Today I should have refused the invitation of the old men without hesitation. It would have been a total folly to have researchers, especially in the field of physics, give lectures to high school students. This is not the first time I have been asked to stand on a high school stage in front of a gaggle of students of all colors who, no matter how well they are taught, will not glance at such a "boring" subject. Yes, quantum physics, what a stupid idea! How can high school students with so little experience, their minds filled with love and the latest football game, understand such a wonderful subject. Whenever I said those obscure terms, they would either fall asleep or have an impatient perfunctory face, and more would already be discussing the basketball game after school.
Of course, it's not that I didn't reflect on this and take the blame on myself, but when I tried to recover my high-intensity experimental repressed nature in the class of middle school students and told them the beauty of quantum physics in witty and lively language, the jokes I told them to be thoughtful of them, they seized on this and did not let go of the laughter, the normal lifeless. Damn it ! Since then, I have vowed never to expect anything from these people again, and if an ungrateful person asks me to do such a thankless job, I will refuse as a matter of course. But these school regents did Mr. Fisk some favors, got him to agree to send a researcher to a guest lecture, and the guys at the lab are just gonna dump that on me.
For this kind of refusal, I have already made full preparations, only need to go on stage perfunctory uh-huh two, anyway, this group of naive silly children will not listen to what you say. I'm looking at the itinerary, and the destination on the itinerary is Visios Academy in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, exclusive school? Well, then there's even less hope.
Today's weather is unusually gloomy, and I confess that my heart is so upset to have to attend such a meaningless and infuriating event that I can imagine that I was almost grim-faced when I went up to the podium, but the man dressed like the Director, so senseless, bragged about me and left me alone on the stage, where I looked down at a bunch of faces that were either dull or sleepy. Some have turned back and behind the girl excitedly discussing what, in short, it is impossible to discuss quantum physics. I'm not surprised that the students here are said to be mostly rich second generation, always put on an elite appearance, I thought to myself, casually scanning the masses below, this is another boring guest.
Just as I was about to look away, a figure slipped into my gaze, a very ordinary black boy, no different from the American high school students you see everywhere, and if there was anything about him that caught my attention, he was very different from the others, his hand on his chin, looking at me intently, and there was actually a trace of expectation in his eyes. I hope. Does this stupid kid treat quantum physics like social science and a brief history of art? I shook my head in a self-deprecating way, probably a boy who was not aware of it, and when I opened my mouth, his wrists would gradually loosen in the "boring" magnetic moment and wavelength, and his head could not help but fall asleep on the desktop, or talk to the fat Asian boy with glasses next to him about picking up girls and basketball.
I randomly find a knowledge point to cut into, can imagine that the next will be my self-entertainment, this process may be very painful. Soon I reluctantly realized that the expected perfunctory simply could not be realized, and compared with the following idle children and the school board eager to complete the required science lecture, I was the only one in the whole classroom who had a genuine feeling about quantum mechanics, and I could not face my love with a perfunctory attitude, so that I even could not help but have an interaction
"OK fine, the experimenter in the Double-slit experiment?" I laughed a little at this foolishness, knowing that there would be no response, so I immediately announced the answer to myself.
“Oh,I know! It’s Tomas Young,In fact, its full name is Young's double-slit Interference Experiment ”
The crisp male voice interrupted the words I was about to blurt out. In fact, the voice made my confused brain clear and excited, and I searched for the source of the voice.
It was the black boy, his right hand slightly raised, as if he could not wait to signal that he had just said the answer, his eyes were clear to me, a closer look could see that his lips were slightly trembling, must have been a little nervous about the answer, a little embarrassed, I shook my wrist, he returned with a perfect smile
“Perfect! What a standard answer!” I could see the boy's expression relaxed with my naked eyes, and then his eyes shone again to look at me, I suddenly felt interesting, it seems that this boy is not like I imagined, although the question could not be simpler, but at least it shows that he has a knowledge of quantum mechanics, and it can also prove that his expectation at the beginning is the expression of love. I could even see the thirst for knowledge in the boy's eyes. How do you describe it? All of a sudden what I thought was a dead smell in the classroom was gone, replaced by a fresh, heart-opening smell.
My spirits perked up, and now that I had at least one audience, the journey, which had been so painful in my imagination, became quite interesting, and the rudiments of what I had intended to say in passing seemed trivial to me, admittedly not only from the excitement of having a real audience, but also, in retrospect, from a subconscious eagerness to know the limits of boys. In the following lecture, my eyes were always focused on the black boy, and one after another obscure term came out of my mouth. To my surprise, most of the words were answered by the boy, including photoelectric effect and particle superposition. When more obscure questions were answered in my mouth, the boy took out a pen and paper to record them with fascination. In a trance, I saw myself in college at MIT.
"What is the bound states?＂
“A particle is confined to a specific region of space by an external force, i. e. , a wave function equal to zero at infinity is called a bound state.”
