Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

by Stayrr

After suffering from a heat stroke while working under the scorching heat of summer, Lu Zhou, a hardworking but poor university student, somehow becomes the owner of an advanced technological system. With the cheat given by the system, his university life changes overnight. A Master’s degree? Easy. PhD? Not a problem. From a nobody, he quickly becomes a huge celebrity in the wor

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Read Scholar's Advanced Technological System - Chapter 484 - New Year Of 2019 online free - Novelfull

Chapter 484: New Year Of 2019

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

It took an entire day and two people to help Lu Zhou clean up the house.

Even though he was drenched in sweat, he discovered that cleaning actually helped him to relax.

He had spent the past couple of weeks at the research institute, either doing experiments or analyzing experimental data. Therefore, cleaning really lightened up his mood.

Just like lunch, when dinner time arrived, Lu Zhou was still the chef.

After eating dinner, Xiao Tong obviously stayed over, but Han Mengqi had to say her goodbyes.

Originally, Xiao Tong wanted to ask her to stay and sleep together. However, it wasn't appropriate for a girl to sleep at someone else's house.

Furthermore, it was a guy's house.

It was getting late, and there weren't any taxis nearby, so Lu Zhou called Wang Peng and asked him to drive Mengqi home.

After Mengqi left in Wang Peng's car, Xiao Tong suddenly sighed. She then asked in a dry tone, "… Brother, why didn't you persuade her?"

Lu Zhou: "Persuade her to do what?"

"Persuade her to stay." Xiao Tong tilted her head and said, "If you tried to convince her, then she definitely would have stayed."

Lu Zhou: "Don't bother other people."

"What do you mean by 'bother'? Ah, you make my brain hurt… Ouch!" Xiao Tong was shaking her head when she suddenly cried out in pain.

Lu Zhou gently tapped Xiao Tong's forehead and spoke angrily.

"Brain hurt my a*s! You haven't even sorted out your own things, but now you're worried about others. The TV remote is on the table. If you want to watch TV, then watch it. If not, go and take a shower and sleep. I still have some stuff to do, so I can't stay with you."

Lu Zhou turned around and walked toward the stairs. As Xiao Tong rubbed her forehead, she felt dissatisfied. She then asked, "What do you have to do? Is it more important than your sister?"

Lu Zhou: "I have to write a recommendation letter for you."

Xiao Tong's eyes lit up, and she immediately said, "Really? You're writing it right now? Remember to say good things about me! Like I'm a once in a century genius or something."

Lu Zhou: "…"

…

The day before Chinese New Year, Lu Zhou let Wang Peng drove him to the train station. He went there to pick up his parents that took the train from Jiangling.

Since they didn't have the habit of visiting their hometown relatives, the old couple decided to just come to Jinling this year instead.

Actually, it didn't matter where they spent Chinese New Year. As long as everyone was healthy and was together, everything was well.

"You're doing pretty good for yourself. You even bought a mansion!" Lu Bangguo had his hands behind his back as he stood next to the window and looked at the flowers and plants in the backyard. He then asked curiously, "This place isn't cheap, right?"

"It's not cheap, but it's not too bad." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I got a lot of money from the awards, right? I don't usually spend it so I bought a house."

After buying the mansion, paying taxes, cleaning and buying furniture, all in all, it added up to around 50 million yuan.

His prize money wasn't enough to buy this house.

It was just that Lu Zhou didn't know how to tell his father about his patent management company.

Old Lu didn't ask exactly how much it was. Instead, he merely nodded and said, "Good."

If the money was spent on something else, he would have told his son not to waste money. However, since the money was invested in a house, in his mind, no matter how much it cost, it was worth it.

Obviously, Lu Zhou thought the same.

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "How about you guys just move here? The house is too big, and I feel lonely living here by myself."

Old Lu waved his hand and said, "We'll talk about it when you have kids."

This again…

Lu Zhou sighed in his heart and looked helpless.

"Dad, it's Chinese New Year, can we not talk about this?"

Old Lu looked at Lu Zhou and asked, "What other time can we talk about it?"

Emm…

I think he's kind of right?

Suddenly, Lu Zhou's phone began to ring. He took out his phone that was in his pocket and answered it.

"… You're already here? Okay, I'll be there in a sec."

Lu Zhou hung up the phone and looked at his father.

"Dad, I have some work matters to attend to. I have to go to the research institute."

"Go go, your mom is making dumplings in the afternoon. Are you eating at home?"

Lu Zhou: "Of course I am! Remember to prepare an extra pair of chopsticks."

Old Lu paused for a second. He then suddenly said in a joyful tone, "Okay okay, I'll tell your mom to make more dumplings."

Lu Zhou: "…?"

…

After three days of torturous traveling, Professor Keriber finally arrived at Jinling.

He felt so exhausted that when he finally walked off the airstair, he felt like a layer of skin was shed from his entire body.

However, his tiredness didn't dampen his desire to see Lu Zhou's good news.

If everything was real, then his research might really bring light to the future of controllable nuclear fusion technology.

Professor Keriber didn't spend an extra second at the airport. The moment he got out of the airport, he immediately took a taxi to the Institute for Advanced Study.

When this German engineer saw Lu Zhou waiting at the entrance of the institute, he greeted Lu Zhou and walked toward him with his suitcase.

Keriber said with surprise, "I can't believe it! They said there were no more tickets left, so how did you do it?"

Lu Zhou: "It's just power and influence."

Keriber went silent for a while. Suddenly, he asked, "… Is this why you decided to research in China?"

Lu Zhou joked, "Part of it. At least I won't have to worry about research funding problems or a protest letter from some environmental organization."

Keriber: "Power makes people lose sight of themselves."

Lu Zhou smiled. "Objectively speaking, anything can make one lose sight of themselves. This doesn't only depend on pleasure, it also depends on self-control. As long as it is properly used, power can solve many of my problems outside of research. And that is good enough for me. Okay, no more small talk. I've waited for you for a long time, so come with me."

Lu Zhou took Professor Keriber through the layers of security, and they soon arrived at a laboratory at the Institute of Computational Materials.

Brother Qian, his most productive assistant, was standing next to a piece of laboratory equipment.

There was a glass display cover on top of the equipment, the air was sucked out, forming a vacuum.

When he looked closer, he could clearly see that in the middle of the glass cover, there was a wire that was thinner than a human hair.

The ends of the wire were connected to the upper and lower ends of the glass display cover.

Keriber stood next to the experiment equipment and frowned. As he looked at the wire inside the glass cover, he asked, "What is this?"

"I was about to introduce it to you," Lu Zhou said. He stood next to Professor Keriber and smiled as he said, "This is the thing I told you about, the SG-1 electrical wire."

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Chapter 485:

Let's Make A Deal

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"A lot of things can't be conveyed clearly through email. Once I demonstrate it to you live, you'll understand how amazing this thing is."

Lu Zhou nodded to Qian Zhongming. He then told him to begin the experiment.

After receiving Lu Zhou's instructions, Qian Zhongming pressed a few buttons on the computer. He then operated the equipment and put liquid helium on top of the glass cover.

The second the extremely low-temperature liquid helium touched the wire, the heat was instantly dissipated, and the wire quickly reached its transition temperature. The resistance curve on the computer screen quickly began to slide down.

Professor Keriber's pupils slightly narrowed.

It was obvious that he was astounded.

"It's too early to be surprised," Lu Zhou said to Professor Keriber. He then looked at Qian Zhongming and said, "Increase the voltage."

"Okay."

Qian Zhongming skillfully operated the equipment. He followed Lu Zhou's instructions and increased the voltage across the wire.

There were three parameters for superconductivity. One was the critical transition temperature, also known as Tc, the other was the critical magnetic field strength, Hc, and finally, the critical current density, Jc.

When the magnetic field strength of the superconductive material surface reached Hc, it would exit the superconductivity state.

The Jc was the same. When the voltage on both sides of the conductor reached a certain value, the current in the superconductor would exceed the critical value and exit the superconductivity state.

According to the experimental data, the SG-1 material showed excellent performance in these three factors.

At least, it far surpassed the copper oxide superconducting material.

As Professor Keriber looked at the resistance-versus-current graph, a look of astonishment gradually appeared on his face.

From an engineer's point of view, he could clearly see that maintaining the SG-1 material in its superconductivity state was way more difficult than achieving the superconductivity transition temperature of copper oxide.

Lu Zhou looked at Keriber and said, "In addition to these graphs, we have looked at its atomic distribution structure under a scanning tunneling microscope. Using that data, we also plotted a simulated image of the carbon atom distribution."

Professor Keriber then asked worriedly, "Is it fine for you to show it to me?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said in a relaxed tone, "Of course!"

He signaled Qian Zhongming to retrieve the simulated image.

In the simulated image, the green-labeled carbon atoms were densely packed together.

For the lateral structure, the carbon atoms were densely arranged in a hexagonal shape with only a thousand nanometers in width. It was like a net that was weaved into a six-grid pattern.

For the longitudinal structure, the layers were stacked together at a slight angle, forming an elongated columnar structure.

It was basically like a piece of art. Keriber couldn't describe his feeling when he looked at it.

Professor Keriber marveled at the molecular processing technology. When he looked at the images, he couldn't help but ask, "How did you guys do it?"

Lu Zhou smiled slightly. "We were inspired by the chemical vapor deposition method. As for the exact process, I'm afraid I can't reveal it to you. I hope you understand."

