In the autumn of 1927, Zhao Zhongyao went to the United States to study and studied under Professor Robert Andrew Milligan at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Milligan is a famous physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923.

He is the first scientist to discover antimatter in the history of physics, and is also the originator of nuclear physics in my country. Among the heroes of two bombs and one satellite , many are his students (his students include Deng Jiaxian , Qian Sanqiang , Zhu Guangya , Peng Huanwu and other famous scientists in later generations); the earliest Nobel Prize winners of Chinese people, Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning , have both received his teachings.

He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a famous nuclear physicist Zhao Zhongyao . He is also a pioneer in my country's nuclear physics research and many other physics fields. Because of his efforts and dedication, he has greatly promoted the development of my country's nuclear weapons and nuclear industry.

pic | Zhao Zhongyao (middle)

1902, Zhao Zhongyao was born in the Zhaojia , south gate of Zhujin, Zhejiang. Zhao Zhongyao has been malnourished since he was a child and has poor physical fitness. Although he was weak, Zhao Zhongyao knew how to study hard since he was a child, and his grades in all subjects were among the best in his studies.

920, 18-year-old Zhao Zhongyao was admitted to Nanjing Higher Normal University, the college he had always dreamed of. Zhao Zhongyao cherished his time in his study. During the days of studying at Nangao Normal University, Zhao Zhongyao studied physics hard, laying a solid foundation for future development.

924, after graduation, Zhao Zhongyao went to Zhejiang Wuxing Normal School to teach. Half a year later, he returned to Southeast University (1923 Nanjing Higher Normal School was rebuilt into Southeast University), serving as an assistant in physics and taking the physics department course.

1927, Zhao Zhongyao went to the United States to study and studied in . He studied under . Professor Robert Andrew Milligan . Professor Milligan is a famous physicist. In 1923, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics .

Under the guidance of famous teachers, Zhao Zhongyao made rapid progress in physics. During this period, Zhao Zhongyao discovered positron for the first time, shocking the entire physics community.

During his study in the United States, Professor Mi Ligen gave Zhao Zhongyao an experimental topic of "the absorption coefficient of hard gamma rays in matter". After more than a year of hard and meticulous experiments, Zhao Zhongyao not only completed the project, but also at the end of 1929, Zhao Zhongyao actually made a major discovery: the high-energy photon beam of hard gamma rays showed an "abnormal absorption" phenomenon when passing through heavy metal lead. This is the earliest experimental evidence generated by positive and negative electron collision.

He wrote a paper based on this phenomenon, and published it in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in May 1930 with the title "Measurement of Hard Gamma Ray Absorption Coefficient". Then Zhao Zhongyao continued his experiment and confirmed the existence of positrons through the experiment. In October 1930, Zhao Zhongyao published his important discovery in the American Physics Review.

Figure | Zhao Zhongyao

Let me explain here that negative electrons belong to positive matter, that is, what we usually call matter: positrons belong to antimatter. Zhao Zhongyao was the first scientist to discover antimatter in the history of human physics. The positive and negative electron annihilation radiation he observed two years earlier than the positron tracks that Anderson saw later.

Zhao Zhongyao's research results provide a theoretical basis for the development of positive and negative electron collider , and also laid the foundation for his position in the world physics community.

discovery of positrons is a milestone progress in physics. However, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 was awarded to an American physicist who discovered positrons two years later than Zhao Zhongyao. He was also a classmate of Zhao Zhongyao when he was studying in the United States, Carl David Anderson .

Zhao Zhongyao was clearly the first person to discover positrons, but he didn't get half of Nobel Prize . As soon as the news came out, the physics community was in an uproar.

Professor Mi Ligen, after hearing that Zhao Zhongyao did not win the Nobel Prize, said painfully: " is the thing I least want to accept ".

This is the biggest unfair incident in the history of the Nobel Prize in Physics. It was not until 64 years later that the truth of this injustice was found.

In 2000, Aixpeng, an academician of the Swedish Academy of Sciences who served as the judge of the Nobel Prize Committee on Physics, uncovered the answer to Dr. Lee Zhengdao.

