One
In 1920, Jiangsu teenager Wang Ganchang married at the age of 13. Wang Ganchang lost his father at the age of 4, and later lost his mother, and his grandmother and eldest brother married a wife for him early in order to find someone to take care of him.
This wife is her father's old daughter Wu Yueqin, who has a primary school education and is 3 years older than Wang Ganchang.
Because his father was born before the doctor for many years, the family property is quite rich, Wang Ganchang did not need to support the family after marriage, all the way to school, to 1924 at the age of 17, after graduating from high school, he entered a foreign language course, and also learned car driving and maintenance technology. At this time, he did not know that there would be such a great achievement later.
In 1925, the 18-year-old Wang Ganchang was admitted to Tsinghua University, graduated four years later, and served as an assistant to Wu Youxun, the "founding ancestor" of Chinese physics research, and completed the thesis "The Intensity of Radon Gas Around Tsinghua Garden and Its Daily Changes", filling the gap in domestic experimental research on atmospheric radioactivity.
But China's science is too backward. In order to improve his knowledge, Wang Ganchang was admitted to the Jiangsu Provincial Public Scholarship Index in 1930 and went to the Wilhelm Royal Institute of Chemistry at the University of Berlin in Germany to study under the famous female nuclear physicist Meitner.
At that time, although Germany was the defeated party of the "First World War", it was still the center of world scholarship because of the unique double pride of the scientific community, Such as Planck and Einstein.
Wang Ganchang's female mentor, Meitner, was also very popular, she was a Jew, influenced by Marie Curie, determined to break new ground in the world of physics, and was the first female professor at the University of Berlin.
Wang Ganchang, who was alone in a foreign land, was very lonely, studied even more distractedly, often immersed in experiments and forgot time, was innocently locked in the research room, and had to climb over the wall to return to the dormitory.
Once, when attending a physics seminar, he heard the experiments of the famous master Bot and the students. Many European professors repeated the experiment, believing that Master Bot had come up with the right results. But Wang Ganchang disagreed, and he became skeptical of the results of the experiment.
After the discussion, he immediately ran to the home of his mentor, Meitner, and proposed the use of a more advanced detector, the Cloud Chamber, to repeat the experiment to find out the truth. Meitner admired the Chinese student, but felt that the idea was too naïve to repeat the experiment, so he smiled and rejected him.
Wang Ganchang was not dead hearted, and mentioned it twice in succession, but he was still rejected.
Two years later, british physicist Chadwick discovered a new particle, neutrons, when he repeated Bott's experiment in a cloud chamber. The neutron is the equivalent of a key that opens the door to the atomic bomb. In other words, Chinese almost found the key to the atomic bomb first.
After the results were released, they shocked the world. Three years later, Chadwick won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The mentor, Meitner, felt a little guilty about this, and she comforted Wang Ganchang and said, "It's a matter of luck. She had always admired Wang Ganchang, and when she saw the students in their twenties, she had a shocking discovery, and she couldn't help but like him more.
Although Wang Ganchang was lost, he had no time to grieve, because the backward motherland was being bullied by Japanese devils.
Two
After the September 18 Incident, Japan took control of the three northeastern provinces and actively prepared for an all-out invasion of China. Wang Ganchang hated it so much that he couldn't sleep at night, and repeatedly encouraged himself: "Why snow shame, in my students." He turned grief into strength and studied harder.
△ The second from the left is Wang Ganchang
In 1932, under the guidance of Meitner, Wang Ganchang published a paper on the upper limit of RaE continuous β ray spectrum, which caused a sensation in the European physics community.
At the end of the same year, 25-year-old Wang Ganchang received his doctorate. Mentors and friends congratulated him and said that science knows no borders and that he remained in Germany to create glory again, but Wang Ganchang said flatly:
"I studied science, but I first Chinese. Now, my country is suffering, and I want to return to my country to serve her. ”
Seeing that Wang Ganchang had already made up his mind, his friends felt sorry, and his mentor advised him to visit more places before returning to China, and Wang Ganchang successively went to Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Italy for academic visits, and visited Lutherford, Chadwick, Ellis and other physics masters.