Actually, the synthesis technology for graphene nanoribbons had been invented in 2012, so this was nothing magical.

A more classical method was to engrave grooves on the surface of silicon carbides and use that as a substrate to form the few nanometers wide graphene nanoribbons.

As for the latest research results, the graphene nanoribbons synthesis technology completed by the CNR Institute of Nanoscience of Italy and the University of Strasbourg in France was able to cut the nanoribbon to a width of seven atoms.

However, even though there was existing research that could be used as a reference, the difficulty was still there.

For example, how to stack the graphene nanoribbons longitudinally and how to adjust the overlapping angle between layers; these were all problems that had to be solved.

Lu Zhou used the CNR Institute of Nanoscience's research results as the inspiration for his design experiment. However, he didn't use silicon carbide. Rather, he used a weak polyvinylpyrrolidone ligand and formaldehyde to form a monoatomic thickness layer of a metal film. He then stacked the layers together and adjusted its overlapping angles.

It turned out that it was much easier to operate a micro-sized substrate than a hexagon with the width of a few atoms.

Also, once they successfully obtained the substrate, it was almost like obtaining a wire synthesizing mold; it could be repeatedly used in the production line of a laboratory.

Of course, even though this sounded easy, it wasn't that easy to do.

There were many complicated steps and methods involved, not to mention the countless blood sweat and tears shed by scientific researchers.

But fortunately, this task was already completed.

Keriber couldn't help but ask, "What about the costs?"

Lu Zhou said with ease, "The main cost is on the production of substrates, and the production cost is very high for a small number of products. However, according to our research, as long as the scale of production is increased, the cost isn't as unacceptable as we had imagined."

Keriber had a worried smile on as he asked, "But how long do you think it will take before the industry is interested in it?"

The industry wouldn't decide to produce a product just because the underlying technology behind it was interesting. And unless their country had secured enough orders with ITER, it also wouldn't rush the production line just because ITER needed to add an experimental reactor.

Maybe if tech companies like Microsoft suddenly discovered that the SG-1 material could be used on circuit boards or supercomputer chips, the downstream industry would push the demand for upstream companies to produce this material.

And by that time, maybe the material price would come down.

Actually, Keriber thought that this wire had potential, but he didn't know how long it would take for this potential to be realized.

If the industry didn't see enough profit in this product, it might never be interested in it.

Lu Zhou smiled. He didn't seem to care. "This isn't fully dependent on the market economy, so the rules you said don't necessarily apply here. There are things other than the market that would move the industry."

Keriber raised an eyebrow. He seemed to have understood what Lu Zhou meant.

However, in his opinion, doing that was crazy…

"You don't have to worry about the SG-1 production line. Actually, we have already contacted a company and they are in the final stage of the production line design. We will start producing the SG-1 material in a year at the latest."

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then looked at Professor Keriber.

"Let's make a deal."

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Chapter 486: Exchange Of Technology

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

When Professor Keriber heard Lu Zhou's sudden suggestion, he paused for a second.

"… Exchange?"

Lu Zhou: "I heard you guys shut down WEGA?"

Keriber: "A long time ago… I think in 2013."

Lu Zhou: "Then how is it doing now?"

"Neither good nor bad. Maybe we'll send it to a museum in twenty or thirty years… Why?"

Keriber was confused; he didn't know why Lu Zhou suddenly brought up WEGA.

Lu Zhou: "Can you sell it to me?"

Professor Keriber froze.

After a while, his lips slightly twitched.

"WEGA? Are you joking?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I'm not joking, I'm being serious."

Keriber saw that Lu Zhou didn't seem like he was joking, so he smiled and said, "We spent 800 million to build WEGA, and that was over a decade ago, before all the inflation. How much do you plan on spending?"

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he gave a number.

"Is 500 million enough?"

"… Don't even think about it. That's impossible."

Even though Keriber was shocked that Lu Zhou was able to offer this much money, he didn't accept it because it wasn't just about the money.

An ITER game had been going on between technologically advanced and less technologically advanced countries. This game could be seen from the proportion of funds each country bore, the allocation of projects for the various national research institutes, and other external factors.

And most of the problems occurred in the exchange of technology.

These problems were inevitable. After all, ever since the latter part of the last century, the European Union and the European Community had spent countless amounts of money on the ITER project.

This meant that dominant countries hoped that weaker countries would contribute more funding to equally share the risks and costs and for their national research institutes to undertake more projects from the pool of research funds.

Meanwhile, the weaker countries hoped that dominant countries would exchange more technologies with them while also hoping to undertake more projects.

After all, no one wanted to be in second place. Everyone wanted to master the core technology of nuclear fusion. Otherwise, weaker countries would have no backbone when it came time to split the rewards.

Could money buy everything?

Not when there were prerequisites.

The WEGA device was a technological invention from the Max Planck Institute and the Helmholtz Association. They spent a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to complete this device. Under these circumstances, they obviously didn't want to sell it at such a cheap price.

Lu Zhou knew what Professor Keriber was thinking about, so he said, "Its final destination is the museum anyway. You guys have already learned all you could from it. I am willing to pay 500 million to buy your results, and I might even be able to squeeze some juice out of it, also…"

Professor Keriber frowned and said, "Also?"

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, "If you give us the WEGA device, in return, I am willing to use the technology behind the SG-1 material as an exchange. Since we both need a more powerful superconducting magnet, we can totally cooperate for the research."

Keriber: "WEGA is the prerequisite for our cooperation?"

"Yes." Lu Zhou nodded and said, "If you're worried about your technology being bought at a cheap price, then we are willing to exchange it with our technology. If you don't want to, then we are not obligated to disclose our newest research. After all, this isn't an ITER outsourced research project. This is our own."

The theses on the SG-1 material were all available to the public; even the SG-1 laboratory preparation methods were public as well. Lu Zhou registered some patents in this area, just in case.

However, the method of turning SG-1 into an electrical wire was obviously part of the production process, which was not disclosed in the thesis.

This was just like the mask aligner machine; everyone knew the concept behind it and could download the relevant theses, but the technical parts were all enterprise secrets. They weren't publicized.

Professor Keriber stared at the thin wire in the glass cover for a long time. He stayed silent for a while while he contemplated whether or not this proposal was worthwhile.

On one hand, it was the prototype for the Wendelstein 7-X. Even though it was retired, it still had a lot of undisclosed technology.

On the other hand, it was a carbon-based superconducting material that was likely one of the key factors for controllable nuclear fusion. However, that was only a possibility, and there were still many uncertainties such as cost and mass production.

This choice wasn't easy to make.

The German professor was silent for around five minutes. He finally relaxed before he said, "I have to think about it."

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "No problem."

…

The mansion in Zhongshan International was particularly lively as the family prepared for the Chinese New Year dinner together.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"Coming!"

Lu Bangguo's face lit up; he quickly walked toward the door.

He opened the door.

Old Lu was ready to smile and greet the guest, but suddenly, his face stiffened.

Professor Keriber gave a friendly smile as he said in broken Chinese, "Hello."

"Hello hello…"

Old Lu subconsciously responded. He then snapped back to reality and immediately looked at Lu Zhou.

"This is a guest from my research institute." Lu Zhou could tell what his father was thinking, so he smiled and said, "He's also my friend.'

Even though he felt resentful toward his son, he couldn't show that resentment in front of a guest.

Old Lu looked at Professor Keriber and showed him a warm smile. "Lu Zhou's friend, please come in."

Even though Keriber couldn't understand Old Lu's words, he could still sense the enthusiasm.

Keriber smile and politely replied in the only other Chinese word he knew.

"Thank you."

When Xiao Tong saw her father bringing this tall foreign professor into the living room, she sneaked behind Lu Zhou and pulled her brother's arm. "Brother, you have no idea how excited dad was in the afternoon."

Lu Zhou: "Excited about what?"

Xiao Tong was rendered speechless by his response. After a while, she said, "What else? He thought you finally grew a brain and would bring a girlfriend home."

The little girl rolled her eyes and said, "I knew that wasn't the case. Still, I didn't expect you to bring a guy home."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Lu Zhou's family was hospitable, both on Chinese New Year and during normal days.

However, due to the language barrier, the conversation didn't flow so smoothly on the table.

Lu Zhou had to take on the role of a translator, switching from English to Chinese.

Occasionally, he even had to make some modifications due to the differences in the languages.

Keriber, who was usually a serious person, couldn't stop praising the dumplings. He even gave them a big thumbs-up.

When Lu Zhou translated his words into Chinese and told her mother, she was so happy she couldn't keep her mouth closed.

She had been cooking for many years, and this was the first time she was complimented by an international guest. For Fang Mei, this was undoubtedly a new kind of fulfillment.

Keriber didn't stay here for long. It was getting a bit late after dinner. He sat on the sofa and chatted with Lu Zhou for a bit before saying goodbye.

Lu Zhou showed Keriber the way out. When they stood outside the door, Keriber spoke.

"The dumplings were delicious, thank you."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "You're welcome."

Keriber thought for a bit and said, "Regarding your proposal, I can't give you an immediate response as this isn't something I can decide on my own. And WEGA isn't solely the property of the Max Planck Institute, I hope you can understand."

He paused for a second before he continued, "However, I can assure you I will try my best."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Thank you so much."

