Submission to Nature

May 5, 1900, London, Nature magazine.

Sir Lockyer, already sixty-four years old, arrived at his office as usual.

Though he was both editor-in-chief and founder of Nature, Sir Lockyer still insisted on being the first to arrive at the company every day.

His assistant Mary thoughtfully brewed him a cup of strong coffee, its rich fragrance filling the room.

It was a reviewing habit Sir Lockyer had cultivated over many years. Coffee helped him stay focused and sharpen his mind.

As he put it, it kept his brain running efficiently and made him feel younger the longer he lived.

Scientific journals were unlike celebrity gossip magazines; they required an exceptionally high level of expertise and insight.

A careless mistake would be a devastating blow to a journal.

Mary had gathered all the first drafts from the managing editors and placed them on the desk in his office, then took the seat beside him.

As his assistant, she needed to remain by Sir Lockyer's side at all times, ready to attend to him and relay his instructions.

Sir Lockyer took a sip of coffee, his face showing enjoyment, then began leafing through the manuscripts as he casually asked, "Mary, have the young fellows downstairs made any new discoveries?"

"Our journal is in desperate need of some heavyweight research results to publish."

Sir Lockyer was quite helpless as well. Science was exploding these days, with exhilarating breakthroughs emerging every day.

This had also caused all kinds of scientific journals to spring up like bamboo shoots after rain, making the market fiercely competitive.

Although Nature stood at the forefront among them, it too faced enormous pressure from its peers.

Yet even under such circumstances, Sir Lockyer continued to hold the journal to exacting standards.

It accepted only high-quality papers and research in physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and similar fields.

It had never accepted or published a jumble of nonsense papers merely to pad out its pages.

This had also made Nature a weekly publication. Compared with other daily journals, its circulation was lower, and its revenue fell along with it.

Though he himself lacked for nothing financially, Nature was the work of his heart, and he hoped it would flourish and earn renown across the globe.

If nothing else, he wanted the young managing editors who followed him to have decent salaries.

Just as Sir Lockyer was speaking from the heart, Mary said softly, "Sir, there really is something I need to report to you."

"Gregory received a paper submission on physics, but he couldn't understand it and wanted you to take a look."

"So I marked the manuscript separately and placed it near the top. You'll see it shortly."

Sir Lockyer was mildly surprised at this and said with a smile, "Oh? Is there really a paper that can stump one of King's College London's finest students?"

"Then I'll read this profound paper first."

With that, Sir Lockyer picked out the paper from the stack of manuscripts.

When he opened it, the first thing that caught his eye was its title: <Thoughts on Using Quantum Theory to Explain the Problem of Blackbody Radiation>

Ho!

Sir Lockyer chuckled softly. What grand ambitions—this was an attempt to challenge the second Cloud Problem.

Though he was merely an astronomer himself, he had also dabbled in and studied other scientific fields.

Naturally, he knew of the two Cloud Problems proposed by Sir Kelvin.

"But what does this 'quantum' mean?" Sir Lockyer murmured to himself.

He continued reading and discovered that two names were listed as the authors.

Strangely, one of them was designated the Corresponding Author.

As editor-in-chief of a renowned scientific journal, he had never heard of such a term.

Fortunately, an explanation had been thoughtfully provided beneath the names.

After reading it, Sir Lockyer actually felt a little admiration for the author, who had come up with such a method.

The invention of the Corresponding Author effectively resolved the conflict between mentors and students over papers.

The student was the first author, responsible for writing the original paper; the mentor was the Corresponding Author, responsible for guiding it.

Both contributed to the paper's results, yet their roles were as clearly divided as the Jing and Wei rivers.

But when Sir Lockyer saw the two names clearly, his expression changed drastically, and he could not help crying out, "Bruce Li? Planck?"

"Could this be that Qing Dynasty lad who made a bet with Sir Kelvin?"

"My heavens, is he really going to prove himself with a paper?"

"But how did Professor Planck become the Corresponding Author?"

Seeing Sir Lockyer so agitated, Mary hurriedly rose to her feet and asked what had happened.

Sir Lockyer did not look at her, merely waved a hand, then added:

"Mary, make me another cup of coffee. Stronger this time, and quickly."

With that, he began reading the paper word by word. The room was left with only the sound of Mary's footsteps.

After reading the paper's explanation of the concept of [quantum], Sir Lockyer was shocked beyond measure.

"Oh, my God, what an unbelievable hypothesis!"

"This is simply challenging the authority of Newtonian mechanics!"

Sir Lockyer kept murmuring under his breath, yet an inexplicable flush had risen to his face.

He had a feeling that this paper would undoubtedly stir up a colossal storm in physics.

Nature might very well become an overnight sensation because of this paper!

At that moment, Mary came in carrying the coffee.

She watched Sir Lockyer, seemingly possessed, muttering to himself.

He did not even notice that the coffee had arrived.

So she gently set it down and left.

It seemed Gregory had sent over an extraordinary paper.

By then, Sir Lockyer had been completely captivated by Li Qiwei's paper and had even forgotten to drink his coffee.

When he reached the [Li-Planck Radiation Formula], he could not help slapping the desk.

"Perfect!"

"It is as mesmerizing as Newton's Second Law!"

"It actually proves energy quantization theoretically and perfectly explains the problem of Blackbody Radiation."

"Such astonishing brilliance—an imagination that gallops through the heavens!"

Sir Lockyer exclaimed again and again. At the same time, he simply could not believe that the paper's author was a Qing Dynasty native—and a young man at that.

At the same time, another troubling question came to mind.

Should this paper be published or not?

First of all, Quantum Theory completely overturned the classical, continuous Newtonian view of space and time. It was nothing less than earth-shattering.

But it was, after all, only a theory and could not yet be verified through experiments.

At the very least, it needed another powerful piece of evidence—that was, the Photoelectric Effect.

What if it was published, only for the theory to be proven wrong in the end?

Then Sir Lockyer's wise reputation would be ruined in a single stroke.

Nature would suffer along with it. This was the journal that had published dozens of Darwin's papers.

It was a holy land for submissions in the hearts of young scientists; there was no room for error.

Second, Li Qiwei's Qing Dynasty background also gave Sir Lockyer a headache.

Although Nature had previously published a paper by someone from the Qing Dynasty, that one had concerned acoustics.

It was not especially theoretical, belonging to applied-level physics research.

It was nowhere near comparable to this work on Quantum Theory.

If such an epoch-making paper were published by Nature, and readers discovered that its author was from the Qing Dynasty, who knew what they would think.

Were there no one left in Europe?

That might have a negative impact on Nature's reputation.

Fortunately, Planck was the Corresponding Author, so at least it could be justified.

Though he was German, Germany was still part of Europe. At the very least, it proved that white people remained civilized and noble.

Thus, Sir Lockyer made up his mind.

Accept the paper!

Before that, however, he still needed to contact several friends in the industry, as well as friends in the field of physics.

Because before a paper was published, the editor needed to select reputable scientists in the same field, but unconnected to the author, to examine and evaluate its contents.

This was commonly known as "peer review," meant to ensure the paper's accuracy.

Moreover, Sir Lockyer wanted to see the looks on other people's faces when they were shocked as well, so he said:

"Mary, help me arrange several invitations. I need to contact some friends."

"Certainly, Sir," Mary replied.

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