If you stay in Europe for a long time, you will find that the area here is really small, especially if you don’t count Russia’s land, Europe is only more than 4 million square kilometers, and it is divided into so many countries. Without the European Union, it will be Really clueless.
We took a train from Berlin and arrived in Amsterdam within a day. As soon as we got off the train, Lu Bicheng asked a question that many Chinese people in the Netherlands would have: "Why is the Russian flag planted here?"
Li Yu definitely couldn't laugh at her, because he couldn't tell the difference clearly.
The national flags of the two countries are so similar.
More than 100 years later, in 2015, the Turks protested against Russia and originally wanted to smash their embassy, but they made a mistake and smashed the Dutch embassy.
What the Dutch consul later said on social platforms was very funny: "Tonight, the angry Turkish people made a mistake again and are throwing eggs at us!"
This word "again" is very essential!
Only die-hard Dutch fans seem to know the difference best.
Since Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands has sent a letter, the first stop must be to go to the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
This royal palace has recently been decorated and was formerly the city hall of Amsterdam.
Most royal palaces in Europe are very luxurious, but compared with some palaces in China, the internal area is not particularly large.
Queen Wilhelmina summoned Li Yu and Lu Bicheng in the main hall. When the two entered, Lorenz, Peter Zeeman and Fantov, three people who had won the Nobel Prize, were waiting. Besides the Three Musketeers, Onnes And van der Waals was also present.
Fantoff won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the first year of 1901, but the Three Musketeers were so dazzling that many people didn't even know about him.
The Queen had not yet arrived, so Li Yu first enthusiastically shook hands with several scientific seniors and paid tribute.
In the early years, the Netherlands still had quite a scientific background, such as Huygens and Leeuwenhoek, who were at the same time as Newton. However, there was a hiatus for a long time, until Lorenz and others appeared again.
Soon, Queen Wilhelmina and her husband, Duke Hendrik, arrived.
Queen Wilhelmina is 24 years old, only three years older than Lu Bicheng, and looks very young.
Half a step behind her is her husband, Duke Hendrik. It has to be said that it is a bit embarrassing to be the Queen's husband. Duke Hendrik repeatedly claimed that being a royal concubine was noisy, unseemly, and without any power.
After Queen Wilhelmina took her seat, everyone bowed to her.
Wilhelmina said in fluent English: "I have long heard that these two people from the mysterious East are unusual. It is true."
In Europe, even in later generations, the English level of the five Nordic countries is very high, and the accent is even better than that of many British people.
After all, it is a small country, and it is 100% necessary to know several foreign languages.
Queen Wilhelmina can not only speak Dutch and English, but also French, Latin, and German. Considering that many of Li Yu's articles are written in English, she chose English.
Li Yu knew very well that this was out of respect for him, otherwise the Queen should still speak her native Dutch or French in formal occasions.
Li Yu said respectfully: "Thank you Queen for your appreciation."
Lu Bicheng bowed slightly and returned a Chinese court salute.
Queen Wilhelmina said: "Nowadays, the deeds of these two people are being circulated everywhere. They are the proud sons of heaven in the scientific world and the pink lightning in the literary world."
Okay, two more words.
The Queen continued: "I specifically asked Mr. Fantov and Mr. Lorenz about Mr. Academician's scientific achievements, and both of them commented on you as amazing."
Li Yu said modestly: "Senior has given me too much praise."
The Queen said: "Eight years ago, the thousand-year-old Li Hongzhang from your country visited our country. The appearance of him and his many entourages left a deep impression on me. It is a pity that I cannot leave the Netherlands at will, otherwise I would like to go to the East."
To Chinese ears, Queen Wilhelmina's name for Li Hongzhang is a bit strange, but they think that the emperor is Long Live, and Li Hongzhang is the most powerful person under the emperor, so there is nothing wrong with calling him a thousand years old. At that time, the welcome ceremony for Li Hongzhang was very grand. Fireworks were even used to form the words "Thousand-year-old Li Hongzhang" in the air, which amazed Li Hongzhang.
Li Yu said: "The East has a splendid culture. If you can't go there, the queen can still learn something about it through books."
The Queen nodded: "Yes, I already have such an idea. The starting point is the Star Wars series for both of us."
Li Yu smiled and said: "The description of Eastern culture in this series is still a bit poor."
"After all, it has aroused my interest," the Queen added. "We in the Kingdom of the Netherlands have always attached great importance to science. If you are willing, sir, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences is willing to grant you the position of foreign academician."
"This is my honor." Li Yu said.
Of course he couldn't refuse, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences has much fewer foreign academician awards than the British Royal Society. The ones awarded are all at the level of great gods like Marie Curie, Einstein, and Planck.
Later, the queen took out a medal and gave it to Li Yu, and took another one and gave it to Lu Bicheng.
Medals are relatively common and are mainly for the public. The Dutch royal family has donated nearly 3,000 pieces in total.
Medals also have levels, which are divided into the high-level Order of the Lion and the ordinary-level Order of Nassau, both of which are subdivided into three smaller levels.
What the Queen presented to Li Yu was the Commander-level Medal of the Intermediate Level of the Order of the Lion.
Lu Bicheng is a knight in the middle class of the Order of Nassau.
These two medals are quite memorable.
After the ceremony, the queen took Li Yu and Lu Bicheng to visit the gorgeous palace, and showed several Rembrandt paintings from the royal collection.
Then comes the grand state banquet.
The state banquet in the Netherlands is typically "small but exquisite" and not as varied as in France.
