บท 165: Chapter 166: [Dr. Mayo]
Ma Shao certainly knew Dalton, the originator of the atomic theory, a famous chemist, or physicist. After all, both physics and chemistry involve atomic theory to a great extent.
Dalton was also color blind, and he discovered the disease and made himself the first person to be diagnosed.
Before his death, he left a will, hoping that his eyes would be given to others for research after his death to verify his conjecture - that the watery fluid in his eyes might be blue.
Of course Dalton was wrong, as was discovered a few years ago, shortly after his death. That is not the root cause of color blindness.
However, people have done a lot to commemorate Dalton. For example, there is a song that sings "Blue-faced Dalton steals the royal horse"...Okay, this is actually a joke.
Dalton had been a teacher since he was twelve and had many students. Despite this, Ma Shao was still surprised to learn that Mayo had been Dalton's student.
"Since you are Dalton's student, I think you should be very familiar with his atomic theory," said Ma Shao.
Mayo was still surprised: "You also know atomic theory?"
Hearing what he said, the Indians in the room expressed their dissatisfaction.
The branch said directly: "Mayo, I told you that our chief is the greatest scientist in the world. How could he not know atomic theory? Even I know atomic theory."
Another Indian also said: "In Sleeping Bear City, atomic theory is one of the courses in mathematics and physics advanced classes. It is even mentioned in elementary school."
"Sorry, I just..." Mayo paused.
Of course, the Indians around him had boasted to him about the Apache chief more than once, but he did not take it seriously.
He admitted that the Indians here were indeed different, very different, more surprising than the most advanced Indians in the East.
While other Indians were paying high prices for wine, the Indians here were hiring doctors and craftsmen at high prices, and were very proactive in learning and communicating with the white people.
Not only that, some of the Indians here are extremely civilized, with rich common sense and insights.
In particular, his colleagues and superiors in this hospital were more knowledgeable than even most white people, and they almost invented ether anesthesia - as far as he knew, these Indian shamans had begun experimenting with ether anesthesia long before Morton made it public.
It is not surprising that behind these unusually civilized Indians there was an extraordinary chief.
But what's the difference between saying "the greatest scientist in the world" and "I'm more awesome than Newton"? It just sounds like bragging, and it's too outrageous and shameless.
Even his teacher John Dalton would never be happy to hear such praise, which was simply malicious flattery.
Not only did this not make Mayo believe it, but it made him suspect that the Apache chief was a vain guy, so much so that people loved to flatter him.
"It's okay, branch." Ma Shao smiled, "I understand the impression most white people have of us. It is our mission to break this impression with facts."
After a pause, he said, "Also... stop calling me the greatest scientist in the world."
Twig: "I think that's true."
Ma Shao: "Maybe. But until there is sufficient proof, such strong praise will not bring me honor."
"Yes, I understand, Chief," said the branch.
Ma Shao looked at Mayo again: "Dr. Mayo, let's talk about atomic theory."
Mayo was a little confused. When Ma Shao said this in a strange and skillful tone, he inexplicably felt like he was taking an exam.
He said, "Okay, but...what do you want to talk about?"
"Let's talk about the law of multiple proportions." Ma Shao thought for a moment and said.
Atomic theory has existed since ancient times.
Many philosophers of ancient civilizations held similar views, believing that everything is composed of some indivisible basic particles, and Democritus of ancient Greece is one of the representatives.
But the ancient and simple atomic theory is philosophy at best and fantasy at worst. A smart and curious child can also have similar thoughts.
It was not until John Dalton that atomic theory began to be transformed and acquire scientific characteristics.
Of course, Dalton's theory was still crude, and it contained many errors in the eyes of later generations, and even some chemical formulas were wrong.
The law of multiple proportions was the key to the transformation of atomic theory from philosophy to science.
An expert can tell whether something is good or not with just one look.
Ma Shao's opening remarks directly pointed out the core of Dalton's atomic theory, making Mayo realize that what was coming next might really be a test.
