Zhao Zhongyao, a key figure in China's atomic bomb research and development, once pretended to be a beggar to protect the fire, and was known as"The Uncrowned King"。
At the beginning of the 20 th century, there was a huge gap between China's scientific and technological development and the world's advanced level. In 1905, Einstein's "special theory of relativity" ushered in a new era of physics, however, Chinese scholars were still studying the Four Books and the Five Classics, and the abolition of the imperial examination system in the Qing Dynasty caused dissatisfaction among the people.
Although China has accelerated its industrialization process after its establishment, it is not easy to quickly narrow the gap with the world's science and technology. Fortunately, at that time, people of insight had already caught up, and many international students brought back advanced knowledge from overseas and actively participated in the construction of China.
Even in the relatively unpopular field of nuclear physics, there are people who explore it in the midst of difficulties.
The originator of China's nuclear physics industry, scientist Zhao Zhongyao, his footprints are deeply imprinted on the road of national defense. In the early days, as a student in the United States, he studied nuclear physics at the California Institute of Technology in the United States, and taught in the first nuclear physics class in the history of China.
His contributions have been widely recognized for his discoveries"The phenomenon of annihilation of positron and negative electron pairs"and is seen as a strong contender for the Nobel Prize. However, a mistake by the Nobel Prize Committee cost him the honor.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with perseverance and selfless dedication, he trekked from Beijing to Changsha to protect the precious 50 milligrams of radium, preserving the fire for China's nuclear physics cause.
Zhao Zhongyao's life is full of legend and bravery, and his deeds inspire us to work hard for the country's national defense. He was responsible for China's nuclear physics and the construction of the atomic bomb"The Uncrowned King"His contribution will always be remembered by us.
Zhao Zhongyao, a native of Zhuji, Zhejiang, was born in 1902, and his family has been practicing medicine for generations, but his father Zhao Jihe knows the truth that "studying medicine cannot save China", and advocates that children learn science to build the motherland.
Zhao Zhongyao is intelligent and studious, with excellent grades, and was admitted to the famous university "Nanjing Higher Normal School" at the age of 18, specializing in mathematics and chemistry. After the school was expanded to become "National Southeast University", he graduated in 1924 and was supposed to join society, but the death of his father caused the family's financial situation to plummet.
In order to make a living, he chose to stay in school as a physics teaching assistant, studying while working, and obtained a bachelor's degree in physics in the second year.
In the 20s of the 20th century, Ye Qisun, the founder of modern physics in China, was highly respected by universities around the world. He invited Zhao Zhongyao to go to Beijing to join the physics program at Tsinghua University, which he founded.
Ye Qisun was the first head of the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University, and Zhao Zhongyao also served as a teacher in the Department of Physics, responsible for preparing the laboratory and teaching laboratory classes. However, in the course of his studies, Zhao Zhongyao realized the huge gap between Chinese and foreign physics.
The West has made significant progress in the field of microphysics, while China has almost no research in this field, lacking both talent and equipment. This made Zhao Zhongyao feel very anxious.
Therefore, he decided to leave China and study at the California Institute of Technology in the United States. Despite having no state funding, he was able to raise enough money through borrowing money and the help of his relatives, and in the summer of 1927 he embarked on his study abroad journey.
As president of Caltech, he encouraged Asian students to pursue further studies in the United States, especially in the hope that they would bring what they learned back to China to promote the development of domestic education.
In 1929, when Zhao Zhongyao was about to graduate, Milligan arranged a simple project for him, which was the best arrangement for him, given his financial situation. However, Zhao Zhongyao was not satisfied with this, he wanted to make a difference in academics, master cutting-edge technology, and contribute to the country.
He pleaded with Mr. Milligan to change the subject, and his sincerity and enthusiasm deeply touched the leading figure in the international academic community, and in the end, Milligan agreed to his request.
In the early field of particle physics, humans have revealed the existence of tiny particles such as protons, electrons, and neutrons, but nothing is known about how they combine motion.
Western scientists at the time speculated that protons and electrons could form the nucleus of an atom and could emit outward rays that would follow a law called the "Compton scattering formula" as they traveled through matter.