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Chapter 487: Coming Or Not?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

On Chinese New Year's eve, Lu Zhou sat on the living room sofa. He went through his contacts list and gave everyone his Chinese New Year blessings.

If he were close to the person, he would call them; if not, he would just send a text. He didn't care if people looked at it or not; there was no such thing as too many connections. Besides, sending a text wasn't anything cumbersome.

After a while, he heard Xiao Tong's voice.

"Bro, will you call Sister Chen?"

Lu Zhou pressed the button for dialing and said, "… Even I don't even call her that, so why are you calling her sister…"

"Because she's also in the business school. I don't think there's anything wrong with calling her sister…" Xiao Tong said as she lay on the sofa like a dead fish. She then tilted her head and looked at Lu Zhou before she continued, "Whereas you graduated from the mathematics department, right?"

Emm…

I think she makes sense…

Lu Zhou: "…"

When Lu Zhou didn't say anything, Xiao Tong hugged the couch pillow and sat up. Her face looked like she was looking forward to listening to a story.

"Brother, speaking of which, how did you guys meet each other?"

Lu Zhou sighed and said, "It's not as complicated as what you are thinking. We just met at the library. After that, we became normal friends."

While hugging the pillow, Xiao Tong said, "Normal? But why do I think you guys click together? Also, she has big br*asts! Even as a girl, I'm attracted to her."

Lu Zhou: "…"

How did we start talking about br*asts?

Also… what does this have to do with br*asts?

Lu Zhou didn't say anything. However, Xiao Tong suddenly looked like she figured something out, and she immediately squinted her eyes and looked at Lu Zhou. With a curious tone, she asked, "Wait… Do you like small ones?"

Lu Zhou: "F*ck off!"

Lu Zhou sent out a text message. He was about to start typing another text when he saw Chen Yushan's name in his contact list.

He hesitated for a bit before he decided to call her.

Merely sending a text message would be too perfunctory.

The phone only rang once before connecting.

Lu Zhou didn't even realize the phone had connected until he heard her familiar voice coming through the phone.

"Little Brother! I'm so happy! You're actually calling me."

Lu Zhou gently coughed and said, "You don't have to exaggerate! I'm only sending my New Year's blessings… Uh… Happy New Year!"

Chen Yushan had a joyful smile on her face, and she replied, "Happy New Year! I was about to call you."

Lu Zhou could hear her father's voice coming through the telephone.

"Shan Shan, who are you calling?"

"Lu Zhou!"

Chen Baohua merely said, "Oh."

When Lu Zhou heard Chen Baohua's voice, he asked, "How is your father's health?"

Chen Yushan then replied in a happy tone, "Him? His health is great. Oh yeah, I heard from Meng Qi that you're back at Jinling? Are you planning on working here?"

Lu Zhou: "Yeah, I plan on coming back this year. I might have to go back to Princeton for a bit since I still have some unfinished matters there. After that, I'll probably focus on my work in Jinling. Speaking of which, you're about to graduate soon, right?"

Chen Yushan smiled and said, "Yeah, I already handed in my graduation thesis. I'll finally have my freedom soon."

Lu Zhou couldn't help but smile as he sincerely felt happy for her.

Apparently, her supervisor wasn't a nice person. For her, being able to graduate smoothly was a godsend gift.

"What do you plan on doing after graduation? PhD?"

"No more studying… I'll become a female nerd if I do that," Chen Yushan joked. She then said, "Not to mention, my field cares more about work experience rather than academic qualifications. I plan on getting a business internship after I graduate and work for two years or so."

Lu Zhou: "Have you decided where you want to intern?"

Chen Yushan sighed and said, "Not yet, but I have some offers from a few companies. But I haven't thought about where to go."

Lu Zhou suddenly had an idea.

"Are you interested in patent management companies?"

"Patent management companies? I think I did a patent case before, but I wasn't very interested… It's alright. Why, Little Brother? Do you have a good place to recommend to me?"

"Actually, I started a patent management company. If you don't mind, can you come work for me?"

"Not bad, Little Brother, starting companies now I see." Chen Yushan was a little surprised by his revelation. She then said in a joking tone, "Can you tell me the name of your company? I'll search it up."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Go search for it. It's called Star Sky Technology, and it's registered in the Cayman Islands."

Chen Yushan froze.

It wasn't because the company was registered in the Cayman Islands.

But because…

"You founded Star Sky Technology?"

Lu Zhou hesitated for a bit before he asked, "… Is there a problem?"

If he recalled correctly, Star Sky Technology wasn't a particularly well-known company.

After all, companies that specialized in intellectual property management didn't need to promote their public image. Normal people wouldn't try to investigate the origin of the lithium batteries in their phone or electric cars.

However, this name was deeply engraved in Chen Yushan's heart.

Because of an unforgettable night.

No. Actually, not just one night but countless nights.

In order to complete the company's organizational planning scheme and personnel training plan by a specific date, her supervisor used her as free labor. After she pulled all-nighters for two weeks, she finally completed the task…

She even developed an automatic reflex. Whenever she heard the name "Star Sky", she couldn't help but clench her teeth.

Chen Yushan didn't speak for a long time, so Lu Zhou thought she looked down at his company. He hesitated before asking, "So… Are you going to join?"

It was fine if she didn't come, his little company wasn't that busy anyway.

Chen Yushan then replied without further hesitation, "I'm coming!"

…

Chinese New Year was the time to visit relatives.

However, Lu Zhou's family didn't have many relatives in Jinling, not even distant relatives. Therefore, their Chinese New Year was relatively lonely.

Other than Lu Zhou's Chinese friends, he also received many blessings from his international friends.

There were Professor Fefferman; his mentor, Deligne; and several of his students.

Other than Vera's Chinese New Year card, the most inventive blessing was probably the email from Pablo Jarillo Herrero at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After Professor Herrero sent his Chinese New Year blessings, he spent a couple of paragraphs describing something interesting he encountered in research.

Lu Zhou even suspected that the latter part of the email was his real intention for writing this email.

[… We found a very interesting thing when we studied the forbidden bandwidth of the superlattice near the SG-1 angle. The existing BCS theory doesn't seem to apply to carbon-based superconducting materials.

[I tried to explain this phenomenon by using the electro-acoustic wave function method. However, the troubles I encountered while attempting to solve the function was beyond my abilities.

[I am certain that if this problem is solved, it will reveal the underlying physical mechanism behind superconductivity.

[I have attached the relevant experimental data. I might temporarily put this research project on hold, but it might be of interest to you.]

When Lu Zhou read this email, he raised his eyebrows, showing his interest.

It had been more than 30 years since the discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1986. Despite the tremendous efforts by outstanding theoretical physicists around the world, the underlying physical mechanism behind high-temperature superconductivity was still unresolved.

The problem had always been related to the multi-body wave function model, which had yet to be solved.

This was a very interesting phenomenon as almost all of the "deep" physics and chemistry theoretical problems were related to calculations and mathematics.

Lu Zhou's fingers rest gently on the keyboard as he thought for a while. After that, he replied with an email.

[I will seriously consider your proposal.]

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Chapter 488: High-Temperature Superconductivity's Physical Mechanism And Strongly Correlated System

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Even though Lu Zhou was very interested in Professor Herrero's research project, he was responsible for the controllable nuclear fusion project. He didn't have time to research the deep underlying physics behind the SG-1 material.

However, his intuition told him that if the strongly correlated system in SG-1 could be solved, it might reveal the physical mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity or even the calculations for a superconducting state.

Most people couldn't understand it, but it was very clear in Lu Zhou's mind.

This theoretical project might be even more significant than controllable nuclear fusion.

Because once the high-temperature superconductivity problem was solved, it would greatly reduce the engineering difficulty of hadron colliders or even magnetic confinement fusion devices.

Lu Zhou put this research into the database of the Institute for Advanced Study. He planned on continuing this research when he had more time.

As for now, his highest priority was still controllable nuclear fusion…

Professor Keriber spent less than three days in China, and on the third day, he got on a plane and quickly went back to Germany.

On the other hand, almost immediately after Professor Keriber's departure, Academician Pan arrived at Jinling from Beijing. He then went to Lu Zhou's mansion in Zhongshan International.

As Academician Pan looked around the living room, he opened his mouth in surprise.

"This house is really big; how much was it?"

Lu Zhou: "Mid eight figures."

Academician Pan said with envy, "It seems that the lithium batteries really made you a lot of money."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "The Chinese New Year holiday isn't even over, and you came here from Beijing. You're not here just to give me Chinese New Year blessings, right?" He brought two cups of hot tea and placed them on the table. After that, he sat across from Academician Pan, who was sitting on the sofa.

Academician Pan smiled and asked jokingly, "What, am I not welcomed?"

"What do you mean?" Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I'm just a bit surprised."

"Enough screwing around, let's get to business," Academician Pan said. He then stopped smiling and stood up. He looked at Lu Zhou and asked in a serious tone, "Have you contacted the people at the Max Planck Institute?"

Lu Zhou: "You could say so."

Academician Pan frowned at this ambiguous statement and asked, "What do you mean?"

Lu Zhou: "I was in contact with an engineer from the Wendelstein 7-X laboratory. As for the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, I still haven't contacted them yet."

Lu Zhou sipped some tea to moisten his throat before he continued to speak.

"Our conversation went relatively well. I showed them our carbon-based superconducting material technology and said that we would complete the superconducting magnet design by the end of the year. They were very interested in our technology, so I decided to make a technology exchange proposal."

