Chapter 1173 Postscript 29 The Ming Academic World Is Full of Vitality and Everything Is Flourishing

Chapter 1173 Postscript 29·The Ming Dynasty’s academic world is full of vitality and everything is competing for success

The next day, various meetings were officially held.

He didn't receive any invitation today, so he had to go and get a seat by himself.

Since I got up late for dinner, the popular academic seminars were already full, so I wandered around looking for an empty seat.

Soon we found a hall that was about four-fifths full.

There were still more than ten Tai students lying at the door and outside the window. They could only listen outside.

Xie Yan showed his bachelor's degree badge and walked in swaggeringly. The students outside the room were extremely envious.

The speaker is a middle-aged man who is sorting things out.

He looked at the clock and finally spoke: "I, Feng Sui, thank you all for being willing to listen to my lecture. When Taizu founded agriculture, he began to classify things in the world. We all know that living things can be divided into animals and Plants. Animals are divided into vertebrates and invertebrates..."

"We once discovered some snakes and lizards, which are very special ovoviviparous, but they cannot lactate after all. When I was in Australia, I found two animals that are both oviviparous and lactating. Please see the picture, too far back Friends can take a closer look.”

After the speaker finished speaking, he began to hang pictures on the blackboard.

Many scholars in the audience began to talk in low voices, obviously shocked by the egg-laying mammals.

Xie Yan and several scholars in the back row moved forward along the aisle. When he saw the picture hanging on the blackboard clearly, he immediately laughed silently. Isn't this a platypus?

The speaker said: "Some scholars have discovered this animal before and named it duck-billed civet, but they did not notice that it actually lays eggs."

The speaker then hung up another picture: "This kind was also found in Australia. The local Han people thought it was a relative of the hedgehog and called it the long-billed hedgehog. It is even more peculiar, it is a marsupial egg-laying mammal. The eggs are laid in their own pouch, the eggs are hatched in the pouch, and the young continue to live in the pouch and nurse.”

As soon as this statement came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

Even the imperial students outside the room burst into exclamations.

Next, the speaker described in detail the various habits of the platypus and echidna.

After talking about it, Habit suddenly threw out a point:

"By observing certain insects or birds for a long time, we can find that the color of their body surfaces also changes according to changes in their living environment. We also find local changes in some animals through some animal fossils."

"This is even more obvious for plants. Many plants are annual in the north and can be perennial in the south. After many generations of exotic plants that have grown in a certain place for a long time, the characteristics of the entire community will change together."

"If the same animal is separated by natural disasters, suppose half of them live on Island A and the other half live on Island B, and the living environments of the two islands are very different. Then after millions of years, after countless generations of reproduction, will they change? into two completely different animals?”

"Australia is a natural testing ground. It is vast enough and completely isolated from the outside world."

"I suspect that this kind of long-billed hedgehog (echidna) had the same ancestors as hedgehogs a long time ago. They somehow arrived in Australia and became oviparous due to changes in the environment, and had a pouch, but retained Breastfeeding habits."

"The same is true for this duck-billed platypus. After it came to Australia, it not only became egg-laying, but also grew a duck's mouth."

"Although I don't know why, the environment in Australia was probably more suitable for egg laying, and the large number of snake lizards forced the animals to grow pouches."

"Both animals and plants can change with the environment. I call it biological derivation. And the same environment forces different animals to evolve in the same direction, such as the marsupials in Australia."

The scholars present were talking a lot.

Xie Yan also returned to his seat.

He was startled just now, thinking that the person in front of him was going to talk about the theory of evolution, but in the end he just proposed the idea of ​​"convergence and evolution".

The speaker continued. He suggested that future scholars should pay more attention to the similarities and differences between animals and plants in the same environment and their close relatives in different environments.

"Snap, snap, snap!"

Thunderous applause.

At this time, in the Ming Dynasty, although there were also claims from zoologists, botanists, and mineralogists, in fact, all of them were naturalists!

Countless unknown animals, plants, and minerals are waiting for them to discover, and since it is not easy to conduct an inspection in the deep mountains and dense forests, they study whatever they catch every time they go out for inspections.

It is possible to study plants today, suddenly study minerals tomorrow, and go directly to study geology the day after tomorrow.

Including today's agriculturists, most are naturalists.

Because there is a bottleneck in the development of agricultural technology, it is difficult to achieve results by continuing to roll in this field. So we might as well open up a new track and sprint towards the direction of zoologist and botanist. In a hurry, I started to study minerals, astronomy, and geography. Anyway, these things are related to agriculture.

There are not many people who devote themselves to agriculture and animal husbandry. Their main direction is to cultivate improved seeds.

Even the agricultural officer system was downsized by the imperial court.

Because most of the agricultural officials have become government officials and rarely deal directly with farmers and herdsmen. Moreover, professionalism is also worrying, as many of them are recruited through connections.

The imperial court did not abolish all the agricultural officials, purely for Taizu's sake!

Getting to this point has something to do with the performance evaluation of the agricultural officials.

You said you helped so many farmers increase their production, how do you prove it? I also said it was because of the good weather this year.

Similarly, those agricultural officials with connections can also claim credit for the increase in production due to the good weather and get promoted.

It is difficult to evaluate political achievements, so agricultural officials who really do things cannot be promoted, and gradually bad money drives out good money and no one does anything.

