Lead
In the history of scientific development, there are often some names of entrepreneurs, not only because of their personal achievements, but also because they have left their names in the history of human science.
Because these entrepreneurs have played an indispensable role in the development of science and the history of mankind in a given period, it is with their "investment" that science in various fields can flourish.
In the field of physics, there are two names that have been etched in the annals of history.
One was the famous inventor Alfred Nobel, and the other was Solvay, who initiated a series of international congresses.
Not much to say about Alfred Nobel, his name is familiar to readers after all, and he also founded the Nobel Prize, and has made no small contribution to science.
Solvay's name seems to be much less in people's minds, but it is precisely because of his "small organizations" that some famous physicists can communicate together, thus promoting the development of science.
One of the most famous of Solvay's "small organizations" is known as the Fifth Solvay Conference.
1. An important moment in modern physics.
The establishment of the Nobel Prize is undoubtedly a milestone event in the history of physics, and at the fifth Solvay Association, there was a group photo of 17 laureates, which was also collected because it captured the development pattern of modern physics at that time.
The Fifth Solvay Conference brought together many renowned physicists.
Among them are certainly the older generation of physicists, as well as some new generation of emerging physicists.
This conference is also an important juncture in the history of physics.
Because the Solvay Conference, especially the group photo of the conference, not only engraved the names of some physicists into the annals of history, but also clearly showed the controversy between some famous physicists.
One of the most talked-about events in the history of physics, as much as the photographs, is the famous polemic between Albert Einstein and Bohr.
These two physicists represent two great points of modern physics, one is Albert Einstein and the other is Bohr.
The controversy between them led to one of the shining stars of modern physics, quantum mechanics.
The birth of quantum mechanics is undoubtedly a major breakthrough for the physics community.
At that time, people were studying the properties of solid materials, but they found that the microscopic particles used to describe solid materials - atoms had their own obvious laws to follow, but the laws in the eyes of these people could not be described by Newtonian mechanics and electromagnetism in classical physics.
Therefore, researchers in solid-state physics are eager to find a better theory to describe the laws of these "microscopic" particles.
It was with these ideas that the polemic between Einstein and Bohr led to the birth of quantum mechanics.
So what is this polemic like?
2. The polemic between the two great physicists.
In 1897, the famous physicist Mr. and Mrs. Curry discovered radioactive materials, which also sparked a good story in the physics community about the structure of atoms.
Thomson, a famous British physicist, discovered the electron after this, and he also discovered the properties of the electron through experiments on electrons, believing that it has a series of kinematic properties.
At that time, the physics community recognized Thomson's theory, so it was natural to assume that electrons could not only release energy, but also absorb it.
Therefore, when people do research, they always compare the absorbed energy and the released energy of electrons to measure.
But in 1926, Einstein explained the collision of a photon and an electron with the particle theory of light, and subsequently, based on his own experiments, Einstein judged that the energy of the photon was greater.
Therefore, he believes that electrons are only able to absorb energy, but not release it.
Einstein's idea of photons at this time was sprayed by many physicists in the physics community, including Bohr.
Bohr strongly opposed Einstein's view, and Bohr believed that the interaction between photons and electrons is essentially an exchange of information, not energy; The collision between a photon and an electron is also more like an exchange than the transfer of photon energy to the electron.
The gap between these two views was hotly debated at the time, and eventually Solvay led to a polemic between them, and eventually at the Solvay conference, the debate between Einstein and Bohr became a famous event in the history of physics.
For Einstein, everyone is no stranger, Einstein became famous for the photon theory, the photon said that Einstein published an article in 1905, he believed that electromagnetic waves are not a free combination of wavelength and frequency, but a particle composed of photons.
In Einstein's theory of electrons, he believed that "light" is a particle composed of photons, which move independently, but the study of electrons is far more complicated than photons.
There is some special relationship between photons and electrons, called the photoelectric effect, that is, when the photons and matter interact, the matter will change from the original state to another state.
For example, when excited, people can see a certain wavelength of light.
For this phenomenon, one can apply the photon theory to the generation of light, but it is difficult to explain the phenomenon of electrons emitting light when excited.
