If you don't know the past, you don't know the future; if you don't know where you came from, you can't know where you are going
On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army could not suppress its wolf ambitions, launched the Lugou Bridge Incident on the charge of "false accusations", and began to invade the entire land of China in an all-round way, and the Japanese army was devastated everywhere it went.
At this time, Mei Yiqi, the president of Tsinghua University at the time, had the foresight to set up a temporary campus in changsha as early as possible, and immediately organized the relocation of teachers and students of Tsinghua University after the war began. It was also Mei Yiqi's actions that not only did not suffer huge losses for the whole of Tsinghua, but also resumed normal classes.
Mei Yiqi
In November 1937, while all the teachers and students were in class, a disheveled beggar came to the door of the temporary campus, and the beggar was in a hurry to enter the school gate without saying a word. When the doorman at the door saw it, he rushed forward to stop him and said, "Stop, this is the place to go to school, you can't go in and beg."
The beggar was a little crying and laughing at the sight of the doorman who had stopped him, knowing that he was now dressed too much like a beggar, and that he was still holding a jar in his arms, more like a begging beggar.
The beggar smiled and said to the doorman, "I am not here to beg, I have an urgent matter to find Principal Mei Yiqi."
The doorman glanced up and down at him, sneered and said, "As far as you are concerned, there is still an urgent matter to find Principal Mei?" I don't know where I heard Principal Mei's name, in short, I am not allowed to enter."
The beggar didn't make sense of this, so he could only sit at the school gate and wait for Mei Yiqi to leave work. The doorman saw that the beggar was no longer going into the school, so he did not take care of him, but only looked at him from time to time to prevent him from running into the school without his attention.
Changsha Provisional Tsinghua University
The beggar didn't say much, just hugged the jar in his arms tightly, and his two eyes kept staring at the school gate. When this beggar saw Principal Mei Yiqi come out of the school, he quickly got up and rushed over with the jar, and the doorman did not pull it, and saw this beggar hugging Mei Yiqi tightly.
Mei Yiqi also jumped at that time, but after hearing the beggar holding him cry, he quickly and carefully looked at the beggar's somewhat black face and saw the beggar patting the altar in his arms with his hand. Mei Yiqi's eyes were also instantly moistened, and her voice was somewhat choked: "How did you become like this?" Come with me to the office! ”
Who is this beggar who makes Mei Yiqi pay so much attention? What is in the jar in the beggar's arms? Today, Xiaobian will reveal for readers the legendary life of this "beggar".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="147">. Genius, sweat, disgusted thesis topic is too simple</h1>
This "beggar" is Mr. Zhao Zhongyao, born in 1902 in Zhuji (zhū jì) County, Zhejiang Province, his father made a living by practicing medicine, and he also hopes that his children will be able to study more and contribute to the country in the future. Zhao Zhongyao also lived up to his father's expectations and studied very hard since he was a child.
Zhao Zhongyao
Zhao Zhongyao not only has excellent academic performance, but also has a wide range of interests, especially a strong desire to learn about mathematical, physical, chemical, natural sciences and other disciplines. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the chemistry department of Nanjing Higher Normal School, but he also attached equal importance to mathematics and physics, which laid the foundation for his later transfer to the field of physics.
In the spring of 1924, Zhao Zhongyao, who had already completed credits half a year ahead of schedule, decided to work first and then strive for the opportunity for further study because of the death of his father, so he served as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics of Southeast University, a predecessor of the physics community who returned from abroad. By the second year he had obtained a diploma from Southeast University.
In the summer of 1925, Zhao Zhongyao followed Professor Ye Qisun to Tsinghua University. At Tsinghua University, he taught himself a compulsory course in university physics. In the process of working and studying at Tsinghua, Zhao Zhongyao became more and more aware of the gap between China and the West in terms of physics, and he was never able to access the forefront of the world's science and technology at home, which made him very anxious.
At that time, tsinghua university teachers had the opportunity to study abroad for a year every six years at public expense, but Zhao Zhongyao did not want to wait that long, and he relied on his savings and living subsidies of Tsinghua University to enter the research department of the California Institute of Technology in 1927.
His mentor was the school's president and the 1923 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor Millikan. After a year of basic study, Zhao Zhongyao began his research work. But what annoyed Professor Millikan was that the Chinese student didn't know the sky was high and that he thought his thesis topic was too general.
