The story of scientists

A more critical person than God —— The story of Paulie

Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli was born in 1900 and died in 1958. He is a rare genius at the beginning of this century and has made outstanding contributions to relativity and quantum mechanics. Won the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the "incompatibility principle". This principle was discovered by him in 1924, which had a revolutionary influence on the establishment of atomic structure and the understanding of the micro-world.

Pauli wrote a summary paper on the theoretical and experimental results of general relativity at the age of 19. It was only three years before Einstein published his "General Theory of Relativity" (19 16). People thought that he was so young but had such original opinions, which shocked the whole physics circle and made him famous at one fell swoop.

There are many stories about Paulie. He is famous for his preciseness and erudition, and also for his sharpness and criticism. It is said that Pauli met Einstein at an international conference. After Einstein's speech, Pauli stood up and said, "I don't think Einstein is completely stupid."

Once, the Italian physicist segre, who later discovered antiprotons, finished his report and Pauli left the meeting room. Pauli said to him, "I have never heard such a bad report as yours." At that time, segre said nothing. Pauli thought for a moment, then turned to Brescher, a Swiss physical chemist who was traveling with them, and said, "If you give a report, the situation will be even worse. Of course, except for your opening remarks in Zurich last time. "

Another time Paulie wanted to go to a place, but she didn't know how to get there. A colleague told him. Later, this colleague asked him if he had found the place that day. Instead, he sarcastically said, "When you don't talk about physics, you should think clearly."

Paulie is rude to his students, too. Once a student wrote a paper for Paulie to read. Two days later, the student asked Paulie for advice. Paulie returned the paper to him and said, "Even mistakes are not enough."

But Pauli was called "the conscience of physics" by Bohr, because of his sensitivity and prudence, he had the ability to find mistakes at a glance. In physics, there is a "Pauli effect"-when Pauli appears, people there will make mistakes in both theoretical deduction and experimental operation.

And when Pauli says "Oh, there's nothing wrong with it", it usually means very high approval. There is a joke that Paulie went to see God after his death, and God showed him his own design plan for the world. Paulie shrugged after reading it and said, "You could have done better ..."

Madame Curie, the pioneer of human radiology research

1On July 4th, 934, Madame Curie, the only scientist who won two Nobel Prizes in history, died in Sasselam sanatorium.

My motherland is Poland.

Madame Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland on June 7th, 1867+065438+. Her original name is Mary Sklodska. Although she later married pierre curie, a French scholar, she never forgot that her motherland was Polish.

Since 1794, when the Russian Empire invaded Poland, it began to oppress Polish religions, abolish the use of Polish, and teach Polish teenagers in Russian in an attempt to enslave the Polish people and destroy the Polish soul. Although Mary's parents used to be Polish aristocrats, due to the misfortune of national subjugation, their family background has declined, and they have to make a living by teaching in schools under the management of Russian inspectors. Although Mary studied in a school under Russian rule when she was a child, she still worked very hard and always got the best grades in all subjects. Her history teacher is a patriotic lady and often teaches Polish history in history classes. 10-year-old Mary often cries for the misfortune of her motherland. When Mary became a world-famous scientist, her history teacher answered the reporter like this: "At that time, Mary always wore a dark blue flannel uniform with ribbons in her blonde curls. She is smart and stubborn. She likes my history class very much. She loves our motherland Poland as much as she does now. " One day, Russian inspectors came to the classroom, asked Mary to recite Catholic prayers in Russian, and then asked her the names of the czars of past dynasties. Mary spoke these strange names fluently. Finally, the Russian inspector asked, "Who rules us?" Mary turned pale at once and kept silent. Mary didn't answer him until the Russian inspector asked him rudely for the second time. But when he left, Mary suddenly cried and shouted, "No! My motherland is Poland! " 1898, the curies discovered two radioactive elements. When Mr. Curie asked Mary to say one of the names, Mary suddenly thought of the motherland that had disappeared on the map of Europe. She told her husband, "I propose to name it polonium (praseodymium) to commemorate my motherland."

