Fox of France

Beethoven had just returned to Vienna from Heiligenstadt. During the period before that, his hearing problems became more and more serious. Even if people shouted into his ears, he could barely Can't hear anything.

There are few things more terrifying than being a musician. Amid anxiety, Beethoven suffered from severe diarrhea again. After consulting a doctor, he decided to leave Vienna and go to Heiligenstadt in the suburbs to recuperate.

In Heiligenstadt, Beethoven's diarrhea problem was resolved, but the ear problem remained unchanged and even worsened. Finally came the point of being almost completely deaf. This made the strong Beethoven extremely desperate. He once wanted to commit suicide, and even left a famous suicide note to his younger brother.

But Beethoven finally defeated despair with enough courage to make the whole human being proud, and returned to the center of gravity of music, the city of Vienna.

In Vienna, Beethoven continued the habit formed in Heiligenstadt. Every morning, he left his residence and went for a walk in the park not far away, accompanied by his student Karl Czerny.

Maybe it was because he successfully wrote a melody that satisfied him yesterday, so Beethoven was in a pretty good mood. He strode forward, like the legendary monster that can part the sea. Karl Czerny, who was still a half-grown child, trotted all the way and followed in fear, while looking around, for fear that his teacher would be hit and killed by a carriage that appeared suddenly—because his teacher, Mr. Beethoven, could not hear him. The sound of hooves and bells.

As Beethoven walked, he hummed the melody he wrote last night. However, Beethoven's ears can't hear his own voice when he hums, so the tunes he hums are actually completely out of tune-just like when some people in later generations listen to music with headphones and sing along-then As for Chen Nier, who followed behind him and compiled the records for him, no one could hear what the tune was originally like.

Just after arriving at the park gate, a loud exclamation came. It was so loud that even Beethoven, who was almost deaf, heard it.

Beethoven raised his head in surprise, looked over there, and said at the same time: "Karl, what happened?" While speaking, the surprise on his face disappeared—because he didn't listen to his own voice.

At this time, a student-like man with an excited expression hurriedly walked towards them with a newspaper in his hand. The student kept mumbling something, and waved his clenched fist in the air from time to time. Chen Nier vaguely heard these words: "Work hard...Come on...Go to Paris...Long live!...Paris!"

Chen Nier hurriedly stopped the student and asked, "Sir, what happened? Is there a war?"

"War?" The student stopped, "Yes, it's a war, the clarion call for a great march to the unknown areas of this world has sounded, and I can't wait to join this glorious holy war! "

"Ah, sir, who is the war with?" Czerny didn't understand.

"And the unknown, and everything unknown! Just buy a newspaper and read it for yourself! I'm going to the library now, ah... I've never been so full of fighting spirit like today!" The student burst out after saying this sentence. ran away.

"Newspaper? By the way, newspaper." Chenier looked around and saw a newsboy holding a stack of newly printed newspapers, coming from there, shouting as he ran: "The French Academy of Sciences established a hundred An amazing prize of 10,000 francs, rewarding those scholars who have made great achievements in exploring the unknown world!"

A group of people surrounded them all at once. Relying on his small stature, Chenier got in through the gap in the crowd. After a while, he got out again with a newspaper and ran to Bedo, who was looking at him with a smile. in front of Fern.

"Carl, your clothes are wrinkled." Beethoven said in a broken language.

Beethoven could no longer hear his own voice, so when he spoke, it was difficult to control and adjust the pitch and height of his voice. It was not easy for others to understand what he was saying, which naturally made Beethoven more withdrawn. Fortunately, Chenier was one of the few people who could understand what Beethoven was saying.

"Sir, take a look at this newspaper." Chenier handed the newspaper in his hand to Beethoven, "I failed to grab the "Scientific Pravda", only the "Kommersant", but the news is still relevant. Yes, and it’s also on the front page.”

Chenier knew that Beethoven didn't like newspapers like "Kommersant" full of philistine atmosphere very much. But at that time, there were too many people and too few newspapers, so it was not bad to be able to grab such a copy.

