Chapter 706 New Agreement Between Yang and Li (Part 1)

Unlike many scientists who came from poor backgrounds.

Li Zhengdao's family was extremely wealthy in the environment at that time.

His great-grandfather Li Ziyi was a devout Christian and a well-known Christian pastor and elder at that time.

Li Ziyi had a deep connection with Cunyang Academy, Boxi Academy and Soochow University (now Suzhou University). He had a high cultural literacy and a very wealthy family.

Li Zhengdao's father Li Junkang graduated from the Affiliated Middle School of Soochow University in 1915 and was admitted to Soochow University. The following year, he transferred to the newly established Agricultural and Forestry Department of Jinling University, which is the predecessor of Nanjing Agricultural University today.

After graduating from university, he engaged in fertilizer import trade in a foreign company in Shanghai, and his business was also very big.

Later, Li Junkang met and fell in love with Zhang Mingzhang, and soon formed a new family. The two merged, and their financial resources can be imagined.

In a sense, Li Zhengdao is the kind of standard rich man who can V people 50.

But unlike many rich wives in Shanghai,

Zhang Mingzhang himself likes to cook, but according to the original text in Tsung-Dao Lee's memoirs, Zhang Mingzhang's [cooking skills are not very good, especially when stewing, the gurgling soup is like making elixirs].

In the words of later generations, Zhang Mingzhang mastered a standard dark cuisine, which is probably the kind that can be directly appointed as the professor of potions at Hogwarts.

In addition to

the smoked fish of this gang.

Perhaps because the production process of smoked fish requires some overcooking, Zhang Mingzhang seemed to have changed when cooking this dish, and the smoked fish he made was crispy, fragrant and delicious.

Tsung-Dao Lee's deepest memory of his mother is the fragrant smoked fish on the table every time he came home from school. When Tsung-Dao Lee walked to Ganzhou at the age of 13, Zhang Mingzhang also stuffed some pressed smoked fish cans in his luggage.

Today, those cans have long disappeared, but the ups and downs along the way are still engraved in the depths of Tsung-Dao Lee's heart.

Once upon a time

He was also a sincere student who traveled thousands of miles to study and serve his country because he hated the Japanese pirates.

And opposite Li Zhengdao.

Although Yang Zhenning had never met Zhang Mingzhang himself, when he and Li Zhengdao had not broken up, he had often heard Li Zhengdao mention his mother.

At the same time, it was a coincidence.

The relationship between Yang Zhenning and his father Yang Wuzhi was also extremely subtle.

Most of his mathematical skills came from Yang Wuzhi's teaching, but when Yang Wuzhi came across the country to persuade him to return to China, he hesitated and rejected his father's expectations.

Indeed.

Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao did not have the same experience in their parents, but they could empathize with each other more or less in this regard.

Thinking of this.

Yang Zhenning couldn't help but look at Li Zhengdao.

This close friend of his in the past and now his mortal enemy seemed to have changed a little.

Although he might have been unable to hold back because he had been holding back for too long, the whole chat process did not involve any key issues at all, and it was almost Li Zhengdao who was talking and Yang Zhenning was listening.

But in any case, this was indeed the first face-to-face communication between the two in more than three years.

"By the way."

At the same time, Li Zhengdao seemed to realize Yang Zhenning's idea, turned his head and looked at him, and said:

"This is the first time we have chatted in a few years since that day, right?"

Yang Zhenning nodded:

"Yes, more than three years and two months."

Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao both won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for overturning the conservation of parity, but within three months after winning the award, the two had a complete fallout.

Li Zhengdao claimed that the breakthrough in the idea of ​​parity non-conservation was made independently in early April 1956, and had nothing to do with Yang Zhenning. For this reason, he also pulled Wu Jianxiong and Schwartz to guarantee him.

However, Yang Zhenning insisted that Li had never proposed to study pseudo-scalars, and he pulled Schwartz's co-worker Steinberg to refute:

[After the meeting (referring to the Rochester meeting from April 3 to 7, 1956), when I discussed the distribution of dihedral angles with Li Zhengdao, Li had a very important idea. Lee suggested that we divide the data from Φ=0 to Φ=2π, but we reanalyzed the data... not enough to draw any conclusions. 】

At the same time, Yang Zhenning also proposed that the transition from strange particles to β decay was proposed by himself, and Li Zhengdao also made a wave of rebuttals.