The most mysterious radioactive element-the birth of radium

189 1 In the autumn of, Mary came to Paris and entered the Faculty of Science of Paris University, which she dreamed of. The School of Science is located in Sorbonne District, also known as Sorbonne University. 1893 In the summer, Mary got a bachelor's degree in physics with the first place in the exam. The next year, she got a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Here, she met pierre curie. At that time, Mr. Curie was a very pure physicist, although he was not famous. His speech was elegant and poetic. They got married in July 1895, when Marie was 28 and Mr Curie was 36. They didn't hold any ceremony, and even spent their honeymoon roaming in the country by bike.

In the study of physics, Mr. Curie can be regarded as the original director of Madame Curie. Madame Curie also got a novel research topic because of his guidance, that is, radioactivity-in fact, there was no such term at that time, and it was later named by Madame Curie. Although another French scientist, Bacari (who later won the Nobel Prize with the Curies), has discovered the "uranium ray" and submitted his findings in a report to the French Institute of Doctor of Science, it has not attracted anyone's attention. And at that time, all scientists in Europe did not take "uranium rays" seriously. But the Curies thought it was an excellent research topic, especially Madame Curie, who was fascinated by the radioactivity of uranium. Madame Curie found in hard research and experiments that radioactivity exists not only in uranium but also in thorium compounds. So Madame Curie named this phenomenon "radioactivity" and radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium "radioactive elements".

Because of the greatness discovered by Madame Curie, Mr. Curie decided to stop the study of crystallography and study the mysterious "radioactive elements" with his wife. Starting from the summer of 1898, the curies worked together for eight years, and finally found two new radioactive elements in uranium asphalt ore. Madame Curie named one of them polonium (praseodymium) to commemorate her motherland Poland; On the other hand, they announced in an article published in the report of the French Institute of Doctor of Science: "We propose to name it radium, and think that radium is extremely radioactive." However, it is not enough to discover these two new radioactive elements only in theory. Some scientists in Europe must see these two new elements with their own eyes and find out their atomic weights. The curies must extract pure praseodymium or pure radium from uranium asphalt ore containing trace radium and praseodymium in order to convince the world. However, this kind of mineral seedling is extremely expensive, and it is only produced in Bohemia, Austria in the whole of Europe. Mr. and Mrs. Curie are poor scholars, and all their savings can only buy a few hundred kilograms of residue after uranium extraction. They wrote to several Austrian scientists for help and finally got the favor of the Austrian government. They decided to give a ton of residue to two crazy people who thought it was necessary, and they could give it away if they needed it later. In order to find the laboratory, the Curies also tried their best, and finally found an abandoned factory shed without shelter from the wind and rain in the municipal physics and chemistry school where Mr. Curie taught. At that time, many scientists who visited the factory shed saw how Madame Curie refined pure radium: she wore old clothes full of dust, stains and acid, held an iron bar longer than her, and stirred the boiling residue in a cauldron like a chef. In this way, she refined the original ton of residue and other tons of residue sent by Bohemia. After four years of refining, they finally got one gram of pure radium at 1902. During the long refining process, Madame Curie asked Mr. Curie countless times, "Pierre, I really want to know what shape and color it should be." Mr. Curie always replied softly, "I hope it has the most beautiful color."

Madame Curie will never forget that night. She and Mr. Curie walked hand in hand through the brightly lit streets and came to the shed of the factory to enjoy the crystallization of their four years of refining. When they entered the shed, they saw the blue glass container at a glance. Facing the beautiful light that came to the world for the first time, Madame Curie slowly sat on a straw chair and stared silently, while Mr. Curie leaned back in the chair and stroked her hair gently with his hand.

The highest honor and the deepest love

The birth of radium made the Curies famous all over the world. The University of Paris, which once refused to provide them with a laboratory, suddenly woke up and awarded Madame Curie a doctorate in physics on June 25th. 1903. For a woman, especially for a Polish woman, it was the most prestigious degree at that time. Then, at the invitation of the Royal Academy of Sciences, when the Curies came to London, it was even more deserted. All Londoners want to see "Radium's parents". At the welcome banquet held in their honor by the Royal Institute, all famous British scientists attended, and Madame Curie became the first woman to attend such a banquet. In June165438+1October of the same year, the Royal Society of London awarded the couple the highest award of the society, the Medal of David. On 65438+February 10 this year, the Doctor of Science of Swedish Academy announced that half of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics would be awarded to Berkeley and the other half to the Curies for their discovery of radioactivity.

