1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 447 Give me four protons and I will create a sun!
The debate about the scale of the universe has finally come to an end.

Everything about the debate spread around the world at the speed of light.

Immediately, it caused a huge sensation in the scientific community.

Originally, everyone thought that the duel between Shapley and Curtis was exciting enough.

However, Professor Bruce's final appearance perfectly illustrates what it means that there is always someone better.

Following the general theory of relativity, he once again contributed an extremely important research tool to astronomy.

"Oh my God! Professor Bruce is so incredible."

“He had just ended chemistry, and now he was shaking up the world in astronomy.”

"But he is an out-and-out physicist!"

"The gap between people is really bigger than the gap between people and dogs."

"I'm a biologist. According to statistics, the average IQ of dogs is around 40, and the average IQ of humans is around 100."

"For geniuses, their IQ can easily reach over 160."

"As for Professor Bruce, let alone him."

"Although his IQ has not been measured, a conservative estimate is that it is above 200."

"So, the gap between Professor Bruce and us is indeed greater than the gap between us and dogs."

"Stop scolding, stop scolding."

China.

When Gao Lu received the telegram from Yu Qingsong, he was so excited that he couldn't express it in words.

"Chinese Tianxia literature is about to rise!"

Almost immediately, the "Guan Xiang Cong Bao" founded by the Huaxia Wenxue Society published the full text of the debate.

This newspaper is currently the largest astronomy newspaper in China.

When the Chinese elites saw how popular astronomy was in the West, they found it incredible.

And this is the result that Gao Lu wants to see.

Next, it would be much easier for him to build astronomy.

Soon, Masayoshi Kobayashi from the Land of Sakura brought an astronomical expedition team to visit China.

Gao Lu held a cordial and friendly exchange with Kobayashi Masaaki.

Soon, this debate that shocked the world was dubbed the "Astronomy Debate of the Century".

Although the outcome of the debate did not determine how big our universe is.

But everyone knows that all this is just a matter of time.

With the Cepheid variable star ranging method, astronomers will sooner or later be able to accurately measure the diameter of the Milky Way.

Moreover, Professor Bruce has publicly supported the island universe theory.

This makes many people involuntarily believe that our Milky Way is not the only one!

At the same time, many astronomers began to devote themselves to intensive work.

The first plenary session of the International Astronomical Union is about to be held.

It is the Bruce Conference of the astronomy world.

This is a great opportunity for everyone to shine and become famous.

At the same time, they are also looking forward to something more important.

“When will Professor Bruce’s paper be published?”
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After the debate, Li Qiwei focused his main energy on the management of the Bruce Group.

As a source of funding for the City of Science, its importance is self-evident.

After appointing a new round of personnel arrangements, Li Qiwei decided to establish an independent scientific laboratory based on the Bruce Group.

Alpha Labs!

It is different from purely academic laboratories such as the Atomic Laboratory in Borneo and the Cavendish Laboratory.

Alpha Lab will perfectly combine theory and application.

That's probably the difference between science and technology.

This was created by him based on the real historical Bell Labs.

Bell Labs is known as "one of the greatest laboratories of the 20th century."

It was founded in 1925. Since its inception, the laboratory has been committed to research in the fields of mathematics, physics, materials science, and telecommunications technology.

And its focus is on the research and extension of basic theory.

This makes it significantly different from those application-oriented laboratories.

It was the huge investment in basic theory that ushered in the glorious era of Bell Labs.

In 1927, Davisson verified here that electrons have wave properties, and together with Thomson Jr., he won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In 1933, Jansky discovered that the center of the Milky Way was continuously emitting radio waves, thus establishing radio astronomy.

In 1947, John Bardeen and others invented the transistor, which brought mankind into the information age. The three also won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for this.

In 1948, Shannon published the paper "A Mathematical Principles of Communication", which laid the foundation for modern communication theory.

As for applications, there are solar cells, lasers, communication satellites, etc.

At the same time, this is also the birthplace of the Unix operating system and C language.

It can be said that any important achievement of Bell Labs would be enough to build a huge laboratory in the future.