Although this matter has not been known to everyone with the publication of the later "Biography of Li Zhengdao", the breakup between the two is no longer a secret in the small circle of physics.

In the following years.

Yang and Li did not meet each other. Whoever attended a meeting would never be present.

Even after Li Zhengdao publicly announced that he would return to China, Yang Zhenning only called Li Zhengdao:

"You, return to China?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

"Beep beep beep"

The result was unexpected.

Under the stimulation of this environment at this time, Yang Zhenning could not help but find Li Zhengdao and asked him about the reason for his return to China.

And Li Zhengdao.

He actually expressed a stronger desire to talk than Yang Zhenning.

The two mortal enemies completed an inexplicable exchange, and the nature of this matter was even comparable to the later generations.

Then Li Zhengdao changed to a more formal posture and looked at Yang Zhenning very solemnly:

"Since you already know the reason why I returned to China, shouldn't we also have a conclusion on our affairs?"

"The grudges on the other side of the sea will not disappear, but there is no need to bring them back to the homeland."

Yang Zhenning was silent for a few seconds:

"How do you want to end it?"

He was not too surprised by what Li Zhengdao said. Li Zhengdao was willing to explain the change in his mood, so he would probably mention their grudges.

In fact, Yang Zhenning also thought so.

As Li Zhengdao said.

The breakup between the two has long been irreversible, but some things on the other side of the sea should be left on the other side of the sea.

This time, many relatives and friends returned to China with them. The two were like two flags, each gathering their own followers.

If their conflict does not have a reason, then the impact will be far more than just them, but also include the research of others after returning to China.

This is a reference to past historical facts, such as the grudges between the two scientific giants Oppenheimer and Louis Strauss.

The relationship between Oppenheimer and Strauss was quite harmonious at first. They supported each other in the process of studying the atomic bomb and made great contributions to the development of the other side of the sea.

However, with the advent of the Great War, the two had differences in political stance.

Strauss gradually leaned towards the conservatives, while Oppenheimer became a representative of the Democratic Party.

This difference in political ideas eventually led to the breakdown of their relationship. Under Strauss's promotion, Oppenheimer was internally reviewed.

In 1954.

Oppenheimer was even deprived of his security license and lost the opportunity to participate in nuclear weapons research.

Also affected were students and old friends of both sides. Oppenheimer's friend Gottfried Baade's experimental project was completely terminated under the pressure of Strauss's student Edward Bury.

In the end, Baade couldn't even find a job across the sea and had to go to Britain to teach.

In addition, there are Einstein and his mentor Heinrich Weber.

Weber's course was the direct reason why Einstein skipped classes and studied on his own at university, and he himself was the key figure who caused Einstein to be unemployed after graduation.

After the two turned against each other, even the Helmholtz system to which Heinrich Weber belonged suffered some suppression.

Neither Yang Zhenning nor Li Zhengdao are afraid of this kind of academic struggle in the field of science, but they are more aware of another point:

The Chinese homeland today is not a suitable place for struggle.

If their conflict continues like this, it will likely tear apart the entire Chinese scientific community.

Therefore, there must be a conclusion to their problem today.

This conclusion may not be a complete reconciliation of the conflict. To be frank, it is impossible to completely reconcile, but it can shift the conflict from the struggle for fame and fortune to other directions.

"How to end it?"

Hearing what Yang Zhenning said, Li Zhengdao quickly raised two fingers:

"I have two plans."

Yang Zhenning raised his eyebrows and uttered a word concisely:

"Say it."

Li Zhengdao quickly bent a finger, then shook the remaining index finger, and said:

"The first ending plan is that you jump off the boat, and while you end your own life, our grievances will also be ended."

Yang Zhenning immediately glared at him:

"Li Zhengdao! You fucking"

"The second plan!"

Before Yang Zhenning finished speaking, Li Zhengdao raised his second finger again:

"Let's make a new agreement."

