1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 110 Bruce is out of ideas? Einstein becomes a god!

February 1902, 2, according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year is only 1 days away.

Yet in the UK, February is just another month.

After more than half a month, Li Qiwei's popularity finally subsided and people returned to their normal lives.

Whether it is the Nobel Prize or the title of nobility, it will always be the privilege of a few people and is out of reach for most people.

The daily necessities of life, going to work and coming home are their destiny in life.

It is enough to have one or two explosive news occasionally to comfort their ordinary and boring lives.

But for students or scholars in the field of physics, a good era has just begun.

Quantum theory and radioactivity opened up a new research boom, and enrollment in physics departments at many universities doubled.

Inspired by the Nobel Prize, many countries have also begun to pay attention to the reward system for scientific researchers.

Therefore, more people flocked into the field of science, hoping to make a stunning achievement one day and become known to the world.

This is the best era for physics, with various new theories constantly breaking through and surpassing the limits of human imagination of physics.

This is the worst era for physics. A young genius emerges out of nowhere, shining brightly and suppressing everything.

The lifelong work of an ordinary scholar is to save an afternoon for those geniuses.

However, the outcome is uncertain and everyone is a dark horse.

No one wants to be a stepping stone for a genius, but instead swears to step on the genius underfoot.

After all, even if you are a genius, it is impossible to always be at the forefront of physics.

For example, it has been almost a year and a half since Bruce Lee published his quantum theory and the principle of photoelectric effect.

During this period, he simply summarized the results of his predecessors and proposed the wave-particle duality of light.

Although it is also shocking, it has no theory or experiment, so it seems dry and far from worthy of his status.

For ordinary physicists, it is normal not to produce any new results for a year or two.

Even if there is no breakthrough in ten years, it is reasonable.

Physical achievement is not like picking up shells on the beach. You can pick one up just by walking around.

But for Bruce Lee, everyone seemed to agree that he should publish another achievement that would shock the world.

No one took his bold words in his last Nobel Prize speech seriously, thinking that he was young and was joking.

Although the radio that was very popular during that time was also related to him, it was not a breakthrough in physical theory after all.

Everyone had such high expectations of him that the mediocre results failed to excite him at all.

Even if he was conferred a knighthood, it was based on the published physics results.

So until now, Bruce Lee seems to have been academically silent.

We no longer see him publishing ground-breaking papers in Nature.

Many people can't help but sigh: Has Bruce Lee run out of ideas?
Is this generation of physics genius going to stop moving forward and reach his limit?
Some people even secretly rejoiced that the era of me being just an ordinary person is coming.

In the Cavendish Laboratory, Wilson was asking Li Qiwei how he was doing these days.

"Bruce, you should be better now, right?"

"What have you been busy with lately?"

Ridgway said, "I went to visit Lord Kelvin and Lord Rayleigh to thank them for their support in my knighthood."

Wilson suddenly had a bitter face, "Oh, it's really frustrating to compare yourself with others."

"A title? That's something I wouldn't even dream of doing, and yet you got it. I'm so envious."

Li Qiwei patted his back and comforted him, "Well, it's useless. It's just a piece of paper. Not to mention the fiefdom, there's not even any money."

Wilson was speechless, "Boss, just be content. You are a Qing citizen."

"If I really grant you a territory, you will become the public enemy of all British people. I'm afraid you won't dare to ask for it then."

Li Qiwei smiled and said nothing. Who knows, maybe in the future Britain will beg for fiefdom.

Wilson suddenly thought of something and grinned, "Bruce, you have to cheer up and don't let people look down on you."

"Now people are saying that after you won the Nobel Prize and were knighted, you became proud and have no new academic achievements."

"It's been a year and a half since there was a breakthrough, and it's almost two and a half years. That's an ominous number with an inexplicable power."

Li Qiwei had a frown on his face. Jealous people are everywhere.

How come I have become proud and complacent when I haven't achieved any results in just over a year?

Looks like it's time to give you haters a little shock.

University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Today, Einstein is a celebrity at the University of Zurich, and all the teachers and students in the school know his name.

Because he has a close friend who is the winner of the first Nobel Prize in Physics.

He himself was an employee of the Swiss Patent Office, with good pay and easy work, which made him the envy of countless classmates.

In real history, Einstein lived a very difficult life after graduating in 1900 and was unemployed right after graduation.
Not only can he not find a job, he also does not have Swiss citizenship and is considered an “illegal resident”.

Moreover, I wanted to apply to several universities to pursue a doctorate, but all my applications fell into oblivion and I received no response.

In the end, he couldn't find a job and even worked as a middle school teacher.

For him, that was a dark moment, and he felt as humble as an ant.

The situation did not improve until two years later, when he went to work at the Swiss Patent Office through Grossman's introduction.

