1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 227 Shock! A breakthrough in artificial ammonia synthesis! Is this also related to Bruce?

Chapter 227 Shock! A breakthrough in artificial ammonia synthesis! Is this also related to Bruce?
The physics community in 1909 was immersed in a joyful atmosphere.

Top experts gathered together to point out the direction for physics research.

This move made people in other natural science fields extremely envious.

Breakthroughs in physics seem to have no bottlenecks.

From Newton to Maxwell, now Bruce Lee has emerged.

The building of physics has become taller and more exquisite, becoming a symbol of natural science.

In the field of chemistry, there seems to have been no major breakthroughs since Mendeleev first published his results on the periodic table of elements in 1869.

Madame Curie's radioactivity can be counted as one.

But even if we add radioactivity, it is still far from comparable to physics.

Therefore, when Solvay invited chemists to prepare for the first Solvay Conference, many people were not interested.

With the Bruce Conference as a precedent, what is there to pay attention to in an unappreciated chemistry conference?

However, just one month after the first Bruce Conference, countless people were still shocked by physics.

A result that shocked everyone in the world even more was published.

On December 1909, 12, a paper was published on the cover of Nature magazine.

The author is Fritz Haber, professor of chemistry at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany (Chapter 79).

The paper uses a large amount of experimental data to prove that the team led by Haber successfully achieved the great human feat of producing ammonia from the air.

Although it is currently synthesized in the laboratory, the method has been verified to be completely correct.

Haber even publicly declared that industrial production would be achieved within five years.

From now on, humans can get rid of the limitations of natural nitrogen fertilizers.

This means that humans will have more food than ever and no one will starve to death anymore.

When the paper came out, the world was shocked!

boom!
First of all, practitioners in the field of chemistry were all cheering.

Haber's success was undoubtedly a great milestone in the world of chemistry.

The chemical breakthrough of artificially synthesizing ammonia cannot be overstated.

It will profoundly change human history, and the global population will be guaranteed to explode from now on.

University College London, Department of Chemistry.

Ramsay, the fourth Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, is discussing matters with several other Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry.

When they learned the results of the paper published by Haber, they were shocked and then filled with endless joy.

Ramsey said excitedly: "Harber's achievement is enough to go down in history."

"The Swedish Nobel Committee must have already reserved the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for him."

"He will become a world-famous scientist like Bruce."

"He is even more famous than Bruce. After all, his achievements are closely related to countless ordinary people."

The first Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Van'tov, laughed and said, "It's really like the Atlantic Ocean is pushing the old wave out. Young people today are incredible."

"This young man Harber is only 41 years old this year."

"To have achieved world-shattering success at such a young age, his future is limitless."

Arrhenius, the third Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, then said: "Now we can finally hold our conference in a high-profile manner."

"Let those physicists see that we chemists are not their vassals."

"No matter how powerful the theory of relativity is, it can't create food."

Several chemistry bosses laughed heartily and seemed very happy.

As time went by, the news that Haber had achieved artificial synthesis of ammonia spread throughout the world at lightning speed.

Countless people went crazy.

"Oh my God, this is an invention as important as radio. No, it's even more important than radio."

"Without radio, human beings would only have a little more trouble communicating; but without artificial ammonia, human beings would always be bound by food."

"This achievement alone makes Hubble the greatest scientist of our time."

"The world is so crazy right now. The Bruce Conference just ended, physics made big news, and chemistry made even bigger news."

"These scientists are so amazing. When will I be able to publish such great results?"

"."

Countless people talked about it.

There were even many people who disliked Li Qiwei who jumped out to mock him.

"Is Bruce Lee still so arrogant now? His theory of relativity and quantum theory are not even worthy of carrying Hubble's shoes!"

"Physicists are the most high-profile, as if physics is the only natural science in the world, and they look down on other disciplines. Now they have been slapped in the face."

"I think this first Bruce Conference is about to become a joke. They say it will determine the future of physics and humanity, but it's just a way to attract attention."

"Modern physics is Bruce Lee's hoax. He was sent by the Qing Dynasty to hinder the progress of our European science."

“Chemistry first!”

"."

The sudden emergence of opposition caught all physicists off guard.

They didn't do anything, they were shot while lying down.

But no matter what, physics was indeed overwhelmed by chemistry this time.

The potential of Haber's artificial synthesis of ammonia is so huge and its significance is so important.