Academician Pan asked, "The German guy agreed?"

This was his biggest concern.

Back when Yuhua University bought the H1-Heliac from the Australian National University (ANU), other than paying AU$35 million and the 4 million yuan shipping fee, in the contract, Yuhua University also agreed to install a magnetized plasma interaction device on ANU's MAGPIE-II, which was a power generation component.

The Australians didn't have the perfect technology, but the Germans didn't have this problem.

After all, WEGA was a machine that created several world records. Even though it was sitting there collecting dust, it wasn't that easy to buy it.

Lu Zhou smiled as he said in a relaxed tone, "Not for the time being, but I think the chances are very high."

After that, Lu Zhou gave a brief overview of the situation to Academician Pan.

As Academician Pan sat across from him, he had a look of approval on his face.

Lu Zhou's personal research abilities were unquestionable; no one would doubt the abilities of a Nobel Prize laureate.

However, he was only 25 years old. Even if his abilities were strong, he lacked experience.

In the beginning, Pan Changhong still had some concerns about whether or not Lu Zhou could take on the leader role for such a large scale scientific research project, and whether or not he could coordinate the various research institutes involved.

But now it seemed that his concerns were redundant…

Lu Zhou drank some tea again before he continued, "The most important thing now is to hire a group of experts and prepare for the purchase of the new equipment. Do you have any recommendations?"

The stellarator wasn't a refrigerator; one couldn't just buy one, plug it in, and expect it to start working.

How to use the equipment safely, how to disassemble and assemble it; all these had to be done by professionals who were trained to do these operations. While delivering the machine, the Max Planck Institute would also be responsible for the training of personnel. However, Lu Zhou had to send some people that had a general idea of what was going on.

He couldn't send someone that had to learn from scratch, right?

Academician Pan thought for a moment before he said, "This isn't an issue if you can actually get the machine. We can just find some people from other research institutes. The Southwestern Institute of Physics has experts in this area. There's also the Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. However, I'm afraid the field of the stellarator is way too small. There's a lot of people who are involved in this area of research but not many are doing in-depth research."

Lu Zhou understood the country's shortcomings, so he didn't have any strong requirements. He merely said, "Just do your best. If you can't, experts on the tokamak are fine. Even though the two fusion devices have different technical designs, they're both involved in magnetic confinement, so it should be relatively similar."

Academician Pan: "I'll try to find you some candidates in this area… Speaking of which, how long will it be before the STAR Stellarator Research Institute finishes construction?"

When Lu Zhou heard this question, he smiled.

He had encountered many problems regarding the research on controllable nuclear fusion. However, the construction of the stellarator research institute had been going smoothly. Whenever he thought about this, he felt happy.

"According to Regiment Commander Dai, it should be done in May."

…

Academician Pan didn't stay in Jinling for long. After visiting the construction site for the stellarator research institute and Institute for Advanced Study, he returned to Beijing and began to help Lu Zhou find expert candidates.

On the other hand, the Chinese New Year holiday was basically over, and Lu Zhou's research was back on track.

While he continued to improve the SG-1 material, he was also planning the formation of an Institute of Mathematics and Institute of Physics.

After all, the theory was the basis of all applied work. The Institute of Mathematics and the Institute of Physics were two vital components for his Jinling Institute for Advanced Study plan.

However, he encountered some awkward trouble at the beginning.

Compared to the Institute of Computational Materials, the establishment of the Institute of Mathematics and the Institute of Physics didn't go as smooth as imagined.

Even though he received many high-quality resumes, the candidates were generally younger; most of them were recent PhD graduates that had only recently left campus.

There weren't that many top quality resumes.

Theoretical disciplines were inherently different than applied disciplines. Research in materials science required a lot of scientific labor to conduct repetitive tasks. But for theoretical disciplines like mathematics and physics, it was difficult to produce research results by human labor alone.

In order to solve this problem, Lu Zhou finally thought of Principal Xu. Two days after the end of the Chinese New Year holiday, Lu Zhou went to visit his office to talk to him…

When Principal Xu heard Lu Zhou's problem, he took a sip of tea. He then smiled.

"… Highly talented people are often unwilling to change their research environment. Generally, any researchers that can secure a formal researcher position, unless they were bullied and didn't receive funding or something, didn't like to move their a*ses and change locations. Your type of wide-spread approach might be attractive to researchers with less than ten years of experience, but it's not that attractive for outstanding formal researchers."

Principal Xu paused for a second before he said, "Your hiring compensation is pretty good, and there's no need to increase it. However, you can't expect to attract talent just from compensation alone. For outstanding scholars, fame is often more important than money."

Even though Principal Xu was an academician, he had worked in this administrative role for many years, so he had a lot of personal experience in administrative and hiring work.

Lu Zhou listened carefully to the principal's words. He nodded thoughtfully.

He then asked, "Do you have any good methods?"

"Be proactive," Principal Xu smiled and said. "I'm sure even academicians will seriously consider invitations from a Nobel Prize laureate."

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Chapter 489: Reached A Cooperation

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After he returned to Germany, Professor Keriber didn't screw around. He immediately talked to the director of the Institute for Plasma Physics and explained the situation in China…

"… I met Professor Lu at Jinling. He showed me the latest results produced by their Institute of Computational Materials. They stacked the two-dimensional graphene at a special overlapping angle and prepared a type of material with a superconductivity transition temperature of 101K."

"SG-1 material? I've read that thesis before. It was on the MRS Autumn Conference website," Professor Ganser Hesinger said. He was writing at his desk, and he didn't bother to look up. He then said nonchalantly, "101k transition temperature, nothing special."

Even though he was a plasma physicist, materials science wasn't his research field. However, as the director of the Institute for Plasma Physics, he was responsible for controllable nuclear fusion engineering. Therefore, he kept up to date with the latest research in areas such as superconducting materials.

There really was nothing special about a 101K superconductivity transition temperature. After all, the current research on superconducting materials had reached a state transition temperature of 203K. However, the application of this technology wasn't promising. Therefore, it was difficult to take it out of the laboratory.

So far, they were still using copper oxide when making superconducting magnets.

Even though the material had many poor qualities such as poor thermal conductivity and an unstable magnetic field output, after combining all of the factors, the copper oxide was still the best choice.

"It's not about the 101K," Professor Keriber shook his head and said. "The real advantage of the SG-1 material is in its thermal conductivity properties, we were oblivious of this part."

Professor Ganser Hesinger put his pen down. He frowned and asked, "Are you sure?"

Professor Keriber said in a confident tone, "I saw it with my own eyes, and I don't think my eyes will lie to me."

After hearing Keriber's description, Professor Hesinger suddenly became serious.

Superconducting magnets were the key to magnetic confinement fusion technology. Whether it was the tokamak or stellarator, they both required a larger magnetic field to constrain the plasma which was at hundreds of millions of degrees.

If the graphene superconductor was really as shocking as what Keriber had described, then it undoubtedly would become the key to solve the controllable nuclear fusion bottleneck.

Professor Hesinger's assistant, who sat at a desk next to them, spun the pen in his hand as he said, "What about the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres? Without their permission, we cannot transfer the WEGA to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study."

Professor Hesinger said, "I will contact the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. Help me inform the researchers at the Institute for Plasma Physics; I have to hold a meeting regarding this matter."

…

Principal Xu's suggestion gave Lu Zhou an idea.

Since spreading the hiring advert on the Internet was useless, he had to target people one by one.

This wasn't difficult for Lu Zhou.

He had always kept up to date with the latest mathematics research. He only had to look at the scholar's theses to see what work they had done.

He didn't keep as close an eye on the latest physics research; he just had to pay attention to some top-level seminars and poach some scholars that had potential.

He was mainly aiming at overseas Chinese professors that were willing to return to China.

Due to the Jin Ling City's talent settlement policy, on top of the basic salary, he might be able to help these scholars get a moving allowance of 500,000 to 1 million yuan. Not to mention, it was extremely cost-effective as Lu Zhou didn't even have to pay for this allowance himself.

As it turned out, Principal Xu's suggestions were pretty good.

After they received the emails from Lu Zhou, even the scholars that didn't want to return to China were interested in this Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winner's invitation.

Furthermore, the Institute for Advanced Study had a research environment that wasn't affected by politics, which was quite unique among the Chinese research institutes. This alone was quite tempting.

Lu Zhou didn't know how many people he would attract, but he was optimistic.

"Your place is so far away from everything, there isn't even a place to buy breakfast! I have to drive just to buy it," Lu Bangguo said while carrying soymilk, Chinese fried breadstick, and steamed buns into the house. He put on a pair of slippers before he walked inside the house.

Just like what he did in Jiangling, he woke up early in the morning and went outside to buy breakfast.

Xiao Tong said, "Dad, this is a mansion-only area. Naturally, there won't be any breakfast stalls nearby."

Old Lu looked at his daughter and said, "Rich people don't eat breakfast?"

"They can ask their chefs to make breakfast or ask their maids to buy it for them." Xiao Tong chuckled and said, "Oh yeah, Brother, how about you hire a female servant?"

Lu Zhou: "…"

"What servant… Don't let outsiders live in your home," Fang Mei said. As she put the breakfast takeout into some bowls, she said, "If you really can't take care of yourself, we'll move from Jiangling and accompany you here. We'll buy you grocery and cook or something."

