Chapter 9 second quarter

Wu Jianxiong did not learn from Mr. Ye Qisun, but her teacher was Shi Shiyuan, Ye Qisun's first disciple.Wu Jianxiong graduated from the Department of Physics of Central University in 1934. The head of the department at that time was Shi Shiyuan, the first graduate of the Department of Physics of Tsinghua University.Wu Jianxiong's graduation thesis was personally supervised by Shi Shiyuan, so in terms of seniority, Wu Jianxiong should be a student of Ye Qisun's student. In 1936, Wu Jianxiong went abroad to study at his own expense, and attracted the attention of the international scientific community because of his outstanding achievements in nuclear physics experiments.Later, she participated in the Manhattan Project in the United States. It can be said that she witnessed the birth of a new era, which is the birth of the atomic bomb.

Before the discovery of the phenomenon of nuclear fission, scientists in about three places around the world were engaged in this research.These 3 places are all in Europe: Rome, Paris, Berlin.Rome is the scientist Fermi, Paris is Madame Curie and her daughter and son-in-law, and Berlin is engaged in this research by Hahn and the female scientist Mettler. After Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938, Austrian Mettler fled Berlin first, and fled to Sweden via the Netherlands and Denmark.This female scientist is Jewish. She not only has a wise mind, but also has a sensitive female intuition.It was by virtue of her extraordinary intuition that she escaped Hitler's massacre.It's just that she was far away from the massacre, but she was also far away from this research.The other collaborator, Hahn, was still in Germany, and continued the work with a chemist named Strauss.However, before the results of their research came out, they would always send them to Mettler for her opinion before publishing them.

During the Christmas holiday in 1938, Mettler's nephew, Physicist Fisher, went to Sweden to visit Mettler, and happened to receive a research report from Germany.The two people were taken aback after reading it. From that research, it was shown that the uranium nucleus had been split into two, and a nuclear fission reaction had occurred.Both aunt and nephew knew what this would mean.In a certain period of time after that, maybe a year, maybe two years, maybe half a year, the end of the nuclear fission reaction is the rise of that terrible mushroom cloud.What is even more frightening is that Hitler may become the master of the mushroom cloud.The aunt and nephew had a premonition that human society would face a huge threat. With fear and anxiety, they published an article discussing nuclear fission in the British "Nature", which was like bringing down a tree of news on the peak of world science... …

As if to confirm the judgment of the sisters and nephews of Mettler, not long after, another German scientist, Fudge, publicly published some of the latest results of his country's nuclear fission research in German scientific journals.For scientists all over the world, this information is no longer a tree of news, but like the smoke on a beacon tower, indicating that a huge danger is approaching step by step.Under such circumstances, Einstein and a banker named Sachs personally wrote to US President Roosevelt, urging him to carry out the atomic bomb program in the United States.Roosevelt agreed.So the United States' atomic bomb program officially began. Since the program was headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, it was called the "Manhattan Project Regional Program".

The scientific host of this project was Oppenheimer, who was later called the "father of the atomic bomb".It was this eccentric scientist who named Wu Jianxiong to participate in this top secret program. On July 16, 1945, in a desert in New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was successfully tested. The seventh chapter of Wu Jianxiong's biography describes in detail the whole process of Wu Jianxiong's participation in the Manhattan Project. The author wrote: "If you look at the history of scientific progress, you can find that many great scientific discoveries have their historical origins. But there are often coincidences in karma, and the discovery of nuclear fission is no exception."

If there were no "message tree" delivered by Mettler and her nephew Fisch, or the "smoke to the sky" released by German scientist Fuji (the actual situation is the same, Fuji's real purpose is to convey to the world that Germany is accelerating the development of Information on the atomic bomb), if Einstein had not participated in the letter urging Roosevelt to speed up the development of the atomic bomb, there would be no "Manhattan Project Area Plan" in June 1942, and there would be no American July 16, 1945 the mushroom cloud. Of course, there will be no historical fact that a Chinese named Wu Jianxiong participated in the Manhattan Project.

All history has the potential to be rewritten. Wu Jianxiong is a symbol here, a Chinese symbol.Although she had been in the United States for many years at this time, all the foundations of her physics were completed in China.After graduation, she worked as a teaching assistant at Zhejiang University for one year, and then went to the Institute of Physics of Academia Sinica to study "the mystery inside the atom". These experiences prove that she has considerable research ability.She was considered indispensable in the United States by American scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project, all of which proved her level of physics research.At the forefront of world science at that time, Chinese people appeared in this way.