In comparison, using radioactivity to treat cancer is a minor achievement.

However, the current content of modern physics cannot have a direct impact on human society.

Public opinion is very realistic.

Previously, Li Qiwei stole the limelight and made frequent appearances because he was young and talented.

Although ordinary people don’t know what his theory is, they can just shout “Awesome 666” from the sidelines.

What they were interested in was the genius Ridgway, not his theories and achievements.

Genius is something everyone likes to see.

But now, with the advent of synthetic ammonia, which concerns everyone, genius is no longer important.

After all, no matter how big the matter is, it is not as important as filling your stomach.

Although Britain has experienced two industrial revolutions, it is still a fantasy to say that it can eliminate hunger and provide an unlimited supply of food.

Not to mention the Qing Dynasty, Africa and other places at that time.

Since the birth of mankind, people have been worried about food.

The so-called change of dynasties is ultimately about food.

People can't even survive, so why would they care about you being the emperor?

If Hubble's achievements had been publicized in the Qing Dynasty, scholars would have hailed him as a saint.

Confucius educates the people with his thoughts, while Hakka people are fed.

Europe is no exception.

Those who used this to belittle and mock Li Qiwei knew that it would not have any effect on him, but they were satisfied to make him feel disgusted.

As a Qing citizen, Li Qiwei did not suffer frequent racial discrimination when he came to Europe because he only interacted with high-end people.

Some things are instilled by the upper class into the lower class in order to facilitate control of the lower class.

Li Qiwei didn't care about these slanders.

His heart was as solid as a rock, he remained calm and waited quietly for the development of things.

Planck wrote a letter to comfort Ridgway, asking him not to be impulsive and to keep a low profile.

Rutherford even came over in person and complained to Li Qiwei.

As for Chris, Master Qian Wu and others, they were not so restrained and they directly argued with each other, and they could be regarded as Li Qiwei's substitutes.

"You are so awesome, why don't you invent an artificial gold?" "Only a petty person would use someone else's achievements to mock another person. People who don't know would think that you invented artificial ammonia."

"The haters may not know this, but Professor Bruce and Professor Harber have a very good personal relationship."

"Professor Haber shouldn't have made this invention public, because it would feed too much garbage like this in the future."

A war of words broke out between the two sides.

Li Qiwei smiled when he saw this, thinking that he had recruited the right doctoral students and they were very useful.

Just when the trolls were preparing to launch another powerful attack to completely pull Li Qiwei down from the altar, an interview instantly broke their defenses.

Li Qiwei's name was once again pushed to the top of public opinion.

Everyone had only one feeling in their hearts: Is this even fair? Bruce is so good at chemistry.

On December 1909, 12, Haber was interviewed by a well-known German newspaper.

When the interviewer asked: "Professor Haber, what difficulties did you encounter in the process of developing artificial ammonia, and how did you overcome them?"

After hearing this question, Harber smiled and thought back to a few years ago. He then answered:
"Artificial ammonia synthesis is not actually a new research field. Chemists have already started studying it more than a hundred years ago."

"But the chemical system at that time was not mature, and chemists could only rely on experience, which was inefficient and time-consuming."

"As chemistry continues to develop, we now know what conditions are needed to synthesize ammonia."

"The three most important conditions are: temperature, pressure, and catalyst."

"These three conditions complement each other. Under one catalyst, the temperature and pressure may be the best. When you change the catalyst, the required temperature and pressure will change."

"I led the team to conduct more than 6000 experiments and verified more than 2000 formulas before finally finding the optimal synthesis conditions."

"That is to successfully achieve artificial synthesis of ammonia under the conditions of 600° high temperature, 200 atmospheres of pressure, and using metal osmium as a catalyst."

"But it has a problem, that is, the conversion rate is too low, only about 8%, and it cannot be applied to large-scale production at all."

The interviewer cooperated and asked, "How did you solve this problem, Professor Haber?"

Harbour recalled with emotion: “All this is thanks to one person.”

"He is Professor Bruce Lee."

"Yes, it's Professor Bruce Lee, who won the first Nobel Prize in Physics."

“People who have never had in-depth communication with him will never be able to understand the extent of his genius.”

“The Brussels Young Scholars Conference in 1901 was the most important conference of my life.”

“It was at that conference that I had my first conversation with Professor Bruce.”