Zhao Zhongyao, on the other hand, believes that although the topic given by the teacher is easy to obtain a degree, he cannot learn a deep technique. In this way, it violated his original intention of going abroad for further study. But I have to say that Zhao Zhongyao's move was very dangerous, in that era, the professor had great authority, and it took a lot of courage to make this move.
Fortunately, Professor Millikan did not pursue this time, and after a period of time, he gave Zhao Zhongyao a topic of "Absorption Coefficient of Hard Gamma Rays When Passing Through Matter". At that time, no one would have thought that this topic would push Zhao Zhongyao to the door of a great physical science discovery.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="157">2. Lost Nobel Prize</h1>
Zhao Zhongyao was very happy after getting this topic, because he could learn a lot of knowledge and technology from difficult topics. At the end of 1929, Zhao Zhongyao alone organized the experimental results into a thesis through various experiments and verifications and handed them to Professor Millikan. However, because the experimental results did not meet Professor Millikan's expectations, or even disbelief, he did not reply to Zhao Zhongyao for two or three months after getting the paper.
Fortunately, Professor Bowen, who was in charge of graduate students for Professor Millikan at the time, knew all of Zhao Zhongyao's experimental process, and he assured Professor Millikan of the reliability of the experimental data. Zhao Zhongyao's paper was only published in May 1930 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
Professor Millikan
When Zhao Zhongyao measured the absorption coefficient of hard gamma rays in California, several physicists in far away Britain and Germany also made this measurement. After Zhao Zhongyao studied the measurement of the absorption coefficient, he further studied the mechanism of the interaction between hard gamma rays and matter, and designed a new very difficult experiment to observe the scattering of hard gamma rays by heavy elements.
The results of several experiments by Zhao Zhongyao have given people a new understanding of quantum dynamics. The 28-year-old Zhao Zhongyao was the first person in human history to observe the production and annihilation of positrons, and the first physicist to discover antimatter. Zhao Zhongyao's discovery could have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, but immediately after Zhao Zhongyao, two more people did the same experiment as him on scattering gamma rays.
However, one person did not repeat Zhao Zhongyao's results, and another person did not observe the soft gamma rays in Zhao Zhongyao's experiment. Later, it turned out that the experiments done by these two people, one was wrong, the other was not sensitive enough, their incorrect data confused right and wrong, so that the Nobel Prize and Zhao Zhongyao lost each other.
Professor Auxpon, an academician of the Royal Swedish Academy and former director of the Nobel Prize Committee on Physics, spoke of this time with great heartache and cautioned that it was a "very disturbing and irreparable omission".
Young Zhao Zhongyao
In the hearts of physicists around the world, Zhao Zhongyao is a real Nobel Prize winner, but Zhao Zhongyao does not care about this, he traveled far and wide not for a degree, not for the prize, but for his own country and nation, in order to learn the most cutting-edge science and technology.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="167" >3</h1>
In 1931, Zhao Zhongyao, with his achievements in physics, was hired by the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where he met the nuclear master Ernest Rutherford. During zhao Zhongyao's laboratory research, he was not only highly recognized by Rutherford, but also formed a deep friendship between the two.
At this time, the land of China was in turmoil, and the Japanese army launched the "September 18 Incident" to expose its ambition to annex China. Zhao Zhongyao, who was far away in Britain, was very anxious and decided to return to China and teach the knowledge he had learned to domestic students to serve the country.
On the eve of Zhao Zhongyao's return to China, Rutherford made a bold decision by giving Zhao Zhongyao 50 mg of radium. It should be known that radium elements were very rare at that time, and Rutherford's gift was a matter of snow and charcoal for China, which was technologically backward at that time.
Zhao Zhongyao is very grateful for Rutherford's gift, but he also knows that this 50-milligram radium element, that is, the future and hope of China's scientific and technological development, will also cause a lot of malicious snooping.
Rutherford
Zhao Zhongyao blocked the news that he was carrying radium element, and as soon as he returned to China, he sealed the 50 mg radium element in the physics laboratory of Tsinghua University, except for a few physicists at Tsinghua University, no one knew that there was also radium in the laboratory of Tsinghua University.
On July 7, 1937, the Japanese army began a full-scale invasion of China when it was difficult to hide its ambitions to invade China.