And when all these achievements are concentrated in one laboratory, you can imagine how awesome it is.

Bell Labs of that era represented the forefront of global science and technology and was the source of innovative thinking.

Now, Li Qiwei is going to build it himself.

However, he certainly won't let the Americans get away with it.

Although he really wanted to set up Alpha Labs directly in Borneo.

But the conditions do not allow it!

The current city of science is not capable of supporting such a high-end laboratory, either in terms of hardware or software.

Therefore, he could only settle for the second best and lay a solid foundation in the United States first.

Wait until the time is right, and then move everything to the City of Science.

After all, building a super high-end laboratory requires more than just building a factory.

The most important thing is talent and system.

Institutional aspects.

Li Qiwei created a very relaxed scientific research environment for Alpha Laboratory.

Each researcher is free to choose a topic according to his or her own interests.

"Tolerating failure and encouraging innovation" is the laboratory's policy.

All researchers have no KPI assessment, no progress check, and no task report.

Moreover, the superiors in the laboratory must be authorities in the field.

However, there is no subordinate relationship between superiors and subordinates, and everyone can communicate their ideas equally.

This will become a paradise for all scientific researchers and a fertile ground for innovation.

Of course, Afar Lab will only recruit the best talents.

Li Qiwei was confident that under his leadership, Alpha Labs would surpass Bell Labs and become the world's number one laboratory.

It will lead the development of global science and technology!
And all of this requires spending money.

In real history, when Bell Labs was first established, it received an investment of 1200 million US dollars from its parent company AT&T.

In 1925, this amount of money was an astronomical figure for a laboratory.

No wonder Bell Labs is so awesome, because it was built entirely with money.

Li Qiwei obviously did not have such deep pockets, so he could only provide a few hundred thousand dollars to start the laboratory.

Tesla was probably the happiest person about the establishment of Alpha Labs.

He immediately recommended himself to Li Qiwei and wanted to be the president of the laboratory.

Li Qiwei agreed to his request.

Tesla is very old and will retire in a few years at most. It is a good arrangement for him to gradually transition to the management of the laboratory.

And the deeper reason is that Li Qiwei intends to train Wu Youxun to be the head of Alpha Laboratory.

Now is a good opportunity for him to learn more about industry experience under Tesla.

This laboratory will only be safe if it is in the hands of the Chinese.

For this purpose, Li Qiwei specifically talked to Director Wu Youxun for more than an hour.

"Youxun, we Chinese need science now, but we also need technology."

"You should understand what I mean."

"I let you take charge of Alpha Labs, and I do have some selfish motives in mind."

"But I think you're the best person for this."

"If you think this will hinder your professional research, you can refuse me. It's okay."

After hearing this, Wu Youxun immediately stood up, his expression solemn, and said firmly:
"Principal, don't worry."

"Youxun has long been prepared to devote his life to the country's scientific cause."

"I don't have a specialty. My specialty is what the country needs."

"I will always follow in your footsteps."

Li Qiwei stood up, patted the other person on the shoulder, and said with emotion and relief:

"Good boy."

At this point, Li Qiwei's mission on this trip to the United States has almost been completed.

Now, there is only one last thing left.

Stellar Energy Paper!

Inside the office of the chairman of Bruce Group.

Li Qiwei is adding the final part to the paper.

As he wrote, he felt deeply that science was not easy.

In real history, human beings' understanding of stars has gone through a long process.

From the ancients' worship of the sun god to the realization that the sun is just an ordinary star.

Humans discovered the physical nature of stars.

From Copernicus's heliocentric theory to Newton's creation of the law of universal gravitation.

Humans have mastered the laws of stellar motion.

From Fraunhofer's discovery of dark spectral lines in stellar spectra to Kirchhoff's discovery of flame color reactions.

Humans have discovered the composition of stars. (Chapter 213)
Although scientists have made remarkable achievements in the field of stellar research.

However, the most important issue about stars: their internal structure and their evolution model, has always made slow progress.