Yang Zhenning's originally angry second half of the sentence suddenly froze in his mouth:

"."

About half a minute passed.

Yang Zhenning just came back to his senses. He loosened his tight tie and asked Li Zhengdao:

"What do you mean? Agreement? What agreement?"

Li Zhengdao also paused, organized his words and said:

"I have actually thought about it during this period. No one can say that you and I are wrong in the conflict back then, but no one can say that we are right either."

"If we only dig deeper into the original problem, the final result will only be a quarrel, with each party saying that they are right."

Yang Zhenning was silent.

Many, many years later, Li Zhengdao will publish a book called "Broken Parity".

He wrote a passage in this book:

[On a dark and foggy day, two children were playing on the beach. One of them said, "Hey, do you see that flashing light?"

The other replied, "Yes, let's get closer and take a look."

The two children were very curious. They ran towards the light side by side. Sometimes one was in front, and sometimes the other was in front.

Like a competition, they tried their best and ran faster and faster.

Their efforts and speed made them both so excited that they forgot everything.

The first child to reach the door said, "Found it!"

He opened the door, and the other rushed in first.

He was dazzled by the extraordinary beauty inside and exclaimed loudly, "How wonderful! How brilliant!"

As a result, they discovered the treasure house of the Yellow Empire.

Their feat earned them a great reward, and they were admired by people and became famous.

But then, something unexpected happened.

One of them decided to engrave his epitaph in gold: "Here lies the one who first discovered the treasure."

The other then said, "But I opened the door."

So the two of them had a violent quarrel and eventually parted ways. 】

It is not difficult to see from this description that Li Zhengdao also has a relatively intuitive judgment on the contradiction between the two.

Then he took a deep breath and continued:

"You and I were too stubborn to compete on the same track before. It wasn't until the incident of returning to China not long ago that I discovered another blind spot in my vision."

"Just like we can choose to be across the sea, or we can choose to return to our country, we can completely find another option outside the topic."

"For example, after returning to China, you and I will study the same topic separately to see who can get results first."

"With the foundation of today's metahadron model, this topic should not be difficult to find, what do you think?"

Yang Zhenning's pupils shrank slightly.

Then quickly.

A little light appeared in his eyes.

As a close friend back then, Yang Zhenning knew one thing very well:

He and Li Zhengdao are both very stubborn people, and it is impossible for the two parties to reach a resolution on the parity issue.

He never expected that Li Zhengdao would take the initiative to smile and extend his hand and say something like, "Lao Yang, we were young and ignorant back then, so let him let go of all the misunderstandings in the past. After returning to China, let's work together to build the motherland."

That's not Li Zhengdao.

Today, Li Zhengdao has just changed his state of mind and discovered some things that he had ignored in the past. It is not that he has given up on fame and fortune in the world.

same.

It's impossible for Yang Zhenning to do such a thing, that's not Yang Zhenning.

but

If it is like what Li Zhengdao said, it is feasible for both parties to discuss the matter and focus their competitive relationship on a certain project without expanding the conflict externally.

At least

Yang Zhenning thinks it is quite feasible.

According to his and Li Zhengdao's current status, if nothing unexpected happens after returning to China, the resources and manpower allocated to the two should be similar, with only slight differences at most.

In this case, both parties can be said to be on the same starting line. Although it may be a waste of talent for two Nobel laureates to study the same topic at the same time, it is not impossible for the organization to agree.

Because this also has precedents to follow - such as the rabbits' computer development.

This project has long been a subject of parallel research by the Capital Institute of Computer Science and the East China Institute of Computer Science, and there is actually a competitive relationship between the two parties.

At the same time, Yang Zhenning is actually tired of the constant bickering with Li Zhengdao. Another more important point is that

In later generations, Yang and Li almost never interacted with each other until death. A large part of the reason was due to the fermentation effect brought about by those long-range verbal attacks.

Although the conflict between Yang and Li today is still sharp, it is far from the situation in later generations where they would fight with guns if they were not old.

therefore

Facing Li Zhengdao's proposal, Yang Zhenning was a little tempted.