In 1926, Albert Einstein attended the Solvay Conference in Hohenzwil-nad Rhein.
At this conference, many physicists discussed the current views and theories of physics.
At the conference, Einstein argued that Bohr's theory was wrong.
Bohr, a Danish physicist and Einstein's early colleague at the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, had a great disagreement in their ideas and views on physics.
The atomic theory established by Bohr and Landers and others gradually became a popular theory of physics and gradually gained recognition by the physical community.
In their atomic theory, they believe that those that can emit energy are called "quanta" and those that can only absorb energy are called "electrons".
At the Solvay Congress in 1926, Bohr presented his atomic theory to physicists and proposed the idea that an electron could only be released when an electron was introduced from one energy state to another.
Since Bohr's report at the meeting was based on the conclusions he had drawn from the experiments, his statement was recognized by all.
At the end of the meeting, Einstein and the Solvay delegation engaged in a polemic over Bohr's atomic theory, but Einstein lost to Bohr in the debate.
Since then, Bohr's atomic theory has become the mainstream theory in the physics community, and Einstein's biggest regret in his life is that he lost to Bohr at the Solvay Conference that year.
The debate between Einstein and Bohr was a big anecdote at the Solvay conference, however, there were 16 other Nobel Prize-winning physicists at the conference.
It was the Solvay Conference as a platform that allowed these physicists to come together and exchange ideas.
It was the collision of these ideas that also added a strong ink to the development of physics, and the Solvay Conference in 1926 was hailed as the "Olympic Movement of Physics".
People came for this event, including the French masters who later won the Nobel Prize, Blotney, de Broglie and others.
The Solvay Conference was also hailed as a "world-class blitzkrieg" in the physics community, which not only brought together famous physicists from all over the world, but also made great contributions to the development of the physics community at subsequent conferences.
III. Background to the Solvay Conference.
The holding of the Solvay Conference was undoubtedly a great recognition of the physics community at that time, but what was the reason for this "blitzkrieg" to be intense?
So, let's start with the first Solvay Conference.
The first Solvay Conference was held because in 1909 famous physicists were working on the structure of the atom, and it was with this common field of research that people had a platform for exchange.
At that time, there were no well-known physicists in the United States, and people had the idea that "the United States is a backward country in science."
People are looking at Europe, and European physics.
But with the Solvay Conference, it was discovered that although the United States is not very well-known in physics, their physics research is also constantly developing.
Today, the United States, with its strength and financial resources, can be said to be a huge force in the physics community, but at the Solvay Conference, the United States has the fewest physicists.
Before World War II, the United States was considered a marginal country in terms of scientific development, but after World War II, the United States gradually became the center of the physics community.
This also reflects that the ideological development of the physics community is a process of constant change.
Then in 1957, China also hosted the Solvay Conference, which was also a recognition of its development by the physics community.
At the meeting, a number of young physicists were included.
At the meeting, he also talked about the direction of development of physics today.
Today's development of physics has developed to a new stage, just as Yang Zhenning said, the development of physics is no longer as simple as when he was young, in his opinion, the development of physics can be divided into gold mining, silver and black iron era.
Between 1860-1910, it was physics that studied the relationship between electromagnetism, so this period is also called the "Age of Gold Mining", and in 1910-1930, physics developed to a new level, and it was also the period of rebirth of atomic theory, known as the "Silver Age".
And the period from 1930 to 1970 was the new height of the development of quantum mechanics, which is called the "Black Iron Age".
In this era, in the eyes of physicists, a new era is about to be entered, that is, the era of big scientific equipment.
epilogue
With the development of today's physics, it has also entered a new stage.
In the new stage, there will also be unprecedented challenges and problems.
As Yang Zhenning said, the general trend of the development of physics today is that new theories are difficult to verify, and some new theories that have been published have not been verified.
This undoubtedly brings great challenges to the new generation of scientists in physics.
On the road of scientific research, there is no doubt that a lot of financial support and the joint struggle of physicists are needed.
The huge amount of money invested by entrepreneurs is indeed the driving force behind the development of physics, and it is hoped that the new generation of scientists in physics will be able to achieve something in this era.