Bab 181: Chapter 182: [British Public Opinion]
Thomson was clearly misguided.
Ma Shao gave the first author title of "On an Absolute Temperature Scale" to him, which might be considered as modesty, but this article is definitely not.
Because Ma Shao knew that the conclusion of this article was wrong, and it was quite wrong, even the process was wrong.
Although Thomson seemed to care about the issue, the article was destined to become an obscure marginalia in the history of science.
Of course, everything also depends on the comparison with peers.
In Ma Shao's eyes, this article was extremely wrong, but compared with other contemporary speculations about the age of the sun, this article was the closest to the truth.
Many Christians still follow assumptions written into the Bible hundreds of years ago and believe that the sun is only a few thousand years old.
Although scientists have abandoned this obviously stupid view, they have not come up with a more decent conclusion.
In comparison, Ma Shao and Thomson at least constructed a theory that has been impeccable so far. They used gravitational potential energy and meteorites instead of burning coal and came up with the result of 500 million years, which is more reasonable and shocking.
Therefore, when this article was published, it caused a greater response, at least much greater than "On an Absolute Temperature Scale".
After all, only physicists pay attention to the absolute temperature scale, but everyone is interested in taking a look at the age of the sun.
Just the day after the paper was officially published, several Glasgow newspapers reported on it.
The more conservative newspapers ran headlines like "Physicists Estimate Sun to be 500 Million Years Old."
The more unrestrained and lively newspapers, however, revealed the nature of commercial media that is keen on making big news. They focused on reporting on Ma Shao and directly used headlines such as "Indian Scientist Calculates Age of the Sun".
There is no doubt that the combination of Indians and scientists is more eye-catching.
As a result, with the publication of the newspaper, people in Scotland and even the whole of Britain, from the government to the society, began to discuss this matter.
Even from Ma Shao's personal perspective, he could feel this change in public opinion.
In a bookstore.
"...Hey man, did you hear that an Indian scientist calculated that the sun is 500 million years old?"
"Indian scientists?"
"No, Indian, the wild man of America."
"How is this possible? Are you sure you are right? If it was an Indian scientist, I could understand it, but how could American Indians have scientists? I heard that they don't even have writing and are still using stone tools to hunt."
"But this is the fact. Several newspapers have reported it. It is absolutely true. An Indian scientist, together with Professor Thomson of the University of Glasgow, has written a paper estimating the age of the sun - 500 million years. This is an astonishing number!"
Another person joined the discussion with a condescending tone: "You obviously know nothing about science."
"What do you know?"
"Long before calculating the age of the sun, that Indian had already published several amazing papers that had a great impact in the academic world. Anyone who pays a little attention to the academic world knew about the existence of this Indian scientist at least a week ago..."
"…"
"Great Chief, did you hear that? Those people are discussing you." said the man with messy hair who came over.
"Of course." Ma Shao said nonchalantly, closing the book in his hand and handing it to Luan Fa, "See if the store still has this book. If so, buy a few more copies. It's not easy to come to the UK, so we have to buy more books."
This wasn't the first time he had heard talk about him in recent days.
As the saying goes, when you see a cockroach in your home, there are definitely a thousand cockroaches having a party in the dark.
Ma Shao had heard such discussions more than once, so it was conceivable that such discussions must be very common in the UK and might be happening all the time.
This was indeed the case, and a little more exaggerated than he had expected.
Buckingham Palace, London.
The young Queen Victoria had been married for eight years but was already the mother of six children.
Just a few dozen days ago, she gave birth to Princess Louise, but being experienced, she apparently quickly adapted to postpartum life.
At this moment, Her Majesty was holding her little daughter and talking close to her husband, Prince Albert, who was reading documents submitted by the Cabinet.
If the room hadn't been so lavishly decorated, they would have looked almost like an ordinary loving couple.
"...My dear, I plan to give Mr. Faraday a house in Hampton Court Palace. What do you think?" said Prince Albert.
"Of course," Queen Victoria said, "Faraday is a respectable scientist, and his contribution to Britain is obvious to all."
As she spoke, she seemed to remember something: "Regarding science, I recently heard about an Indian scientist?"
Prince Albert nodded. "I've heard about this, too. An American Indian and a Scottish professor calculated the age of the sun, and the result seems to be 500 million years old."
Queen Victoria: "That sounds very interesting, an Indian scientist, I have never heard of it before, I would like to meet him."
"Yes, but we should listen to the opinions of scientists. Maybe that Indian is just a sensationalist. When Mr. Faraday comes, we can ask him for his opinion." Albert said, and suddenly frowned, "Oh, by the way, there is still a troublesome matter that has not been dealt with."
"What is it?" asked Queen Victoria. Although she was the Queen of England, she obviously preferred to let her husband perform his duties, so her inquiry was more like a kind of courtesy than a real concern for any matter.
Prince Albert: "The Americans said that we used Indians as intermediaries to illegally sell a weapon in the Mexican War... Prime Minister Russell believed that it was a private act of some companies, but after a long investigation, there is still no result."
"Illegal sales?"
Prince Albert: "That weapon is called a revolver. The patent for it belongs to the American company Colt. Colt also registered the patent in England, but the revolvers sold by the Indians in the war were not produced by Colt."
"It is said that tens of thousands of revolvers were sold, which undoubtedly violated the patent law. More importantly, these 10,000 guns played a huge role in the war, so the Americans protested fiercely."
Queen Victoria thought for a moment and said, "Why not companies from other countries?"
Prince Albert shook his head. "Besides the UK, only American companies can produce 10,000 guns in North America. It can't be that the Indians produce them themselves, right?"
Queen Victoria laughed and said, "That's hard to say. We thought Indians didn't have scientists."
Prince Albert smiled indifferently.
"Dear Albert, it's getting late. I think we should rest." Queen Victoria suddenly said close to him.
Albert's face showed a hint of nervousness: "Victoria…you just gave birth to a baby."
Queen Victoria said: "That was some months ago. Our little Louis has now learned to roll over. I have long since recovered."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone