in England, informing him that he had been admitted as a scholarship student at the London International Exposition. After receiving the notice, Rutherford threw down the potato hoe and shouted: "This is the last potato I will dig!"
This paragraph comes from an encyclopedia, but it’s written incorrectly. It’s most likely made up.
Because when Rutherford got on the ship to Europe, he still didn't know whether he was going to a university in England or Germany. He even taught himself German on the ship. After all, Germany's science is really strong at the moment.
However, after arriving in London, he finally felt that Britain was better, at least the atmosphere was more relaxed than Germany, so he stayed at Cambridge University in London and became Thomson's graduate student, one of the earliest graduate students at Cambridge University.
After working as a graduate student for Thomson for two years, Rutherford went to Canada to become a professor at McHill University.
Don’t think that Canada is that good. At this time, Canada is just like New Zealand. It is also a cultural desert and is basically on the same level as the Qing Dynasty.
The reason why it feels better than the Qing Dynasty is because it didn't suffer so many fat beatings, signed so many humiliating treaties, didn't lose so many people, and the population was all European immigrants, that's all.
——
Rutherford and Richardson were equally shocked when they saw Li Yu's arrival. After all, Li Yu had already become famous and became a foreign academician of the Royal Society, a title that both Rutherford and Rutherford envied.
Rutherford said excitedly: "I have read all of Mr.'s works and have benefited a lot!"
Owen Richardson also said: "You and I are of the same age, and we are truly the most eye-catching leaders among our peers!"
Li Yu felt a little embarrassed to be praised by the two Nobel laureates and said with a smile: "You two deserve the prize!"
(End of chapter)
