Wu Breaks the Universe's Perfect Balance

Wu lived in a world where everything had rules.

Scientists believed these rules never changed.

They thought the universe was perfectly balanced.

Wu was different from other scientists.

She asked hard questions.

She wanted to test everything.

Other people just accepted the old ideas.

The year was 1956.

Two smart men came to Wu.

Their names were Lee and Yang.

They had a crazy idea about physics.

"Wu, we think the universe might be unbalanced," Lee said.

"We think particles can break the old rules."

Wu listened carefully.

The idea sounded impossible.

All scientists believed in perfect balance.

This balance was called parity.

"How can we test this?"

Wu asked.

"We need someone who can do perfect experiments," Yang said.

"You are the best experimentalist in the world."

Wu felt excited.

She loved solving difficult puzzles.

This would be the hardest puzzle ever.

Wu went to her laboratory.

She needed to make everything extremely cold.

The temperature had to be almost absolute zero.

She worked day and night.

She cooled cobalt atoms.

She used powerful magnets.

She measured tiny particles called electrons.

The work was very difficult.

Wu had to be perfectly careful.

One small mistake would ruin everything.

Other scientists went to parties during the holidays.

Wu stayed in her cold laboratory.

She watched her machines work.

Slowly, Wu saw something amazing.

The electrons were not balanced.

They moved in one direction more than another.

"This cannot be right," Wu said to herself.

She checked her work again and again.

But the results were always the same.

The universe was not perfectly balanced.

Parity was broken.

Wu called Lee and Yang immediately.

"You were right!"

she said.

"The old rules are wrong!"

The news shocked the science world.

Everyone had believed in perfect balance.

Now Wu proved them wrong.

Wu published her results in January 1957.

Scientists everywhere read her work.

They could not believe it.

Some scientists repeated Wu's experiment.

They got the same results.

Wu was definitely correct.

The discovery changed physics forever.

Scientists had to rewrite their textbooks.

They had to think about the universe differently.

Lee and Yang won the Nobel Prize that same year.

But Wu did not win with them.

This made many people angry.

Wu had done the hardest work.

She had proven the theory.

She deserved the prize too.

Years later, Wu won many other awards.

She became famous around the world.

Young scientists studied her methods.

Wu showed that questioning old ideas is important.

She proved that careful experiments can change everything.

The universe was not perfectly balanced after all.

Sometimes the most basic rules can be wrong.

Wu taught everyone this important lesson.

Her work opened new doors in physics.

Scientists still study her discoveries today.