Because the core of this issue is to first know where the energy of stars comes from!
Only by understanding the energy source of stars can we calculate the internal structure of stars and deduce their evolution process.

This is a series of interconnected propositions.

In real history, it was only after the 20th century that breakthroughs in relativity, quantum theory, and atomic structure were made.

This question finally has an answer.

The energy of stars comes from nuclear fusion!
Although it can be said in just one sentence, the process is extremely complicated.

Li Qiwei does not intend to include the entire derivation process in one paper.

That's unrealistic.

Because the nuclear fusion process inside stars has also been studied for a long time.

Many astronomers and physicists have made important contributions.

The current progress of scientific development is not sufficient to support the evidence for deduction.

So, what Li Qiwei had to do was to propose the concept of nuclear fusion.

Take the most critical step and leave the rest of the trivial work to others.

And this most critical step is actually the first step.

That is [hydrogen fusion into helium].

This process is not only the beginning of nuclear fusion, but also releases huge amounts of energy, contributing about 50% of the energy of the star.

The physics of hydrogen fusing into helium is, in the end, pretty simple.

That is, 4 hydrogen nuclei fuse into one helium nucleus (helium-4 nucleus).

A hydrogen nucleus is a proton, while a helium-4 nucleus is a helium nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons.

The mass of a helium-4 nucleus is less than the mass of four hydrogen nuclei. (It should be larger, but the extra mass is converted into energy.)
According to the mass-energy equation, the missing mass will be released in the form of energy.

This is how nuclear fusion releases energy.

But the problem is coming.

How do four protons become two protons and two neutrons?
Here, we need to briefly introduce the three isotopes of hydrogen.

They are: protium (P), deuterium (D), and tritium (T).

Among them, protium is what we commonly call the hydrogen atom, which has only one proton in its nucleus and is the most abundant in nature.

Deuterium has 1 proton and 1 neutron in its nucleus, and is also known as heavy hydrogen.

Tritium has 1 proton and 2 neutrons in its nucleus, and is also known as "supertritium".

First, when two P nuclei meet, a diproton combination is formed.

But this combination is very unstable, and one of the protons will quickly undergo beta decay, turning into a neutron.

In this way, two P nuclei will fuse into one D nucleus, and this step will release energy.

Then, a P nucleus is added to the D nucleus, and the new core formed will contain two protons and one neutron.

This is the nucleus of an isotope of helium, helium-3, and this step also releases energy.

Some people may wonder whether two D nuclei will fuse together in this step.

possible!
But the possibility of this is very, very, very low.

Therefore, it can be assumed that all D nuclei will fuse with P nuclei to form helium-3.

Finally, the most critical step is how helium-3 forms helium-4.

There are four different ways to do this step.

The first method is the most common, and about 85% of the helium-4 in stars is produced through this pathway.

That is, two helium-3 nuclei fuse together, and then spit out two D nuclei to form a helium-4 nucleus.

At this point, the process of hydrogen fusion into helium is over.

When the nuclear reaction equation is finally simplified, it becomes 4 hydrogen nuclei forming one helium nucleus.

The summary is shown in the figure.

It can be seen that the process of hydrogen fusion into helium is very complicated.

In real history, Eddington actually only gave one sentence in his paper.

That is: hydrogen nuclear fusion will combine 4 hydrogen nuclei into 1 helium nucleus and release a large amount of energy.

(Because there was no concept of neutrons at that time, the helium nucleus was considered to be 4 protons.)
As for the intermediate process, Eddington did not give a detailed explanation.

And now, Li Qiwei has already proposed the concept of neutron in advance.

And the fusion process also occurred in Rutherford's experiment.

Therefore, Li Qiwei can "make a bold guess."

He wants to give the detailed process of hydrogen nuclear fusion directly in his paper!

He will also give the four ways to convert helium-3 to helium-4.

So you can imagine how much shock this paper will bring to the astronomy and physics communities.

More than 2,000 years ago, Archimedes confidently said: "Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the earth."

And now, Li Qiwei declared domineeringly:

"Give me four protons and I will create a sun!"

(End of this chapter)