It turned out that the Royal Swedish Society had solemnly considered awarding Zhao Zhongyao the Nobel Prize. Unexpectedly, there was a female scholar working in Germany at that time. She was also a physicist. She reported in a document that her experimental results were different from Zhao Zhongyao's observations, and questioned the correctness of Zhao's experimental results.

The incident caused controversy within the Royal Swedish Society. To be cautious, they decided to give up their original opinions and not award Zhao Zhongyao the Nobel Prize, but awarded the prize to Zhao Zhongyao's classmates, two years later than Anderson, who discovered positrons.

Several years later, many physicists finally confirmed that Zhao Zhongyao's experiments and observations were completely accurate, and the female physicist who raised the question caused wrong observations because of insufficient sensitivity of the equipment, which led to different results from Zhao Zhongyao's. confuses audio-visual and affects the scientific community's evaluation and understanding of Zhao Zhongyao's achievements. Although

reveals the truth, it is too late. Zhao Zhongyao passed away in 1998. In this way, Zhao Zhongyao suffered a huge injustice, which led to the Nobel Prize, which had already come to him, passing by again, becoming a great regret in the history of the Nobel Prize.

1929 Zhao Zhongyao took a photo with his tutor while studying at Caltech University in the United States. The fourth right in the front row is Zhao Zhongyao,

. At the same time, Axpeng also admitted that this was a major omission and affirmed Zhao Zhongyao's status in the physics community. He said:

"This is a very disturbing omission that cannot be made up for. Mr. Zhao Zhongyao is a real Nobel Prize winner in the hearts of world physicists!

Axpeng also bluntly said: "The world owes China a Nobel Prize. "

, Anderson, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, also admitted in a book published in 1983: When the experimental results of his classmate Zhao Zhongyao came out, he was in the office next to Zhao Zhongyao. At that time, he realized that Zhao Zhongyao's experimental results had shown that there was a new substance that people had not yet known, and his research was done by Zhao Zhongyao.

For this reason, Li Zhengdao once spoke out for his teacher. He said:

Teacher Zhao should have been the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, but because of the mistakes of others at that time, he buried Teacher Zhao's glory."

In his words, Li Zhengdao felt so sorry for Zhao Zhongyao not winning the Nobel Prize.

Zhao Zhongyao's achievements are also deeply imprinted in the hearts of every physicist. Until many years later, the younger physicists still remember Zhao Zhongyao's significant contributions to physics.

979, Professor Ding Zhaozhong ( Foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 1976 Nobel Prize winner in Physics ) introduced Zhao Zhongyao to more than a dozen scientists from more than a dozen countries attending the conference at the inauguration ceremony of the Petra accelerator in the West Germany Synchronous Radiation Center, saying:

"This is the earliest discoverer of the generation and annihilation of positive and negative electrons: without his discovery, there would be no current positive and negative electron collider."

could clearly receive the honor of the Nobel Prize, but unfortunately it was a mistake, which made countless people feel deeply regretful.

Picture | Zhao Zhongyao (Chinese)

Another historical achievement of Zhao Zhongyao was to use his own strength to preserve the only 50 mg of radium in China.

931, Zhao Zhongyao entered the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, England with a gaze of knowledge, and met Rutherford, a famous physicist at the time. Under Rutherford's guidance, Zhao Zhongyao conducted multiple studies at the same time. He was deeply moved by Rutherford's painstaking study. As a gift, Rutherford gave him 50 mg of radioactive radium.

radium is an element with strong radioactivity. It is located in the 7th cycle in the periodic table of chemical elements, group IIA, atom ordinal number 88, element symbol Ra, and can continuously emit a large amount of heat.

And radium is extremely difficult to extract. At that time, China had no 1 mg, let alone 50 mg. It can be seen how precious this 50 mg of radium was.

In the same year, Zhao Zhongyao returned to China after studying and worked as a professor in the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University. Zhao Zhongyao knew that radium was needed in China for experiments, so he brought the 50 mg of radium back to China. He stored this precious gift in the safe in the laboratory of Tsinghua University.