Old Lu said, "Don't spoil him! If we really live here, you can give up your dreams of having a grandson."

When Lu Zhou was in high school, Old Lu was very satisfied with his hardworking, single son.

However, Lu Zhou was still single despite him having graduated from university, received a PhD, became a professor, and won the Nobel Prize. He might even become an academician in a few years. Lu Zhou was addicted to research, and Old Lu couldn't help but worry.

Even though there was no throne in the family for him to inherit, their bloodline couldn't be broken.

Even if Lu Zhou didn't marry right now, at least he should show some signs of a girlfriend, right?

When Lu Zhou placed his laptop on the dining table and ate breakfast, Old Lu sighed and said, "It's the holiday… Why are you still busy with work?"

As Lu Zhou sorted through his emails, he joked, "I have to. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility."

It wasn't just the country; the entire world was waiting for his research results.

Old Lu went silent for a while and decided not to mention the marriage thing. After a while, he then said, "Don't overwork yourself. Whether it's learning or studying, your health is the most important."

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. "Okay, I know."

Suddenly, his phone on the table began to ring.

It was an international number. Lu Zhou picked up his phone and accepted the call.

He heard Professor Keriber's voice through the phone.

"We had a meeting regarding your proposal."

Lu Zhou: "And your answer is?"

Professor Keriber: "We think cooperating is more beneficial for us."

When Lu Zhou finally heard this long-awaited answer, he smiled widely.

He didn't expect to hear this piece of good news so early in the morning.

"I'm happy to hear this answer, and I wish us happy cooperation."

"Happy cooperation!"

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Chapter 490: I Want To See Who Dares To Leave?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

As the birthplace of China's controllable nuclear fusion project, the Southwestern Institute of Physics had a pivotal influence in China's controllable nuclear fusion field.

Not only did they have a large tokamak device with a divertor called the HL-2A, but it also played a pivotal role in propelling China's participation in the ITER project.

Pan Changhong witnessed all of this happening; he was one of China's controllable nuclear fusion veterans.

Even though he had retired for quite a while, he never stopped caring about China's controllable nuclear fusion development.

Because of this, when Lu Zhou gave him the invitation, he agreed without hesitation.

In a country with 1.4 billion people, energy problems were always the top priority.

If the energy problem could be solved, many other problems would be solved as well.

The stellarator wasn't necessarily for the future of controllable nuclear fusion, but if the stellarator did become the future, China couldn't fall behind in this field.

Otherwise, by that time, it would take them ten or even fifty years to catch up.

"Oh, it's you," Academician Zhou Chengfu said when he saw Academician Pan Changhong at his doorway. "What brings you here?"

"Good things," Academician Pan Changhong said with a smile. He then sat on the sofa.

Academician Zhou smiled. "Oh, what good things? Tell me about them."

"We have negotiated with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany. If everything goes well, they will sell the WEGA equipment to us."

Even though Academician Zhou still had a smile on his face, his smile became somewhat unnatural.

"… Oh? WEGA?"

"Yes, the prototype for the Wendelstein 7-X." Academician Pan didn't notice Academician Zhou's subtle smile, so he nodded and said, "I didn't think Professor Lu could manage to seal the deal. Honestly, I am quite surprised."

Even though they were exchanging technology, the carbon-based superconducting magnet that the Max Planck Institute needed was of a lower engineering difficulty. Therefore, this cooperation was more advantageous to China.

After all, even though the WEGA device had been retired, but it was still the predecessor of the Wendelstein; therefore, it still contained many key technologies.

Being able to master these technologies would greatly shorten the time needed for Chinese scholars to catch up with the frontier of international stellarator research.

Academician Zhou wasn't as happy as Academician Pan, and so, after giving it some thought, he asked, "If they're willing to sell this equipment, it must cost a lot of money, right?"

Academician Pan: "It's not about the money. If we can buy it and study the technology, we can hopefully catch up to the frontier of international stellarator research in a short amount of time. Even if we can't catch up to Japan or Germany, we can still catch up to Australia."

Academician Zhou picked up his vacuum flask and sipped some tea. He suddenly frowned and asked, "Is this necessary?"

Academician Pan froze. His eyebrows began to furrow.

"What do you mean… necessary?"

Academician Zhou put down the vacuum flask and spoke without hesitation.

"We're already at the frontier of tokamak research. Instead of catching up with other people's research on the stellarator, we should just follow our own research direction. Spending hundreds of millions to support someone else's research, is this really necessary?"

Academician Pan froze when he heard this.

He didn't expect that his old colleague, who once looked forward to the triumph of controllable nuclear fusion in China, actually said something like this.

Regardless of what the media portrayed, regardless of what the public opinion was, a researcher should always stay calm and objective. They should look at the in-progress results cautiously and never become arrogant.

However, he could hear a sense of disapproval in his tone or even disdain.

Hopefully, he heard it wrong…

Academician Pan stopped smiling. He then adjusted his composure before he switched the topic of conversation and coughed.

"I'm not here to argue with you about which technical route is superior. Regardless of whether or not the tokamak is easier to implement than the stellarator, we shouldn't put our eggs in one basket. America is doing the same, and they're researching both technical paths. We are behind on the research on stellarators, and now that Professor Lu gave us this opportunity, we can't just let it go by."

He paused for a second before he continued, "I want to organize a team to represent us and head to Germany. I want to borrow around 20 researchers from you, and I already have a list of names. I hope you can approve of it."

Academician Zhou didn't even look at the name list when he said with a poker face, "The stellarator isn't in our research plan, so I'm afraid I can't help you."

Academician Pan squinted and asked, "You don't approve?"

Academician Zhou said, "We have our own plans, and we don't have to cooperate with you."

Academician Pan slapped his thighs and stood up. He then said, "Okay then, I'll bring the name list to Beijing. I'll go to find Minister Wang."

Academician Zhou looked at Academician Pan and said, "Old Pan, you're really going to help him and go against me?"

Academician Pan looked at him with a disappointed expression.

"Zhou Chengfu, you've changed. You haven't advanced in academia, but you've learned to abuse your power."

"Changed? I have never changed," Academician Zhou said with a blank expression. "I just don't want to screw around with you guys."

He had the highest authority in the field of tokamak research. Even the higher-ups had to hear his opinions. Therefore, he obviously would try his best to ensure tokamak's dominant position in the field of controllable nuclear fusion research.

He didn't think he was selfish in doing so, and at the same time, he believed it was the right choice.

Putting eggs in two baskets might reduce the risk, but putting all of the eggs in one basket also had its own advantages.

Not to mention, he was the one that owned this basket.

The reason why China was able to surpass America and the UK in tokamak controllable nuclear fusion research and produce world record in-progress results was because of the concentrated resources put into the research and because of his leadership.

Researching the stellarator?

One could do it of course.

But one couldn't hope to get his support.

Especially Lu Zhou, a Nobel Prize laureate that came out of nowhere. When Lu Zhou suddenly announced that he would participate in controllable nuclear fusion, he was obviously trying to steal his throne.

What made him afraid the most was that the young man was able to "trick" the high-ranking government officials into trusting him.

Even though Lu Zhou didn't declare war with him, there were two voices in the field of controllable nuclear fusion now, and that was basically a challenge for his authority.

Academician Pan angrily said, "What do you mean screw around! Are you certain your path is correct and no other path is? You're the one who is screwing around."

Academician Zhou had his hands behind his back as he said with a poker face, "I am certain my choice is correct."

Jiang Liang, who stood beside them, saw the atmosphere was getting tense. He quickly smiled and tried to break the tension.

"This… Academician Pan, it's not that we don't want to help you; we are just unable to help you. Academician Zhou might have a temper, and his words are a bit straightforward, but as you know, we're engaged in the research of tokamak. But now, you're asking us to research the stellarator. We just can't find any suitable candidates."

Academician Zhou didn't say anything. Instead, he slowly drank his tea. He didn't refute nor agree with Jiang Liang's statement.

When Jiang Liang saw this, he took the hint. He then smiled and continued, "How about… you try asking the people at Lu Yang? Maybe they'll spare some people?"

Jiang Ling broke the tension and tried to get rid of the situation entirely.

Academician Pan smiled. He had a flash of resentment in his eyes, but he didn't become angry.

"Oh, trying to make me leave I see. Since I'm not welcome here, I'm afraid nothing I say will do anything."

Academician Pan stared at Zhou Chengfu for a while before he turned around.

When Zhou Chengfu saw that Old Pan was leaving, he said with a blank expression, "See yourself out."

After Academician Pan left, the office quieted down.

Jiang Liang looked at the closed office door and stopped smiling. He then asked in a worrying manner, "He isn't really going to Minister Wang, right?"

Academician Zhou snorted.

He then slammed the vacuum flask on the table and said nonchalantly, "Who cares if he does? Who cares if he succeeds? Without my approval, I'd like to see who dares to leave."

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Chapter 491: Then Invite Them All Over

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"Exchange visit at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics… This is a good opportunity, but how come it was never mentioned in the meeting," Yuan Yuan said while reading the email and the attached documents about the exchange. He had a strange expression on his face.

In the field of plasma physics, in addition to the PPPL, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics was probably one of the most advanced research plasma institutes in the field.

Logically speaking, one shouldn't give up this opportunity.

Zhuang Qingwei was sitting on the office desk beside him, and he shook his head and said, "Don't even think about it."

