Published in the top journal of astronomy This "amateur scientist" caught fire

Published in top astronomy journals The "amateur scientist" caught fire after revealing his experience

has not systematically learned the basic knowledge of physics, but published papers in top journals in the field, and is the dual identity of the first author and corresponding author, the collaborator is a big bull in the field of astrophysics, he is the self-proclaimed "civil science" amateur physics amateur Lao Liang, this unusual experience aroused the interest of netizens. Lao Liang is the first college student after the resumption of the college entrance examination in 1977, although he studied tractor manufacturing, and later started a business to do mechanical and electrical design, but at the age of nearly 50 he returned to the hobby of physics research, has published three papers, he does not mind being called "civil science", but believes that amateur scientific research should also abide by the rules of the scientific community.

Purple Cow News reporter Song Shifeng

Physics doctoral students ask questions in Zhihu, and the "civil science" old man appeared to answer

Recently, a doctoral student in physics at Peking University asked a question in Zhihu: How do you think of a "amateur scientist" publishing a heavyweight paper in the top astronomy journal MNRAS? ”

He said that the "civil science" @liangzx seemed to be a small and accomplished engineer, suddenly began to engage in pulsar and plasma physics "civil science" research, published papers in addition to their father and son, the third author is Carlton College professor in the United States, Joel J. M. Weissberg. "I have never seen such a combination of authors, and even this only professor is neither a monograph nor a corresponding author." Unexpectedly, this "civil science" Lao Liang personally answered this question and described his own path of physics research, and the number of likes has reached nearly 7000,<>.

Lao Liang studied tractor design, and later started a business to develop automobile testing equipment, which really has nothing to do with theoretical physics.

In 1955, Lao Liang was born in rural Hebei, and when he was in high school, he met a very good physics teacher, "I graduated from Peking University majoring in physics, and he taught physics to give me a refreshing feeling, so he had a great influence on me." ”

In 1972, Lao Liang graduated from high school and returned to the countryside to become an agricultural mechanic, managing the production team's water pumps, diesel engines, tractors and other machines. "In those five years, the physics knowledge I learned has not been lost, but has increased in practice."

In 1977, the college entrance examination resumed, Lao Liang took it as he wished, and his results were very good, and the physics test paper was especially "pediatric" for him. But he did not dare to apply for physics according to his interests, but chose a better admission direction and applied to the agricultural machinery college. Lao Liang was admitted to the North China College of Agricultural Mechanization (now China Agricultural University) to study tractor manufacturing. He met his current lover in class, and the two have been until then.

When he was in college, Lao Liang's favorite was physics, but he did not dare to make such a request when he was assigned after graduation, so he was assigned to an agricultural machinery school in Tangshan as a teacher with his lover.

In 1994, Lao Liang resigned with his lover. They rented a house in a remote alley and started their own business, designing and developing cost-effective test equipment. At that time, China's automobile market was beginning to develop rapidly, Lao Liang also caught up with a good opportunity, electronic hardware, software design, mechanical design, electronic assembly, mechanical processing are all done by him alone, it took a few months to successfully develop the product, "The first machine sold for 7000,<> yuan, but happy." ”

Lao Liang has been focusing on this field, and one invention has entered the national standard.

Chatting with his son rekindles his love for physics Father and son began to study together

In the early days of entrepreneurship, work was very busy, and Lao Liang did not have time to think about physical problems. One day, my son, who is in middle school, did his homework and talked to him about whether the magnet's magnetic field would follow when it rotated.

This question inspired Lao Liang's long-term love for physics, "It can be said that without my son's joining, I would not have been able to rethink physics, embark on this path, and achieve any results." ”

After discussing the magnetic field rotation problem, the father and son firmly believe that the magnetic field will not co-rotate with the magnet! They later found that the seemingly simple question had actually been debated for more than 100 years without a conclusion. At present, the general physics community basically supports the theory of non-corotation, while the astrophysical community almost all believe in the theory of corotation.