"Do you think light is a particle or a wave?＂
“If you look at it from your field of study, Professor, of course it's the unification of waves and particles”
I couldn't take my eyes off the boy, and I realized that he seemed to be the only element in the room with which I had chemistry with quantum physics, and I was thrilled. I tried to tell him about the wonderful quantum physics with humorous words, although it also attracted other ungrateful men and women without nutrition and heckling, but it doesn't matter, the black boy can get and accept my remarks, which is enough.
The content I talked about went from the tiny of quantum mechanics to a grand topic, oh, no, actually I don't believe that quantum mechanics only represents the micro, quantum has always been both small and grand existence, I started to talk about the universe, this may have a little selfish, this is not within the original scope of today's talk, Actually, it has to do with the start-up project that I'm going to be working on for Mr. Fisk later in the day. Poor Mr. Fisk, he's sad because of the loss of his wife and children, but these love-hate entangleements are not my concern, and I just need to use my expertise in the field to help him with his experiments.
"In recent years, however, my colleagues have found that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, which is quite different from the flat or sphere previously assumed, because it means that the universe can only get bigger and bigger indefinitely. This acceleration means ----."
I turned my eyes to the boy, who was listening intently and leaning forward with an eager tendency, as if he had his own understanding of the subject.
I walked slowly down from the podium to him. His eyes were still looking at me, his body was really straight, and he seemed a little nervous about my approach. I walked up to him, propped my hands on the table, leaned close to him, and looked into his glowing eyes
"What do you think about that, boy?"
He seemed taken aback by my sudden question, and at such close range. But soon he gathered himself and seemed to be thinking, putting the thoughts in his head into logical words
"Well... Professor, according to what you just said, I think the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating infinitely.... It could mean that the universe is not a vast plane or sphere as we normally think of it, but it's just going around inside, which means it's more like, uh, a bagel."
As soon as he finished, the boy burst into laughter all around him, as if he was puzzled by his analogy. I ignored the vulgar fools around him, and the excellent analogy was not what I had imagined, and I looked at him with a smile
"I thought you were gonna say like a donut."
"Well, it's true that doughnuts are more appropriate, and they're easier to think of than bagels." The boy scratched his face, "but I'm putting a personal twist on that metaphor."
“Oh?”
"Bagel relative to the doughnut, more flavor, can also hold a variety of ingredients, no matter sweet and salty it accepts, relative to the doughnut, its taste has more possibilities, you never know what it is like to bite down on it", he paused, "I think the universe can contain everything, there are infinite future infinite possibilities, you never know what the next second will encounter, But still willing to taste and try until you surpass it."
These words were said in a very ordinary tone in the boy's mouth, but it enlightened me. In an instant, I even went back to the classroom at MIT and talked endlessly with my classmates about quantum physics and the vast universe, with joy and expectation in the words, and tied it with my life, thinking that I must make a career in this field to prove myself. To reach the kind of possibility I want. I reflected on his words, chewing the sweetness that was suppressed by laboratory work, as if I were actually chewing sweet bagels in my mouth, far better than the cheap stuff in the canteen.
“Good Boy! You really make me sit up and take notice, you already have the ideological quality to study quantum physics, if you enter this field, you will make great achievements in the future "I sighed
"You too, Professor," he said with a smile. "You are unlike any other visiting professor I have ever met, and I can see that you have a very high scientific quality. I mean, you are the best professor I have ever met."
These words filled my body, filled my vanity from nowhere with great satisfaction, and I really wanted to write ten thousand thank-you notes to the trustees and Mr. Fisk for inviting me. I went back to the podium and couldn't help but use this topic to talk about my upcoming experiment, "In fact, based on my research, I believe that multiple parallel universes are portals that can be connected by quantum collisions....."
There were murmurs from the audience who seemed to think I was talking about a whimsical story or promoting some boring conspiracy theory. I ignored them and looked at the black boy, who, to my delight, was still listening intently, resting his chin in one hand and twirling his pen in the other, making occasional notes on a piece of paper.
I never thought that a guest lecture would go by so quickly. In the past, it was such a long time. However, this time, it made me feel reluctant to part with it. Soon the appointed time arrived, I reluctantly walked off the stage, and these ignorant children rushed out of the classroom like wild horses with basketballs and football. I realized that I hadn't asked the boy his name yet, but he was about to leave the classroom, and only the draft brought the fragmentary sound to my ears.
"Mi... Mor ... You're so... though none of us listen....."
Well, Mi ,Mora, these were the only two pieces of information I got about his name, and as I chewed the two syllables, they produced a wonderful sensation in my mouth.
The school manager of Visions came around to see me out, it was sunny outside, the sun was so dazzling, I stretched comfortably in the car, I felt that my prejudice against young people had diminished a little, they were not exactly the fools full of love and ball, no discipline, and the guest lectures in middle school were not so boring in my eyes. Even the prospect of similar activities in the future, of course, is more likely to be disappointed, unless the black boy is able to run all over New York high school. At the same time, I am determined that the next time I am asked "my favorite district in New York", I will throw away all my prejudices and say the answer without hesitation. Oh, All hail Brooklyn!