However, as of 1929, the "Compton scattering formula" was still a hypothesis, and there was no experimental evidence to prove its accuracy. Therefore, Milligan gave Zhao Zhongyao the subject of observing the experimental data of the ray assumption to verify the correctness of the "Compton scattering formula".
This experiment is very important and is a frontier field of physics, and Zhao Zhongyao is very satisfied with it. However, Zhao Zhongyao was very focused on experiments, he immersed himself in the laboratory, conducting experiments day and night, completely undisturbed by the outside world.
After a year of hard work, Zhao Zhongyao finally made a breakthrough in his research, and he published a paper entitled "Scattering of Hard Rays." This article proves the scope of application of the Compton scattering formula with detailed data, revealing the abnormal absorption of rays after passing through heavy matter, which has attracted the attention of scientists around the world.
Two years later, Zhao's student Anderson followed his research direction and discovered the phenomenon of annihilation of positrons and negatives, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Although judging from the order of discovery, this award undoubtedly belongs to Zhao Zhongyao.
However, Zhao Zhongyao was not bound by these honors, because just as he was concentrating on the study of physics, the "918 Incident" occurred in 1931, and Japan seized the three eastern provinces of China.
At that time, he was overseas and saw the difficulties of his country, and he only wanted to return to China to teach and serve the country.
Zhao Zhongyao studied in Europe and worked at Harrow University in Germany and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, during which he worked with the world's top experimental physicist and "father of nuclear physics" Ernest at the famous "Cavendish Laboratory". Rutherford co-worked.
Zhao Zhongyao excelled in the lab, and Rutherford praised the Chinese student. The value of this 50 milligrams of radium is immeasurable, and even if you have money, you may not be able to buy it.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Zhao Zhongyao almost sacrificed his life to protect these scarce resources.
In the early 30s, Zhao Zhongyao returned to Peking and continued to teach at Tsinghua University and opened the first nuclear physics course in China. He is known as the "founding patriarch of nuclear physics in China", because Qian Sanqiang, Deng Jiaxian, Zhu Guangya and other early pioneers of nuclear physics in New China received enlightenment in his class.
The efforts of Zhao Zhongyao and other scholars propelled the progress of Chinese scholarship in the '30s, but this positive trend was ruthlessly interrupted in 1937 by the full-scale Japanese invasion of China.
After the July 7 Incident, schools in the north went south in large numbers, passing through Nanjing, Wuhan, Hunan and other places, while Tsinghua University stopped in Changsha. However, when the school was going south as a whole, Zhao Zhongyao, who was lecturing in the south, took a train to the north, and he wanted to go to the laboratory of Tsinghua University to get back the 50 milligrams of radium that Rutherford had given him five years earlier.
At that time, this was a very scarce experimental material in China, and it had a great impact on the Department of Nuclear Physics.
Zhao Zhongyao returned to Beiping in the midst of the war, only to find that Beiping had been occupied by the Japanese army and that the Qinghua Garden had also been destroyed. Faced with such a predicament, Zhao Zhongyao decided to go to Professor Liang Sicheng for help, he wanted to get 50 milligrams of radium, which is a treasure of the Department of Nuclear Physics, once lost, I don't know when he will be able to get it again.
Although Liang Sicheng was worried about Zhao Zhongyao's safety, he was finally moved by Zhao Zhongyao's determination and took the initiative to drive him to Tsinghua Garden, fortunately, they found the glass bottle of 50 mg of radium, and it was not destroyed.
In order to safely transport this precious radium out, Zhao Zhongyao found a pickle jar, stuffed the glass bottle into it, and left the city under the protection of Liang Sicheng, following the refugees to the south.
However, if Zhao Zhongyao had been able to buy a ticket at that time, he could have reached the Yangtze River area more quickly, but the Japanese army quickly moved south after occupying Pingjin, and North China basically fell.
Therefore, Zhao Zhongyao could only flee with the refugees, hoping to find a safe way.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was October 1937. Professor Zhao Zhongyao finally stood in front of the "Temporary Campus of Tsinghua University" in Changsha, Hunan. However, when the doorman saw a man with hair covering his face and being covered in tatters about to enter the school, he mistook it for a beggar and immediately stopped him.
