Britain's Fishpond
The prize money, equivalent to 290 kilograms of gold, caused a sensation throughout Europe. Discussions about it immediately relegated all other news to the second page. Even fake news outlets like the Sun couldn't resist jumping in to discuss the matter, pretending to be serious.
However, * the Sun * is * the Sun * after all; after only a couple of sentences, the discussion inadvertently veered off-topic towards questions about the sun. The topic quickly became. "Which of these potential lottery winners would be the most desirable partner for many women to pursue?"
However, the specific emotions evoked by this news varied across Europe countries. In France, people had already begun to applaud the Academy of Sciences. Everyone felt that this reflected France's spirit of pursuing science and progress, and that the huge prize money also reflected France's prosperity and wealth.
As for the possible winners, most France people believe that the Medicine Prize will definitely go to the Ireland, Carroll. However, no one seems dissatisfied because he isn't France. After all, Carroll's teacher was France, and he achieved his success in France. As for the Mathematics Prize, there's still a high chance it will go to a France. Of course, the young man from the Confederation of the Rhine named Gauss is also a strong contender; considering his younger age and, of course, his more handsome appearance, many young women in France are more inclined to support him.
As for the Confederation of the Rhine, everyone's attention was focused on Gauss, speculating whether their fellow countryman would win the award. However, considering that the award was given by the France, everyone felt that the France had a better chance of winning.
"But it doesn't matter, Gauss is still young, and considering that the France have always been quite fair, well, even if he doesn't get it this time, he'll have another chance in two years, and even in two years... four years from now, it should be his turn." Many Northern Germany who were concerned about this matter thought so.
However, the Britain reacted differently after seeing the news. Initially intrigued and excited, they quickly discovered an embarrassing phenomenon: it seemed the Britain were practically excluded from this selection.
Medicine is one thing, but Britain medicine, traditionally speaking, while not backward, wasn't particularly advanced either. In fact, before that great breakthrough, doctors across Europe were basically Butcher. So not winning this award isn't a big deal. Anyway, you see, so far, the only nominee for this award is Dr. Carroll. So this award has nothing to do with Britain, which is really not shameful.
But the mathematics prize is a different story. Back when Sir Newton was still alive, he alone dominated the entire Europe continent. (Of course, his methods were somewhat questionable.) In fact, what was Sir Newton's most important and greatest work? * the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy *! Now, Britain mathematicians can't even get nominated, which is truly pathetic.
Of course, there are still physics and chemistry prizes next year, but the Britain calculated that unless Sir Newton were resurrected, the physics prize would be a foregone conclusion; if Joseph, who ushered in the age of electrification, participated, the prize would be his. As for chemistry, if Lavoisier participated, well, there would be no suspense either. Britain, on the other hand, could only watch, and didn't even have the confidence to say that the awards were too biased towards the France. This was truly pathetic, utterly pathetic! So, in some newspapers, this soul-searching question immediately appeared:
"What happened to this country? Why have we fallen from being one of the world's most advanced nations to this state in such a short time? It must be..."
This is certainly not a systemic problem. On this point, the Britain media is quite self-aware. Whether it's the Tory Party, the Whig Party, or the New Tory Party, they all understand very well that no matter how much they fight, they cannot actually bring down the regime. They cannot undermine it. So on this point, they still have a very strong bottom line, which is: the United Kingdom's system is the most perfect in the world, the end of history, the ultimate truth, and absolutely cannot be doubted.
Since there's no problem with the system, it must be a problem with the people's constitution. To put it more bluntly, this generation of people is incompetent; not a single mathematical genius has emerged!
So the newspapers naturally launched into a scathing critique of Britain's younger generation, accusing them of being idle and irresponsible. They pointed out that if they didn't repent and study harder, they would soon be swept away by the Gauss tide of France youth.
The Britain university students were naturally indignant. They felt they were also very serious, and besides, why compare themselves to someone like Gauss, a genius? He was already incredibly talented before going to the University of Paris! And who was Gauss's teacher? Joseph Bonaparte! Look at our teachers here, which one can compare to him?
By the way, have you read the preface to that groundbreaking paper in * the Lancet *? Ah, you definitely haven't. In Britain, journalists are generally uncultured; they wouldn't bother reading something like that. Well, Dr. Carroll admitted there that the entire concept and research direction were proposed by Dean Bonaparte. We wouldn't dare say we could replace Gauss in that position, but we certainly could replace Carroll in that position! But does Britain have such a good teacher? Dean Bonaparte gave such an honor to his student. In Britain, even with a paper like that, Carroll's name might be forgotten somewhere. So, it's entirely your old-timers' fault for being incompetent!
Since university students believe that Britain's scientific backwardness is mainly due to the incompetence of its predecessors, the best and most logical thing to do is simply to study in France. Medicine is a given; ever since the "The Lancet paper scandal," no patient dares to see a medical student without prior training in France. And now, after careful discussion, it's been discovered that not only medicine, but also mathematics and other natural sciences can no longer be studied in Britain.
"These days in Britain, all you can learn is 'Shakespeare' and 'Milton.' As for natural sciences, there's absolutely no way to learn them!"
As Britain university students began to question the quality of Britain universities, France newspapers quickly joined the fray. They introduced various France schools to Britain students interested in studying in France. In their presentations, the France newspapers presented a highly persuasive ranking based on each school's publications in Nature, the official journal of the French Academy of Sciences, and the number of citations those papers received, calculated according to specific rules. This ranking was quite detailed, including both overall rankings for each school and rankings for individual disciplines. For students considering studying in France, this ranking was incredibly useful.
"Why don't we have such a ranking in the Britain?" Many Britain students couldn't help but ask this question.
This naturally leads to another question: if Britain universities also participated in this ranking, where would they rank? Some people have actually done the calculations based on this model, because in the past year or two, many Britain scholars have preferred to submit their papers to Nature after completion, because although the France are very picky during the review process, they are quite generous when it comes to funding.
The final results were less than satisfactory; Cambridge was ranked behind a certain France École Normale Supérieure. This is truly... Of course, this doesn't fully explain the situation, because the Britain, unlike the France, don't submit every paper to Nature. So, Oxford and Cambridge and Cambridge are probably still stronger than any École Normale Supérieure, and perhaps, maybe, they're about on par with the University of Paris. Hmm... at most, just a tiny bit off, really, just a tiny bit off.
Despite this forced explanation, a large number of Britain youths went to France to study, which became a trend. This also brought another complaint: Britain passenger ships were too unscrupulous, expensive and uncomfortable! They couldn't compare to Europe at all! The "Navigation Ordinance" had turned ship owners into lazybones!