During his time at Tsinghua University, Zhao Zhongyao opened China's first nuclear physics course and presided over the establishment of China's first nuclear physics laboratory. Together with his teacher, Ye Qisun, Zhao Zhongyao, and also trained a group of talents who later made important contributions to China's atomic energy industry: including Wang Ganchang , Peng Huanwu, Qian Sanqiang, Deng Jiaxian, Zhu Guangya, Zhou Guangzhao , Cheng Kaijia, and Tang Xiaowei . These eight meritorious scientists who have made outstanding contributions to China's two bombs and one satellite cause have been taught by Zhao Zhongyao.

Figure | "Two Bombs and One Satellite" scientist

Just as Zhao Zhongyao devoted all his energy to the construction and research of domestic physics, Anti-Japanese War broke out, and the artillery fire of the Japanese invaders broke through the quiet classroom, so that the vast China could not put down a quiet desk.

As the situation becomes increasingly critical, Tsinghua University has become an extremely dangerous place. Under this circumstance, major universities in the north urgently head south to avoid the war.

Before retreating, Zhao Zhongyaoma thought of the fifty milligrams of radiation radium placed in the laboratory safe on . This is an extremely precious substance and must not be snatched away by the Japanese.

But it was October 1937, and the Japanese army had occupied Tsinghua Park. Although it is dangerous to return to Tsinghua , Zhao Zhongyao resolutely decided to grab 50 mg of radium.

He contacted the teacher of Tsinghua University, Liang Sicheng . The two risked their lives to Tsinghua University and took out 50 mg of radium. Because of this, Zhao Zhongyao could not catch up with the Tsinghua teacher and student forces to evacuate together.

Helplessly, Zhao Zhongyao could only go south alone with 50 mg of radium. However, in the era of war, it is not easy to go south safely to meet with Tsinghua teachers and students. There are wars everywhere and bandits are constantly robbing. In order to conceal , Zhao Zhongyao found an inconspicuous jar and put a lead bucket with radium in it. He found worn clothes, made himself disheveled, and pretended to be a beggar and followed the refugee forward.

During the day, Zhao Zhongyao hid with everyone, and hurried to the road at night, sleeping in the open and suffering all the hardships along the way, but the jar of broken pickles will never leave. Some of the refugees who were traveling with him noticed his abnormality and asked quips: "What kind of treasure are you pretending to be here? ".

Zhao Zhongyao said cautiously: "I pretended to be my father's ashes."

pic | Photos of Zhao Zhongyao in the United States in the 1940s

After more than a month of long journey, the ragged Zhao Zhongyao finally found the temporary school of Tsinghua University in Changsha in Changsha. When Zhao Zhongyao appeared at the school gate, the guard mistakenly thought he was a beggar. Until Zhao Zhongyao met the president of Tsinghua University, Mei Yiqi . When President Mei learned that it was Zhao Zhongyao, she couldn't help but shed tears.

How important is Zhao Zhongyao's 50 mg of radium? It can be said that without these 50 mg of radium, the two bombs and one satellite business would be even more difficult. Zhao Zhongyao led the students to use this only 0 mg of precious radium to do a lot of artificial radioactive experiments, and accumulated a large amount of experimental data and data for the future two bombs and one satellite industry.

From 1938 to 1945, Zhao Zhongyao taught at Southwest Associated University . Yang Zhenning, the winner of the physics award, also studied at Southwest Associated University and received personal teaching from Zhao Zhongyao. Yang Zhenning recalled his career at Southwest Associated University:

The physics I learned in Kunming had reached the highest level in the world at that time.

Why did Yang Zhenning dare to say this? Because it was Zhao Zhongyao who taught him, a physicist who should have won the Nobel Prize. Studying under such a famous teacher is of course the highest level in the world.

