Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 200 148 Superconductivity and Science Fiction

These news about low-temperature physics have added a bit of coolness to the whole of Britain in the scorching heat.

However, London has a temperate maritime climate, which is mild and humid all year round, and the summer is not too hot.

Chen Muwu's laboratory has once again become the center of British public opinion because of scientific factors.

Only this time he went behind the scenes, pushing old Prague out of the way.

The superconductivity of niobium was not originally a major scientific discovery.

But the old Prague was eager to promote the David Faraday Laboratory and wanted to get more funds for the laboratory, so he asked Chen Muwu, so he could only teach him this trick.

The British led the British team and brought Britain back to the number one position in the world in a certain field. The popularity of old Prague being discussed by people was far higher than that of Chen Muwu, a Chinese who was worth a fortune, because of his science.

Both the royal family and the government of the United Kingdom have expressed their views on the "significant discovery" made by Old Prague in science.

It's hard to say whether Old Prague can be conferred as a Lord this time, but he should be able to receive the Medal of Merit in the royal conferment next year.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill praised Old Prague vigorously in newspapers. According to rumors, Prime Minister Baldwin will also visit the David-Ferrari laboratory in the near future.

Brennamond Company, which had been paid by Chen Muwu for the plexiglass patent and a sum of lab funding by Old Prague, quickly responded with a new response.

They began to publicize in the newspapers that the reason why the David Faraday Laboratory had made significant progress in the study of low-temperature physics was because the Brennamond Company had just donated a sum of money to the laboratory not long ago.

Alfred Mond, the first Baron Melchett, the chairman of the Brennamond Company, even announced that he would make an additional donation to David Faraday's laboratory, and he would personally contribute [-] pounds , Affiliated to the Royal Society of England, a new Mond Laboratory was built, specializing in the research of low-temperature physics.

The name Mond was not for himself, but in memory of his father, Ludwig Mond, who founded Brunner Mond together with his partner Sir John Brunner. company.

The name Mond Lab sounds familiar, and Chen Muwu thought for a long time before he realized that there should be a lab with the exact same name in the future Cambridge University.

That's because the Cavendish Laboratory, which has been established for nearly a century, is very old and aging in terms of space, environment and experimental equipment. Under Kapitza's lobbying, Rutherford applied for a sum of money from the Royal Society , A new laboratory was built on the outskirts of Cambridgeshire. As a branch of the Cavendish Laboratory, Kapitsa was also appointed as the director of the newly built Mond Laboratory.

That money was also taken from the Mond Foundation attached to the Royal Society, but now that the Mond Laboratory has been established in London a few years in advance, I don’t know if Cambridge University will still get the money in the future. Build a new laboratory.

Maybe Cambridge University would be better off without a laboratory, so Chen Muwu could recruit more people to Sweden.

The discovery of the superconducting effect in niobium was just an appetizer for Chen Muwu. The next research on the magnetism of superconductors was his real purpose in coming to London.

Oppenheimer on the side is still gearing up. He feels that the next work must be to measure the superconducting effect of more simple elements. Maybe he can find elements with a higher critical temperature than niobium and make a breakthrough in one fell swoop. 10 Kelvin mark.

For this reason, he also secretly sent several letters to American chemists and geologists, trying to ask them for more metal element materials.

Unexpectedly, Chen Muwu suddenly told him that the laboratory was about to change its research direction, from looking for superconductors with higher critical temperatures to studying the magnetic effects of superconductors.

It is not a whim to start studying the magnetic effect of superconductors suddenly. As early as 1917, it was proposed that the magnetic effect of superconductivity is more worthy of attention than the resistivity.

American physicist Francis Sylsby wrote in a paper entitled "Explanation of the Conduction of Metals at Low Temperatures" that the critical current of a superconductor produces a magnetic field strength on the surface of the superconductor equal to its superconducting critical magnetic field, Whether the magnetic field is greater than the critical value or the current is greater than the critical value, the superconductor will lose its superconducting state.

Since then, people have not forgotten to study the magnetic effect of superconductors while searching for superconductors with higher critical temperatures.