Beethoven took the newspaper, and a line of text came into his eyes: "The French Academy of Sciences established the 'Prometheus' prize, with a prize of one million francs!"

"One million francs" uses Arabic numerals, and the series of zeros behind it almost makes people's eyes dizzy. Compared with the British pound, the value of the franc is actually much lower. Calculated in terms of gold, the gold content of one franc is about 0.29 grams of gold, while one pound is about 7.32 grams of gold. But one million francs, converted into gold, is a full 290 kilograms of gold. This amount of gold is enough to drive most people who read this news into madness. Even people like Beethoven, who regard money as dung, were still shocked.

"The French really value science very much." Beethoven sighed.

"Isn't it? One million francs is really unimaginable. Don't you think so?" Chenier also sighed.

"Carl, do you regret learning music?" Beethoven actually didn't hear Chenier's exclamation, but the French's emphasis on science actually appealed to Beethoven's appetite, because in Beethoven's view, science is also important Talent and hard work, not birth. So when Beethoven asked this question, he was joking, and his face was full of smiles.

"No, I get a headache when I see the numbers... Teacher, I don't think we can do this. Let's try to write the prelude to the Olympics first."

But in England, when Watt and the others saw the news, they were not as calm as Beethoven and the others.

"God, this guy is so generous? One guy is a million francs! So much money, it's true, one guy has become a millionaire. William, are you tempted?" Watt asked his assistant William. Murdoch asked.

Murdoch smiled and said: "I remember that you mentioned this to me a few months ago. I remember that this award is for basic science, not technology. Except for medicine, basically, any award that can be awarded Patents and technical things are not within the scope of rewards. Well, Mr. Watt, I think that at my age, it is too late to change my career to study medicine. Even my son, it is too late. Now I can only count on mine. I know where my grandson is."

"If Dean Bonaparte did mention such a thing to me at the time, he said that basic science research is no less difficult than technology-well, I think it is actually more difficult than technology, at least those damn things I can't understand a lot of mathematics—but studying basic science is not like researching technology, which can bring you patents. You can't invent a solution to an equation, and then ask everyone to use this method. Whoever solves the equation pays you royalties, right?

So he proposed to set up such a bonus to encourage those who devote themselves to basic scientific research and allow them to obtain a certain amount of wealth compensation. After all, people who achieve greatness in basic science are very smart people, and if they used their smarts to do other things, they would probably make more money.

I agreed with his proposal very much at the time. The only thing I didn't expect was that the French were so generous. At first, I thought that a bonus of 10,000 francs would be very generous. Well, by the way, he also invited me to be a member of the awards committee. As a member of the award committee, I have the right to recommend a candidate and cast a vote in the selection process. "

"So sir, who are you going to recommend?" Although he knew that this matter must have nothing to do with him, he was still full of interest in who would be the lucky one who had the chance to win the grand prize of one million francs. Yes, as long as he can be shortlisted in this candidate circle, he is a lucky one, because even if he can't get the final award, but he can be shortlisted, which in itself will bring him a huge reputation.

"Ah, here's the question. This year's prizes will be awarded in mathematics and medicine. Of these two awards, to be honest, medicine has no suspense at all. It must be the Irishman named Carol. Well, in England, There must be many people who are reluctant to see him win the award because of his political attitude... However, considering his research on bacteria, it is of great significance in medicine. I think this award should be undisputed .”

"So, what about math?" Murdoch asked.

"Mathematics, the competition is fierce. I intend to support Dean Bonaparte's assistant Mr. Gauss. Although Mr. Laplace and Mr. Fourier also have high voices. But I think I am still more willing to support Gauss A little sir. Although he probably doesn’t need me to recommend him. It’s a pity that in this year’s two projects, we British basically only have to watch the show. I really want to recommend a British scientist, but in mathematics and In these two fields of medicine, we are obviously lagging behind the European continent. Well, maybe I should raise this issue at the meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences this year."