1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 206: There are still experts in King’s College?

On March 1909, 3, Ridgway officially reported to the school as professor of physics and head of the physics department at King's College London.

His arrival made all the teachers and students of the Physics Department very happy.

Ridgway greeted everyone with a smile and gave an impassioned speech.

He expressed his desire to take the King's College Physics Department to a higher level.

This immediately caused applause from the audience.

Next, he visited the current lecturers and professors of the Physics Department individually.

One of them greatly surprised Li Qiwei. He didn't expect that there was a hidden master in King's College.

"Hello, Professor Buckla."

"I have heard of you for a long time."

The 32-year-old Buckara didn't expect that the famous Bruce actually knew him.

He felt flattered and quickly returned the gift.

"Hello, Professor Bruce."

"You are very welcome."

“I’m very excited right now.”

Li Qiwei smiled and said gently, "Professor Buckla, the debate you had with Professor Henry Bragg about the nature of X-rays two years ago was very interesting."

"Professor Bragg was also my doctoral dissertation reviewer."

"I have a deep understanding of his sharpness. Anyone who can compete with him must be a master."

Bakara felt a little embarrassed by Li Qiwei's praise. His face turned red and he was obviously very excited.

Who is Li Qiwei?

The first genius in physics, the founder of quantum theory and relativity, and the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.

There are also top achievements such as the photoelectric effect, the wave-particle duality of light, the mass-energy equation, the atomic structure planetary model, etc.

Bakara felt as if he had eaten honey when he received the other party's praise.

This is the influence of the top physics masters.

Li Qiwei looked at the other party with a smile, feeling emotional.

Unconsciously, I have grown to this point.

Just a few words can make the future big boss flattered.

Bakla is not just some little Karami. In real history, he is also a Nobel Prize winner.

The debate that Ridgway mentioned also concerns X-rays.

If we say that in the first three decades of the 20th century, the pinnacle achievements of physics were relativity and quantum mechanics.

The next level is the three major directions of X-ray, radioactivity, and atomic and electronic research.

Among them, X-rays attracted the most attention in the early days. In less than twenty years, five Nobel Prizes were related to it.

In 1901, Roentgen won the Nobel Prize in Physics for being the first to discover X-rays.

Since then, physicists have been studying the nature of X-rays.

Is it a wave or a particle?
Note that the distinction here is between wave and particle, which is not the same concept as the wave-particle duality of light.

Even though light can exhibit the properties of particles, physicists at that time still believed that its essence was wave and that particle properties were just some of its behaviors.

There is an essential difference between light and material entities such as electrons and atoms.

Physicists debate the nature of X-rays, which are particles, such as atoms and electrons, rather than waves.

At the European Conference of Radiology, Ridgwell boldly predicted that X-rays were waves.

Of course, because there was no experimental support, those present simply regarded the prediction as the boss’s intuition.

Buckland joined King's College in 1900 and began studying X-rays in 1902.

By studying the scattering and polarization phenomena of X-rays, he tended to believe that X-rays are a kind of wave.

But this evidence is insufficient.

Hundreds of years ago, Newton and a group of optical experts debated the nature of light.

If it is just scattering and polarization, the particle theory can also explain it.

Note that at this time physicists did not know that X-rays were a type of light, otherwise there would be no need for the debate.

So, Professor Henry Bragg, who supported the X-ray particle theory, stood up.

Not only did he use particle theory to explain scattering, he also assumed that X-ray particles have rotational properties, which could explain the polarization phenomenon.

As a result, both sides held their own views and engaged in a fierce debate from 1907 to 1908.

The main battlefield of the debate was the journal Nature.

The two sides exchanged ideas and published papers every once in a while to prove their respective points of view.

Bakla insisted on the wave nature of X-rays.

Henry Bragg insisted that X-rays were composed of neutral electric dipoles made up of electrons and positive charges.

The two expressed their own opinions and neither could convince the other because their theories were supported by their own experimental facts.

Although this debate did not reach a clear conclusion, it left a deep impression on the scientific community.

In real history, Laue was influenced by Barkla's views on X-ray polarization and wave motion, and published the crystal diffraction phenomenon of X-rays in 1912.

Laue discovered that when X-rays pass through a certain special crystalline material, they produce diffraction patterns.

This experimental result strongly proved that X-rays are a kind of wave, thus ending more than a decade of debate on the nature of X-rays.

For this, Laue won the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Next, Henry Bragg and his son Lawrence Bragg, father and son, conducted more in-depth research on the crystal diffraction phenomenon of X-rays.

He proposed the theory of crystal diffraction and established the famous Bragg formula (Bragg theorem).

This opened up a new field of using X-rays to analyze crystal structure.

This technology also laid a solid theoretical foundation for the subsequent discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. (This story is also very interesting and closely related to King's College London.)
The name Bragg has also become synonymous with crystallography.