All papers published on magnetic effects so far have concluded that there is no time-varying magnetic field inside a superconductor.

Therefore, current physicists believe that a superconductor is an ideal conductor with infinitely small resistance or even zero resistance.

For an ideal conductor, if an ideal conductor plate is placed on a permanent magnet, according to Lenz’s law, a current will be induced in the conductor plate, and the magnetic field generated by the induced current can just be equal in magnitude and opposite to the ambient magnetic field, thus canceling each other .

And because the ideal conductor has no resistance, the current in the conductor will not decay, and this conductor plate will permanently float on the permanent magnet.

If the superconducting material is cooled to the critical temperature, then this material will be regarded as an ideal conductor. At this time, if it is placed in a magnetic field environment, it will naturally be suspended in the magnetic field like an ideal conductor.

However, if the analysis method of an ideal conductor is used, the superconducting material is first placed in a magnetic field, and then the ambient temperature is lowered to below the critical temperature of the superconductor, so that the superconducting material enters the superconducting state. In theory, it is believed that at this time There is still a magnetic field inside the ideal conductor, that is to say, even if it enters the superconducting state, the superconducting material will not be suspended in the magnetic field, because the magnetic induction inside it has not disappeared.

In people's minds, people have already tacitly accepted that when a material enters a superconducting state, it will become an ideal conductor.

So for a long time, physicists in the laboratory have used the method of first cooling down the material to enter the superconducting state, and then adding a magnetic field to conduct research. No one has ever thought of adding a magnetic field before cooling down, and the phenomenon they imagined Would it make a difference.

The reason why Meissner was able to discover the Meissner effect named after him was because he slightly changed the sequence of experiments. This change may be intentional, but it is more like an unintentional mistake. The magnetic field, then cool down, and then open a new door for physics.

The material that was originally thought to be non-floating, actually floated from the magnetic field after acquiring superconductivity!

This property is completely different from that of an ideal conductor, that is to say, an effect unique to superconductors.

Afterwards, people studied superconductors to confirm that a material enters the superconducting state, not only to observe whether its resistivity is zero, but also to see whether it will produce such diamagnetism and whether the heat capacity will change.

The third brother's room temperature superconductivity is not only secretive, but also only provides the curve of resistance. As for the change of diamagnetism and heat capacity, I dare not say anything, which is really unconvincing.

In the past few days, Chen Muwu has been thinking about how to make this "mistake" of first adding a magnetic field and then cooling down not so obvious, as if he did it on purpose.

He planned to propose a "superconducting two-fluid model" after discovering the complete diamagnetism of superconductors, give a set of equations, give a macroscopic theoretical explanation for this effect, and then stop.

Chen Muwu felt that after completing these tasks, he basically bid farewell to the research of low-temperature physics. At least in the next 20 years, he will not set foot in this field again.

That set of equations is the famous London equation, and the reason why the equation is called this name is not because it was discovered in London, the capital of the United Kingdom, but because a pair of physicists who discovered this equation, Fritz London and Heinz ·London's surname.

A pair of German physicists, but their surnames are from the capital of the United Kingdom. Chen Muwu has always found this matter a bit interesting.

Until a few days ago, when he asked Old Prague to buy those simple metals, he was introduced by the latter to the dean of Imperial College of Technology, a purebred Englishman, Thomas Henry Holland.

Bang bang bang.

There was a light knock on the laboratory door.

"Dr. Chen, a gentleman named Huxley is downstairs now. He said he is your friend and wants to visit you."

The one who knocked on the door and talked was the concierge of the Royal Research Institute.

If nothing else happened, the Huxley he was talking about should be the person Chen Muwu had met twice at the private party between the Ghost Club and the Duke of York.

It's just that he, a biologist who inherits his grandfather's behest and studies the theory of evolution, what can he do if he comes to find him?

Could it be that there is another chance to earn extra money at the Ghost Club?

But this superconductor has nothing to do with ghost research!

After instructing Shi Ruwei and Oppenheimer to continue the experiment, Chen Muwu followed the porter to the reception room on the first floor of the Royal Research Institute.

"Dr. Chen, hello!"

