Into Unscientific

Chapter 705 Yang Li’s New Testament (Part 1)

Unlike many scientists who come from poor backgrounds.

Li Zhengdao's family was extremely wealthy under the circumstances at that time.

His great-grandfather Li Ziyi was a devout Christian and a well-known Christian pastor and elder at that time.

Li Ziyi has a deep connection with Cunyang Academy, Boxi Academy and Soochow University (now Suzhou University). While he has high cultural literacy, his family background is extremely prosperous.

Li Zhengdao's father, Li Junkang, was admitted to Soochow University after graduating from the High School Affiliated to Soochow University in 1915. The following year, he transferred to the newly established Agriculture and Forestry Department of Jinling University, which is the predecessor of today's Nanjing Agricultural University.

After graduating from college, he engaged in the fertilizer import trade at a foreign company in Shanghai, and his business was also very large.

Later, Li Junkang and Zhang Mingzhang met and fell in love, and soon formed a new family. After the two powers merged, their financial resources can be imagined.

In a sense, Li Zhengdao is the kind of standard rich guy who can V people 50.

But she is different from many Maduko Madams.

Zhang Mingzhang himself liked cooking, but according to the original text in Li Zhengdao's memoirs, Zhang Mingzhang's "craftsmanship was not very good, especially when stewing, the gurgling soup seemed to be refining elixirs".

In the words of later generations, Zhang Mingzhang mastered standard dark cuisine, the kind that could go to Hogwarts and directly become the Potions Professor.

Apart from

We smoke fish.

Probably because the process of making smoked fish requires a certain amount of heat, Zhang Mingzhang seemed to be a different person when cooking this dish. The smoked fish he made was crispy, fragrant and delicious.

Li Zhengdao's deepest memory of his mother was the fragrant smoked fish on the table every time he came home from school. When Li Zhengdao was 13 years old, he walked to Ganzhou. Zhang Mingzhang also stuffed some pressed canned smoked fish in his luggage. .

Nowadays, those cans have long been missing, but the ups and downs along the way are still engraved deep in Li Zhengdao’s heart.

once Upon a time.

He was also a sincere student who traveled thousands of miles to study and wanted to serve his country because he hated Japanese pirates.

And opposite Li Zhengdao.

Although Yang Zhenning has never met Zhang Mingzhang in person, when he and Li Zhengdao had not broken up, he often heard that Li Zhengdao mentioned his mother.

At the same time, it just so happened.

The relationship between Yang Zhenning and his father Yang Wuzhi is also extremely delicate.

Most of his mathematical skills came from Yang Wuzhi's teachings, but when Yang Wuzhi came across the country to persuade him to return to China, he hesitantly rejected his father's expectations.

True.

Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao did not have the same experience with their parents, but they can still sympathize to a certain extent in this regard.

Think of this.

Yang Zhenning couldn't help but glance at Li Zhengdao.

My best friend back then and now my mortal enemy seems to have changed a bit.

Although he may have held it in for too long and couldn't help but talk, the whole chat did not touch on any key issues. Li Zhengdao was almost always talking about Chen Ning Yang and was listening.

But in any case, this is indeed the first face-to-face communication between the two in more than three years.

"correct."

At the same time, Li Zhengdao seemed to be aware of Yang Zhenning's thoughts, turned to look at him, and said:

"Is this the first time we've chatted in several years since that day?"

Yang Zhenning nodded:

"Yeah, more than three years and two months."

Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee both won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for overturning the conservation of parity, but within three months of winning the prize, the two completely fell out.

Lee Tsung-dao claimed that the breakthrough in the idea of ​​parity non-conservation was made independently by himself in early April 1956 and had nothing to do with Yang Zhenning. For this reason, he also roped in Wu Jianxiong and Schwartz to vouch for him.

However, Chen Ning Yang insisted that Li had never proposed research on scalars, and he brought in Schwartz's co-worker Steinberg to refute:

[After the meeting (referring to the Rochester Conference from April 3 to 7, 1956), when I discussed the distribution of dihedral angles with Li Zhengdao, Li had a very important idea. Li suggested that we divide the data from Φ=0 to Φ=2π, but we reanalyzed the data...not enough to draw any conclusions. 】

At the same time, Yang Zhenning also proposed that the switch from strange particles to beta decay was proposed by himself, and Li Zhengdao also made a wave of rebuttals.