As a result, the Bragg father and son won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The difference between the time when Laue won the award and the time when he won the award is only one year, which shows the importance of this research.

Bakla's work was also recognized. Without his early accumulation, there would be no Laue's later crystal diffraction.

Therefore, he won the 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on X-ray scattering and polarization. Later, Swedish physicist Sigbahn won the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the characteristic spectrum of X-rays.

The above is the origin and development of the five physics Nobel Prizes related to X-rays in the first 20 years of the 30th century.

From any perspective, Bakla's contribution to X-rays is indelible.

Of course, the opponent now is just an ordinary professor in the Department of Physics at King's College London.

Although his debate with Professor Henry Bragg made him famous.

But he is far inferior to Ridgway, Planck, Thomson and others.

Even if he won the Nobel Prize, according to Ridgway's classification in Chapter 115, Bakla could only be considered an ordinary physicist.

It's still a long way from Li Qiwei.

If Li Qiwei hadn't seen the real person and heard the name, he really wouldn't have known that the other party was also in King's College.

After all, although this work is very impressive and Nobel Prize-winning, it pales in comparison to relativity and quantum mechanics.

So he didn't pay too much attention to it.

Before we knew it, Old Li has become so awesome that he doesn't even care about the Nobel Prize.

But he certainly wouldn't show it as stupid.

"Professor Bakla, although I was in China before, I have always been paying attention to the development of the European physics community."

"Your work is very interesting. To be honest, I personally also believe that X-rays are waves."

Buckla was shocked when he heard this. "Really? Professor Bruce?"

"You also support the X-ray wave theory?"

Li Qiwei shrugged and said, "I have already spoken publicly at a meeting."

"It's too late to regret now."

"Hahaha," Bakla couldn't help laughing. As a member of the X-ray research team, he certainly knew about what happened at the European Radiology Conference.

I thought it was just a joke, but I didn't expect Bruce to be serious.

This time, Buckla liked Li Qiwei even more.

I feel more motivated to work under a department head who understands me.

So, with Bakla's introduction, Li Qiwei learned about the current situation of the Department of Physics in detail.

Then it was a bit of a shock to him.

It really can't be compared with the Cavendish Laboratory.

Both the teaching staff and experimental equipment are mediocre and barely qualified.

It is a blessing for a blind cat to catch a dead mouse to produce a talent like Bakla.

However, Li Qiwei quickly came to his senses and decided that it didn't matter.

His brain is the most powerful laboratory in the world.

However, considering future students, he also has to find ways to improve the hardware level of the laboratory.

As the director of the Department of Physics, Li Qiwei's other main job, in addition to teaching undergraduate students and supervising master's and doctoral students, is to be responsible for the development of the Department of Physics.

Of course, these are not problems.

As soon as his general introduction is published, King's College London will become world-famous.

Wouldn’t the funding be abundant?

Not to mention the quantum mechanics that comes later, which is a battlefield exclusively for the masters.

Even a Nobel Prize winner like Bakola can only clap and cheer and watch the show from the sidelines.

After thinking this through, Li Qiwei became very calm.

He has several major tasks ahead of him.

First, he published the theory of general relativity, officially announcing the arrival of the first genius in physics. Mortals should be prepared to tremble.

He had not published anything for six years, and although the physics community still remembered him, they had begun to doubt whether he had run out of ideas.

Now even previously unknown scholars like Bakla are beginning to rise.

Laue was even more eager to make a splash.

My arrival might allow Laue to publish the results of X-ray crystal diffraction ahead of schedule.

Bohr was eyeing the planetary model with great interest. Perhaps one day he would get the idea and the quantum orbit would emerge, which would lead to another bloody storm.

While Rutherford was working in Manchester, his students would inevitably continue to study atomic structure. Once the proton appeared, physics would be shaken.

The Bragg father and son have been unusually active recently, with young Bragg about to enter Trinity College.

Schrödinger, Born, Lang Zhiwan and others were also full of energy and enthusiasm.

The future is unknown.

Second, train a group of doctoral students.

As a professor, if you don't have many students all over the world, you are not qualified.

He also wants to train a few students to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, just like Thomson.

Third, remotely control the development of the Borneo Science City.

It seems that wireless telegraphy will be put into use soon.

Marconi should win this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.

Previously, Li Qiwei wanted to secretly develop electron tubes and triodes, but later he realized that he was overthinking.

China's current domestic situation is not yet sufficient to carry out such research.

So he just let it go.

Not surprisingly, electronics would have flourished by now after the invention of the triode in 1906.

Airplanes, radar, wireless telegraph; television, radio.

Whether for civilian or military use, the electron tube will change the world.

And decades later, the transistor based on it revolutionized the world.

What Li Qiwei can do is to be the first to develop the most important things.

(End of this chapter)