Zhao Zhongyao explained tremblingly that he was a professor at Tsinghua University and that his mission was to protect the 50 milligrams of radium. The doorman was very surprised to hear him call the principal Mei Yiqi by her name.
He immediately reported the incident to Mei Yiqi. Mei Yiqi came out to see that this was not a beggar, but Professor Zhao Zhongyao, who had been "missing" for three months. His hair was messy and his clothes were in tatters, but his eyes were still bright.
He pointed to the pickle jar in his hand and told Mei Yiqi: "The 50 mg of radium is safe and sound, and I didn't eat it in vain this time." In this way, the "spark" of China's nuclear physics was protected by Zhao Zhongyao with his life.
After studying at Tsinghua University, Professor Zhao Zhongyao traveled west with advanced knowledge of nuclear physics, and eventually settled in Kunming, Yunnan Province, where he continued his teaching career. The 50 milligrams of radium in his hands have always provided strong support for his scientific work.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Zhao Zhongyao worked in the Southwest Associated University and was appointed as a special envoy by the National People's Congress to go to the United States to inspect the research work of nuclear **. He was the first Chinese expert to personally observe the nuclear experiment.
In 1946, he gained valuable experience and knowledge during the nuclear explosion test "Bikini Island" in the United States.
For the sake of the country's strength, Zhao Zhongyao not only did not return to China, but continued to study nuclear physics in the United States. At the same time, he also paid attention to the manufacturing technology of nuclear **, although China did not have the strength to support research at that time, he firmly believed that China must have nuclear **.
Over the next four years, Zhao actively studied and organized experimental equipment, and even purchased accelerator components from his own living expenses, loans, and fundraising. His efforts were recognized and helped by Caltech professor John, who received many important elements of early accelerators.
In 1950, Chinese students Zhao Zhongyao and Qian Xuesen returned to China on the "Wilson**", but they were blocked in the United States. Qian Xuesen was directly taken away on the ship and placed under house arrest, although Zhao Zhongyao and others successfully arrived in Japan, they were dissuaded by the CIA's ** and did not let them continue to move forward.
But they insisted on returning to their homeland, which made the Americans so angry that they put all of them in prison in the "Sugamo Prison", a place used by the United States to hold Japanese war criminals.
However, under pressure from China, the Soviet Union, and the American academic community, the United States was finally forced to release them, but withheld all their books and paper materials. Fortunately, Zhao Zhongyao was prepared, and he consigned the "accelerator" parts to China in batches, so that these important items were not blocked by the Americans.
After experiencing many difficulties, at the end of 1950, Zhao Zhongyao and other scientists finally returned to their motherland. Their return was immediately warmly welcomed by the leaders of the ***.
It wasn't long before the scientists returned to their respective jobs and devoted themselves to teaching and research. And Zhao Zhongyao was even more non-stop, and immediately devoted himself to the newly established "Institute of Nuclear Physics".
He and his students jointly assembled China's first "proton electrostatic accelerator", and continuously optimized it in the following seven years, increasing its energy from 700,000 electron volts to 2.5 million electron volts, reaching the world's advanced level.
This accelerator has played an important role in the research of nuclear physics in New China, and has also promoted the research and development process of nuclear science.
During the period of socialist construction, Zhao Zhongyao actively promoted the cultivation of physics talents, and has always been regarded as an authority and model in the field of nuclear physics. After his retirement at the end of the 70s, although the country's economic construction began to get on the right track, he still did his best and took on the important task of developing China's "Positron Collider".
Under his leadership, China's nuclear physics has been significantly improved in the 80s, and in the 90s, it began to carry out in-depth exchanges with the world's advanced level. Yang Zhenning once highly praised Zhao Zhongyao, saying that he not only has outstanding academic achievements, but also has outstanding abilities in teaching and talent training.
He has cultivated a large number of physics talents for China and made contributions to the country for thousands of years, and his deeds are worthy of being praised by the Chinese physics community from generation to generation.