arts | Xu MuxinShi Jiaxiang
Professor Tsung-Dao Lee, a famous physicist and Nobel Prize winner in Physics, passed away in San Francisco on August 4, US time, at the age of 98. This news was confirmed a few days ago.Many people will first think of the long-standing dispute between Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, a name that may have been outdated for a long time. But this is just an unexpected slice of Tsung-Dao Lee's 98-year life. He has a much richer and more worthy legendary story: war and exile, proposing the theory of parity non-conservation and becoming the first Chinese Nobel Prize winner in physics, his contribution to the field of high-energy physics in China, and his role as a hub in building bridges between the academic circles of China and the United States.Ninety-eight years of life is almost as long as a century. The changes that can be experienced and witnessed during this period are probably too many to be described in a book. "Undercurrent Waves" is based on four periods of Tsung-Dao Lee's life, finding his words during these periods, trying to connect the magnificent life of this master of physics.War and exile
This was Tsung-Dao Lee’s youth.
War and exile can summarize his life before he became famous: Born in Shanghai in 1926, in the second grade of elementary school, the Battle of Shanghai broke out, and the whole family moved into the British Concession. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the concession could not even accommodate a desk. At the age of 15, Tsung-Dao Lee began his life in exile. He later traveled hundreds of kilometers and took the college entrance examination in Guiyang that year. He was admitted to Zhejiang University and later transferred to Southwest Associated University.
Due to various reasons including war, he never obtained a graduation diploma for elementary school, junior high school, high school or undergraduate studies. The only diploma he had was a doctorate from the University of Chicago.
“Why doesn't God in heaven fall down to the earth?”——When his grandfather, a pastor, talked to him about God in heaven, Li Zhengdao asked this question.“When a person's life is very difficult and hard, you ask him what is the meaning of life and why he lives? In war and famine, people are dying everywhere. Death and life are very close. There must be a motivation to make you feel that you have to live. What is the motivation for me? I read the university textbooks published by the Commercial Press and learned that there are laws in nature!”——In the spring of 1942, Tsung-Dao Lee settled down in Ganzhou for a short time, where he also read General Physics for the first time.“Every individual has a purpose for existence. We are all life, but I am different from ants. I can understand how the universe evolves and what laws everything in the world follows, but ants cannot.”“I had physics problems in my mind all day long. If I couldn't figure it out myself, I would look for books. When I was doing exercises or studying problems, I never asked others to teach me how to solve them, nor did I use other people's methods to solve problems. I always solved the problems myself and sought answers.”——At Southwest Associated University, physicist Wu Ta-you gave Li Zhengdao a physics textbook used by senior students in physics departments of American universities. As a result, he had figured out all the problems in less than two weeks.The basic concepts of physics have been overturned!
This was the era when Tsung-Dao Lee reached the pinnacle of his academic career.
In 1949, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made the Manhattan Project in Oppenheimer's book public. At that time, three Chinese experts were sent to the United States, and physicist Wu Dayou was one of them. Li Zhengdao went to the United States as his assistant.
Because he did not have a college degree, Tsung-Dao Lee was forced to choose the University of Chicago, which did not emphasize diplomas, and there he met his mentor Enrico Fermi.
In the fall of 1946, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang met for the first time. Eleven years later, they had their own highlight moment. Shortly after the publication of the paper "Questioning the Non-Conservation of Parity in Weak Interactions" co-authored by Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, the Department of Physics at Columbia University held a press conference to announce to the public that a basic law of physics called "parity conservation" had been overturned. The headline of the front page of the New York Times the next day was: "Basic Concepts of Physics Overturned by Experiments."
In 1956, Tsung-Dao Lee, who had just turned 30, won the Nobel Prize in Physics - this was also the first time a Chinese won a Nobel Prize.
“If you are doing theory, you have to guess where the wind comes from. If you are doing an experiment, you can follow the kite and know where the wind goes. If you want to know where the wind comes from, you have to do another experiment.”“Fermi was different not only in his outstanding achievements in physics, but also in his kindness. He gave me a thesis topic, but I said I didn't want to do it. I was inexperienced and didn't know how high the sky was. If I met other professors, they would say, then don't do it with me, find someone else. But Fermi said, then okay, you teach me. This requires great patience and kindness. I was too young at the time and didn't know how lucky I was to have such a special teacher.”“Without past experience and present stimulation, we would not have our current ideas and knowledge; without future experiments, our current ideas and knowledge would not evolve. Although these many factors constitute the whole of any progress, people often only remember the final glorious harvest and forget the hard work. At today's grand ceremony, I feel particularly that there are many great physicists who have made great contributions to human understanding of nature, but have not been awarded such an honor as we are today.”——On December 10, 1957, at the Nobel Prize award ceremony held in Stockholm, Sweden, Tsung-Dao Lee said humbly.“Yang Zhenning and I ended our collaboration 25 years ago. Its significance is reflected in the fact that our co-authored papers have stood the test of time. We have also made many other contributions to physics. Our achievements are recognized by the world. Is that not enough?”——When he was 60 years old, Tsung-Dao Lee looked back on his years in Chicago and the violation of parity conservation.More important than the Nobel PrizeThis was the era when Tsung-Dao Lee passed on the torch.
