Chen Muwu wanted to join the experimental group of Kapitsa and Blackett, and of course he had his own thoughts.
In the current physics community, there are still many people who believe that the Chen theory about gamma ray scattering he proposed is not a correct theory.
One of the widely accepted objections is that the experimental phenomenon is simply the result of a statistical average.
Because no matter who is doing this experiment now, they only measure the property changes of gamma rays before and after refraction. No one has ever measured what happened to the electron that collided with the photon after the collision.
If we can find the electrons that were knocked away after the collision, we can completely shut the mouths of people like them.
The most direct way to observe the trajectories of charged particles is to let them pass through the cloud chamber, leave their trajectories and take photos to record them.
In their previous lives, Compton and Wilson also observed the trajectories of recoil electrons in cloud chambers. They used this fact to shut up the people who did not believe in the particle nature of light, and finally shared it. Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.
The Cavendish Laboratory where Chen Muwu now works is not only the place where Wilson invented the cloud chamber, but also standing in front of him is a highly capable experimenter who won the Nobel Prize for improving the cloud chamber. .
So he asked: "Peter, Patrick, can you put down what you are doing and do me a small favor?"
"What are you going to do, Chen?"
"I don't know if you have read the first paper I published, which was the one on gamma ray scattering..."
Chen Muwu paused here for a moment, until he saw the two people opposite him nodding their heads respectively, then he continued: "..., but many people still think this view is ridiculous. I don't know what you two think about this. ?”
Kapitsa has great trust in his new roommate, "I support you, Chen. Now that the experiment has been verified, the facts are like a certainty and irrefutable."
"Peter, I want to correct you. The experiment has indeed verified the theory I proposed, but only part of it. Everyone has focused on the before and after scattering of gamma rays, but no one has noticed the recoil. of electrons.
"I saw you and Patrick conducting experiments using a cloud chamber today, and it suddenly occurred to me that if we could successfully observe the trajectory of this recoil electron using a cloud chamber, we should be able to dispel those who have been shouting, 'Light will never do that. Have the old diehards of Particles shut up?"
Although Kapitsa and Blackett arrived at the Cavendish Laboratory a few years earlier than Chen Muwu, they were still in the rookie stage and did not have access to any sophisticated experimental projects.
Both of them knew that Chen Muwu was now famous in the physics community for proposing a new theory that might be able to determine that light is a particle.
If there are experiments in which they participate, which can further prove the correctness of this theory, can they, like Chen Muwu, rise to the top?
When people are in a weak moment, they will naturally not let go of any life-saving straw that may make them prosperous.
So when Chen Muwu asked the question, "Can the three of us design an experiment and go all out to capture this electron?", the two of them nodded without hesitation.
…
Kapitsa and Blackett were very happy, as was Chen Muwu.
He just moved his words and successfully deceived two free laborers who came to his door.
Chen Muwu planned not to participate in the specific work of this experiment throughout the entire process. After all, the radioactivity of the gamma ray source was no joke. It contained real radioactive elements, radium.
People today are completely unaware of how harmful radioactivity is to the human body.
Instead, everyone believed that the new element called radium discovered by the Curies was a panacea for strengthening the body.
Radium is called "angel ray", "God's light" and "hope for husband and wife harmony".
For men, it can improve thinking ability, relieve stress, refresh the brain, and aphrodisiac; while for women, it can beautify the skin, rejuvenate, and whiten.
The Europeans who had just finished the First World War had little money to buy such high-end gadgets. Instead, their rich country cousin America was rushing to spend a lot of money to buy high-end products containing radium: radium fluorescent watches, which contained radium. Cosmetics, toothpaste containing radium, chocolate containing radium...
The most famous one is a kind of water called radium. Compared with China, which uses all kinds of weird animals, even Ultraman, Godzilla and crazy aliens to brew wine, the bold Americans directly put radium elements into it. Arrived in the water.
The doctors boasted about the radium water, but in fact they only wanted to get the kickback money of up to 17% from the medical representatives.
It was not until a few years later that a wealthy middle-class man named Byers died because of his fanatical superstition of radium water, and the female workers who colored luminous dials in the American radium company fell ill collectively, did the belated Americans finally realize The seriousness of the harm of radium to the human body has been reached.
He stayed in the Cavendish Laboratory, the source of radiation, every day. Although the dose was not large, Chen Muwu felt that he still needed to get a set of lead radiation protection suits as soon as possible.
…
After drawing the big pie, everyone felt like they had a shot of chicken blood.
Kapitsa ran to borrow a gamma ray source, and Blackett was busy continuing to improve the cloud chamber in his hands.
Chen Muwu had other people to visit, so he left the Cavendish Laboratory alone.
Returning to his rented room, Chen Muwu carried the ham he had brought from China, then crossed the Cam River from the Bridge of Sighs and walked north along the river, passing St. John's College. Came to Magdalen College.
Chen Muwu came here not to visit any professor or scholar, but to an acquaintance of the Chen family whom he had never met before.
Just like when he went to Beida University, Chen Muqiao found two old friends, Ma Yuzao and Zhou Zuoren, to help him take care of him. This time Chen Muwu traveled across the ocean to Cambridge, and his eldest brother mobilized various connections to help him in a foreign country. I found another acquaintance who could help each other.
Ye Gongchuo, who once served as the Director-General of the Ministry of Transport and the President of Jiaotong University, was Chen Muwu's old principal when he was a university student in Ozhan, and was also Chen Muqiao's immediate boss at Nanyang University.
Although Ye Gongchuo only served as the principal for one year due to the factional struggle in Beiyang, he and Chen Muqiao still accumulated a good friendship.
Because Ye Gongchuo, who held multiple jobs, often traveled back and forth between Beijing and Shanghai, many matters in the school often had to be handled by Chen Muqiao, the provost.
In addition, Ye Gongchuo's ancestral home is Jiangchen Yao, which is in Linxian County, Qiyu, Chen Muqiao's hometown.
At this time, Tongyao was not under the jurisdiction of Yubo, and was still a county under the jurisdiction of Shaoxing Prefecture. Therefore, there was another layer of friendship between Ye and Chen, and they became closer.
Chen Muqiao found out that Ye Gongchuo had a nephew named Ye Gongchao. 【1】
Ye Gongchao lost his father when he was young and grew up with his uncle. This man was two years younger than Chen Muwu, but he had already studied abroad in 1920. First he went to three private schools in the United States, and then came to the United Kingdom and entered Magdalen College, Cambridge University, to study Western literature.
The ham that Chen Muwu was carrying was what Ye Gongchuo asked him to bring to his nephew after he knew that he was going to Cambridge.
*****
[1] Author's note: Ye Gongchuo and Ye Gongchao's uncle and nephew have already appeared once in Chapter 40 of the previous volume.