But the trip to Italy left him with indelible pain.
He had wanted to visit Enrico Fermi (later known as the "Father of Atomic Energy"), but the Master was out, so he visited the Colosseum and walked to a tavern.
Unexpectedly, in the tavern, a few drunks were taking advantage of the wine to smash the porcelain cup to have fun. A rich man flicked the blue and white porcelain vase, shook his head, and said, "Yes, it is worth a lot, but it is also as vulnerable as China." ”
The speaker had no heart, the listener was intentional, and Wang Ganchang listened to the pain in his heart and resolutely embarked on the road back to China.
Three
In April 1934, the 27-year-old Wang Ganchang finally returned to his hometown of Jiangsu to reunite with his wife and children who had been separated for a long time. A few months later, he went to Shandong University to teach modern physics.
However, the political atmosphere of Shandong University was very strong, and the school authorities went so far as to dismiss patriotic students who went to the campus to distribute leaflets in the name of "making trouble." Wang Ganchang was disheartened and prepared to choose another school.
In 1936, Zhu Kezhen took over as president of Zhejiang University and issued an invitation to Wang Ganchang. Wang Ganchang admired the liberal democratic school spirit promoted by Zhu Kezhen and immediately agreed to it.
Because the 29-year-old Wang Ganchang is the youngest professor in the whole of Zhejiang University, he is called "Doll Professor". Not long after, Principal Zhu sent someone to bring Wang Ganchang's family to him, sparing him the worries.
The students all liked this personable and knowledgeable "doll professor". According to the "Hubei Archives" magazine, a "Jinling talented woman" even had the idea of snatching love with a horizontal knife.
This talented woman admired Professor Wang very much, and once quietly followed him out of the school door, but found that Professor Wang was holding his daughter-in-law, followed by several children.
After understanding the situation, she felt that she had a great chance of winning, and directly showed her cards to Professor Wang:
"A great scientist marries a small-footed daughter-in-law who cannot read a few characters, which is a deformed marriage in itself. Now I solemnly tell you that I am her competitor! ”
In the face of the female students' initiative to give hugs, Wang Ganchang flatly refused, he said: "Our relationship can only be defined in teachers and students, and we can only talk about topics that we like each other." ”
For many years, Wang Ganchang has been wandering like a cloud, and now he finally no longer has to endure the loneliness of being far away from his family, and can immerse himself in teaching and research. However, only a year later, the Japanese invaded China in an all-round way, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and Hangzhou was no longer quiet.
When the country was in trouble, Wang Ganchang had difficulty sitting down, and went to the streets with his colleagues to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance and collect donations. When he got home, he was ready to donate some money.
Unexpectedly, before he could speak, his wife Wu Yueqin brought him a bag of silver rounds, weighing ten pounds. Moreover, she also took off the gold bracelet and gold earrings and asked her husband to donate them together.
Seeing that his wife was so deeply aware of the great righteousness, Wang Ganchang was both touched and distressed: "This is what Nong wore when he got married, how can he give it up?" ”
Wu Yueqin said: "Seeing that the country is almost unable to save, what else is reluctant to do?" As long as Nong is alive, his children are alive, and there is a state-owned family, which is more precious than anything! ”
Some people read little, but their hearts are as pure as a child. Wang Ganchang donated both jewelry and silver yuan, but the war situation was complicated and still became more and more dangerous every day.
Four
Since the Japanese approached Hangzhou, Zhejiang University began to move west. Teachers and students carrying booksh boxes and guns, ready to fight the enemy.
Due to the disparity in military strength, the Kuomintang army was gradually defeated and retreated. The arrogant Japanese sent fighter planes to track down the teachers and students who bombed Zhejiang University. In just one year, President Zhu Kezhen has moved 5 times with teachers and students, from Zhejiang to Jiangxi to Guangxi...