Although this matter has not become widely known today with the subsequent publication of "The Biography of Lee Jung-do", the break between the two is no longer a secret in the small circle of physics.

in the following years.

The two of them, Yang and Li, never see each other. If one attends a certain meeting, the other will never be present.

Even after Li Zhengdao publicly announced that he would return to China, Yang Zhenning only had a phone call with Li Zhengdao:

"Are you going back to China?"

"Um."

"oh."

"Dudududu"

The result was unexpected.

Stimulated by this environment at this time, Yang Zhenning couldn't help but find Li Zhengdao and asked him about the reason for returning to the country.

As for Li Zhengdao.

He actually expressed a stronger desire to talk than Yang Zhenning.

The two sworn enemies completed an exchange inexplicably, and the nature of the matter was even comparable to that of later generations.

Then Li Zhengdao changed to a more formal posture and looked at Yang Zhenning with great solemnity:

"Now that you know the reason why I returned to China, it's time for our affairs to be settled."

"The grievances across the sea will not disappear, but there is no need to bring them back to their homeland."

Yang Zhenning was silent for a few seconds:

"How are you going to end it?"

He was not too surprised by Li Zhengdao's words. Li Zhengdao was willing to explain his changes in mood, so he would probably mention their grievances.

In fact, Yang Zhenning also had the same idea.

As Li Zhengdao said.

The break between the two has long been irreversible, but some things across the sea are better left alone.

This time there were many relatives and friends who came back to China with them. The two of them were like two flags, each gathering its own followers.

If there is no explanation for their conflicts, it will affect far more than just each other, but also other people's research after returning to China.

There are past historical facts to refer to. For example, a very typical example is the feud between the two scientific giants Oppenheimer and Louis Strauss.

The relationship between Oppenheimer and Strauss was quite harmonious at first. They supported each other in the process of researching the atomic bomb and jointly made great contributions to the development across the sea.

However, with the advent of the war, the two had differences in political stance.

Strauss gradually tended to be conservative, while Oppenheimer became a representative of the Democratic Party.

This difference in political outlook eventually led to a breakdown in the relationship between the two men, and Oppenheimer came under internal scrutiny at Strauss's urging.

In 1954.

Oppenheimer was even stripped of his security clearance and the opportunity to participate in nuclear weapons research.

Also affected were students and old friends of both parties. The experimental project of Oppenheimer's friend Gottfried Bader was completely terminated under the pressure of Strauss's student Edward Burri.

In the end, Bud couldn't even find a job across the sea, so he had to go to England to teach.

Also featured are Einstein and his mentor Heinrich Weber.

Weber's course was the direct reason why Einstein skipped college to study on his own, and he himself was the key figure that caused Einstein to become unemployed after graduation.

After the two turned against each other, the Helmholtz family to which Heinrich Weber belonged suffered some suppression.

Neither Yang Zhenning nor Li Zhengdao are afraid of this kind of academic battle in the scientific field, but they know another point better:

Today's homeland of China is not a suitable place for fighting.

If their conflicts continue like this, it will most likely tear the entire Chinese scientific community apart.

Therefore, the issue between them must come to a conclusion today.

This conclusion may not necessarily completely reconcile the contradictions. To put it bluntly, it cannot be a complete reconciliation, but it can change the contradiction from the struggle for fame and fortune to other directions.

"What's wrong with it?"

After hearing what Yang Zhenning said, Li Zhengdao quickly raised two fingers:

"I have two options."

Yang Zhenning raised his eyebrows and said one word concisely:

"explain."

Li Zhengdao quickly bent down one finger, then shook his remaining index finger and said:

"The first solution is to jump off the boat. When you kill yourself, our grudges are also settled."

Yang Zhenning immediately glared at him:

"Li Zhengdao! You ride on the horse"

"Second plan!"

Before Yang Zhenning could finish his words, Li Zhengdao raised his second finger again:

"Let's make a new agreement."