But breeding good varieties is very intuitive. This thing is the easiest to achieve political achievements, and it is easy to apply for funds with results, so agricultural officials who are willing to work all do this.

Over time, the court threw agronomists who bred good varieties into the Royal Society system.

There are plant varieties and animal varieties, and the Ming Dynasty has developed steadily in the field of breeding.

…

On this day, Xie Yan attended four academic conferences, covering all kinds of fields.

The next morning, Xie Yan was invited to attend Nie Qi's report.

Nie Qi was very enthusiastic about Xie Yan, and even wanted Xie Yan to be his assistant to help him operate the scale at the report.

Xie Yan politely declined and revealed that he also made a balance.

Nie Qi didn't take it seriously. In his opinion, the long-arm balance had reached its limit, and Xie Yan's balance could not increase its arm length.

This report on the long-arm damping balance was very successful, and countless physicists and chemists responded with excited applause.

Although it is still impossible to verify molecules and atoms, the long-arm damping balance has enabled many experiments to achieve breakthroughs.

The next afternoon, Xie Yan was invited by Wang Daqing.

Wang Daqing introduced Xie Yan very solemnly: "This young Jade Scholar, I believe you have heard of it a long time ago. But I'm afraid you don't know it yet, because the ideas provided by young Scholar Xie have allowed me to complete the new geometry I discovered!"

"Hahaha!"

There was a burst of laughter from the audience. Xie Yan and Wang Daqing seemed to be able to merge similar terms.

Although he was still ridiculed, Wang Daqing was no longer as anxious as before, because Xie Yan shared with him.

It was like being in a haunted old house. Even if no one had the ability to exorcise the ghost, it was good to have one more person scared.

I am not alone.

After the lecture began, Wang Daqing elaborated on his derivation process in detail and talked about those academic achievements that were counterintuitive.

The audience reacted coldly.

Finally, the academic report was over. More than half of the people stood up in an instant and left the venue without looking back.

The remaining half believed that mathematics would not deceive people, but they could not understand why it was like that. They asked Wang Daqing questions, but Wang Daqing could not explain it clearly, and finally they stared at each other.

"It will definitely be useful in the future!" Wang Daqing said firmly.

The scholars who stayed behind also believed that it would be useful in the future, but they did not know what it would be useful for or when it would be useful. So they left too.

However, there were two mathematicians who were very interested in Wang Daqing's new geometry and left their mailing addresses to keep in touch.

This was enough to make Wang Daqing ecstatic, as he had two more people to communicate with.

On the morning of the third day, it was Xie Yan's turn to give an academic report.

An attendant entered the venue with a box in his arms, and three attendants were responsible for separating the crowd, fearing that the things in the box would be damaged.

Several audience members came early, including Zhu Shirong and Cao An.

Zhu Shirong came over to greet him: "I didn't expect that Mr. Xie was so young. I thought he was a middle-aged man. I am Zhu Shirong, and I have exchanged two letters with Mr. Xie."

Xie Yan met his pen pal and hurriedly returned the greeting: "It turned out to be Professor Zhu. Thank you for your letter of support."

Zhu Shirong said: "Then you should thank Mr. Cao. He was the first to review your paper and recommended your paper to me."

Another pen pal, Xie Yan hurriedly greeted him.

Cao An returned the greeting and smiled: "We are good friends, no need to be polite."

Xie Yan opened the box while chatting.

Zhu Shirong and Cao An thought it was some experimental equipment, so they returned to their seats and waited for the report to start.

Gradually, they found something wrong and soon ran to the stage to observe what Xie Yan was doing from a close distance.

Xie Yan unpacked the outer cotton cloth, removed the cotton wrapped in the cotton cloth, and then unpacked another layer of cotton cloth, which was still wrapped with cotton.

Unpacking layer by layer, the innermost part was wrapped in silk, which turned out to be a small tray of a balance.

Unpacking layer by layer, he soon removed the strange parts. It seemed to be a balance arm, but it was too short.

Continuing to unpack, even the weights were wrapped layer by layer.

There are several pieces of glass?

Xie Yan first assembled a glass box with wooden frames on all four sides and small doors on the left and right sides that can be opened.

Zhu Shirong pointed to a small cloth bag and asked, "What's in it?"

Xie Yan said, "Charcoal. Whether it is for daily storage or for experiments, the balance must be placed in a glass box. Charcoal can maintain a dry air environment."

More and more scholars came in, attracted by this strange balance, and people gradually formed a circle around the podium.

"The old president is here!"

Most of the scholars ran to greet the old president, but there were still some left, who were controlled by the balance and could not move.

The old president saw people gathered around the podium, and was also helped over curiously.

At this time, the balance had been assembled, and Xie Yan was debugging it through multiple knobs.

After a while.

"The eldest princess is here!"

The eldest princess walked over slowly, and the hairpin on her bun swayed very rhythmically.

"What are they doing there?" The eldest princess asked curiously.

A scholar said: "Mr. Xie is assembling and debugging a balance. The arm of the balance is very short and is placed in a glass box, which is really hard to understand."

So, the eldest princess also went over and the scholars made way for her.

After that, more scholars arrived and saw that the podium was surrounded in three layers inside and outside. They were confused and didn't know what was going on.