Then, Einstein continued to cheat until he became a god. Maybe this is the legendary transformation from a god to a mortal.

Only by experiencing the most real and difficult life state as a mortal can one achieve enlightenment.

In 1905, he transformed from a mortal to a god, completing the transition in the realm of life.

However, thanks to Ridgway's arrival, Einstein has long since escaped from the difficulties of life.

But he faced a new test, the test of mortals.

In the laboratory, Einstein's mentor, Professor Kleiner, had a calm expression on his face but a somewhat unfriendly tone.

"Einstein, I took a quick look at the first draft of your paper, "A New Method for Determining the Size of Molecules," and I personally think it is of little value."

"Although you calculated the value of Avogadro's constant based on the viscosity and diffusion rate of the sugar solution, it was three times off from the true value."

"If we use this theory to calculate the radius of a molecule, I think there will be problems."

“So, if this paper is your doctoral thesis, then my evaluation is that it is unqualified.”

call!
Einstein was a little embarrassed. He didn't expect that the paper that was praised by everyone at the young scholars conference would be belittled as worthless by his own mentor.

However, this was not Professor Kleiner's intentional attempt to make things difficult for them. Rather, the people at the meeting at that time were unlikely to be as familiar with the article as Kleiner was. They were just interested in this method.

In real history, Einstein's doctoral thesis was "A New Method for Determining the Size of Molecules", and it was indeed returned by his mentor Kleiner.

Swiss universities were rather strange at that time.

Einstein's undergraduate school was the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. If he wanted to continue to pursue a doctorate after graduation, he had to apply to other schools.

He applied to the University of Zurich, and he often did not go to the laboratory because he had different views with his supervisor.

Kleiner was an experimentalist and he didn't like his students to engage in theoretical research.

But Einstein was born a theoretical physicist, his brain was the most sophisticated laboratory, and all experiments were thought experiments!

Asking him to wear a white coat and do various physics experiments would make him extremely uncomfortable.

So he took a deep breath and asked sincerely and firmly: "Professor, how do you think I can improve my paper?"

Kleiner looked at him and said, "Einstein, I may be a little blunt, I hope you don't mind."

"If you like theoretical physics because of your good friend Bruce Lee, I think you need to think seriously about it."

“Not everyone is suited to pure theoretical research.”

"His level of genius is beyond the imagination of ordinary physicists like us."

"You can idolize him, but you must never pursue unrealistic things."

"Look at your undergraduate thesis, "Inferences from Capillary Phenomena." Isn't that a very good example of research?"

After hearing what Kleiner said, Einstein trembled, but he did not blame his mentor.

Because the students around him all saw him that way. Although everyone envied him, they all thought that he was relying on Bruce Lee's influence.

Humans are complex animals, especially their thoughts.

Classmates also discussed privately that if Einstein and Bruce Lee had not known each other early, they might not have been so lucky.

Because of my paper on the photoelectric effect, the Swiss government specially approved my application for citizenship, which saved me a lot of effort.

After all, Einstein was still a young man, only 23 years old.

Faced with criticism, he was far from being able to remain calm and composed.

Grossmann was not around at this time. He went to the University of Göttingen in Germany to study for a doctorate in mathematics, and his supervisor was the famous Hilbert.

I don’t know how he got there, because at first he found a mentor named French mathematician Poincare, but he didn’t pass the great mathematician’s assessment.

With both of his good friends not around, Einstein could only bear the pressure alone and experience the hardships of being a mortal.

At this moment, he thought of Bruce Lee and recalled that afternoon two years ago.

The quick encounters and greetings on the street seemed destined.

He liked Bruce Lee's smile, which was pure and brilliant, could melt everything, and was without any prejudice.

The other party has obviously achieved achievements that are beyond the reach of ordinary people, but he still treats himself and others the same as before, never arrogant or showing off.

Moreover, he has not forgotten his country and even supports it in public.

This courage and this pure heart deeply moved me.

Einstein smiled, and the knot in his heart was finally untied.

Even someone as great as Bruce Lee had to face countless people who mocked his background and his country.

What do these little setbacks and criticisms of mine matter?

He made up his mind to write the paper on relativity within a month.

Then I said silently in my heart: Bruce, this time, I don’t want to hide behind your footsteps, I want to walk side by side with you!

Professor Kleiner looked at Einstein's constantly changing expressions and thought that his words were a bit harsh.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw the other party suddenly raise his head and chest, and his eyes seemed to burst out with a brilliant light that dazzled him.

Einstein said calmly, "Okay, Professor Kleiner, I understand."

Just a simple sentence.

But it was like a bolt from the blue!

Kleiner's mind went blank after being blown away.

The only chance of his life to go down in history slipped away just like that.

The climax is coming!
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(End of this chapter)