A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 250
There is also a reason why the Carlsberg Foundation and the University of Copenhagen jointly sent a telegram.

Although the name of the Carlsberg Foundation sounds like it belongs to the Carlsberg company, in fact this foundation has been given to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences by Jacob, the owner of Carlsberg Beer.

Carlsberg's ability to win in the highly competitive European beer market is really thanks to technology.

At that time, the founder Jacob creatively established a laboratory in the brewery, which is the famous Carlsberg laboratory. His purpose was to use scientific methods to study brewing instead of relying solely on experience in the past.

After repeated research, the laboratory really launched an innovative yeast cultivation process, which completely changed the beer brewing process at that time.

This yeast strain has even been used to this day, and a considerable amount of beer is produced using this original yeast descendant.

The founder Jacob came up with the idea of ​​establishing a foundation after discussing with some scientists and writers in the 19s, and then transferred the ownership to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences.

Because the Royal Academy of Sciences is the only independent professional institution in Denmark.

The chairman of the foundation is also the chairman of the supervisory board of the Carlsberg beer company.

At the inception of the Carlsberg Foundation, five board members were nominated by the Academy.According to regulations, members must be scientists from different disciplines, not just representatives of business fields such as finance and lawyers.

This is Jacob's last wish, and the science-based Carlsberg Foundation can ensure that after his death, Carlsberg's beer brewing process can continue to be developed and optimized.

His idea did come true.

The largest shareholder of Carlsberg in later generations is still the Carlsberg Foundation under the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, with 75% of the voting rights.

Since it already belongs to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, of course it is very interested in a scientific leader like Li Yu.

After sailing for more than a day, Li Yu and Lu Bicheng arrived at the port of Copenhagen.

The current manager of Carlsberg Beer Company is Jacob's son Karl, who brought Sorensen, the director of Carlsberg Laboratory, to welcome Li Yu in person.

Every time Li Yu had to explain his hairstyle.

It's not easy to change your mind.

In fact, until the 21st century, Nordic countries such as Denmark and Sweden did not like Asians very much, not only Asians, but even southern Europeans.On the one hand, these countries are really rich, and the welfare is so good that they didn’t even bother to join the European Union; on the other hand, they are really cold, and people spend a lot of time indoors, and they are not as enthusiastic as southern Europeans.

But the characteristics of the Orientals are still very obvious on the whole.

Carl almost recognized Li Yu and the two: "Are you Academician Li Yu?"

Li Yu replied, "That's right, it's me."

"It's really a little different from my impression." Carl said.

Carl introduced Sorensen, the director of the Carlsberg laboratory next to him, and then they came to the location of Carlsberg.

Carl still respected Li Yu, a big scientist in science, and since it was almost noon, he arranged a lunch first.

The Danish diet is characterized by rich breakfast and dinner, relatively simple lunch, rye sour bread and some salmon meat.

Karl also offers a liver pate unique to Denmark, which is a mixture of pork liver, onions, butter, eggs, milk and spices and can be served hot or cold.Only a few people can taste it at the moment because it is very expensive.But later generations are already available in every restaurant and supermarket in the city at a fairly low price.

Carl said: "We admire Academician Li Yu's achievements in mathematics, physics, and astronomy. A genius like you has not appeared for many years, as if Newton was reborn."

Li Yu said with a smile: "Sir, sir, Sir Newton is the real morning star."

Karl took out their signature beer to entertain Li Yu: "We started production in China five years ago, and academicians should be able to taste our beer in the future."

Li Yu is one of the people in Shandong who can drink a lot, and he has drank a lot of wine. The beer in front of him feels like a craft beer from later generations. It is thicker and has a refreshing taste, which is much better than the common industrial beer.

Li Yu drank a glass of beer and said, "If you can watch football while drinking beer, it will be a great joy in life."

Sorensen, the director of the laboratory, said: "Academician is talking about football?"

Li Yu said, "That's right."

Sorensen said: "Academicians can play for a while when they go to the University of Copenhagen, and they happen to be holding departmental competitions."

"It's interesting!" Li Yu was really interested. His playfulness was still severely suppressed after time travel. Without the Internet, which is a more basic thing under the five major needs, it would be too boring.

Carl said with a smile: "It turns out that Mr. Academician is not only passionate about science, but also sports."

Li Yu took another sip of beer: "Exercise."

Carl wanted to show off his products, so he opened a new bottle of beer: "Try this taste again."

Li Yu hadn't drank too much yet, and after taking a sip of this cup, he felt a little different.

Carl guessed it from his expression: "This beer has a bit of astringency, but it has a stronger sense of thickness."

At present, there are not many industrial beers, most of them are brewed, and Europe still has a historical tradition in terms of beer and red wine.

Li Yu said, "It seems to be a little bit sour."

Sorensen's eyes lit up, and he said, "Academicians can also taste wine! That's true, and what you said is more in line with my understanding."