On February 5, 1939, 18 Japanese warplanes suddenly flew in and launched a dense bombardment of Zhejiang University. Teachers and students watched as the newly built classrooms, dormitories, kitchens, etc. were destroyed by the war, and counted the explosions in amazement: 118 bombs in total!
Fortunately, there are not only beautiful scenery in the local area, but also many caves, and many teachers and students took a break between classes in the largest White Dragon Cave. Because of this, the raid did not cause a single casualty, but destroyed all the supplies...
Later, Japanese warplanes frequently invaded Zhejiang University, and whenever the alarm sounded, everyone ran to the cave to continue the class. Once, Wang Ganchang saw a student flipping through the popular physics textbook, so he told him about the various wonders of physics, attracting many students to crowd to the entrance of the cave to listen.
One of the students, Cheng Kaijia, was excited after listening to Professor Wang's story and was determined to study physics to serve the country. Years later, he became the chief of China's nuclear test technology and was known as the "nuclear commander."
In his later years, he fondly recalled: "If it is said that leaving the cave dwelling is a major progress in human civilization, the time I was led out of the cave by Mr. Wang was a crucial turning point in my study of physics." ”
At the end of 1939, Zhejiang University migrated to Zunyi, Guizhou for the sixth time, and finally had a relatively stable environment. In such turbulent years, Wang Ganchang was still experimenting and researching in his free time, and if he was not careful, he actually conquered world-class problems.
Five
The legend of the "neutrino" was circulating in the physics community at that time, but no one could confirm its existence. Wang Ganchang, who always pays attention to the forefront of physics, has figured out an experimental method to find it.
But because there were no experimental conditions, he wrote "A Proposal for Detecting Neutrinos" in 1941, a paper that quickly shocked his American counterparts after it was published in the top American academic journal Physical Review.
Unfortunately, even the United States did not fully have the experimental conditions for detecting neutrinos at that time. In this case, a physicist named Aaron conducted experiments according to Wang Ganchang's paper, and the results were not ideal. Later, the scientific community called this method the "King-Allen method".
It was not until fifteen years later that American physicist Reins and his companions used the "Wang-Allen method" to observe neutrinos in experiments. Reins eventually won all the honors and later won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics.
This made Yang Zhenning, who is also a Nobel Laureate in Physics, who is also a Chinese, very upset, and he sighed: "Now when people mention the experiment of the existence of neutrinos, they ignore Wang Ganchang's original concept. ”
This is the second time that Wang Ganchang has missed the Nobel Prize, but he himself does not care at all. He sent the paper out to get his peers to detect neutrinos. He wanted to contribute to the world's science, not the honor he put on him.
At that time, he continued to teach patiently, immersed himself in experiments, published many papers, and in 1943, met a student named Lee Zhengdao. Wang Ganchang was very optimistic about this school-loving young man, and later, Li Zhengdao did win the Nobel Prize with Yang Zhenning.
The hard years lasted for a long time, and by 1944, the 37-year-old Wang Ganchang was the father of five children.
In August of the following year, the United States dropped two powerful atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of Japanese people and leaving millions of people homeless... To this end, the Japanese Emperor had to declare unconditional surrender.
At this time, although he was in remote Guizhou, Wang Ganchang had been keeping up with the trend of science and technology in the world, and after hearing that Japan had been bombed, he drew a structural diagram of the atomic bomb and told the teachers and students about the principles, and everyone understood the inside story of the atomic bomb's great power.
After the surrender of Japan, Zhejiang University finally ended the exile of more than 5,000 miles and returned to Hangzhou in batches to resume the school. Soon after, however, Wang Ganchang had to leave his wife and children again and leave his hometown.
Six
In 1947, Wang Ganchang had reached the age of confusion. He was selected as one of 12 visiting scholars to work at the University of California, Berkeley.
Since then, in less than a year, he has published "On the Decay of The Meson", which once again amazed his American counterparts. At that time, the American Association for the Advancement of Science conducted a "science timeline in the past hundred years", and only two Chinese were on the list, one of whom was Wang Ganchang.