The turning point in their study came on August 2004, 8. "My son suddenly suggested that there is a star called a pulsar, saying that its magnetic field rotates with the star, like a beacon. This is the first time I heard of pulsars, and immediately went to look for pulsar information, and after seeing the relevant introduction, we decided that the magnetic field could not rotate with the neutron star, and the pulsar lighthouse model must be wrong. Early in the morning of August 21, 2004, it occurred to me that the Sun's magnetic field has a 8-year flip cycle, and if the solar energy collapses into a neutron star, its magnetic field may not stop flipping, but flip faster. Our magnetic field oscillation model (MO model) was born. ”

Under the influence of his father, Lao Liang's son was also very interested in physics, and obtained a senior programmer certificate in high school, and later went to Jilin University to study theoretical physics. After he went to college, the research of father and son advanced by leaps and bounds.

Lao Liang originally did not have any English foundation, but after a long period of exploration, he could basically read professional papers. My son and lover have good English, and when writing essays and emails, they revise them.

Collaborating with heavyweight academics to publish papers Thanksgiving for meeting Bó Lè

In 2006, an international physics conference was held in Beijing, "I wanted to hear about people's research and publish our models at that time." During the meeting, an expert believed that the model was wrong with the theory of magnetic freezing, and Lao Liang heard about this concept for the first time, so he and his son deduced it, found its loopholes, and did three sets of experiments. After the experiment proved that the theory was correct, two SCI papers were published.

They write their first paper and need a referrer to submit to the academic preprint site arXiv. They emailed more than 100 industry experts, and four wrote back with their willingness to help, including a physics professor Joel M. M. Weissberg comes from the world-renowned Carlton Institute and has published more than 4 papers in top journals such as Nature and Science, including nearly 60 papers co-signed with Nobel laureate Joseph Taylor. At that time, Lao Liang did not know how heavyweight Professor Weissberg was, only that he did pulsar research.

After unveiling the model in arXiv, they continued their in-depth research, publishing a paper in the top journal Monthly of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2014.

The paper has gone through some twists and turns. "We contacted some experts, and some experts thought this theory was good and said that it should be submitted as soon as possible." They submitted to the Monthly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society and recommended Weissberg as a reviewer. Weissberg raised some questions, involving more advanced theories such as the theory of relativity, and the theoretical accumulation of the old Liang father and son is not enough, "but the journal editor may have looked at our manuscript and gave us the idea that he could listen to the reviewer's suggestions, and if he had more suggestions, he would be added to the list of acknowledgements, and if he had more suggestions, he could be listed as a co-author and then change the reviewer." In this way, I indicated to Weissberg that we had limited writing capacity and asked him to be a co-author. At first he disagreed, saying I can't stain your light. I said if you don't join in, it's hard for our paper to meet publication standards. ”

After Weissberg joined, they discussed it for another three months, and Weissberg turned the rough original paper into a beautiful one. "Professor Weissberg is our Bó Lè." The paper was also supported by a senior professor at Caltech.

After the paper was published, the team led by the reviewers began to verify the lighthouse model with their method, and Lao Liang had dozens of rounds of communication and discussion with them, helping them correct several mistakes, and then they added Lao Liang's father and son to the author list to want to submit. The team claims to have proven the lighthouse model correct for the first time in decades using the method they published. "That means our MO model is wrong. Of course, we were not convinced, and asked for the data from their paper and quickly checked for major problems. When we sent them this discovery, we thought they would retract it, but unfortunately, they remained silent. ”

Laughingly calling himself a "civil science" Do research and stick to your principles

"Civil science" refers to people who engage in research in the field of science, but have no formal scientific training or have not obtained a professional degree in science, or even a nickname for some amateur scientific researchers who do not speak logically and empirically.

Lao Liang didn't mind being called "Minke", he even called himself "Minke". Lao Liang said that scientific research may not necessarily be done by professional experts. At the Shepherd Astronomy Forum, where astronomy enthusiasts gathered, he had an argument with some people, "I have a good temper, don't give them red faces, as long as I talk about science, I can discuss as much as possible, and if the suggestions made by others are excellent, then you have to revise your thinking." ”

Lao Liang said that he has a principle: "Only when I see the other party's mistakes clearly, I will debate with the other party." If I can't see what his problem is, or if I don't see but don't have the ability to persuade the other person, just put up with it, shut my mouth, and walk around. ”

Over the years, Lao Liang has spent most of his free time on physics research, and experiments are done at home. Father and son are polishing a new paper that they think can prove the lighthouse model wrong. "This time we will come up with two predictions for scholars around the world to verify. Testing these two predictions does not require new observations, just mining old data. If our new prediction can be confirmed, the MO model will officially become a competitive model for the lighthouse model. ”