There are only four dishes in total, and the names are very fancy. A simple translation is soup, filet mignon, baked potatoes and dessert.
Of course, this kind of solemn Western food is more of a ceremonial nature. Except for a few countries, the food is just that.
——
The next day, Li Yu went to Leiden University to attend the scientific seminar organized by Lorenz.
Several scientific leaders were present. Although Fantov won the Nobel Prize a year earlier than Lorenz, he still regarded Lorenz as the leader of Dutch science.
Lorenz said to Fantoff: "No need to deliver milk today?"
Fantof smiled and said, "I stopped giving it away a long time ago."
In the early days, Fantoff was not very wealthy, so he worked part-time delivering milk to nearby communities.
Even when he won the Nobel Prize in 1901, the newspaper report included a sketch about Fantov's milk delivery. As a result, Fantoff the Milkman and Fantoff the Chemistry Prize have become deeply ingrained in people's minds and have become a good story.
Although Fantov is not very famous, he is by no means an ordinary person. However, the reason for winning the Nobel Prize in 1901 was not related to his more well-known space chemistry.
It is said that the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was also awarded to the field of space chemistry.
To put it simply, it was Fantov who first proposed that molecules have a three-dimensional structure. For example, the carbon atoms that make up the human body spread out four chemical bonds; and the three-dimensional structure of diamond makes it so hard, etc.
In the eyes of future generations, this matter is as simple as common sense. However, even the existence of molecules has not been thoroughly proven more than a hundred years ago, so it is not easy to propose such a theory.
After Li Yu took his seat, Lorenz was surprised: "Miss Bicheng didn't come?"
"She doesn't seem to have gotten up yet," Li Yu said, scratching his head, "and she doesn't understand profound science, so she couldn't get a word in when she came."
"It seems?" Peter Seiman wondered, "Why do you say it seems like? Don't you know whether you got up or not?"
Li Yu said: "I definitely don't know."
"Definitely!" Peter Seiman became even more confused, and then opened his mouth wide, "Could it be that..."
Li Yu explained: "We are not husband and wife."
After saying this, the whole audience was shocked: "Impossible! Unreasonable! It shouldn't be!"
Li Yu was a little overwhelmed by the series of three, but after thinking about it carefully, he should handle this matter when he returns to China, otherwise there will be too many misunderstandings, and it will not be good for the family of a girl like Lu Bicheng; besides, cough cough!
At this time, it is better to change the topic first. Li Yu said: "Professor Onnes, I heard that you are setting up a cryogenic laboratory?"
Onness said: "Yes, Professor van der Waals and I are ready to challenge absolute zero."
Li Yu said: "I think what the two professors want to achieve is the liquefaction of helium, right?"
This is a matter in the field of thermodynamics. Li Yu's two famous early papers were about thermodynamics, and they were very important. Therefore, everyone naturally believed that Li Yu had great attainments in classical physics, especially thermodynamics.
Onness said: "Sir, you are right, but this is not an easy task."
Li Yu said: "If there is a chance, we can work together to do low-temperature experiments."
Onnes is quite short of manpower, and research on low temperature exists in many places, which is not unusual. He said: "I would like to, but this is a somewhat dangerous experiment. Even some of my students Not willing to participate.”
Li Yu said: "It doesn't matter. If there is no danger at all, science will be a smooth road."
Onnes gave a thumbs up: “Your Excellency’s spirit of exploration is admirable.”
Onness won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1913 for his discovery of superconductivity.
It's somewhat of a coincidence.
And at the beginning, superconductivity was not the key. The most troublesome thing was preparing liquid helium. With the low temperature of liquid helium, many low-temperature physical phenomena can be discovered.
It can be said that superconductivity is the last highlight of classical physics.
The most effective way to achieve low temperatures is liquid gas, and currently, there is only one gas left in the world that is not liquefied: helium.
As early as six years ago, Dewar, the British Chemistry Prize winner, successfully completed the liquefaction of hydrogen, the penultimate gas, at an astonishing temperature of minus 260 degrees Celsius, or 13K.
And liquid helium is as low as 4K.
Although the difference between the two is only 9K, it is a great challenge for current physics.
The entire physics community is paying attention.
In fact, even if superconductivity had not been discovered, the Nobel Committee would have awarded Onnes a medal solely for his contribution to the preparation of liquid helium.
As for Li Yu, he naturally wanted to attack superconductors.
The reasons are, first, Onness only discovered superconductivity, which is the phenomenon of the sudden disappearance of metal resistance.
But low-temperature physics goes far beyond superconductivity. The most typical one is complete diamagnetism, which is how magnetic levitation comes about.
Even diamagnetism is more meaningful for future applications.
Therefore, after Onnes proposed superconductivity, Li Yu could then propose complete diamagnetism, which is indeed a discovery that can win the Nobel Prize.
Furthermore, Li Yu was more familiar with superconductivity, because before Li Yu traveled through time, China's research on superconductivity was indeed very strong.
As mentioned above, sometimes the Nobel Prize is awarded too early. Otherwise, China's Zhao Zhongxian could have won a Nobel Prize for high-temperature superconductivity (only one year behind, which is a pity).
Li Yu wanted to lay the foundation for domestic research on superconductivity early to help him win the Nobel Prize.
It's just that this matter will be relatively late, not until the late 1980s, by which time Li Yu may no longer be alive.
But there are several similar characters, and since Li Yu traveled through time in the recent Republic of China, he must help them win the Nobel Prize.
Establishing as many scientific figures as possible will be of great benefit to the early take-off of domestic education and science and technology.
