In 1931, at the University of Montpellier in France, a young man from China studied hard for six years and finally obtained a French national doctorate. At this time, it had been exactly eleven years since he had left his homeland. This young man is one of the founders of cell biology and experimental biology in China in the future - Mr. Zhu Xie.
Zhu Shi (reference [1])
1, Shan Liwa became a foreign doctor
Zhu Xie is a mountain girl whose family makes a living by selling Chinese herbal medicine. This shanliwa has been diligent and hardworking since childhood, and was successfully admitted to the Sixth Middle School of Zhejiang Province (now Taizhou Middle School). In middle school, he was not a weak scholar, but a hot-blooded young man, who was later expelled for actively participating in the patriotic movement. Unable to go to school, Zhu Xie went to Shanghai to work as a typestreaker, and a year later went to France with his classmates.
Zhu Wash in His Youth (XinhuaNet)
In the first five years of France, Zhu Xie's identity was still a worker, a sand sweeper, an auto mechanic, a porter, he did it all. For five years, no matter how tiring he was during the day, he studied French and various subjects at night. In 1925, Zhu Washi was successfully admitted to the Biology Department of the University of Montpellier, where he studied under Ba De Rong (j.f. Batallon) Professor. Badrong is a well-known experimental embryologist known for his research on artificial single-sex reproduction (Note 1).
In 1920, Zhu Xian (front left) took a photo with his classmates before going to France (network map)
For the hard-won learning opportunities, can Zhu Xie not cherish them? He worked hard and thought quickly, and was deeply loved by Badrong. The drawings and slices completed by Zhu Wash are very fine, and Badrong often praises them: "This Chinese guy is really good!" ”
Just as the so-called "famous teachers out of high disciples", under the careful guidance of Badrong, Zhu Xie, who studied hard, soon had in-depth research in the fields of artificial monosexual reproduction and xenobreeding, and cooperated with Badrong to complete more than ten papers. In 1931, Zhu Xie successfully obtained the coveted doctorate. Badrong tried his best to keep him in France, but he refused.
Zhu Xie (left) with friends in Montpellier (network image)
Most of the Chinese scientists of that era had the dream of "saving the country through science", and Zhu Xie was no exception. When he was young, he was still "humble and did not dare to forget the country", was expelled for participating in the patriotic movement, and now that his studies have been completed, he has resolutely returned to his suffering motherland.
2. Theory is valuable and the practical price is higher
For war-torn China, scientific research is a luxury. After returning to China, Zhu Xie faced extremely difficult research conditions, and even the family's life was unsustainable. After the founding of New China, Zhu Was invited to work at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his living and research conditions were improved.
At present, many university teachers study what they make money, but they do not cultivate deeply, and only harvest a place of chicken feathers. Zhu Xie is different, he began to study the maturity of eggs, fertilization and monosexual reproduction, etc., the research direction has not changed in decades, so the research is both systematic and in-depth, and enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad.
Letter of appointment of Zhu Xie as deputy director of the Institute of Experimental Biology (network map)
Zhu Xie's theoretical achievements are quite numerous, and he has made great achievements in the cytology of amphibian hybridization, the fate of the remaining sperm in multi-fertilized eggs, the maturity of frog eggs, and the fertilization mechanism of amphibian eggs. Among them, the most popular is the "toad without grandfather".
Toads don't have grandfathers, what's going on?
It turned out that before the 1950s, although scientists had done many artificial single-sex reproduction experiments with frogs, no one had tried toads. Do artificially parthenogenous toads still have the ability to spread seeds? Zhu Xie was very interested in this.
To this end, in the eight years from 1951, Zhu Xie has experimented dozens of times, applied blood needles to prick tens of thousands of toad ova balls, and finally bred 25 small toads without fathers. One of the female and male toads later successfully paired up, giving birth to a group of small tadpoles. Since the tadpole mother has no father, the "poor" little tadpole naturally has no grandfather.
At that time, Zhu Xie's results were leading the world, showing that the egg ball had a complete set of material basis for the development of individuals, and that individuals with artificial single reproduction could complete normal reproductive activities and give birth to healthy offspring. Zhu Xie once said that nature is more female than male, and "toad without grandfather" once again confirmed this interesting point, and the people in his hometown affectionately called him "Dr. Toad".
Zhu Wash is doing experiments (network diagram)
However, Zhu Xie is not a person who only knows how to engage in research behind closed doors; he has planted land and worked as a laborer, advocating that scientific research should serve production and construction. In applying theory to practice, Zhu Has achieved remarkable results, most notably successfully solving two major problems: the introduction and domestication of castor silkworms and the artificial reproduction of economic fish.
Castor silkworm originated in India, was introduced into the country during the War of Resistance, but until the liberation, people still do not know its development law, breeding often occurs eggs do not produce silkworms, pupa do not turn moths, moths do not cross the tail and many other problems, so that silkworm species extinction, which really makes silkworm farmers headaches. Zhu Xie has always studied the development of animals, and when someone asked him about the castor silkworm, he concluded that it must be related to the environment.
Zhu Xian and the researchers plunged into the laboratory, and after unremitting experiments and analysis, they proved his conjecture: the eggs did not produce silkworms because of air dryness and egg shell hardening; the pupae did not melt moths, moths did not cross tails because the temperature was too high, hindering the development of the pupa's reproductive organs and germ cells. I see! Under the guidance of Zhu Xie, sericulture farmers simply and quickly solved the problem of raising castor silkworms by regulating humidity and temperature.
Malformed division of silkworm eggs (Bulletin of Biology, February 1963)
Solving the problem of castor silkworms, zhu wash, who was accustomed to being busy, did not want to be idle, and he turned his attention to the artificial breeding of economic fish such as silver carp and bighead carp.