In 1972, he came to Shanghai and saw that most of the students were sent to the countryside, and the only workers, peasants and soldiers lacked even a basic understanding of science. Grateful that his life had been changed by education, he decided to return to China to teach.
For many years, he traveled back and forth between Chinese and American universities, trying to promote the CUSPEA (China-US Joint Training of Physics Graduate Students) project. He kept writing letters until the nearby mailbox was full, and even caused protests from the post office, so he and his wife had to push a cart to a farther post office.
In the era without GRE or TOEFL, the CUSPEA program was almost the only opportunity for Chinese physics students to study abroad, and more than 900 Chinese students got this opportunity, including Zhang Chaoyang, the future CEO of Sohu.
After the 1990s, almost every time Tsung-Dao Lee returned to China, it was to promote the development of high-energy physics in China. He established a postdoctoral mobile station system to help his students get good treatment after returning to China. He promoted the establishment of the National Natural Science Foundation, especially to support basic research, because he believed that a great nation could not just sit and wait for others' new technologies.
“Is science less important than ballet?”——When Tsung-Dao Lee returned to China for the first time, he saw the devastated scientific research environment and the bustling Shanghai Ballet School.“At Fudan University, the only research work I saw was to measure the power of a few large light bulbs. The vast majority of students did not study at school, but went to the countryside to work, that is, to serve the people. At Fudan University, there were only a few workers, peasants and soldiers. From their conversations, I found that although they were very enthusiastic, they lacked understanding of the most basic common sense of science and were almost completely illiterate. They had no opportunity to learn, and they did not know what they needed to learn. In this way, how could they serve the people?”“The actual purpose of my suggestion is not to set up any junior classes, but to break the situation of neglecting the cultivation of basic science talents and other types of talents, and to put the cultivation of all kinds of talents across the country on the right track.”—— Li Zhengdao later said when recalling this period of time. The Junior Class of USTC has gone through 40 years, and there have been many controversies during this period.“You are free to pursue the physics research of your choice.”——After learning that his student was preparing to return to China, Tsung-Dao Lee gave him a subsidy of $4,000, followed by this sentence.“The National Natural Science Council must have a strong academic awareness and must be independent, and power must be handed over to scientists. There cannot be an administrative agency above it to manage it, otherwise it will be difficult to make fair evaluations.”“In some ways, (Note: CUSPEA project) is more meaningful than the discovery of the law of parity non-conservation.”Dreams and life with only geometric shapes
This is Tsung-Dao Lee’s later life.
In 2011, Tsung-Dao Lee retired and donated all his life's manuscripts to Shanghai Jiao Tong University to establish the Tsung-Dao Lee Library. Today, there is still a scene here, which is the letters sent by Tsung-Dao Lee to CUSPEA students, flying out of the mailbox and densely covering the ceiling.
Three years later, Tsung-Dao Lee left New York, where he had lived for 61 years, and moved to San Francisco in order to be closer to his children and grandchildren.
In his later years he reread his papers from his youth as a pastime, but as he gradually found it difficult to understand his old works, he switched to reading university physics textbooks, still finding pleasure in solving exercises.
In the long life of Tsung-Dao Lee, the past between him and Chen-Ning Yang was often mentioned. This was a story close to "two heroes of the times". But now, the struggle has disappeared.
“When communicating and discussing with others, the most important thing is to find out what the other person doesn't understand, rather than imitating what they have already done. Only in this way can you get ahead of others.”——The same hands-on instruction that Tsung-Dao Lee received from his mentors in his early years is also what he teaches his students in the same way.“One dark, foggy day, two children were playing on the beach. One of them said, 'Hey, do you see that flashing light in the distance? ' The other replied, 'Yes, let's get closer. ' The two children ran side by side towards the light. Sometimes one was in front, sometimes the other. They ran faster and faster as hard as they could. The first child to reach the temple opened the door and said, 'Ah! Here it is.' The other rushed in and was dazzled by the extraordinary beauty inside. He cried out, 'How wonderful! How brilliant!'Many years passed, they grew old and quarrelsome. Their memories became blurred and their lives became monotonous. One of them decided to carve his own epitaph in gold: 'Here lies the man who first discovered the treasure.' Then the other said: 'But I was the one who opened the door.”
——This is how Tsung-Dao Lee described the relationship between him and Chen-Ning Yang in his article “Broken Parity” written in 1986.“There are many factors that contribute to a person's success, among which 'opportunity' is perhaps the most important and the most difficult to control. I hope more similar opportunities can come to young people.”——On his 60th birthday, Tsung-Dao Lee wrote these words, recalling his early efforts in supporting young physics talents, especially the efforts he made on the CUSPEA project.“I have never had a dream with a plot in my life, I only see geometric shapes in my dreams.”——Li Zhengdao’s eldest son, Li Zhongqing, later recalled that one day, his father suddenly summarized his dreams throughout his life.
references:
[1] Sanlian Life Weekly: "Tsung-Dao Lee, "I hope opportunities will come to more young people"" "Tsung-Dao Lee, opens a door for more Chinese geniuses" "The growth path of a genius physicist"
[2] Intellectuals: "Tsung-Dao Lee: Devoting all his efforts to cultivating talents for the motherland"[3] Tsung-Dao Lee: Broken ParityImage source: IC Photo
Layout｜Yao Nan