"To be honest, at first, I didn't expect that Professor Bruce, a physicist, actually knew chemistry."

"The topic of our conversation was about synthetic ammonia."

"At that time, Professor Bruce already knew the importance of catalysts and temperature and pressure, which amazed me."

“At the time, I thought that if Professor Bruce had switched to studying chemistry, he would have achieved the same success.”

“It was with his help that I was able to solve the problem of the catalyst.”

At this time, the interviewing girl widened her eyes and asked in a silly and cute way: "Really? I don't believe it."

Harber looked at the silly little girl with a smile, wondering how she became an interviewer.

“That conversation left a deep impression on me, and our friendship was established at that time.”

"After he chose to return to China, we still kept in touch."

"I have written to him many times to ask for advice on the synthesis of ammonia."

"When I asked if there was any catalyst that could replace osmium, Professor Bruce told me to try iron as a catalyst."

"Because he said that he was studying atomic structure at the time and found that the element iron was very unique, so he might as well give it a try."

"To be honest, I was shocked when I heard it."

"Because iron is such a common element, it's hard to associate it with a catalyst."

"Later, after hundreds of tests, we finally selected an iron catalyst with a lead-magnesium promoter."

"I didn't expect the experiment to be so successful, and the conversion rate increased directly from 8% to 90%."

"It's just incredible."

"It's no exaggeration to say that Professor Bruce is the first person to contribute to the artificial synthesis of ammonia."

"I immediately said that the paper must be published with Professor Bruce's name on it."

"But Professor Bruce wrote to me and told me not to do that."

"He said: Even without me, you will eventually find the right catalyst. Your thousands of days and nights of hard work are the key to success."

"When I saw this sentence, my heart felt like it was hit by a heavy hammer, and my whole body was shaking."

"Professor Bruce's noble character makes me feel ashamed."

"He was not only a great physicist, he was a great scientific mentor."

"I would also like to use your newspaper to say thank you to Professor Bruce. Without you, there would be no artificial ammonia."

The girl who was interviewed opened her eyes wide with disbelief on her face. She never expected that behind this great achievement, there was such a touching story.

The interview was published in the form of a newspaper on the same day, which instantly caused a huge sensation.

boom!
Everyone was stunned and stunned.

I didn’t expect that the artificial ammonia that has influenced the world is actually related to Bruce Lee.

He was even called the "first contributor" by Harbour.

Countless people were dumbfounded.

Especially those who had previously belittled and mocked Li Qiwei, felt confused after reading this newspaper.

The content of this newspaper made them jump up and down like clowns.

They madly attacked Li Qiwei's physics for being useless, but not only did he not come forward to explain, he also let Harbour reveal such a big melon.

The clown was me.

As for people like Planck and Thomson, they were also frightened by Ridgway.

In the eyes of these bigwigs, artificial ammonia belongs to chemical applications.

So-called research is the constant experimentation of various chemical reaction conditions.

In other words, there is no technical content.

But Li Qiwei is different. He discovered theoretically that iron has a good catalytic effect.

This is a bit scary.

The idea of ​​physics guiding chemistry was once again perfectly embodied.

The most important thing is that Li Qiwei was low-key and humble in this achievement and did not fight for credit. He is simply a moral role model.

It can be said that this incident made everyone know Li Qiwei’s upright and noble character.

The several Nobel Prize winners in chemistry who were so high-spirited before can only smile bitterly now.

"Bruce, Bruce, with you here, chemistry will probably always be suppressed by physics."

However, this still couldn't stop them from being happy.

Such beautiful stories are rare in the history of science, but they add a touch of charm to chemistry.

Win-win!

As for Chris and others who helped Li Qiwei to fight against the trolls, they immediately ran to Li Qiwei's office and looked at their mentor devoutly as if they were worshiping a god.

He can always bring the greatest shock to the world.

Several people said in unison: "Professor Bruce, you are so amazing."

No wonder Professor Bruce was not in a hurry at all. It turned out that he had already surpassed everyone's imagination.

Li Qiwei smiled and said, "The clear will be clear, and the turbid will be turbid."

"You guys must always remember not to try to prove yourself, just do your job well."

After feeding him the daily chicken soup, Li Qiwei was very satisfied: Harber's transformation was successful, and he should not become a poison gas demon in the future.

(End of this chapter)

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