China has been farming economic fish for thousands of years, but all along, the reproductive glands of artificially farmed domestic fish have not developed. So, where do the fry come from? The answer is simple and crude: fish from rivers! Many people believe that this situation cannot be changed at all, but Zhu Xie does not believe in this evil!
Since 1956, Zhu has traveled to many fishing grounds in Zhejiang to investigate and experiment. It is common to see an "old farmer" wandering on a dirt road by a pond, holding a bamboo stick in his hand, driving away the swimming snakes that try to get closer, and doing his best to protect the several female and male broodstock used for the experiment. When he was hungry, he ate some coarse tea and light rice, and when he was sleepy, he took a nap in the rain-leaking hut. After several years of patience and perseverance, Zhu Xie finally discovered a new type of oxytocin that can make artificially farmed fish spawn, which is not only efficient, but also low cost and easy to manufacture.
Zhu Xie (second from left) in the laboratory (network diagram)
Nowadays, castor silkworm has long become one of the important silk-producing silkworm species in China, and the cultivation of economic fish such as silver carp and bighead carp has also brought great benefits to the national economy, which are due to the diligence and sweat of Zhu Wash.
In 1955, Zhu Xian (right) introduced the experience of raising castor silkworms to the director of Hefei Silkworm Farm (left) (Hometown Network)
3. Great scientists who love to write about popular science
Is there a chicken or an egg in the world? What is the relationship between man and beast? What is the tradition of "female preference" in animal reproduction? When is the sex of humans and animals determined? Where does human intelligence and love come from? These problems have more or less plagued the science-loving friends. In fact, as early as seventy years ago, Mr. Zhu Xie gave a professional answer.
Most of Zhu Xie's life's work has been spent on research, but he has always been a master of using time, and in addition to scientific research, one of his major hobbies is to write popular science. In Zhu Xie's heart, scientific research is important, but the popularization of science is also very important, since returning to China, he has been committed to telling the public about difficult scientific knowledge, and has written millions of words of popular science books in his lifetime.
Some people have estimated that Zhu Xie is the Chinese scientist who has written the most popular science books since the end of the Qing Dynasty, and some historians believe that the laurel of China's popular science works in the past hundred years is none other than Zhu Xie!
Today's popular science writers have few scientists who work in the front line, and Zhu Xie is a big scientist who has been engaged in cutting-edge research for a long time, and his popular science books are all based on his own research results and original materials and monographs. Among Zhu Xie's many popular science books, the most praiseworthy is the "Modern Biology Series", for the above strange questions, you can find the answers in this set of books.
The second volume of the Modern Biology Series published by Cultural Life Publishing House, "Our Ancestors" (Confucius Old Books Network)
Although Zhu Xie is engaged in science and engineering, his writing is very good, and the writers Ba Jin and Lu Li are his friends. After returning to China, several of them established the Cultural Life Publishing House in Shanghai. The publishing house is established, what books can be published? Everyone discussed and agreed that what China lacked most at that time was science and technology, and it was necessary to publish a set of scientific books. Who's going to write it? The burden naturally fell on Zhu Xie, a scientist, and the Modern Biology Series was born in the fire of war.
This book has six volumes, including "Eggs Give Birth to People and Life Eggs", "Heavy Daughters over Men", and "The Source of Love", which were published from 1939 to 1945. This set of books is in-depth and simple, the content is interesting, from the problem of eggs and chickens to human love, from single-celled organisms to human spirit and physiology, almost all-encompassing, Zhu Xie can always tell according to his first-hand research information. Many scholars believe that the "Modern Biology Series" can be called the king of China's popular science works, which has been imitated and has not been surpassed! (For details, see the classic legend: "Egg Born man and life egg": the sexual science works of the great academician)
Photo taken by Tong Dizhou (right) and Luo Zongluo (center) visiting a seriously ill Zhu Xian (left) in the hospital in 1962 (network map)
In 1962, Mr. Zhu Xi died of lung cancer due to overwork. Although he is on a par with Tong Dizhou, the "father of Chinese cloning", in the field of biology, unfortunately, due to various reasons, there is not much information about him today, and even many people have never even heard of his name.
Mr. Zhu Xie has made outstanding achievements in the cause of biology and science popularization, and has made great contributions to the development of China's national economy, and he deserves to be remembered by each and every one of us, not forgotten!
Bronze statue of Zhu Wash in front of the building of the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (network map)
Character Profile:
Zhu Xie (1900.10.14 – 1962.7.24), formerly known as Zhu Yongchang, Zi Yuwen, a famous biologist, was elected as a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now known as an academician) in 1955. He has made great achievements in experimental embryology and cytology theory, and is one of the founders and founders of experimental biology and cell biology in China. He is the author of "The Evolution of Organisms", "Modern Biology Series", "Scientific View of Life, Old Age, Illness and Death" and dozens of popular science books.
saying:
Science requires the whole life of man, and the eight-hour workday is not enough.
exegesis:
Note 1: Artificial parthenogenesis, also known as parthenogenesis, is the development of unfertilized eggs stimulated by chemical or physical factors.
Note 2: Tong Dizhou (1902-1979), a famous biologist and educator, the founder of experimental embryology and marine science in China, was elected as a member of the Faculty of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955.
Resources:
Tong First Week. The Life and Academic Achievements of Mr. Zhu Xie[j]. [J]. Chinese Science Bulletin,1962,10:27-34.]
WANG Youlan. Remembering Teacher Zhu Xie[j]. [J]. Chinese Science Bulletin,1963,7:64-70.]
ZHANG Zhijie. Zhu Xie and Anarchism: An Addendum to the Biography of Biologist Zhu Xie[j]. Review of Science and Culture,2008,5(3):21-34.]