Just as the Curies became more and more famous and further studied radium, Mr. Curie died in an accident. With great grief, Madame Curie refused to hold a parade and a speech for Mr. Curie, and only asked that Mr. Curie be buried in his hometown mother's cemetery with the simplest ceremony.

Madame Curie continued to study radium in depth while teaching. She also organized a radium research group to introduce radium, a mysterious element, to all countries in the world. 19111February, the doctor of science of Swedish Institute announced that she was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry this year. In the history of the Nobel Prize, only Madame Curie won this honor twice. As usual, Madame Curie will give a public speech in Stockholm. Accompanied by her sister and eldest daughter Irina. At that time, no one could have imagined that Irina Curie would go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize 24 years later!

Madame Curie discovered praseodymium and radium, which started the research of human radiology. Because of the medical use of these two radioactive elements, they will benefit mankind forever. However, Madame Curie, who worked for radium for 35 years, died of leukemia due to laser rays on July 4, 1934. According to her living will, people buried her coffin in the same cave as Mr. Curie. On her tombstone, there is only one simple line: Marie Sklo Dasca Curie, 1867- 1934.

Einstein played truant.

1895 spring, Einstein 16 years old. According to the laws of Germany at that time, only when the boy left Germany before the age of 17 could he not have to come back for military service. Because he hated militarism and couldn't bear to stay in the barracks alone-just like Louis Polder Middle School, Einstein decided to leave Germany and go to Italy to reunite with his parents without consulting his parents. However, what if I drop out of school and can't get my diploma later? Einstein, who has always been honest and simple, came up with a self-righteous idea in a hurry. He asked the math teacher to give him a certificate to prove that his math scores were excellent and he reached the university level early. I got a sick note from a familiar doctor, saying that it was neurasthenia and I needed to go home and rest. Einstein thought that with these two proofs, he could escape from this disgusting place.

Who knows, before he applied, the dean called him and ordered him to drop out of school on the grounds that he corrupted the class spirit and disobeyed the school discipline.

Einstein blushed. For whatever reason, he was willing to leave this middle school and didn't care about anything. He just suddenly felt guilty that he had come up with a cunning idea but it didn't come true. Einstein felt guilty every time he mentioned it later. Perhaps this kind of thing is far from his frank and sincere personality.

Little fool or little prodigy?

Einstein was not lively when he was a child, and he couldn't speak when he was over three years old. His parents were worried that he was dumb and took him to see a doctor. Fortunately, Einstein was not dumb, but he didn't become fluent until he was nine years old. Everything he says must be carefully thought over. Einstein Jr. is an honest boy. He never does anything against his will or cheats. To this end, he was laughed at by his classmates and nicknamed him "honest John". Ordinary children like to play competitive games, but he doesn't like to participate. The child likes war games and watching soldiers drill, but he didn't like anything related to the army since he was a child. He is a pacifist and doesn't want to see human beings killing each other.

There is a garden around Einstein's house. He often squats in the bushes in the corner of the garden for a long time, stroking small leaves with his hands or staring at ants running in a hurry. He likes meditation since he was a child and wants to know the secrets of nature. On a picnic by the Hisard River, a relative said that little Einstein was very serious. When other children were playing together, he sat there alone and looked at the other side of the lake. Pauline's mother affectionately defended her child: "He is quiet because he is thinking. Wait, he will become a professor one day! " The relative thought it was ridiculous, but he also understood his mother's feelings. Professor! In people's minds, only those smart people can get this honorary title. Can this silly boy who can't even speak well become a professor?

At the age of four or five, Einstein was once ill in bed, and his father gave him a compass. When he found that the compass always pointed in a fixed direction, he was very surprised and felt that there must be something hidden behind this phenomenon. He happily played with the compass for several days, pestering his father and uncle Jacob to ask a series of questions. Although he can't even say the word "magnetic" well, he stubbornly wants to know why the compass can guide the direction. This deep and lasting impression was vividly recalled by Einstein until he was 67 years old.

When Einstein was in primary school and middle school, his general homework was normal, only his math score was far above the whole class. Because he is slow and doesn't like people, his teachers and classmates don't like him. The teacher who taught him Greek and Latin was very disgusted with him and once publicly scolded him: "Einstein, you will never be a successful person when you grow up." And I want to kick him out of school for fear that his class will affect other students.

