Training the Heavens

Chapter 330 Big Change

More than a dozen scientists from different countries attended the Solvay Conference, including Rutherford and Jeans from Britain; Marie Curie, Poincaré, Langevin, Perrin, and Brillouin from France; Lorentz and Onnes from the Netherlands; Krusen from Denmark; Hasenel from Austria-Hungary; Nernst, Planck, Wien, Sommerfeld, Warburg, and Rubens from Germany.

Of course, there is also Zhang Xingjiu, who replaced Einstein's position. Although Einstein's IQ is unquestionable, most of his important achievements were published first by Zhang Xingjiu. In this case, Einstein's status naturally cannot be compared with the original history, so he was not invited.

With Zhang Xingjiu's qualifications, there would be no problem for him to serve as the chairman of the meeting. However, considering that he had been staying in Shanghai and was too far away from Europe, it would be inconvenient for him to be responsible for many things, he declined Solvay's kindness and left this opportunity to Lorenz.

The last group of scholars attending the meeting had just arrived today, so the discussion did not begin immediately. After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms to rest, and the meeting officially began the next day.

The conference chairman Lorentz announced the topic of the conference: radiation and quantum theory.

At this point, everyone has three confusions about atomic radiation:
The first question: Atomic radiation seems to be able to radiate energy continuously, which seems to violate the first law of thermodynamics, that is, the law of conservation of energy.

Becquerel discovered that one gram of radium could boil one gram of water. The energy released by radioactive elements was astonishing. Marie Curie was also puzzled. After emitting radiation, these elements seemed to have no significant changes. Could they continue to radiate?

The second question is the half-life problem. As early as 1900, people discovered that radioactive elements are unstable. Half of them will decay into other substances every once in a while. People don’t understand why they don’t change from one element to another at once, but change half at a time.

The third question is related to the second: Why are some elements radioactive and others not? Or, could it be that seemingly stable elements have incredibly long half-lives, with only a few atoms decaying over millions of years, making them invisible?

The progress of civilization lies in communication. Many of the world's top scholars gathered together to express their views on these three issues, sparking many sparks of inspiration. Zhang Xingjiu also carefully talked about his own views. Until the end of the meeting, many people felt that they had not yet had enough.

Seeing this, Solvay announced that the Solvay Conference would continue and he would continue to invite the world's top scientists to gather together to discuss current hot issues. The scholars attending the conference were also very welcome.

Now is an era of great changes in the field of physics. The old physics building has been shrouded in dark clouds, and new theories such as relativity and quantum theory have begun to emerge. It is undoubtedly very interesting to see many top scholars getting together to argue and debate.

So soon after the conference ended, quantum theory began to prevail in academia, which is also an important reason why the Solvay Conference was able to go down in history.

It’s just that Zhang Xingjiu had a headache. In the original history, the Solvay Conference enjoyed great prestige because at the fifth Solvay Conference in 1927, Einstein and Bohr had a very famous debate.

Bohr mentioned in quantum mechanics that at the microscopic level, discontinuity exists, and the uncertainty principle is a popular quantum theory in physics: even God is playing dice! Because Bohr was from Copenhagen, they became known as the Copenhagen School.

Another group, represented by Einstein, questioned this. Einstein said, "Bohr, God never plays dice!" Bohr countered, "Einstein, don't tell God what to do!"

This conversation was the famous "Does God also play dice" debate in the history of science. After the meeting every day, Einstein would come up with an example to refute Bohr's idea, and Bohr would find an explanation to defend his own idea in response to Einstein's questioning the next day. In the end, no one could convince the other. However, later, more and more people in the entire physics community began to accept the quantum theory of Bohr and others, which means that God also plays dice.

Now that Einstein was gone, and Zhang Xingjiu was sure to present Bohr's theory before him, who would then play the role of opposition? Without a worthy opponent, wouldn't the Solvay Conference lose much of its luster?
After thinking about it for a while, Zhang Xingjiu put these things behind him. Let Solvay worry about these things. He had too many things to worry about, so there was no need to waste his energy on these trivial details.

As soon as the meeting ended, Zhang Xingjiu received an urgent telegram from Shanghai. Ma Xiangbo told him in the telegram that the new army in Wuchang had taken the lead in launching an uprising some time ago and quickly took control of the three towns of Wuhan. Li Yuanhong was elected as the governor and the country's name was changed to the Republic of China.

Subsequently, people from all over the country responded. There was no other way. The Qing government's actions in the past two years had lost the support of the people. The world had long been divided. Once the spark of the Wuchang Uprising broke out, the whole world was on fire.

Shanghai was no exception. They relied on students, secret societies, merchant corps and other forces to quickly control Shanghai. The Shanghai Military Governor's Office was established, with Chen Qimei as the governor. They removed the dragon flag and replaced it with the five-color flag, announcing the liberation of Shanghai.

This liberation was of extraordinary significance, and directly led to the liberation of Zhejiang, connecting Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Since the largest arsenal in the Jiangnan region fell into the hands of the revolutionary party, the power balance in the Jiangnan region has undergone fundamental changes.

Ma Xiangbo believed that overthrowing the Qing Dynasty was only a matter of time and that China would usher in new development opportunities, so he urged him to return to China and participate in this great change.

Before he finished reading this telegram, Zhang Xingjiu received another telegram. This time it was sent by Sun Yat-sen who was far away in the United States. He also warmly invited him to return to China and said that he would return as soon as possible to participate in the construction of the Republic of China.

In the next two days, many people sent telegrams to Zhang Xingjiu, including old friends and students. The telegrams were full of optimism, as if once the Qing Dynasty abdicated and the Republic of China was established, all would be well with the world and China would soon become prosperous and strong.

Zhang Xingjiu disagreed. Inertia exists not only in the physical world, but also in the social field. The old system has lasted for thousands of years, and those backward forces will not automatically withdraw from the stage of history.

This transformation is just the beginning, and there is still a long way to go in the future.

　Oh, during the Chinese New Year, I drink every day. It’s so annoying. I have to drink in the afternoon.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)