This great Indian chief did understand atomic theory, and it was not just an ordinary understanding.
Ma Shao did want to test Mayo. He wanted to see how much this doctor who changed career path to become a doctor had learned from Dalton.
But this is also a test for him.
His understanding of elementary particles is at the level of a 21st century undergraduate physics student, far ahead of his time.
Therefore, he needed to limit his thinking to Dalton's atomic theory, which was at most three to five decades ahead of the times, and he could not come up with concepts such as "quarks" and "electron clouds" from time to time.
This is not easy, because these things have long been ingrained in his bones and are the most basic common sense and habits, just like the erhua sound in Beijing dialect.
In fact, Ma Shao had done this before, but so far he had not come into contact with any white people who had a deep understanding of physics, so no one realized the problem.
This Dr. Mayo is different. After all, he was a student of Dalton, so Ma Shao must take him seriously.
The two talked about atomic theory, starting with the law of multiple proportions, then the law of simple ratios of gas reaction volumes, and Avogadro's hypothesis...
And just as Dr. Mayo had vaguely anticipated, the conversation quickly turned into something like an exam.
Ma Shao's understanding of physics and chemistry was much higher than he had imagined, at least far higher than his own. He was sometimes stumped or reminded by Ma Shao, but he could not stump Ma Shao in return.
Although Ma Shao sometimes pondered, it seemed more like he was thinking about how to express himself in English.
After the conversation became like an exam, it became a bit like a lecture.
"Mayo, you should give up the terms 'water atoms' or 'complex atoms'," said Ma Shao.
At that time, most people did not have the concept of molecules. They were more accustomed to calling molecules "complex atoms" or even simply atoms.
Mayo hesitated, "Uh... why? People call it that."
Ma Shao: "Have you heard of Avogadro's views? The Italian scientist, Avogadro."
Mayo thought for a moment: "You mean...molecules?"
"That's right." Ma Shao nodded, then slowly said, "We already know that water is made up of two types of atoms - hydrogen and oxygen."
"Since water is made up of atoms, it should no longer be classified as atoms. 'Molecules' is a more appropriate name."
Mayo pondered, "But as far as I know, Avogadro's hypothesis is wrong. At least everyone I know thinks so. First of all, it does not meet the requirements of 'electrochemical dualism'. According to electrochemical dualism, only atoms with opposite electrical properties can combine to form complex atoms, while this hypothesis allows atoms with the same electrical properties to combine."
Ma Shao smiled and said, "Avogadro's molecular hypothesis does have errors, but so does Berzelius's electrochemical dualism and Dalton's atomic theory. In my opinion, the errors in electrochemical dualism are even worse than Avogadro's hypothesis."
Mayo couldn't help asking: "What's wrong with atomic theory?"
Ma Shao was silent for a while.
Dalton's atomic theory has many errors, but he cannot point out all of them because, based on current observations, there is no basis for judging many of the errors.
Then he said carefully: "As we all know, Mr. Dalton's atomic theory is inherited from ancient Greek philosophy."
"Democritus believed that atoms were indivisible elementary particles, but this was just an assumption or belief. People had not even separated many simple substances, let alone the division of atoms."
"It's true that we know very little about things like atoms." Mayo was obviously not a man of strong faith, and he was not overly obsessed with the fundamentalist doctrine that atoms are indivisible. "But atoms do seem to be indivisible, at least there is no evidence."
Ma Shao suddenly asked: "Mayo, have you ever thought about the nature of electricity?"
Mayo: "Of course I have thought about it. In this era when electricity is gradually being used, who hasn't thought about this issue?"
"But like everyone else, I haven't figured out any results." He sighed.
"Electricity...it's so mysterious."
In the era when Ma Shao lived in his previous life, quantum mechanics was gradually being applied by people, but people's understanding of quantum mechanics was still very limited.
