There are many such things in stories about genius. For example, Lobachevsky, a Russian mathematical genius, put forward a shocking proposition that parallel lines can intersect, but it was not recognized at that time, and it was not confirmed to be true until his death, but he could never see the result again.
Lobachevsky is the situation that we see most in many genius narratives. He has a high IQ and outstanding ability. His talent has long been noticed by people around him, and it is common to skip classes at school. For him, the content of primary and secondary schools is simply not enough. What really satisfies his curiosity and desire to explore is always something deeper. Therefore, entering the field of professional mathematics research is almost his goal since childhood.
He was only 15 years old when he entered Kazan University in Russia. Many people have not finished junior high school at this age, but Lobachevsky has entered the hall of advanced mathematics.
Compared with many talented people like him, Lobachevsky is relatively lucky. His family and surrounding environment did not have a negative impact on him, which enabled him to concentrate on his study and research, and almost no accidents occurred.
On the road of mathematics, he almost walked into the best condition smoothly. After obtaining a degree from Kazan University, Lobachevsky naturally stayed in the school to continue his teaching and research.
For many people, this is simply a winner in life, with a stable life and a high social status. As long as there are no accidents in the second half of life, it will go smoothly, but for a mathematician, this is actually just the beginning.
Because I also got a degree in physics when I was a master, Lobachevsky's research has a background in mathematics and physics, and the issues involved are more challenging.
For mathematicians, what they have to do is to keep exploring, ask questions that predecessors failed to ask and solve problems that predecessors could not solve. Even unbelievable things, as long as they are true, are worthy of recognition.
Of course, many scientists in history have been persecuted by religion and even politics because of their shocking theories, but most of them stick to their beliefs and are unwilling to instill wrong cognition into people even if they give their lives.
You know, sometimes the influence of a theory or discovery is enormous, which may change a country and the whole world. Truth and falsehood, like God and the devil, can never exist.
Lobachevsky hardly encountered any storms in the first half of his life, but there were often stormy waves hidden behind the calm. Soon after, when he first announced his proud research results to the public, Lobachevsky was quickly overturned on the beach by this wave, which became an important event that changed his fate.
The specific research content is of course very complicated, even if we want to understand it, it will take a long time to prepare, but in a word, Lobachevsky thinks that two parallel straight lines can actually intersect.
Many people must have started to frown when they heard this. How can middle school mathematics tell us that it is impossible to intersect? And in our imagination, it will not happen anyway. In the final analysis, parallelism itself is two propositions that are completely opposite to intersection.
At that time, people all reacted like this after hearing this assertion. Even researchers in many professional fields think that Lobachevsky may be grandstanding.
In fact, we have all heard of this situation. When Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published, his theory of evolution also aroused people's anger. No one will accept it. He and his ancestors were originally descendants of a group of monkeys. The same was true when Copernicus first proposed Heliocentrism. Humans who once took themselves as the center of the universe have never heard of such a fallacy. How can the earth not be the center? How can I not be the center?
In fact, in this process, the public is challenged by the old cognition, which is ignorant and unscientific. The significance of scientific existence is enlightenment and bringing truth to the world. Both religion and pseudoscience will eventually be defeated in the face of irrefutable facts.
The same is true in Lobachevsky, where parallel lines cannot intersect. At this time, just like geocentric theory, it has become a dogma that people regard as the standard. They can't accept new possibilities because it is very dangerous for cognition.
The vacillation of cognition means the vacillation of the world outlook, the breaking of the status quo, instability and danger, and people instinctively seek a sense of security. Therefore, even Lobachevsky, a renowned mathematician, could not persuade people to change this cognition in a short time.
Adhering to the scientific spirit, he firmly guarded his research results. The more so, the more angry the hostile forces became, and the public opinion once overwhelmed Lobachevsky, which put him under great pressure. Eventually, he suffered from depression and died soon.
In the twelfth year of Lobachevsky's death, mathematicians once again verified his research results, which were recognized by many scholars. They got their revenge, but they came late.
It turns out that his theory has come to the world of three-dimensional surfaces when everyone is still obsessed with two-dimensional research. On this basis, later generations put forward a series of theories, including Riemann geometry, which we are familiar with, and even appeared in Einstein's theory of space-time distortion.
There is always a certain distance between advanced science and the general public. Although the power of the mob is sometimes beyond human control, at least we should start from ourselves and maintain a respect for science.