Chen Muwu, who did not understand Russian, had no idea that such a wonderful little theater was being staged at this table in the canteen of Lezhigrad University.
Kapitsa, who was watching the whole process, actually saw Landau's "arrogance at first and respect at the end".
He didn't want to lose face in front of his friends, but when he saw Chen Muwu in person, he immediately behaved respectfully.
Kapitsa really wanted to translate this episode to his good friend, but it seemed inappropriate in this situation, and there was no time for him to interrupt.
In order to pay tribute to Landau, Chen Muwu mentally graded the future fame of the three young men in front of him.
Langdao was like thunder, Gamov had heard about it, and Ivanenko knew a thing or two.
The reason why I say this is a tribute to Landau is because he is a real rating enthusiast.
Landau once used operators in mathematics to divide physicists around the world into four categories.
The first type is the Laplacian operator, whose symbol is a triangle with the tip pointing upward, △.
This triangle is very vivid, representing the kind of physicists who are smart and can sit still, that is, they can endure loneliness and do research, such as Einstein and Bohr.
The second type is the D'Alembert operator, whose symbol is a square, □.
This one represents people who are stupid but can sit still, such as some physics teachers at Moscow State University.
The third category is a diamond, which represents people who are smart but can't sit still and can't bear loneliness, such as Landau himself.
The fourth category is the Nebra operator, whose symbol is a Dan triangle, ▽, which is exactly the same as the Laplacian operator upside down.
By analogy, this symbol represents a stupid and restless person, such as Ivanenko.
Is Ivanenko really stupid?
Not necessarily.
But because he was a good friend, he later broke up with Landau due to political reasons. From then on, he naturally became the object of ridicule by this vicious genius, allowing himself to forever play the image of a fool in this physics joke. .
Chen Muwu also learned about Ivanenko from this joke, and met him today at Lezhigrad University.
The subsequent fate of these three friends is really sad. Gamov left for a foreign country, while Landau and Ivanenko stayed in the country and had no contact with each other until they died.
It is said that Gamov liked to travel abroad because he was influenced by Kapitsa.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Sulian had a slang term called "Kapitsa State", which referred to a small group of people like Kapitsa who held Sulian passports but lived abroad.
Gamow felt that he was as smart as Kapitsa, so he should not be trapped in the barren physics environment at home, but should go to various foreign physics academic centers to study with the most famous physicists in the world. Research.
Therefore, under the double guarantee of his teacher Professor Joffe and Professor Langevin, chairman of the foreign conference and member of the French Communist Party, Gamow was able to go abroad to attend the Solvay Conference and never returned.
Landau's love of dividing people into grades doesn't stop there.
One of his most famous scores is probably the "Landau Genius Scale" named after his surname.
He divided people, or just physicists, into five levels from 0 to 5 on a logarithmic scale. The physicists at each level made greater contributions to physics than the physicists at the next level. ten times.
On this genius scale, Newton, the founder of physics, has a rating of 0, Einstein has a rating of 0.5, and Bohr, Heisenberg, Dirac, Schrödinger, Fermi and others have a rating of 1.
Landau gave himself a ranking of 2.5 at first. After he achieved a certain academic status in the Soviet Union, he raised it to 2. It was not until he won the Nobel Prize in Physics after the car accident that he finally set himself a ranking of 1.5.
Although he always gives people a very arrogant feeling, Landau will still show a very humble attitude when facing such senior physics.
Not only did he put science on a logarithmic scale, he also did the same for women's looks: from first highest to fifth lowest, a kind of night-and-coffee-style scoring system.
Fortunately he lived in that era and was not Chinese, otherwise...
According to Landau's genius scale, Chen Muwu in his previous life might not even be rated at the lowest 5 points.
Because even if you get 5 points, you are still a physicist, but you have made "pathological" contributions to the development of physics.
I wonder where Landau would rank himself in this life?
Chen Muwu was a little curious.
After greeting each other, Kapitsa followed Gamov to get food. Chen Muwu sat on the chair next to Landau and Ivanenko, staring at each other.
He didn't speak any Russian, and the other two's English skills were limited to making gestures and guessing, which was worse than not speaking at all.
It wasn't until Kapitsa came back from cooking that the atmosphere at the table relaxed with the presence of such a pistachio.
Chen Muwu followed the teachings of his ancestors: "Don't speak when you eat, and don't speak when you sleep". He didn't speak much during the whole meal.
Mainly because there was nothing to say. He didn't know at first that the one against five in the classroom was actually Gamow.
Chen Muwu, who originally wanted to communicate with him, lost interest. He didn't want to get too close to such a person who liked backstabbing.
While eating, Chen Muwu was thinking about how to take Landao out of Sulian.
How about organizing an exam at the end of the lecture, and then telling the Surian Academy of Sciences and Lezhigrad University that you like this student very much and hope to bring him to your side?
But in this case, there is no guarantee that Landau will be the first in the exam. If Gamov takes the first, he himself will want it or not.
Taking Gamow abroad means that his guarantor has changed from Yofei and Langevin to Chen Muwu himself.
If he still follows the old path this time and stays abroad and is unwilling to return to China, he will be the one who breaks the trust of the Soviet government.
Alas, it would be great if Landau also attended his lectures, so that he could legitimately say that he found a young man he liked very much in class and hoped to take him to the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University. .
By the way, why didn't he attend his lecture today?
Chen Muwu, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked this question.
Kapitsa originally wanted to answer him directly, because Landau had already answered the same question from Gamov just now.
But he mischievously translated Chen Muwu's question into Russian, hoping to see what kind of answer this tough-looking young man would give when asked the same question by different people.
After listening to Kapitsa's words, Landau's face did not turn red and his heart did not beat, and he gave a completely different answer than before.