Li Yu just said it casually just now, so he asked, "Who do you mean?"

Sorensen said: "Although I am the director of the Carlsberg laboratory, I don't like to drink alcohol. I don't fully understand the words such as thickness and astringency of many wine tasting masters, but the acidity you mentioned is what I most want. expressed, but cannot be scientifically quantified.”

Li Yu wondered, "Acidity? Isn't there a pH value?"

Sorensen asked rhetorically, "ph value? What do you mean?"

Li Yu slapped his forehead, I'll go!It turns out that even this very basic concept has not yet been born in the chemical community.

Li Yu thought for a while and said: "To understand this, you need to accept the atomic hypothesis, the molecular hypothesis, and then you need to accept the ionization theory."

Sorensen was also a graduate, and said: "I can accept the atomic and molecular hypothesis. The ionization theory you mentioned must be the theory of Professor Arrhenius?"

Arrhenius will win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year for his ionization theory. He is Swedish, so it is reasonable to win the prize.

Although Mendeleev was also qualified for the previous few years, there are a few people, such as this one, who are quite qualified.It is a pity that in 1906, Mendeleev missed the Nobel Prize by one vote and died in early 1907.

Li Yu said: "That's right, the so-called ph value is actually the concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution, and it can be used to quantify the pH value very intuitively."

This kind of theory that everyone who has studied chemistry in junior high school really has to explain it from the beginning.

Sorensen could almost understand Li Yu's explanation, but he still hesitated: "There is no conclusion yet, is the ionization theory really reliable?"

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced at the end of this year. Although it has not convinced everyone (after all, there are still a large number of people who do not believe in atomic theory), it has given many people a reassurance.

Li Yu said: "Of course it is reliable, it can be verified by experiments, as long as a corresponding relationship can be established."

Sorensen is a person obsessed with chemistry, so he took out a pen and paper with him: "Academician, can you continue to talk about it in depth?"

Li Yu is so familiar with it that it is basically the content of the senior high school entrance examination in chemistry, so he listed the Ph values ​​from 1 to 14 and the corresponding logarithmic relationship in detail.

The more Sorensen heard it, the more excited he became: "Isn't this the theory I dreamed of!"

Li Yudao: "It's just a theory. As for how to measure it, it's still a small problem."

The pH meter was born even later.

Sorensen didn't even have time to eat: "Why haven't I seen the academician's theory? Could it be you who created it?"

"Eh..." Li Yu didn't know how to explain it for a while, so he could only say, "It was... I accidentally thought of it when I was discussing Andersen's fairy tales with Miss Bicheng on the ship."

Carl said: "It turns out that this beautiful Oriental lady also has such talents, which is admirable!"

Lu Bicheng asked with a question mark on his face: "What are you talking about?"

Sorensen can't wait to go to the laboratory to do experiments now, but he still asked: "This theory is first created by Mr. If you publish it in a journal, I will conduct research."

It turned out that he didn't want to steal the results for himself.

But in fact, the history is the pH value theory created by Sorensen in the Carlsberg laboratory in 1909.

It's just that his name is not very well-known, and it is difficult to find it even by searching.

Moreover, the theory of pH value was not taken seriously for many years in the future. It was not until around 1930 that this theory was really widely accepted in the fields of chemistry and biology.

It's hard to imagine it being so important yet born so late.

Li Yu said with a smile: "I'm just proposing a framework, and the specific experiments need to be done by my husband. To be honest, my understanding of chemistry is not very deep."

Sorensen said: "But I once heard that Mendeleev specifically mentioned your inspiration when he published the new chemical periodic table."

Even if Mendeleev did not receive a Nobel Prize, he was still the God of Chemistry. The words of appreciation from his mouth had to be valued by Sorensen.

Li Yu said: "It was an unintentional move. I won't be able to help much with this theory from now on."

Sorensen said: "You have helped a lot! Let's do it, after I finish the experimental data, I will use you as the first author when I publish it."

Li Yu said with a smile: "Don't be so polite, you are the real operator of the experiment, of course you are the first author."

"No, no, no!" Sorensen insisted, "I know that it is more difficult to come up with a theoretical framework. Besides, your framework is already very complete, it just lacks a little experimental data. I must take you as the first author."

Carl also said: "Academicians have solved a major problem in the laboratory as soon as they came! As expected, there are rumors that if you can invite you, there will always be a big surprise. My few glasses of beer are really worth it, and I will give you another ten barrels! As for the matter of the first author, don't insist!"

Li Yu had no choice but to accept the first author's proposal.

In other words, he himself has forgotten that the pH value has not yet appeared. The key thing he always thinks is too basic, and he even ignored that it also involves atomic theory and ionization theory.

Sure enough, the closer to modern times, the deeper the inner connection between chemistry and physics.

(End of this chapter)