After the Japanese army launched the "Lugou Bridge Incident" that shocked China and foreign countries, Tsinghua President Mei Yiqi immediately organized teachers and students to go to the temporary branch school he had prepared in advance in Changsha's Foothills, because a lot of experimental equipment that had been hurriedly walked did not come and go, and the 50 mg radium element also fell in the laboratory of Tsinghua University.
Zhao Zhongyao, who had already embarked on the road to the south, suddenly remembered that the radium in the laboratory had not been brought out, and he knew that although there was no condition for physical experiments with radium in China now, after the Japanese army discovered it, it would definitely send radium back to Japan, and according to the Japanese style, it would definitely use radium to create large-scale weapons of mass destruction and apply it to the Chinese battlefield. Decided to return to Tsinghua University to bring out 50 mg of radium.
At this time, the whole of Peiping had fallen, and it was guarded by Japanese troops everywhere. When Zhao Zhongyao escaped the heavy blockade of the Japanese army and came to Tsinghua Garden, he found that the entire Tsinghua University was also heavily guarded by the Japanese army. After some consideration, he decided to go to his friends Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin to help.
Liang Sicheng
At this time, Liang Sicheng received an invitation from the Japanese "East Asian Co-Prosperity Association", but the two had no intention of participating and were ready to go south. When Zhao Zhongyao explained his intentions to Liang Sicheng, he had planned to use Liang Sicheng's name to drive his car to Qinghuayuan. But in order not to let the 50 mg radium fall into the hands of the Japanese, Liang Sicheng also decided to go with Zhao Zhongyao.
Zhao Zhongyao did not want to implicate his friends, only wanted to borrow a car, Liang Sicheng picked up the invitation letter of the "East Asian Co-Prosperity Association" and said: "I have this amulet!" When the Japanese people stop them, they say that they are looking for friends."
In the evening, the two took Liang Sicheng's Chevrolet sedan to Tsinghua Garden, relying on Liang Sicheng, the two escaped the Japanese scrutiny and successfully entered Tsinghua Garden.
As soon as he got out of the car, Zhao Zhongyao went straight to the laboratory, only to see that the lock on the door was smashed open and thrown aside, he knew that someone had already broken in, and he couldn't help but worry that the radium had been taken by the Japanese. He pushed open the door of the laboratory, only to see that there was a mess inside, some of the instruments had disappeared, and he did not dare to turn on the lights, so he groped into a corner with the afterglow of the moonlight, and groped out a pickle jar from the corner.
Seeing that the kraft paper seal of the pickle jar was not opened, the hanging heart could be put down. In order to place the 50 milligram radium unobtrusively, he took a pickle jar from the canteen and hid the lead box containing the radium inside and hid it in the corner of the laboratory.
Jar of pickles
After taking out the pickle jar, Zhao Zhongyao did not want to drag his friend down, and after saying goodbye to Liang Sicheng, he disappeared into the night alone and embarked on the road to the south alone.
In order not to attract attention, he took off his robe, his face was blackened, and he mixed with the refugees and rushed to Changsha. Along the way for more than 30 days and nights, Zhao Zhongyao did not dare to sleep too dead, lest he wake up and see the altar in his arms, the altar was close to his chest, the friction along the way, the chest was grinding flesh and blood blurred.
After arriving at the school gate in Changsha, he was stopped by the doorman as a "beggar", and the opening scene also occurred, after the principal invited Zhao Zhongyao to the office, Mei Yiqi looked at the vegetable jar and looked at Zhao Zhongyao, and the tears could not stop flowing.
This radium also lived up to follow Zhao Zhongyao for more than 1400 kilometers, under its rudimentary conditions, the teachers and students of Southwest United University used 50 mg radium to do neutron radioactive element experiments, and the faint green light illuminated everyone's heart and left a deep memory in their hearts.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="189">4. Studied in the United States again</h1>
Soon after Zhao Zhongyao came to Changsha, Southwest United University was established, and at first Zhao Zhongyao did not teach at this university, but went to Yunnan University to open a department of physics. It was not until the establishment of the Department of Physics of Yunnan University that Zhao Zhongyao returned to Southwest Union University to continue teaching.
Southwestern Union University
During this period, Zhao Zhongyao successively taught Qian Sanqiang, Deng Jiaxian, Cheng Kaijia and others, and Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, were also trained by him.
In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs above the territory of Japan, the explosion of atomic bombs attracted the attention of the world's physics community, although the nuclear theory has been proposed for more than ten years, but the damage caused by the atomic bomb explosion has caused a huge impact on the entire physics community.