Her mentor, Shi Shiyuan, had already learned from the famous French scientist Marie Curie and returned to China for many years.At that time, Marie Curie's laboratory was one of the first three sources in the world to study the phenomenon of nuclear fission.Shi Shiyuan studied under Mrs. Curie, and Wu Jianxiong studied under Mr. Shi Shiyuan, and Shi Shiyuan was arranged by Ye Qisun to study with Mrs. Curie.From this inheritance, we may find some clues of history.Shi Shiyuan, who was a doctoral student in Madame Curie's laboratory, was entrusted by Ye Qisun to buy 0.5 grams of radium from Madame Curie. In August 1933, when Shi Shiyuan returned to Shanghai from Europe, it happened that Ye Qisun held the annual meeting of the Chinese Physical Society in Shanghai. At the meeting, Ye Qisun also invited Shi Shiyuan to introduce his research.

At this time, Wang Ganchang, who is called the "father of the atomic bomb" in China by the Chinese scientific community, also returned to China after studying in Europe.What is even more meaningful is that Wang Ganchang's doctoral supervisor is Ms. Mettler, one of the three sources of nuclear fission research in Europe. Both Shi Shiyuan and Wang Ganchang were students of Ye Qisun. They both studied in Europe after graduation, one was under the tutelage of Madame Curie and the other was under the tutelage of Ms. Mettler. Is it all by chance? After Wang Ganchang and Shi Shiyuan, there were Zhao Zhongyao, Zhao Jiuzhang, Qian Sanqiang, Wang Daheng, Gong Zutong, Chen Fangyun, Peng Huanwu, Deng Jiaxian, Zhou Guangzhao, etc. Tsinghua physicists who came out of Ye Qisun and Wu Youxun and went to the cutting-edge science of European and American scientific circles. Basically, when the People's Republic of China was founded, most of them had completed their studies.From Ye Qisun Xuecheng's return to China to the cultivation of this group of scientific and technological talents, in just over 20 years, Ye Qisun, with his consistent thinking of saving the country through science and strategic vision of rejuvenating the country through science and education, has planned strategies and worked hard for the rise of the Chinese nation. Completed the reserve of world-class scientific and technological talents.

On the other hand, physics, which developed rapidly at the beginning of the 20th century, has become a subject with a sign of the times.In physics, the research on the phenomenon of nuclear fission is the frontier of this discipline. Whoever can successfully carry out this research, or who has the ability to do this research, who has the talent team for this research, will own this era. This age is the atomic age. If history is a big tree, if we probe deeply into its roots, we will find that its direction has actually been distributed at the beginning of the 20th century.Whoever can see the future in that era, who pays the most attention to physical science research, and who pays the most attention to cultivating scientific and technological talents will achieve the most vigorous development in the 21st century.History determines the present, and the present determines the future. This is the richest legacy Mr. Ye Qisun bestows on this era.

When Ye Qisun was in a foreign country, when the Western world tempted them in terms of material life and future career, Ye Qisun's usual scientific thinking of saving the country attracted them to convert to the motherland like a magnet. When Wang Ganchang completed his doctoral dissertation defense under the tutelage of Professor Mettler at the University of Berlin and was about to return to China, a German professor took him by the hand and said affectionately: "King Mister, science has no borders. China is very backward and the experimental equipment is very poor. Not complete, you have great potential for development in the world of physics, the physics city of the world is in the west, not in the east, and your future will be affected if you go back..." At this time, what flashed in Wang Ganchang's mind was Mr. Ye Qisun's teaching: " However, Master Ye’s words over the past seven years—’Science, only science can save our nation’ have always been with me. Science and patriotism are inseparable. I said to him: ‘Sir, you are right! The physics city of the world In the West, science has no borders, but we scientists have our motherland! I am Chinese and have my wife and children in China. At this moment of national crisis, I should go back! My country needs me...' " Zhao Zhongyao, Zhao Jiuzhang, Wang Daheng, Qian Sanqiang and others all had similar experiences, but they always kept in mind what Master Ye told them, and resolutely returned to China to join their mentor Ye Qisun on the road of saving the country through science. Gu Yuxiu was a classmate and friend of Ye Qisun. When Ye Qisun was the first dean of the Faculty of Science at Tsinghua University, he was invited by Ye Enquan to be the first dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering.On December 1, 1934, he wrote an article titled "Scientific Research and the Future of China". At the end of the article he wrote: Science does not have to save the country, but China can have science. As long as scientists are willing to save China, science can save China. The answer to how science can save China does not lie in science itself, but in Chinese scientists. This is such a complete and clear idea of ​​saving the country through science, and Ye Qisun and other sages followed this idea firmly to their life path.