Figure | In 1946, Zhao Zhongyao visited the United States as an observer to test the explosion of the atomic bomb. The first on the left in the front row was Zhao Zhongyao

Zhao Zhongyao was also the first Chinese physicist to see a nuclear explosion with his own eyes. In 1946, Zhao Zhongyao visited the United States' atomic bomb test. On June 30, Zhao Zhongyao, as the representative of China, among the four allies of Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China, came at the invitation of the US government, saw the mushroom-exploding cloud of atomic bombs on the destroyer "Pan Minna", 25 kilometers away from the Pacific island of Bikini Island, and silently kept the relevant data in his mind. After

, Zhao Zhongyao conducted research on nuclear physics and cosmic rays at the MIT, Caltech and other departments in the United States.

picture | Zhao Zhongyao (left) took a photo with his friends on the eve of returning to China

After the founding of New China , Zhao Zhongyao saw the hope of the rise of the Chinese nation and decided to break through all difficulties and return to China. Zhao Zhongyao, who has been in the physics community for many years, knows that accelerators are the core equipment for manufacturing atomic bomb . In order to avoid the strict inspections of FBI and customs, he packed the accelerator parts he collected over the past few years into more than 30 boxes, mixed them with the purchased teaching equipment, and transported them back to the motherland one after another. Although the

device was safely transported back, Zhao Zhongyao encountered unimaginable difficulties on his way back. It was not until August 1950 that he was lucky enough to obtain a visa to transit Hong Kong. On August 29, 1950, Zhao Zhongyao and more than 100 American scholars including Qian Xuesen and Deng Jiaxian boarded the "President Wilson" of the United States, preparing to return to their motherland.

Photo | Zhao Zhongyao, Qian Xuesen, Deng Jiaxian and other 100 students studying in the United States returned to China and took a group photo on the deck.

seemed to be about to return to China, but how could the United States let these elites go so easily? Just as it was about to set sail, the FBI's agent suddenly boarded the ship for searching. Qian Xuesen's books and notebooks were detained, and Qian Xuesen himself was also escorted to Temina Island and locked up.

Although Zhao Zhongyao was released, when the ship arrived in Yokohama, Japan, American agents came to his senses: Qian Xuesen was caught because he was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was

In this way, the US military armed personnel rushed onto the ship in a fierce manner, captured Zhao Zhongyao, and without any evidence, they took him to the US military's Suoya Military Prison in Japan.

After the news that Zhao Zhongyao was arrested on "false" charges came out, it caused an uproar internationally, and the US scientific community also expressed strong protests on this, and the Chinese government issued a solemn statement on this.

After a long period of Sino-US negotiations and mediation, Zhao Zhongyao finally returned to the embrace of the motherland on November 28, 1950.

Figure | In November 1950, Shen Shanjiong, Luo Shijun and Zhao Zhongyao (from left to right) took a picture after being released in Japan in troubled times

Zhao Zhongyao went to the motherland to participate in the physics research at that time. He shared all the research content he learned in the United States with his team.

has deeper theoretical basic research and understanding, and China's physics is at its peak. Zhao Zhongyao also presided over the construction of China's first 700,000-electron volt proton electrostatic accelerator. After

, Zhao Zhongyao also presided over the development of a 2.5 million electron volt proton electrostatic accelerator. The success of these two studies has laid the most solid foundation for the country's development of nuclear industry.

It is worth mentioning that the 2.5 million electronic volt electrostatic accelerator developed by Zhao Zhongyao has been serving the Republic until around 2000, and has made great contributions to my country's nuclear industry.

Just as Zhao Zhongyao was doing his best to carry out nuclear physics research, the turbulent years came, and Zhao Zhongyao was innocently accused of being imprisoned. It was during this period that our country began research on "two bombs and one satellite", and he was not able to get this research due to his imprisonment. Otherwise, he must be one of the founding masters of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite".

Although Zhao Zhongyao did not personally participate in the "two bombs and one satellite" project, his students did not disappoint his expectations and successfully completed the "two bombs and one satellite", laying a solid foundation for the rise of the Chinese nation.

On May 28, 1998, Zhao Zhongyao died of illness at the age of 96. Academician Zhao Zhongyao is a monument in the history of Chinese physical sciences and a dazzling star in the history of world physical sciences. We will always remember his deeds and his significant contributions to the motherland!