In 1946, after dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, the United States tested an atomic bomb on a small island in bikini in the Pacific. When the mushroom cloud of the nuclear explosion rose from his eyes, the representatives of other countries could not help but exclaim for this "beautiful picture", zhao Zhongyao was silent, secretly thinking in his heart: "When will China release such a huge energy?"
In order to realize the ideal in his heart, Zhao Zhongyao left his homeland and embarked on a steamer to the United States again. During the four years, Zhao Zhongyao traveled to the "Electrostatic Accelerator Laboratory of MIT", "The Magnetic Research Institute of the Carnet Base in Washington", "The Cosmic Ray Research Laboratory of MIT", and "The Experimental Institute of Nuclear Physics of the California Institute of Technology" in the United States, and learned a variety of physical knowledge.
"Little Boy" atomic bomb
In 1949, Zhao Zhongyao, who was far away, was very excited when he learned of the founding of New China, and he decided to return to China to reimburse New China with what he had learned. The most important problem was to ship home the accelerator components and nuclear physics experimental equipment that had taken him years of painstaking efforts to purchase.
He took advantage of the short navigation time between China and the United States in the early 1950s to load the equipment into more than 30 large and small boxes and prepare to transport them back to China. However, the FBI targeted the equipment and tried every means to obstruct the consignment, and it was only with the help and support of American scientists that it could be loaded and shipped.
It wasn't until five months later that Mr. Zhao got a visa to travel through Hong Kong. On August 29, 1950, Zhao Zhongyao, Deng Jiaxian, Qian Xuesen and more than 100 scholars studying in the United States boarded the "President Wilson" of the United States and embarked on the road back to China.
Scientists returning home
When everyone was immersed in the joy of returning to China, the agents of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation suddenly boarded the ship to search, not only detaining Zhao Zhongyao's most precious things, a batch of published physics books and periodicals, but also withholding Qian Xuesen's books and notes weighing more than 800 kilograms, and Qian Xuesen himself was also designated as a "spy" and detained on Termina Island.
Zhao Zhongyao was luckily released, but when the ship sailed to Yokohama, Japan, the American agents reflected that this Chinese named Zhao Zhongyao had been in the top four laboratories in the United States for four years, and the loss of letting him go was incalculable.
American agents angrily boarded the ship to arrest Zhao Zhongyao and two people returning from the California Institute of Technology on "trumped-up" charges and imprisoned them in Sugamo Prison in Japan. After the news of Zhao Zhongyao's arrest was disclosed, it caused an uproar in the international community, Zhou Enlai
In addition, it issued a statement that under strong pressure at home and abroad, the US government could only release them without evidence.
On November 28, 1950, Zhao Zhongyao, who had returned from the disaster, finally set foot on the land of the motherland. Soon after returning to China, Zhao Zhongyao devoted himself to China's nuclear industry, and he handed over all the accelerator components he purchased to the physics graduate students of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at this time Qian Xuesen finally returned to the motherland, and China's two bombs and one star also began in full swing. Zhao Zhongyao used the equipment and parts he brought back to preside over the construction of China's first 700,000 electron volt proton electrostatic accelerator, and in 1958, he successfully developed a proton electrostatic accelerator with 2.5 million electron volts, making a significant contribution to the rise of China's "mushroom cloud".
For various reasons, Zhao Zhongyao was not able to personally participate in the development of the two bombs, but I believe that he must have laughed when he saw the rise of China's "mushroom cloud".
Proton electrostatic accelerator
In 1972, the state decided to establish a high-energy physics research institute, and Zhao Zhongyao, who was already 70 years old, resolutely went out of the mountain again, participated in the preparatory work of the high-energy physics research institute, and repeatedly made valuable suggestions for China's high-energy physics.
On May 28, 1998, Mr. Zhao Zhongyao died of illness in Beijing at the age of 96.
Born in the most impoverished and weak era in China, in order to change the backwardness of the country, learn advanced scientific knowledge to change the country, in the turbulent era of China, returned from the United States, taught what he learned and learned to Chinese students, and cultivated a large number of outstanding scientists for our country.
He is the father of the world's antimatter, the pioneer of Nuclear Physics research in China, he is the master of the master, he is Zhao Zhongyao. "Profiting the life and death of the country, will it be avoided because of misfortune and happiness" This is his lifelong pursuit.