Yuan Yuan frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhuang Qingwei sighed and kindly pointed out. "Look carefully at the organizer."

Yuan Yuan: "STAR Stellarator Research Institute… Is there a problem?"

Zhuang Qingwei said, "Do you not know that Academician Zhou doesn't like Professor Lu?"

Yuan Yuan asked, "Just because of… this?"

Zhuang Qingwei: "Yeah!"

Yuan Yuan angrily said, "This is ridiculous!"

Seeing how angry Yuan Yuan was, Zhuang Qingwei shook his head and tried to persuade him. "There are many opportunities for academic exchange. You're about to get a promotion; there's no need to offend Academician Zhou because of something small like this."

"How is this something small?" Yuan Yuan said while looking at the proclamation on the computer screen.

There were many conference nuclear fusion seminars and conferences one could attend.

However, the opportunities to learn the core nuclear fusion technologies were rare.

He was an engineer; he knew how valuable this kind of opportunity was.

For example, the water-cooled divertor on the WEGA. If one could thoroughly digest this piece of technology, one could make some modifications and apply it on the tokamak or even apply it in a magnetic plasma interaction experiment.

Yuan Yuan shook his head reluctantly. He finally decided not to go against his boss.

It wasn't worth it.

He stood up from his chair and sighed.

"I'm going for a smoke."

Zhuang Qingwei: "Go ahead."

…

"The Southwestern thing didn't go well; I'm sorry."

Pan Changhong's face was a bit embarrassed when he said this.

He made a promise, saying that as long as the Max Planck Institute agreed, he would handle the rest.

Lu Zhou made an agreement with the Germans and even sacrificed his own technology for this opportunity, but he dropped the ball.

He talked to the higher-ups regarding this matter, but he knew it wouldn't be that useful.

Zhou Chengfu was the leader of the Southwestern Institute of Physics and the chief engineer of the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center; he had control of billions in research funds and hundreds of projects.

In academia, anyone that had control of these resources was the king.

Especially in the small field of controllable nuclear fusion, there were only four tokamaks and a dozen or so research institutes; most of the projects and funding had to go through him.

Not only did he control the Southwestern Institute of Physics, even the Institute of Materials at the Chinese Academy of Sciences had to listen to him.

Who would care if the ministers commanded him? So what if Academician Zhou was willing to lend his people?

It still depended on whether or not the experts themselves were willing to go.

Unless it was some dumb*ss that didn't care about their bosses hating them or someone that intended to quit, there weren't many people that had the guts to stand against their bosses.

Even the minister knew that at most, they could mediate the situation from the side; they couldn't force the old academician to do anything. Issues in academia weren't that easy to solve, especially when it was at the academician level.

Honestly, Academician Pan thought for a bit and realized he was too naive.

He thought that the situation now was the same as ten years ago.

Back then, there weren't many experts in a future engineering field like con nuclear fusion. There were even undergrads that could pass as a researcher. As for the funding side, the country obviously didn't have that much money.

However, even though every step along the way was extremely difficult, with his help, everyone still gathered from all locations and invested in this industry.

Due to their efforts, ITER became the first international science engineering project that cooperated with China with an equal partnership.

Even though he was retired, he could still remember the excitement that was in their hearts. It was even more exciting than when Beijing was chosen as the host city for the Olympics.

After listening to Academician Pan's explanation, Lu Zhou simply nodded and didn't say anything else about this matter.

"It's fine. I thought about the possibility of this happening. If Southwestern doesn't want to do it, we won't force them. We can do our own thing."

If he went to Beijing, he had 80% of making this deal.

However, his time was precious; he didn't want to waste time fighting against his own people.

Also, even though he wasn't interested in power and authority, he still knew that academia was never a pristine place.

Even so, there was one thing that was clear in his mind—results were always more convincing.

When Academician Pan heard Lu Zhou, he sighed in relief. In fact, he was somewhat gratified.

Even though he wasn't happy with Old Zhou's cooperative attitude, he knew in his mind that he should look at the bigger picture.

If he really decided to start fighting, it would hurt both parties. Whether it was Old Zhou who was removed from his position of power or Lu Zhou who decided to leave, both would harm the future of China's controllable nuclear fusion project.

"You're right," Academician Pan nodded and said. "Southwestern is not looking good, but I will find another way."

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "I remember there's a research team at Yuhua University that has around 30 people. They've been engaged in stellarator research for many years, and some of their engineers have been trained by The Australian National University. It might be better to send them to Germany."

Academician Pan frowned and said, "You're talking about Professor Gong's team? I'm afraid they can't spare any talents. Besides, even Yuhua University's controllable nuclear fusion funding is from the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center."

Even though Zhou Chengfu didn't care for the stellarator, he didn't refuse all stellarator related projects.

After all, even though he didn't agree with the stellarator route, the stellarator wasn't his enemy.

However, if Yuhua University cooperated with Lu Zhou, then their future funding might become a problem.

"Then just invite all of them." Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "It's not like they're receiving a lot of attention. I'll handle all of their future funding."

Academician Pan smiled and shook his head at this over-the-top idea.

"Okay then, I'll go tomorrow."

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Thanks… But this time, I'll go there instead."

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Chapter 492: Visiting Yuhua University

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Yuhua University used to be the Hunan Institute of Technology, which could be traced back to Central South University.

In 1959, due to China's development of nuclear weapons and the nuclear industry in general, the state moved the Central South University mining and metallurgy engineering departments to Hengyang.

In the late 1960s, it was closed due to special reasons. Later in the 1980s, under the leadership of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry and the Hunan Provincial Government, it was revived in the form of the Hunan Institute of Technology. Finally, it was renamed Yuhua University in the 1990s, which had stayed that way ever since.

In some sense, the fate of this school was deeply tied to the republic.

Even though it wasn't a particularly good school, its engineering department was still at the forefront of the country. It also produced a large number of nuclear industry experts back in the day.

And now, it was still shining in its own light.

The stellarator research wasn't a project that received heavy support; it was the most unpopular controllable nuclear fusion device. However, there was still a 30-people research team that was engaged in this research field.

The purpose of Lu Zhou's trip was very clear; he was here to poach talents.

Of course, this wasn't particularly good for Yuhua University.

In some sense, he was here to do an academic exchange.

But honestly, if this thing went through, it would bring benefits to Yuhua University.

The small Yuhua University was suddenly visited by a big name like Lu Zhou. Their leadership team might know that this visit would bring benefits to them, or they might not know that.

Regardless of the fact that he was a Nobel Prize scholar who came to the school to do a seminar, even if it was someone from Shuimu or Yan University, they would still welcome them with banners…

[Welcome, Professor Lu Zhou!]

A college student was holding a textbook. When he looked at the banner, he asked his roommate.

"Why do you think God Lu is coming to a place like this?"

The slightly bigger guy shook his head and said, "God knows."

A tall skinny student walked over. He pushed his glasses up his nose bridge and said, "Jinling is building some controllable nuclear fusion research center, right? I think Professor Lu is in charge. They're probably coming here for our H1 Stellarator."

The guy holding the textbook asked, "How come I didn't hear about this?"

The tall student adjusted his glasses again and said, "It's normal. The news didn't really report on it, but it doesn't seem to be a secret either. I heard it from the student in the nuclear engineering department."

The guy who hadn't spoken yet said, "It doesn't have anything to do with us; let's go to class."

"You're right," the students said as they nodded their heads. They then walked toward their classroom.

In fact, even if they wanted to go, there would be no place for them.

Because the lecture hall in Yuhua University was already completely packed with people.

It wasn't just Yuhua University students in the crowd; there were many Yuhua University professors and lecturers and even people from other universities.

Other than the students and professors, there were also reporters from the Hunan TV station.

The lenses were all pointed toward the stage; everyone was waiting for the person to start speaking.

Lu Zhou looked at the crowd and couldn't help but think.

I think my last lecture was in Stockholm.

It's been three months since then.

Lu Zhou looked at the clock on the wall; it was about time. The staff next to him nodded, telling him he could begin.

Lu Zhou stood in front of the microphone and cleared his throat. He waited until the classroom quieted down before he started to speak.

"A lot of people have asked me. China doesn't lack electricity, and we have the Three Gorges Dam, coal mines, and our power generation ranks first in the world. We also have thermal and hydropower. Our power grid technology is also leading the world right now… So, why is it that we have to research the cumbersome nuclear power?

"My answer to this question is that scientific research cannot only be focused on the current investment or short-term benefits. Researchers also have to have a long-term vision and courage to face difficulties.

"Looking at it from a large enough time-scale, nuclear energy is the ultimate energy source for humans. Because we have the largest population in the world that consumes a quarter of the world's energy output, we should optimize our energy structure. We should make it cleaner, more efficient, and cheaper.

"Besides, this doesn't apply to just controllable nuclear fusion technology. Every major scientific research project brings us more value than just the project itself. This is just like how when I was studying the Navier–Stokes equation, I discovered the L Manifold and differential geometry solution to the partial differential equation. The treasures we find at the end of the maze isn't inferior to the achievements we make along the journey.

"Take controllable nuclear fusion as an example. Controllable nuclear fusion research has pushed the superconducting materials field, allowing us to dive deep into plasma research and helping us in creating stronger superconducting magnets. There are tons of beneficial by-products."

Lu Zhou introduced the theme of the seminar in a few short sentences. He picked up the marker from the desk and turned around, facing the whiteboard. As he explained using simple language, he began to write on the whiteboard.