Wang Ganchang admired the scientific research environment in the United States, but no matter how beautiful his hometown was, he could not keep this genius. In January 1949, he returned to China, and before leaving, he also bought the "cloud and fog room" that he had in mind and added experimental equipment in the motherland.
The founding of New China led Wang Ganchang's cause in a new direction.
Wang Ganchang had a Tsinghua disciple named Qian Sanqiang, who, while studying in France, jointly discovered the three and four divisions of the atomic nucleus with his wife He Zehui, which shocked the world's scientific community. After returning to China, Qian Sanqiang promoted new China to establish the Institute of Modern Physics in early 1950 and recruited talents.
When Wang Ganchang received a letter from Qian Sanqiang, without saying a word, he agreed to go north to meet the division and create good results with his comrades. Although the experimental conditions of the institute are very simple, Wang Ganchang is full of energy, and all he thinks about is work.
In 1952, the 45-year-old Wang Ganchang also responded to the call of the state and rushed to the Korean battlefield to test whether the US military had used atomic weapons. Fortunately, the United States is still reasonable, and no radioactivity was detected at the scene.
After returning to China in the same year, Wang Ganchang was promoted to deputy director of the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and presided over the formulation of the institute's "five-year plan", which clarified the direction and goals of the institute.
Wang Ganchang, who devoted himself to serving the country, also received the love and affection of the state. When the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established in 1955, he was immediately recruited as one of the first members of the Faculty (i.e., academicians).
A year later, Wang represented China as a researcher at the United Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubná, Soviet Union. Even in the Soviet Union, where masters gathered, Wang Ganchang still had a high prestige and was soon elected as the deputy director.
In 1959, the 52-year-old Wang Ganchang led the members of the physics team to find an example of an anti-Sigma negative superon from 40,000 pairs of negative films, and found the antiparticle of the superion, which caused a sensation in the international academic community, global media reported, and more than 100 research institutes sent congratulatory messages to him.
The media praised Wang Ganchang's research results as "second only to the discovery of positrons and antiprotons", and peers generally predicted that as long as Wang Ganchang continued to study, then it was only a matter of time before he won the Nobel Prize.
But to the surprise of all foreign counterparts, Wang Ganchang actually returned to China, which lacked experimental conditions, at such a critical moment, and once again lost the Nobel Prize.
What shocked them even more was that after Wang Ganchang returned to China, they could no longer hear any news about him...
Seven
It turned out that since the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, China has strengthened its determination to develop the atomic bomb.
At first, with the help of the Soviet Union, we completed some basic projects. However, the international situation is changing rapidly, the good times are not long, China and the Soviet Union are at odds, all Soviet experts have withdrawn, and all the previous commitments to help China have not been counted...
Before leaving, Soviet experts burned all the documents to ashes and threw down a sentence: "Without outside help, China will not be able to solve the atomic bomb in twenty years, so you will guard this pile of scrap copper and rotten iron!" ”
Chinese definitely felt bad in my heart. But at the same time, there are also questions: Without the Soviet Union, can we really build an atomic bomb?
The answer is: self-reliance, no matter how hard it is, you can't give up!
The development of the atomic bomb was undertaken by the Second Machinery Industry Department (hereinafter referred to as the Second Machinery Department). In March 1961, Minister Liu Jie and Vice Minister Qian Sanqiang invited Wang Ganchang to join in the development of the atomic bomb.
It is a political task that, once joined, must be kept secret, give up all reputation and connections, and may remain anonymous for a lifetime.
The 54-year-old Wang Ganchang pondered for a moment, then said sonorously and forcefully: "I am willing, I promise the country with my body!" Since then, there has been no more Wang Ganchang in the scientific community, and he has hidden his name and changed his name to "Wang Jing".
After entering the Second Machine Department, Wang Ganchang was in charge of experimental research on nuclear weapons and became one of the "three pillars" that replaced Soviet experts.
Soon after, when he was more than half a hundred years old, he went to the Jinyintan research and development base at an altitude of more than 3800 meters, and led the team to carry out detonation experiments in the attack of altitude sickness and malnutrition.