The second half of Yang Zhenning's originally angry words suddenly froze in his mouth:

"."

About half a minute passed.

Yang Zhenning just came back to his senses. He loosened his somewhat tight tie and asked Li Zhengdao:

"What do you mean? Agreement? What agreement?"

Li Zhengdao also paused, organized his words, and then said:

"I actually thought about it during this period. No one can say that the conflict between you and me was wrong, but no one can say that it was right."

"If we only dig deeper into the original issue, the final result will be just a war of words, where the father-in-law is right and the mother-in-law is right."

Yang Zhenning was silent.

Many, many years later, Lee Tsung-dao will publish a book called "Broken Parity".

He wrote a passage in this book:

[One dark and foggy day, two children were playing on the beach. One of them said, "Hey, do you see that twinkling light?"

The other replied: "Yes, let's take a closer look."

The two children were very curious and ran side by side towards the light. Sometimes one is in front, sometimes the other is in front.

Like a race, they try their best to run faster and faster.

Their effort and speed made the two of them so excited that they forgot about everything.

The first child to arrive at the door said, "Eureka!"

He opened the door and another man rushed in first.

Dazzled by the extraordinary beauty inside, he exclaimed: "How wonderful! How brilliant!"

As a result, they discovered the treasure trove of the Yellow Empire.

This achievement of theirs won them great prizes, was deeply envied by the people, and made them famous all over the world.

But then, the unexpected happened.

One of them decided to carve his own epitaph in gold: "Here lies the man who first discovered the treasure."

Another then said: "But I opened the door."

As a result, the two had a violent quarrel and eventually parted ways. 】

It is not difficult to see from this description that Li Zhengdao also has a relatively intuitive judgment on the contradiction between the two.

Then he took a deep breath and continued:

"You and I were too stubborn to compete on the same track before. It wasn't until the incident of returning to China not long ago that I discovered another blind spot in my vision."

"Just like we can choose to be across the sea, or we can choose to return to our country, we can completely find another option outside the topic."

"For example, after returning to China, you and I will study the same topic separately to see who can get results first."

"With the foundation of today's metahadron model, this topic should not be difficult to find, what do you think?"

Yang Zhenning's pupils shrank slightly.

Then quickly.

A little light appeared in his eyes.

As a close friend back then, Yang Zhenning knew one thing very well:

He and Li Zhengdao are both very stubborn people, and it is impossible for the two parties to reach a resolution on the parity issue.

He never expected that Li Zhengdao would take the initiative to smile and extend his hand and say something like, "Old Yang, we were young and ignorant back then, let him let go of all the misunderstandings in the past, and let us work together to build the motherland after returning to China."

That's not Li Zhengdao.

Today, Li Zhengdao has just changed his state of mind and discovered some things that he had ignored in the past. It is not that he has given up on fame and fortune in the world.

same.

It's impossible for Yang Zhenning to do such a thing, that's not Yang Zhenning.

but

If it is like what Li Zhengdao said, it is feasible for both parties to discuss the matter, put their competitive relationship on a certain project, and not expand the conflict externally.

At least

Yang Zhenning thinks it is quite feasible.

According to his and Li Zhengdao's current status, if nothing unexpected happens after returning to China, the resources and manpower allocated to the two should be similar, with only slight differences at most.

In this case, both parties can be said to be on the same starting line. Although it may be a waste of talent for two Nobel laureates to study the same topic at the same time, it is not impossible for the organization to agree.

Because this also has precedents to follow - such as the rabbits' computer development.

This project has long been a subject of parallel research by the Capital Institute of Computer Science and the East China Institute of Computer Science, and there is actually a competitive relationship between the two parties.

At the same time, Yang Zhenning is actually tired of the constant bickering with Li Zhengdao. Another more important point is that

In later generations, Yang and Li almost never interacted with each other until death. A large part of the reason was due to the fermentation effect brought about by those long-range verbal attacks.

Although the conflict between Yang and Li today is still sharp, it is far from the situation in later generations where they would fight with guns if they were not old.

therefore

Faced with Li Zhengdao's proposal, Yang Zhenning was a little tempted.