Seeing Chen Muwu enter the reception room, Huxley who was sitting on the chair stood up and shook hands with him to say hello.

On the chair beside him was an old man who was almost sixty years old. Chen Muwu felt that this was the first time he had seen him, and he didn't know who this person was.

"Professor Huxley, what brought you here today? Who is this?"

"Dr. Chen, Mr. Wells, allow me to introduce you to each other.

"Mr. Wells, this is Dr. Chen from Cambridge University. He is also a good friend of the Duke of York. He has been doing physics research at the Royal Institute in London recently.

"Dr. Chen, this is Herbert George Wiggins. He is the most famous novelist in our country."

H.G. Wells, a mountain that cannot be overcome in the history of science fiction literature.

Before Chen Muwu proposed time travel, which had a huge impact in the UK and even in Europe and the United States. Wells had already communicated with him once in the newspaper, expressing his appreciation for Chen Muwu's idea.

It's just that the two have never met, until today.

"You are Mr. Wells? I have read your book "The Time Machine". It is this book that inspired me in the study of relativity."

This is not a polite remark by Chen Muwu. When he proposed the concept of time travel to Einstein a few years ago in the Auditorium of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in the International Settlement, he cited examples from Wells’ book.

After the two shook hands and greeted each other, Huxley introduced to Chen Muwu the purpose of the two of them coming to the Royal Research Institute today.

Although Wells has devoted his current work focus to social activities, he still has not left behind his old job of writing science fiction.

Especially in recent years, there have been many important discoveries in the scientific community. Not only has time travel been theoretically supported, but also wave-particle duality has appeared. parallel universe theory.

These new scientific discoveries provided Wells with countless new creative inspirations.

Recently, newspapers have begun to report that the UK has made significant progress in low-temperature physics research.

Only this time, Wells studied for a long time, but he didn't understand what the superconductivity was all about.

Even if the conductors have no resistance and there is no loss in energy transmission, wouldn't it take more energy to maintain the low temperature environment where they reach superconductivity?

What's the use of bragging about this illusory scientific research?

He raised his doubts in a private salon.

Wells' year-end friend, that is, the enthusiastic Professor Huxley also participated in this salon. He has his own views on low-temperature physics.

"Mr. Wells, whether the newspaper writes about the Royal Research Institute or the David Faraday Laboratory, how much merit do you think Sir Prague can have?
"Although he has indeed won the Nobel Prize in Physics, Jazz is over 60 years old this year. At this age, it should be fine to play golf, but it may not be good for scientific research."

"Professor Huxley, what do you mean by this? Could it be that the fleet thinks that those guys are making fakes to cater to the vanity of those gentlemen in the officialdom?"

"That's not what I mean. I want to say that there is another person behind Sir Bragg."

Huxley didn't talk about the ghost club, but specifically talked about the new piece of glass that the Duke of York showed to everyone at the party held by the Duke of York's house.

"As far as I know, that new type of glass was developed by Dr. Chen Muwu, who previously proposed 'time travel' and 'parallel universes', and the place where he developed the glass is the David Faraday Laboratory of the Royal Research Institute.

"Then I looked through the recently published low-temperature physics papers, and found that Dr. Chen just happened to appear in the column of the author of the paper.

"He not only studied superconductivity, but before that, he also found a new kind of hydrogen.

"David Faraday's return to the No. [-] laboratory in the world is indeed under the leadership of Sir Bragg, but I think Dr. Chen should be the one who contributed the most behind this.

"Since Mr. Wells, you have your own questions about superconductivity, why don't you go directly to the Royal Institute and ask the amazing Dr. Chen?

"I have a good relationship with this Dr. Chen. If you need, I can introduce you."

After Huxley finished speaking, two people came to the Royal Research Institute today to find out his ins and outs. Chen Muwu did not expect that when he and Wells, who is famous for writing "The Time Machine", met for the first time, the topic of discussion was not about time. Travel related, but superconducting.

But that's fine, Chen Muwu suddenly thought of how to make that "mistake" inadvertently.

Wells and Huxley, who came to the door, happened to be witnesses to his discovery of the new phenomenon of superconductivity.

(End of this chapter)