Wang Xuehai was sitting in the crowd writing notes when he accidentally dropped his pen cover. He bent over and picked it up. When he looked up at the whiteboard again, he was muddled. He had no idea what was on the whiteboard.

Wang Xuehai looked at the podium and couldn't help but mutter, "What is he writing about?"

Fang Jie was sitting next to him; he also studied nuclear physics. He adjusted his glasses. Even though he didn't understand either, he wasn't as muddled as Wang Xuehai. "It looks like a mathematical model for plasma turbulence? I think I've read it in a thesis before.'

Wang Xuehai: "F*ck me! Isn't this supposed to be a simple science lecture? Does he have to be so hardcore?"

Fang Jie looked at him and said, "Of course! He's a Nobel Prize scholar; you're obviously not going to be on the same page as him."

Wang Xuehai couldn't help but ask, "Is there anyone that can understand him?"

Honestly, he was pretty confident at his physics knowledge.

However, plasma turbulence was the frontier of international physics research.

His major was in nuclear physics, which meant his research direction was more applied rather than theoretical. Without two weeks of preparation, there was no way he could understand these esoteric things.

Fang Jie closed his laptop and shook his head. He then used his chin to point at the seats in the front row.

"It doesn't matter if we understand or not. Just look at the professors from the Institute of Nuclear Physics, and you can tell how much they understand just from their facial expressions."

Just like what this PhD student said, for the second half of the lecture, Lu Zhou went from simple science to the esoteric areas of controllable nuclear fusion, or specifically, the high-temperature plasma research.

Actually, he had already written a few theses that outlined his research results. His most important thesis was published at the Max Planck Institute. Last year, he did a report on that thesis at the European Nuclear Summit.

However, Lu Zhou's in-person explanation of his theses was more in-depth than reading his theses directly or reading someone's summary of his theses. Listening to him in person was greatly beneficial for the people in the field of controllable nuclear fusion or plasma physics.

Actually, this was why many professors came all the way from the provincial capital.

If it wasn't because of time constraints, some international people might even take a flight to come and listen to this lecture.

As Lu Zhou wrote down the last line of equations on the whiteboard, his explanation also came to an end.

He put the marker on the desk and paused for a second. He then looked at the audience and spoke.

"This school is strong in nuclear engineering, and everyone sitting here is the pillars of the future nuclear engineering field. The future of nuclear engineering depends on you guys!"

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Chapter 493: Interested In Joining?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

There was a round of applause in the lecture hall.

Lu Zhou walked down the lecture hall platform in the midst of the applause.

Principal Wu Zhuohua, the school leadership team, and some of the professors were waiting at the lecture hall entrance. Once Lu Zhou was done with the media interviews, they walked over to him.

Principal Wu had a warm smile on his face as he greeted him. "Thank you, Professor Lu, for bringing such a vivid presentation to our Yuhua University students!"

The few students that were standing near them cringed.

Other than the beginning and the end, they didn't think it was vivid at all.

Lu Zhou smiled and humbly said, "This doesn't count as vivid. It's just my personal explanation on some of my controllable nuclear fusion research and some high-density plasma research. It might be a bit boring."

A professor was standing next to them, and he didn't look too old. He smiled and said, "How is it boring? I benefited a lot from your lecture."

Lu Zhou: "You're too kind, but may I ask who you are?"

Principal Wu said, "This is Professor Li Changxia from our Yuhua University Institute of Nuclear Physics."

Lu Zhou reached out his hand and said, "Nice to meet you, Professor Li."

"Nice to meet you." Professor Li Changxia shook Lu Zhou's hand with a beaming smile as he said, "I've heard about your success, but I didn't expect you to be this young."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Professor Li, aren't you the same?"

"Don't be fooled by my black hair, I'm actually thirty-five years old," Professor Li joked.

"Thirty-five is very young." Lu Zhou paused for a second before he said, "What about Professor Gong? I heard he is the head of the Institute of Nuclear Physics."

Professor Li gently coughed and said, "Professor Gong, he… isn't at the research institute anymore."

Lu Zhou: "Did he retire?"

Professor Li gave him an awkward smile as he said, "Not exactly. He's now the deputy mayor of Hengyang's city council and the chairman of the Municipal Committee of the Jiusan Society. He's not participating in the school's affairs anymore."

I guess he went into politics.

Lu Zhou nodded and continued to ask, "Then who is responsible for the Institute of Nuclear Physics?"

Professor Li nodded and said, "Right now, I am."

Lu Zhou looked at him, slightly surprised.

It wasn't because he didn't trust in Professor Li's abilities. It was because university research teams led by middle-aged professors often didn't have access to good resources.

Because the number of resources a research team had was often determined by the academic qualifications of the team leader.

Principal Wu could tell Lu Zhou was surprised, so he quickly said with a smile, "Professor Li is quite young, but he is very reliable. The stellarator is the main research project of our school. Due to Professor Li and his team's efforts, we are able to cooperate with The Australian National University and successfully collaborate on the H1 Stellarator project."

Professor Li was a little embarrassed by the compliments. He then said humbly, "It's mainly thanks to Professor Gong."

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not doubting Professor Li's abilities; I'm just a bit surprised," Lu Zhou said. He looked at Professor Li Changxia and smiled as he asked, "Is it okay for you to give me a tour of the Institute of Nuclear Physics?"

Professor Li immediately nodded and said, "Of course it's fine! I'll take you there right now."

The Institute of Nuclear Physics was located at a quiet corner on the Yuhua University campus.

It was worth mentioning that nuclear physics and nuclear engineering were two very different fields. Yuhua University was quite strong at the latter, while they were weaker at the former.

Therefore, the research institute hadn't been established for long, and the scale wasn't particularly large. It was mainly formed by the school's nuclear physics department, the nuclear fusion and plasma physics research team, and the particle physics and nuclear physics research team.

Principal Wu originally planned on inviting the leadership team to come with them. However, Lu Zhou didn't want to disturb their daily routine, so he euphemistically refused the suggestion.

Besides, having too many outsiders following him made it difficult to discuss things.

Lu Zhou then followed Professor Li Changxia to the Institute of Nuclear Physics. Professor Li gave Lu Zhou a simple tour around the place while talking about the latest international research on controllable nuclear fusion.

They began to talk about the ITER project's development, and Professor Li Changxia started to get carried away.

"Right now, international research on controllable nuclear fusion is progressing on the highway. According to ITER's project schedule, they plan on building a commercial demonstration reactor in Paris by 2025. Our country is also planning on building one, also by around 2025. If everything goes well, controllable nuclear fusion might become this century's greatest technological breakthrough."

Lu Zhou: "But it seems like you guys aren't being valued?"

Li Changxia smiled awkwardly as he said, "It's because there's still a long way until 2025."

After walking around the research institute, the pair then arrived at Professor Li's office.

Lu Zhou was a bit tired from all the walking, so he sat down on the office sofa.

Li Changxia sat across from him. He then ordered his PhD student to pour two cups of tea.

"Speaking of which, I haven't had the chance to visit you. I have some questions regarding plasma physics, and I don't know if you mind answering them?"

Lu Zhou sipped some tea and smiled. "There's no need to be polite, ask away."

Professor Li nodded. "While conducting research on the ion cyclotron wave and plasma coupling process, we discovered that the ion cyclotron wave and plasma coupling process is difficult to carry out. Do you have a good solution for this?"

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he said, "I've encountered a similar research problem when I was at the PPPL. The thesis should be on the Physical Review Letters. I don't remember the exact issue, but you should be able to find it.

"If I recall correctly, according to the thesis, by increasing the central plasma density or the scraping layer density and reducing the density gradient of the parabolic or exponential decay region, you should be able to make the ion cyclotron wave better at plasma coupling. If you are unsure, you can try to use a plasma model to numerically simulate the coupling process of ion cyclotron waves and plasma."

Professor Li nodded as he wrote down Lu Zhou's words in a notebook.

Lu Zhou then asked in a relaxed tone, "Is there any other question?"

"Yes, actually a bit more."

Professor Li Changxia used this opportunity to consult Lu Zhou on some of the theoretical problems he encountered in research.

Lu Zhou answered all of the questions to the best of his ability.

Time quickly passed by; they had already spent an hour sitting in this office.

Professor Li closed his notebook and smiled as he said apologetically, "Sorry for wasting so much time."

Lu Zhou smiled as he replied, "It's fine. These discussions give me inspiration as well."

He paused for a second and said, "Speaking of which, how is the H1-Heliac doing? I didn't see it when I was walking around the research institute."

When Professor Li heard Lu Zhou mentioned the H1 Stellarator, he couldn't help but reveal his difficulties. "It might be difficult if you want to see it. The supporting facilities only completed the construction bidding last year in October, and it might only be completed this year."

"That's so slow." Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I remember this project began in 2017, right?"

"Yeah," Professor Li said. He suddenly looked somewhat helpless. "But there's no other way. Professor Gong suddenly withdrew from the project, plus our school ran into some problems. Actually, we didn't want to delay it for so long."

As Lu Zhou looked around the office, he nodded thoughtfully.

After a moment of silence, he finally began to talk about why he came here today.

"Speaking of which, the STAR Stellarator Research Institute in Jinling is about to finish constructing."

Professor Li was full of envy. Lu Zhou paused for a second before he threw out an offer.

"Are you interested in joining us?"