Scientists are also confused. Not to mention the general public, metaphysics and scams under the banner of quantum physics are rampant.
In the nineteenth century, a similar situation occurred with electricity.
The technology related to electricity is developing every moment, and the telegraph is becoming more and more popular, but people's understanding of electricity is still vague.
For many problems, we know the facts but not the reasons behind them.
It was not until more than a decade later, with the birth of Maxwell's equations, and even the discovery of the electron at the end of the century, that humanity's complete ignorance gradually ended.
Ma Shao said: "Have you ever thought that electric current might be a kind of matter, such as a particle?"
"Matter?" Mayo was stunned.
Then he blurted out: "This sounds incredible. I think electricity should at least be some kind of energy, or some other invisible thing, rather than that kind of real substance."
From the perspective of the age of relativity, matter and energy are the same thing.
Stone is matter, fire is matter, electricity and light are matter, and force fields are also matter.
But for people at that time, the concept of energy was still vague, and no one knew its specific relationship with matter. In the eyes of most people, something as ethereal as electricity could never be matter.
Some people with wild imaginations have indeed imagined the existence of charged subatomic particles, but basically no one pays attention to it.
Ma Shao naturally didn't intend to talk about the theory of relativity, so he changed the subject: "In other words, electricity has some basic material carriers, which are the structures that make up atoms, and are subatomic particles."
"Electric charge can be positive or negative. According to the theory of electrochemical dualism, electric charge is also an inherent property of atoms..."
"We can imagine that an atom is actually a structure similar to a magnet. Although each atom may appear different in positive and negative properties to the outside, it actually carries both positive and negative charges inside. There are two subatomic particles, one positive and one negative, just like a magnet has two poles at the same time."
"... In this way, different magnets can be combined, and identical magnets can also be combined, as long as the opposite poles are connected."
"That is to say, elements of the same kind can also combine to form molecules, and the contradiction between Avogadro's hypothesis and electrochemical dualism no longer exists."
The above theory was made up by Ma Shao in about half a minute.
This theory obviously has problems and is far from the true atomic structure, but considering the known observations, it is a more reasonable explanation.
At the very least, it would solve a major problem facing Avogadro's hypothesis, namely the structure of single substances.
At this time, most scientists believed that simple substances were atoms. This was undoubtedly wrong.
Avogadro believed that elements are actually pairs of atoms, for example, a hydrogen molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms, and an oxygen molecule is composed of two oxygen atoms.
This is correct and will be common sense for people in the future.
But the problem was that Avogadro made another mistake - he thought metals also existed in this form.
This resulted in his experiments always running into problems and causing controversy in the academic community, and his molecular hypothesis was therefore slow to be recognized.
Of course, intuitively speaking, the most serious problem facing Avogadro's hypothesis is not just metal, but the conflict with electrochemical dualism.
Electrochemical dualism does not allow the same elements to combine - opposites attract, likes repel. How can two same elements combine?
In the current scientific community, electrochemical dualism and atomism have almost the same status, and Berzelius's reputation is similar to Dalton's. Therefore, Avogadro's theory is judged to be wrong by many people.
Although the theory that Ma Shao improvised was just a slight adjustment to the existing theory, it did solve the problem.
The connection between electricity and magnetism had been discovered, and it sounded quite reasonable, even natural.
Although Mayo was not a professional scientist, he could still understand this figurative statement. After thinking about it for a while, his eyes lit up: "This is a perfect idea!"
Then he looked at Ma Shao and said excitedly: "I now believe, Chief, you are indeed a great scientist!"
Ma Shao smiled and said nothing.
After this exchange, Mayo became noticeably more respectful: "Great Chief, have you ever considered publishing these ideas? They should be known to the world, not buried here."
Ma Shao sighed slightly: "I am an Indian. The United States may not give me the opportunity to publish my paper."
Mayo: "Europe is also OK, although it is a little far away. And compared with the United States, science in Europe is more prosperous."
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