Whoever says that women are inferior to men, even if they are in darkness, they must also have their hearts toward the light. The unfairness to women in the old times can be imagined without saying. At the time of the replacement of the old and the new, people began to preach equality between men and women, but even today, men and women have not achieved full equality.
In the eyes of some people, a woman studying science is equivalent to Li Kui picking up an embroidery needle, and there are natural deficiencies. However, Wu Jianxiong's appearance hit them hard in the face.
Wu Jianxiong was born on May 31, 1912, the year in which the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established. In the same year, the Qing government collapsed, and the feudal dynasty that ruled the land of China for more than 2,000 years collapsed. Under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen and others, the concept of democracy and republicanism has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
In this era, Wu Jianxiong is undoubtedly lucky, and her luck stems not only from the change of times, but also from the fact that she has a good father. She was born into a family of scholars in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, where her father, Wu Zhong, was culturally knowledgeable, but not pedantic.
He has experienced major historical events such as the Penghu Reform Law and the Xinhai Revolution, and has not only learned, but also has courage and insight. He advocated equality between men and women and was committed to allowing women to enjoy knowledge, and for this reason he also founded the Matilda Girls' Vocational School.
Therefore, although Wu Jianxiong was a woman, he could enjoy the same treatment as men, and it was already a great fortune to have such a life background at that time.
Wu Jianxiong's name at first glance sounds like a boy's name, full of masculinity, this is because she is from the Jianzi generation, the family name is "hero Haojie", she ranks second, so she named Wu Jianxiong. For this masculine name, Wu Jianxiong really did not ask the hero about men and women, and did not let the eyebrows be shaved.
Under the guidance of her father, she was admitted to the Teachers' College, where she met her mentor Hu Shi. If her father, Wu Zhongyi, was her paver, then Hu Shi was her guide.
Under his influence, Hu Shi once lectured at the Normal College three times, each time full of people, and under his influence, Wu Jianxiong began to focus not only on teacher training, but also on seeking changes from history and drawing new ideas from the outside world.
Before meeting Hu Shi, she wanted to successfully graduate and become a people's teacher, so that more girls could receive education. But after meeting Hu Shi, she was touched by Hu Shi's surging speech and began to think about life and inspire her to do something big.
In 1929, Wu Jianxiong was admitted to the Department of Mathematics of Nanjing University, transferred to the Department of Physics of Nanjing University in 1930, and was admitted to the Central University in the same year. After graduation, she worked as a teaching assistant at Zhejiang University and also worked in research institutes.
Her resume is extremely rich, and in the process of growing up, she began to contact excellent scientists such as Marie Curie and Roentgen. In them, she learned the spirit of perseverance, and gradually understood that her current level of knowledge was far from enough.
So she resolutely gave up her enviable job to study physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and under the guidance of the physics master, her level improved by leaps and bounds.
In 1939, Wu Jianxiong completed the experiment of "exploring the fission products of uranium nuclei" and found that the fission of uranium nuclei would produce the radioactive isotope Xenon-135, which played a very important role in the "Manhattan Project" of the United States to build atomic bombs.
Physics research means boring, but Wu Jianxiong enjoys it. In the nuclear world, she is like a fish, she does not envy the life of her peers who are drunk and golden, but only wants to immerse herself in physics to achieve value. Finally, her efforts paid off, and in 1940 her doctoral dissertation was published in the Physical Review.
When her career was on the rise, Wu Jianxiong also ushered in her love, Yuan Jialuo, the grandson of Yuan Shikai. Excellent people are always attracted to each other, just like Wu Jianxiong, Yuan Jialuo is also a rare talent in the physics world. The two ran in love for six years and eventually became a couple.
Behind every successful woman, there stands a man who pays silently. After getting married, Yuan Jiaqiu monopolized the power of housework, solved Wu Jianxiong's worries, and allowed her to engage in a career with peace of mind.
In June 1942, the U.S. Department of the Army began to implement the program of using nuclear fission reactions to develop atomic bombs, which is also known as the "Manhattan Project" in history.
The atomic bomb was easy to build, and as soon as the plan was launched, it encountered the problem of the disappearance of neutrons. Top scientists gathered together, but they couldn't do anything about it, and finally they thought of Wu Jianxiong, a chinese female scientist.