"Dr. Chen, in order to listen to your lecture, I took the overnight train back to Lezhigrad from Baku last night. I was tired from the journey and I couldn't get up this morning. I'm really sorry."
At the end of the sentence, there was even a hint of guilt on his face, and Ivanenko beside him nodded calmly.
Kapitsa, who suppressed a smile, told Chen Muwu exactly what Landao said.
The lunch was so dull that Gamow thought that Chen Muwu had understood what Landau had just said to him, so he looked unhappy and remained silent.
After leaving the cafeteria and saying goodbye to the Three Musketeers at Legegler University, Kapitsa couldn't help but completely relay Landau's two different answers to Chen Muwu.
I'm sorry that Langdao's sincere apology just now was all a lie to him.
However, what he said is not unreasonable. The early atomic model is indeed outdated, and you can find more detailed answers in any textbook of a university physics department.
Landau only complained to Gamow, but he changed his words to himself, which showed that he still respected him in his heart.
You must know that Landau has said even more extreme things when facing other people.
Dirac put forward the hypothesis of positrons, and Bohr sent a telegram to Landau asking for his opinion. In the reply, Landau only wrote one word, "nonsense".
Einstein was not immune to Landau's vicious words. After one of his lectures, the host asked the audience if they had any questions.
Without permission, Landau stood up from his seat and said that Professor Einstein was not that stupid, but his second equation could not strictly exit from the first equation.
Einstein later looked at his blackboard and thought for a long time, and finally said sorry to everyone: What the young man behind him said is absolutely correct. Please forget everything I said today.
The only person who can cure Landau's arrogance is Pauli, who is even worse than him.
Once Landau went to Zurich to give a lecture, and as a local host, Pauli also appeared at the lecture.
Landau behaved very humbly during that speech. After the speech, he unusually walked to the audience and told Pauli that what he had just said might be wrong.
Pauli also comforted others for a rare occasion: "Oh, please don't worry, it's absolutely not the case. What you said is really a mess. I can't tell what is right and what is wrong."
Chen Muwu felt that it was pretty good that he could get this kind of evaluation from Lang Dao.
He was just not sure whether it was because Landau respected him, or because Landau was just a student who was just beginning to get a glimpse of physics and had not yet mastered the ultimate secret of antagonizing others.
Starting from the next day, Landau appeared on time in the classroom where Chen Muwu lectured every morning, and sat in the first row every time.
Kapitsa, who was in charge of the translation work, didn't understand why Chen Muwu had a soft spot for this prickly man who had deceived him. He would call Landau up every now and then to answer questions.
After giving lectures every morning, in the afternoon, the staff of Lezhigrad City would always invite Chen Muwu to visit different places in the city, such as factories, power plants, printing plants...
Once, Chen Muwu was even invited to the telephone exchange room. Only after arriving did he discover that the person responsible for production, maintenance and training of wiring workers was the Ericsson company he had previously suggested to the Wallenberg family to acquire.
The Soviet side's move may be to let Chen Muwu help publicize the true situation in Sulian after he leaves, so that countries in the world, especially in Europe and the United States, will no longer portray them as a country of red terror.
Chen Muwu didn't have much hope for this. Even if he gave up all scientific research after returning to the UK and traveled around, there would only be one result in the end, and that was that it would be useless.
Before him, Russell and Wells had both visited Soviet Russia, and both had carried out the propaganda tasks entrusted to them by the Soviet Union.
But to the end of the propaganda, the relationship between Britain and the Soviet Union is still tense and on the verge of severing diplomatic relations.
The visit was a visit, but Chen Muwu decided that he would never touch this problem after arriving in the UK, and would only talk about it in a small area.
Daring to speak favorably for Britain's public enemy Su Lien at Cambridge University will only make Balfour settle old and new scores. Even the Duke of York may not be able to protect him this time.
Chen Muwu arranged his second lecture at Sulian Academy of Sciences for the last few days of his trip.
This is because officials from the Swedish consulate in Legegrad came to visit again and said that their Crown Prince also wanted to attend this lecture and had decided to advance his departure date.
Legegler would neither refuse Chen Muwu's reasonable request nor the Swedish side, so the change of lecture time was quickly approved by the Surian Academy of Sciences.
Chen Muwu also took the opportunity to ask Yofei if he could take a few students to study abroad at Cambridge University when he returned, just like his beloved disciple Kapitsa.
Yofei did not readily agree. He only asked him to make a list and then report it to the leaders of the Academy of Sciences. He would not be able to give a specific answer until some time later.
Chen Muwu knew that what they had to do during this period of time was to investigate the three generations of Landau's ancestors.
If any doubts were found, Chen Muwu might pass by Sulian again on his return journey, and he would never see Landau again.
However, he was quite confident about this matter. If Landau could go abroad in 1929, then he should be fine in 1926 as well.
Oppenheimer "must be true to his words and be resolute in his deeds." He drove Chen Muwu to "cross the sea and conquer the east" from the United Kingdom to Soviet Union during his last few days in Legegler.
Arriving in Legegrad with him was the Crown Prince of Sweden.
A very grand welcome ceremony was held in the port of Legegrad to welcome the arrival of Prince Gustav.
Although he is not the head of a country, he is also the prince of the country. Su Lian will never let go of anyone's goodwill towards him now.
The Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs specially sent senior officials to Lezhigrad, and held a grand welcome dinner on the first night of the Swedish Crown Prince's arrival.
As a good friend of Prince Gustav and his companion on the next journey, the Swedish Consulate also sent Chen Muwu an invitation letter to the dinner.
After a series of welcomes and speeches, Chen Muwu thought he could have a solid meal, but then his appetite was interrupted by a short yellow man wearing a suit and tuxedo, holding a wine glass and walking towards him.
(End of chapter)
