Interview, Collation: Pigeon nagging
In the past two days, the research project of Professor Li Zifeng of Yanshan University claimed to have overturned Einstein's theory of relativity and was recommended to be selected for the 2021 Hebei Science and Technology Award, which aroused public concern.
According to the public network, the name of the research project is "adhering to the materialist concept of space-time mass energy and developing Newtonian physics". The project claims to have overturned Einstein's theory of relativity, which misled the physics community and humanity as the basic method of understanding the world, and cleared a huge obstacle to the healthy development of science.
The project calls itself a proposal for consciousness as an advanced, ordered form of matter; argues for the nature of light, the law of light propagation, and the phenomenon of faster-than-light; and explains the law of gravitation using the momentum exchange hypothesis between objects and microparticles. The project also claims that its scientific value is to resolve possible contradictions between physics and philosophy; to identify the source of consciousness and to negate ghost theology.
After the project was announced, it caused many doubts among netizens. Some people questioned its research methods and disciplinary background, others questioned how such research was recommended through Yanshan University and the Hebei Provincial Department of Education, and even some questioned why such a tone came from a university professor.
Netizens said that before there were "boiled eggs can hatch chicks after rebirth", the existing self-proclaimed research project overturned Einstein's theory of relativity, why are civil sciences emerging in an endless stream?
With these questions in mind, Tongyi Dao exclusively interviewed Yuan Lanfeng, an associate researcher at the University of Science and Technology of China.
01
What do you think of the professor at Yanshan University claiming that the research project overturned Einstein's theory of relativity?
Yuan Lanfeng: First of all, this matter is completely wrong in science. The theory of relativity is a very solid theory, and the special theory of relativity proposed by Einstein in 1905 and the general theory of relativity in 1919 have been tested by many experiments and can be said to have been proved by many experiments.
In fact, there are many people who want to overthrow the theory of relativity from various directions, such as the expulsion of all Jewish scientists in Nazi Germany, Einstein was Jewish, and its theory of relativity has also become the target of attack. They also organized a book called "A Hundred Scientists Against Relativity." Einstein laughed when he heard it, saying that if the theory of relativity is really wrong, there is no need for a hundred people to oppose it, as long as one person opposes it.
The theory of relativity is still one of the most basic theories in physics, modern physics has two major foundations, one is relativity, the other is quantum mechanics, the two theories themselves have not yet been fully unified, this is the future direction of physicists to strive for, but these two theories are still very strong in themselves.
In everyday life, we are familiar with Newtonian mechanics, which everyone thinks is very reliable, but it is limited to the low-speed motion of macroscopic objects. Relativity and quantum mechanics are the expansion of Newtonian mechanics in two directions, respectively, when you study microscopic phenomena to use quantum mechanics, when you study high-speed motion or motion under strong gravitational fields to use relativity, which is something that has been proven by countless physical experiments for more than a hundred years.
In the past, countless people have questioned the theory of relativity, and I believe there will be many in the future, but if we really want to oppose the theory of relativity and talk about scientific reasoning, research like Li Zifeng is completely a civil science behavior, and will not leave any traces in history in the future.
02
Some netizens said that from the rebirth of hard-boiled eggs to the overthrow of Einstein, there have been many civil science incidents that have aroused public concern this year, why are such incidents emerging in an endless stream?
Yuan Lanfeng: In fact, folk science is found all over the world, and it will never disappear. Like the United States, there are many civil sciences, many American people believe that the earth is flat, and some people firmly believe that the 1969 moon landing was fake.
However, the peculiarity of this civil science incident is that he himself is a professor at a serious university. Of course, his own research direction is oil and gas drilling and production engineering and oil and gas wellbore pipe and string mechanics, and we cannot deny that he may be fruitful in his own field of expertise, but when he switches to a place that is not his own profession at all, at least from the current research, it is indeed a civil science.
Another unusual thing about this matter is that the application for project approval needs to pass the audit of his school and the two departments of the Hebei Provincial Department of Education, how these two departments are approved, whether the audit is not strict or the knowledge level of the people involved in the audit is not enough, I think the netizens' questions about the relevant aspects are to be answered.
Li Zifeng told the media that he began to study the project in 2000 and applied to the relevant departments for project approval many times, but did not approve the project. This time was recommended as a Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Award project, he has not yet received the relevant notice from the Hebei Provincial Department of Education, according to the current way of awarding, his award is a small probability event. Staff at the Hebei Provincial Department of Education said it was not clear about the matter at this time. We need to see further news on the specific situation.
It is actually inevitable that there are civil sciences in society, but relevant institutions and academic communities should have corresponding mechanisms to filter out civil sciences and prevent relevant voices from spreading.
03
Some netizens questioned why some professors who even teach in colleges and universities can say such things.
Yuan Lanfeng: First of all, it is common for experts in one field to cross over to another field to conduct research, and finally become a civil science.
During the epidemic last year, a French Nobel laureate declared that the new crown virus was man-made, and when it was later discovered that this person won the Nobel Prize, they turned their attention to pseudoscience. Therefore, Nobel laureates can change careers and become civil sciences, not to mention other people. I myself have personally met some scholars who have studied fields that are completely unrelated to their major and eventually become civil sciences.
In addition, I think the problem of lax school management is also worthy of attention. Like Professor Li Zifeng this time, the "Notice on Giving Li Zifeng a Serious Teaching Accident" document uploaded online, he himself was stopped for 3 years by the school for promoting his folk theory in the classroom, which proved that the school had an understanding of his relevant behavior.
In fact, two of my friends once intersected with Professor Li Zifeng. One person was sued by Li Zifeng for his opposition to minke, who called him "insulting minke and reputation infringement", and asked him to delete the relevant remarks, publicly apologize, and jointly compensate the spiritual consolation payment of 500,000 yuan with Guohu.com. Later, the court ruled that Li Zifeng lost the case.
The other is Zhao Zheng, a professor in the Department of Physics at Beijing Normal University, who is also the chairman of the Chinese Society of Gravity and Relativity Astrophysics. He told me that in 2010, when the Gravity and Relativity Astrophysics Branch of the Chinese Physical Society was held in Shijiazhuang, Li Zi and several other civil science elements organized a sabotage meeting and reported the organizers of the meeting to the Shijiazhuang Public Security Bureau, saying that the meeting connived at dissidents to talk nonsense.
These also show that Li Zifeng himself is very active in the civil science circle. I think that for such a situation, the school should be mastered, and the management department can actually pay more attention or the internal review mechanism is more stringent, which may avoid such a thing or have a negative impact on society.
However, such people are certainly individual cases in colleges and universities, and the academic community can basically play the function of filtering civil science. Research like this to be submitted to any professional journal, basically will not pass.
People in the civil science are very good at touching porcelain, and the method they usually use is to say that they have the approval of xx institutions, but many times they write letters to people, and people say that the letter has been received, and they will publicize that they have been approved.
04
Some netizens ridiculed the total civil science in some areas, do you think that the civil science has a regional nature? In the face of the frequent occurrence of civil science, what do you think our science education still needs to do?
Yuan Lanfeng: In fact, there is no so-called regional concentration of civil science, as I said earlier, civil science is inevitable in society, it is related to the way of thinking of some people. However, when there are frequent or similar incidents in a region, I think the local science and technology management department may indeed need to reflect on how to improve.
For civil science, I think that science popularization, including basic education, of course, needs to continue to improve and improve the place, but the biggest feature of civil science is that oil and salt do not enter, if you want to learn science, now the information is very developed, there will be many ways, but civil science will often invent a language system by themselves, do not communicate with the outside world, it is really difficult to eradicate.
Image from the web