In 1944, because Wu Jianxiong had not yet become a U.S. citizen at the time, he participated in the Manhattan Project of secretly building atomic bombs in the United States as an unnaturalized citizen.
After Wu Jianxiong joined, he used what he learned to find neutrons and solved the problem that the reactor could not be continuously fissioned. It is worth mentioning that Wu Jianxiong is the only non-American in the "Manhattan Project", and she personally justifies the name of China and female compatriots.
Wu Jianxiong is really well known in the physics community because of her experiments on β decay, and in the same year Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao put forward the hypothesis of "cosmology is not conserved", which lacks experimental support and is difficult to establish.
Just when the two were at a loss, they thought of their compatriot Wu Jianxiong. Her experiments on β decay were mature, and if she was willing to help, she would surely do more with less.
When Wu Jianxiong learned of this, she began to organize experiments without thinking, and people she knew each other advised her to focus her energy elsewhere, but she saw the feasibility of this hypothesis.
In order to verify, she used the polarized nuclear cobalt 60β decay experiment, the experiment is demanding, in order to meet the low temperature environment, she traveled between the two cities, often sleeping and forgetting to eat.
Kung Fu does not live up to the painstaking people, Li Zhengdao, Yang Zhenning's concept was established, which is a milestone breakthrough in the physics world. The two also won the Nobel Prize for this, but unfortunately, Wu Jianxiong, who provided experimental support for the hypothesis, did not win the prize.
In this regard, the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Steinberg once said that "without Wu Jianxiong's experimental results, the theory of Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning can only be an idea, Wu Jianxiong's experimental results have changed all this, and Wu Jianxiong should rightfully share the Nobel Prize with them." ”
As for her loss of the Nobel Prize, Wu Jianxiong once responded that although it was a pity that she did not win the Nobel Prize, she did not do these things to win the prize. Wu Jianxiong's demeanor has touched countless people, and she is a pure physicist who does not mix personal interests.
What she did was not for the sake of honor, but for the development of physics, but it was always the case, and she was also soft on winning awards.
For example, he won the Wolf Prize set up by the Israelis, and Wu Jianxiong was the first winner of the prize, and the prize money even exceeded the Nobel Prize at one point. He has also won the National Medal of Science, the American Journal of Industrial Research Scientist of the Year Award, the New York Academy of Sciences Pujar Award, the Franklin Society Weidrill Medal and so on.
In addition to her own efforts, her achievements are also related to the enlightenment of her father Wu Zhongyi and the teachings of her mentor Hu Shi.
The so-called "teacher, so preach and teach karma to solve puzzles also." Hu Shi not only gave Ms. Wu Jianxiong knowledge, but also gave guidance on the road of life.
For example, he uses the anecdote story of the tortoise and rabbit race as a metaphor for the wonderful reaction of the combination of two people, and he hopes that his proud disciple Wu Jianxiong can use his clever mind at the same time, work the ground, not arrogant, and consistent.
He constantly encouraged Wu Jianxiong to use his opportunities abroad to study more and read a lot of books. However, with the sudden death of Hu Shi, the teacher-student relationship between them also came to an end!
On February 24, 1962, Hu Shi went to the "Cai Yuanpei Hall of the Academia Sinica" to preside over the fifth academician meeting, and at 6:30 p.m., when the reception to welcome the new academicians was dispersed, he died of a sudden heart attack.
Wu Jianxiong, who witnessed all this, did not expect that his mentor would die in pain in front of his eyes, but he had no way to do anything, not even the opportunity to rescue him. Her whole body trembled, her face was pale, and she could not look back for a long time.
The former "queen of nuclear bombs" in the research community cried so sadly for the first time.
In 1990, the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences named the asteroid with the international number 2752 "Wu Jianxiong Star". On February 16, 1997, Wu Jianxiong died of illness in New York at the age of 85.
In such an era of alternating the old and the new, the feudal monarchy was overthrown, and the theory that women's talentlessness was virtuous was also overthrown, and it was already remarkable that women could have some learning, and that women could accept new ideas.
But Wu Jianxiong broke this traditional concept, she "does not love to arm and love to wear clothes.". Arm yourself with physical knowledge, go abroad, go to the world, show the power of women to the outside world, and have been called "Marie Curie of the East", "Queen of nuclear bombs", "First Lady of Physics" and so on.