Although he was a big leader, Wang Ganchang rushed to the front every time, without the slightest regard for the risk of detonator and explosive explosion. After thousands of detonation experiments, the implosion technology of the atomic bomb was finally mastered.
On October 16, 1964, China successfully detonated its first atomic bomb. The soaring flames shook the heavens and the earth, and the oriental lion, who had been bullied and humiliated by the great powers for hundreds of years, woke up like a dream, and with a long roar, shattered the prejudices of all the great powers.
After the success of the first battle, Wang Ganchang continued to stay at the base for research, and later participated in the development of hydrogen bombs and underground nuclear tests.
The far-sighted Wang Ganchang is not only concerned about the power of nuclear bombs, but also the prospects of nuclear energy. This prospect became Wang Ganchang's greatest wish for the rest of his life.
Eight
In December 1964, Wang Ganchang independently proposed the great idea of using laser targets to achieve nuclear fusion, and became one of the founders of the field. In layman's terms, this technology is the "artificial sun", if realized, it will permanently solve the energy problem of human beings.
Unfortunately, there was a decade-long political movement in China later, and many careers came to a standstill...
In 1978, Wang Ganchang, who had been incognito for 17 years, was transferred back to Beijing, changed his original name, and became vice minister of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry and director of the Atomic Energy Research Institute.
He was 71 years old. But he still led his colleagues to attack the city in the field of "artificial sun" and gradually caught up with the international advanced level.
In 1982, at the age of 75, Wang Ganchang won two "First Prizes of the National Natural Science Award" for his discovery of anti-Sigma negative supersons and his major contributions to the development and testing of nuclear weapons.
Later, US President Reagan proposed the "Star Wars Plan", Wang Ganchang knew that "backwardness will be beaten", so he and 3 other scientists Wang Daheng, Yang Jiaqi, Chen Fangyun wrote to the central government: If you want to narrow the gap with developed countries, you must independently develop high and new technologies.
Comrade Deng Xiaoping attached great importance to this, and thus produced the far-reaching "863 Plan", which effectively promoted the development of China's high and new technologies.
A few years later, Wang Ganchang also joined forces with Yu Min, the "father of China's hydrogen bomb", to promote "artificial sun" as an independent theme of the country's "863" plan, which won the country's long-term and stable support.
But in 1997, a sad thing happened.
In the spring of that year, 90-year-old Wang Ganchang was walking in front of his house when he was unfortunately hit by a young man riding a bicycle. The young man fled, and Elder Wang broke his thigh and was bedridden for half a year, his health deteriorating.
The next year, Elder Wang's illness worsened, and he was unconscious in his later years. When the comrades went to visit him and report to him on the progress of the work, he opened his eyes and made a gesture of please. It turned out that even if he was seriously ill, he still remembered the peaceful use of nuclear energy in the country...
On December 10, 1998, Wang Ganchang, who was awarded the title of the first batch of "senior academicians" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, died in Beijing at the age of 91.
In September of the following year, the state awarded 23 founding fathers the "Medal of Merit for Two Bombs and One Star", and Wang Ganchang was among them. After his family took it for him, he donated the medal made of 515 grams of pure gold to Zhejiang University, where Wang Ganchang fought before his death.
In the past, there was Dayu, who passed through the door of the house three times and did not enter; now there is Elder Wang, who has won the Nobel Prize three times and cannot.
But he did not mind at all, and regarded his fame and wealth as a floating cloud, just as former State Councilor Zhang Jinfu praised him: "Selfless dedication, promising the country with his own example, a pioneer of nuclear bombs, and a model for future generations." ”
Whales fall to the bottom of the sea, feeding the beings of the Dark Realm for a hundred years; the dragon hides in the hidden pool, forging the world's divine soldiers to protect Kyushu.
"Wang Ganchang", let us remember this name, the person who has made such contributions to the country and the people, is the Chinese superstar that we, and our children, really deserve to chase!
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