Einstein's uncle Jacob is in charge of technical affairs in the electric appliance factory, while Einstein's father is in charge of business dealings. Jacob is an engineer. He loves mathematics very much. When Einstein came to ask him questions, he always introduced his mathematics knowledge to him in very simple and popular language.

One day, Einstein came to ask his uncle, "What is algebra?" ? My uncle explained it this way: "There are many problems in arithmetic that are not easy to solve, and it is very difficult to calculate. Algebra is a' happy' math, which can easily help people solve difficult calculations. We call the number we don't know X and catch it. You take it as something you already know, build some relationships, and finally you can get it easily. " Then his uncle gave him a pamphlet with algebra problems, and Einstein soon learned to solve the problems inside.

Uncle Jacob once told him a beautiful theorem in geometry-Pythagoras theorem: the square of the long side of any right triangle must be equal to the sum of the squares of the two short sides. Uncle didn't tell him the proof of this theorem, but Einstein was very surprised to find that this relationship was established after drawing many right triangles.

My father's business is not good, but he is optimistic and kind. Inviting poor students from Munich to dinner at home every night is tantamount to helping them. One of them is a pair of Jewish brothers Max and Bernard from Lithuania. They are all medical students. Both of them like reading and have a wide range of interests. They were invited to eat at Einstein's house and became good friends with shy little Einstein with black hair and brown eyes.

Max can be said to be Einstein's "first teacher". He borrowed some popular natural science books for him, discussed with Einstein after reading them, and continued to provide him with new books. Max ignited Einstein's interest in self-study and constantly tutored him.

Max gave Einstein a plane geometry textbook by pirk when he was twelve years old, which immediately caught Einstein's heart. Einstein recalled this sacred little book in his later years and said, "There are many conclusions in this book. For example, although they are not obvious in themselves, they can be reliably proved, so any doubt seems impossible. This clarity and reliability left an indescribable impression on me. "

Then Einstein remembered Pythagoras theorem and wanted to prove it independently. It took him three weeks to finally find a way to take the vertex facing the longest side of a right triangle as the vertical line here, so he divided the triangle into similar triangles and proved this theorem easily. Although this is an ancient theorem with a history of more than two thousand years, Einstein finally got the result after some efforts, and he felt the joy of scientific discovery for the first time.

Max will help him correct some exercises and solve some difficult problems when he comes every week. Soon after, he was led to study advanced mathematics. When he was thirteen, he taught himself calculus. While his classmates were frowning at simple problems such as plane geometry and cyclic fractions, Einstein had entered the beautiful and magical "infinite world" of infinite series through self-study.

Soon Einstein Jr. surpassed Max in mathematics, and medical students eleven years older than him couldn't keep up with children twelve or thirteen years old. In order to have a topic to talk about in the future, Max began to lend him philosophy books. Einstein could understand Kant's Critique of Pure Reason at the age of thirteen. For many adults, this is a boring book. At this time, Einstein read books about mathematics, physics and many philosophers. He doesn't read novels, and his only pastime is playing the violin.

Max thinks he has found a child prodigy. He said, "Great scientists or philosophers will grow up from Einstein."

"True Lies" under the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Fruit

Galileo came to the Leaning Tower of Pisa with two balls of different weights. There are already many people watching under the tower. In an exclamation, they stared at Galileo closely, and two balls in his hand fell from the top of the tower at the same time. "They landed together." People shouted loudly.

This story was told by my teacher in class when I was in primary school. Now, I know that the story mentioned by Vianne, a student in Galileo's later years, is just a lie.

The course of science has opened a real historical process of science for us. For this matter, the book "The Course of Science" talked about it. According to the research of historians of science, there is no reason to show that Galileo did this experiment, and Galileo himself never mentioned this experiment. Before Galileo, someone had done such an experiment. 1856, Stevin, a Dutch physicist, made two shot puts with different sizes and the weight ratio of 1 to 10 fall from a height of 30 feet. As a result, two balls landed on the board on the ground almost at the same time. Galileo may have heard of this experiment, or he may have done it himself, but the result can be imagined.

In fact, in order to refute Galileo, an Aristotelian physicist really did an experiment at the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 16 12. As a result, objects with the same material but different weights will not reach the ground at the same time. Galileo defended this, which means that two objects weighing 1 are only a small distance from each other when they fall, but Aristotle said that the difference is 10 times. Why ignore Aristotle's big mistake and stare at my small one? This defense can also show that Galileo did not do the famous decisive experiment of the leaning tower of Pisa. If he does this experiment, he is asking for it.

