The rise of great powers: starting from military industry

The theme of today's meeting is about high-energy accelerators - large electron colliders!

Not long ago, China's first high-energy accelerator - Beijing Electron-Positron Collider successfully collided.

Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPC) is one of the eight major high-energy accelerator centers in the world, the first high-energy accelerator in my country, and a major scientific and technological infrastructure for high-energy physics research. It consists of a 202-meter-long linear accelerator, a transmission line, a 240-meter-long circular accelerator (also known as a storage ring), a 6-meter-high and 500-ton Beijing spectrometer, and a synchrotron radiation experimental device surrounding the storage ring. It looks like a huge badminton racket.

This high-energy accelerator, which cost 240 million yuan, was built by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Construction began in October 1984 and was finally completed after three years, successfully achieving positron-electron collisions.

Renren Daily reported this achievement, saying that "this is another major breakthrough in the high-tech field after the successful explosion of the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb and the launch of artificial satellites." "Its construction and successful collision have opened up broad prospects for the application of particle physics and synchrotron radiation in my country, and opened a new chapter for my country's high-energy physics institutes."

The total construction area of ​​the project is 57,500 square meters. It looks like a huge "badminton racket" and consists of five parts: electron injector, storage ring, detector, nuclear synchrotron radiation area, and computing center. Positive and negative electrons are accelerated to near the speed of light in the high vacuum pipe and collide at a designated location. The characteristics of the particles produced by the collision are recorded by a large detector-Beijing spectrometer.

Scientists further understand the properties of particles through the processing and analysis of these data, thereby revealing the mysteries of the microscopic world.

The reason for this conference is that the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is not satisfied with the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider and hopes to build a larger high-energy accelerator.

When Liu Tao first received the theme of this conference, he had only one thought: those people at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are crazy.

This is also what they can think of, how dare they think of it?

They really think that money comes from the wind.

After going to the United States and Europe for exchanges a few times, they can't find their way after being flattered by others.

Sure enough, after the meeting started, people from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences talked about the benefits of building a large collider.

"Building a super collider is of great significance, because a super collider can discover particles in more energy ranges, which means the progress of particle physics, and this means the progress of basic science. Basic science is the basis of all applied sciences, so it is something that must develop and is of great significance. It is better to build it than not to build it, and it is better to build it early than late." A high-energy physicist said passionately.

"Building a super collider also has a great significance, that is, after the super collider is built, at least five or six thousand top scientists in the world will move to China for a long time, and it will automatically improve the strength of China's top science, and the benefits generated by this cost will far exceed the effect of building a world-class university alone."

High-energy physicists continue to explain the significance of building a super collider.

Other participants also spoke up and expressed their opinions, some in agreement and some against.

"Mr. Yang Zhenning, you are a master of physics and have great attainments in high-energy physics. What is your opinion?" The old man looked at Yang Zhenning.

Yang Zhenning took the microphone handed over by the staff and said, "I am absolutely not opposed to the continued development of high-energy physics. What I oppose is that China starts building a super collider today."

As soon as Yang Zhenning opened his mouth, his attitude was very clear, that is, he opposed the construction of a super collider.

"First of all, building a super collider is very expensive. As far as I know, the United States is planning to build the world's largest collider, with a budget of about 3 billion US dollars. I think this 3 billion US dollars is not enough. It will probably cost 8 billion US dollars to build the collider. In addition, CERN in Europe is planning to build a large proton collider, which is expected to cost at least 10 billion US dollars. The super collider proposed by the Institute of High Energy Physics will probably cost no less than 20 billion US dollars to build." Yang Zhenning said: "The Institute of High Energy Physics has proposed to build a super collider in China. The cost will be shared by many countries, but China's share will be very considerable. Today, the world is amazed at the rapid growth of China's GDP, but China is still a developing country. The GDP per capita is still very low, and there are various problems that need to be solved urgently. The country is now focusing on economic construction. Building a super collider will be very expensive and will not help economic development. I think it is not appropriate to consider it at present. "

"How many qualified physicists are there in China now? By then, foreign scientists will be the main force, and even the technology and equipment used in the construction will be foreign. After the construction is completed, foreigners will lead the experiments and make wedding clothes for foreigners. "Yang Zhenning's attitude is very clear, that is, he opposes the construction of a large collider at this time. "Spending so much money to build a super collider will greatly squeeze the funds for other basic sciences, including life medicine, materials science, etc. "

"I am not against it now, nor am I against it in the past two years. I was against it in 1980. The Large Collider is now in decline. This field was just beginning to shine when I was a graduate student in the United States. In fact, it can be said that in the past few decades, the most important field of development in physics, which everyone thinks is the most important, is this field. However, this field has reached today, not only from today, but from ten years ago. But most people don’t know. I’ve said it again and again. I didn’t say it today. I didn’t say it two years ago. I said it in 1980. I said something at that time: the party is over. "

"The party is over, that is, the feast is over. What does this sentence mean? Before 1980, in the 1950s and 1960s, it was the climax of particle physics. But after 1980, its important concepts have been Once you have it, you can still do it later, but without the most important, new ideas, especially for people in theoretical physics, you can’t make anything without important new ideas, so I said this at that time. "Yang Zhenning said, "I opposed the construction of high-energy accelerators before, but your High Energy Research Institute just didn't listen."

Yang Zhenning shook his head.

In the field of physics, existing theoretical physicists often put forward conjectures, that is, theoretical physics, and these theories serve as guiding ideas. Once you have a theory and concept, do experiments to prove it.

Because of this, there is a strange phenomenon in the field of physics, that is, the status of theoretical physicists is higher than that of experimental physicists!

Without the most important and new concepts, running to build a collider is just following the trend, having no direction and no purpose!

Liu Tao nodded slightly and agreed with Yang Zhenning's view. There are many teachers and students studying high-energy physics in China. They all want to discover some new particles and become famous. These people want to be famous. They are crazy.

Yang Zhenning's words will definitely offend such a large number of people, but from the perspective of family and country feelings, he should tell the truth.