But why did Galileo's students make up this lie? After reading the introduction of modern scientific methodology in chapter 18 of the book, I suddenly realized. Galileo and Newton truly represent the spirit of modern scientific methodology. Galileo first advocated and practiced the method of "experiment plus teaching". However, Galileo's experiment is not an observation experiment in Bacon's sense, but an idealized experiment. It is impossible to avoid the influence of friction in any mechanical experiment on the earth, but to understand the basic laws of mechanics, we must first exclude friction conceptually. Only this idealized experiment can be worthy of teaching treatment.

It turns out that this experiment is just an "ideal experiment" in the mind. As far as an ideal experiment is concerned, it is of course true. This is the so-called "true lie".

"Reading history makes people wise." This is an important purpose of Wu Guosheng, the author of this book. He said that science stories may arouse children's yearning for the magical world of science, but they are of little help to formal science learning. On the contrary, some legendary stories that spread false information are harmful to the in-depth understanding of scientific theories. So he wants to write a serious popular book on the history of science, which is helpful to science teaching, understanding the development of science, and understanding the social role and humanistic significance of science. But I think, once we really understand the history of science, it means more than that.

Irving

British zoologist and paleontologist. 1804 was born in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. Apprentice as a surgeon at 1820. 1824 went to Edinburgh to study medicine. 1825 to St. bartholomew's Hospital in London. He was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and was appointed as the assistant curator of the Royal College of Surgeons, responsible for managing the specimens collected by the famous anatomist J Hunt, and began to practice medicine. 183 1 year, he visited kroyewei in Paris and studied the specimens of the French Museum of Natural History. 1834 was elected as a member of the Royal Society. From 65438 to 0836, he served as Professor Hunter of the Royal College of Surgeons. 1837 Professor of Anatomy Physiology in Ren Xuehui, Professor of Comparative Anatomy Physiology in Fuller Lecture of Royal Society. 65438-0856 Director of British Natural History Department, devoted himself to the development of British Museum (Natural History Section) in south kensington, London. 1884 was called a bass when he retired. 1892 65438+February18 died in London.

Owen's early works include his annotated and illustrated catalogue (1933) based on the serial specimens of comparative anatomy and physiology collected in the Museum of London College of Surgery, which enabled him to acquire rich knowledge of comparative anatomy. His classic work Nautilus Pearls (1832) made him stand out in the field of zoology. From 65438 to the early 1940s, he devoted a lot of energy to comparing the structure of teeth, because he knew that teeth were the strongest part of the body and the most easily preserved part in the form of fossils. Besides, we can learn a lot about the eating habits and lifestyles of animals from their teeth. 1840 ——1845 published "tooth morphology", which is the main work to study tooth structure. From 65438 to 0846, he published Lectures on Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates, which was the crystallization of his teaching materials during Hunter's lecture and Fuller's lecture.

Owen has made great achievements in paleontology research. He was one of the first major scholars to collect and study dinosaurs, and the word "dinosaur" was coined by him in 1842. 1846, he published the fossil history of mammals and birds in Britain. From 1849 to 1854, he published the history of British fossil reptiles. 1854, he copied the first batch of primitive dinosaur models and exhibited them at the Crystal Palace in London, which popularized the knowledge of paleontology to the masses and aroused people's strong interest. He also studied the paleontology of Australia and New Zealand, and described for the first time the recently extinct giant New Zealand moa. 1866 to 1868 published the classic anatomy of vertebrates.

For most of the19th century, Owen was the true heir of Zhu Ye Wei. He also agreed with the German naturalist L Okun's "theory of vitality", that is, evolution occurs through the internal dynamics of cells. So when his colleague and friend C Darwin's Origin and Evolution of Species came out in 1859, he expressed firm opposition. He believes that the evolution of natural selection is too rational and is the product of accidental opportunity, so it is unacceptable. He even developed to write an anonymous article (Edinburgh Review, 1860) attacking Darwin, and personally instructed Bishop wilberforce to argue with T Huxley, Darwin's main defender. When Darwin's works were generally recognized in the scientific community, his attitude also changed, and he acknowledged the accuracy of Darwin's argument. But it cannot fundamentally reverse his position of denying Darwin's theory.