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Chapter 494: Ready To Go

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Yang, Science Island.

Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Materials.

Sheng Xianfu stood in the institute director's office. When he gently placed a resignation letter on the table and took a step back, the old director was dumbfounded.

"I'm here to resign."

The old director was taken by surprise. He looked at the letter on his table in disbelief before he looked at Sheng Xianfu.

"Re… resign?"

"Yes." Sheng Xianfu nodded. He knew that there was no pulling back once he handed out this letter. He took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice.

"You know that I'm researching the Stellarator. This opportunity is rare, and it would be a shame to miss it. I know you don't want to stand between Academician Zhou and Professor Lu, and if I insist on going, it might be awkward for you. Therefore, there shouldn't be any problems once I quit."

The old director shook his head and said, "Is this necessary? Regardless of whether or not Academician Zhou is correct, that's business between those two. Putting yourself in between them is just making things difficult for you."

He looked at the resignation letter and sighed.

"I'll leave this letter here, for now. Think about it for a couple more days."

He admired Professor Sheng's talents, and he didn't want to see this promising researcher ruin his future. Therefore, he decided to give him another chance.

If it were anyone else, he wouldn't say a word and just let them leave.

Sheng Xianfu shook his head and said, "I don't have to think about it anymore. I already thought about everything before coming here."

He didn't have time to reconsider; the visiting team to Germany was going to leave in a week.

The old director saw how determined Sheng Xianfu was, so he didn't say anything else. He signed his name on the resignation letter and took out the official seal stamp from his drawer.

"Since you've already decided, I won't say anything else. Your resignation is approved. Go to human resources and follow the procedure."

Sheng Xianfu nodded toward the director and took the letter of resignation from the table.

"Thank you."

He then turned around and walked out of the office.

…

The cooperation between Yuhua University went very smoothly, and Professor Li Changxia didn't even hesitate before accepting Lu Zhou's invitation.

However, at the same time, he also put forward a request, which was to retain their positions at Yuhua University.

This wasn't just his personal request; this was also the request from his research team members.

For Lu Zhou, these requests were easy to oblige.

When Lu Zhou met Principal Wu again, he promised him that he would include Yuhua University as a cooperative research unit of the STAR Stellarator Research Project. As expected, the principal readily agreed.

Even though the H1-Heliac was the prominent scientific research project for Yuhua University, but in fact, other than being able to call themselves the first stellarator in China, the H1-Heliac didn't bring any extra benefits to Yuhua University.

It didn't matter what the insiders thought. From the outsiders' perspective, the concept of controllable nuclear fusion was too far away. Because of this, Yuhua University wasn't able to give Professor Li Changxia a large amount of resource support. It'd be better for them to join the STAR stellarator project as experts from Yuhua University. With the one billion dollar research fund, they might be able to help produce some outstanding results.

When the time arrived, since they were a cooperative research unit, they undoubtedly would get some of the credit.

After the matter at Yuhua University was sorted, Lu Zhou didn't stay in Hunan for long. He returned to Jinling the next day and began preparing the team for their Max Planck Institute exchange.

There were five formal researchers, including Li Changxia, and ten associate researchers. With these people plus the few controllable nuclear fusion professors that Academician Pan was able to find, the STAR Stellarator Research Institute finally formed a capable exchange team.

However, something unexpected happened.

Originally, Lu Zhou thought he didn't have to rely on Academician Zhou's Chinese ITER project team for help. They were still able to get their hands on an expert that came from the Science Island in Lu Yang.

However, that expert had resigned…

Lu Zhou met with this stellarator expert from Lu Yang in his Jinling Institute for Advanced Study office.

"Professor Sheng, it's an honor to meet you," Lu Zhou said. He stood up from his chair and walked over. With a smile, he reached out his right hand.

"I'm the one that is honored," Sheng Xianfu said as he shook Lu Zhou's hand and smiled. He said, "Not to mention, I'm technically not a professor anymore."

He didn't only quit his position at the Institute of Materials. Because he had to work long term in Jinling, and after considering various factors, he resigned from his professor position at the University of Science and Technology of China as well.

Lu Zhou: "If you don't mind, the Institute for Advanced Study is willing to provide you with a researcher position."

Sheng Xianfu didn't decline. He nodded and said, "Thank you so much."

Lu Zhou: "I noticed in your resume that you have been to the Wendelstein 7-X laboratory for an exchange?"

Sheng Xianfu nodded and answered truthfully, "The Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Materials organized a collaborative research project with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics on plasma interaction experiments. I've also been to some of the ITER cooperation meetings."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "So I'm guessing you're familiar with the Max Planck Institute?"

Sheng Xianfu smiled as he replied humbly, "Not quite familiar, I've only been there."

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Okay, since that's the case, you will be the team leader for this exchange."

The proposal caught Sheng Xianfu by surprise, and he froze for a second.

He didn't expect to immediately take on such an important responsibility.

Sheng Xianfu hesitated for a moment before he said, "That… isn't appropriate. I just got here, and I'm not familiar with the situation at the exchange team. Also, aren't you coming with us?"

"Nothing inappropriate; the other people in the exchange team also just got here," Lu Zhou said. He then paused for a second before he added, "As for me, I might not stay in Greifswald with you guys for the entire exchange as I still have some other matters to attend to."

When Lu Zhou saw Professor Sheng's name on the list that Academician Pan gave him, he had a good impression of Professor Sheng.

He was one of the top plasma physics experts in China and had some involvement in both tokamak and stellarator research. He also had experience leading exchange teams.

Lu Zhou paused for a second and put on a more serious face. He then looked at Sheng Xianfu and said sternly, "This matter is very important, so I hope you can take it seriously. Of course, if you refuse, I won't force you. It's just that in my opinion, you're the most suitable candidate."

Sheng Xianfu clenched his teeth and nodded. "I can try!"

Lu Zhou nodded with approval and said, "Then this matter will be handed to you."

Sheng Xianfu asked, "When is the specific departure time?"

Lu Zhou answered calmly, "End of February."

End of February?

This means there are only three days to prepare.

Sheng Xianfu thought about the imminent departure date and couldn't help but feel the pressure on his shoulders.

However, even then, he didn't have any complaints in his heart. Rather, he was looking forward to it.

Perhaps, Sheng Xianfu could really help progress the controllable nuclear fusion field…

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Chapter 495: Arrival of the Visiting Team

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

A bright silver airplane left a white trail across the blue sky.

The thirty people visiting group headed toward the Max Planck Institute, carrying the future of Chinese controllable nuclear fusion on their shoulders. According to the cooperation agreement between the two parties, they will receive simple training for the transfer of the WEGA Stellarator.

In their original plan, Lu Zhou was going to travel with them.

However, he didn't end up on their flight. Instead, he arranged his flight to be three days later.

This was because, on the day the Chinese experts departed, the experts from the Max Planck Institute arrived at Jinling International Airport.

The German engineer had a wrinkly face; his hat almost touched his tall nose bridge. He carried his suitcase and got off the airstair.

He squinted as he looked at the airport terminal building. He then said to his colleague, "This place has changed a lot."

The red-haired, slightly younger-looking engineer raised his eyebrows.

"You've been here before?"

"That was from ten years ago," the old-fashioned engineer said as he opened his wallet and rubbed the photo inside. He then casually added, "If you live in Berlin, you won't see any obvious changes over a 10 year period. However, you can see the differences every year here."

"Berlin, right? There are actually some changes."

"Oh yeah?"

"Ever since Angela Merkel opened the gates for the immigrants, we're seeing new things on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper every day."

When the old engineer heard the young engineer's joke, he laughed while shaking his head.

"Keep these things private, don't let other people hear them."

"I know, I know." The young engineer looked at the people picking them up and paused for a second. He then narrowed his eyes and said, "… A few thousand nanometers wide wire, do you really think they can do it?"

It wasn't that he looked down upon China's ability in science and technology innovations. After all, Europe had been weak ever since the latter half of the 20th century; they didn't have the right to look down on anyone.

However, technology innovation was one thing, being able to take the technology out of the laboratory was another.

In fact, ever since 2014, people had been able to achieve in laboratories a couple of dozen nanometer width graphene nanoribbons. Up until now, there had even been laboratories that had been able to create a wire seven atoms wide. However, this technology had remained in the laboratory so far.

This was the biggest gap between academia and the industry.

Half a century ago, if some scientist found a new compound or a simple synthetic method for an important industrial material, they might become rich overnight. However, these things rarely happened anymore.

More often than not, the academic community would produce a beautiful result but the industry would take ten or even decades to digest the technology. The industry might even eventually prove that it was useless.

Due to Lu Zhou's success on lithium anode materials, the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres noticed the potential in carbon-based superconducting materials ever since the SG-1 material was created. However, when they did an industry analysis on the material, due to costs, production, and various other difficulties, they decided to give up on this material.

However, someone had suddenly completed the task that they had previously thought was impossible. They were astonished when they heard the news.

After all, China wasn't particularly good at nanotechnology…

"Looking at the samples they sent, they actually did it."

"Unbelievable."

"Yeah, unbelievable." The old engineer paused for a second before he said, "But isn't that why we're here, to figure this thing out?"

At the airport VIP entrance that was on the other side of the airport.

Yang Xu stood next to Lu Zhou and looked at the airplane not far away. Suddenly, he asked, "Actually, I always wanted to ask, why are the people from the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres here?"

Lu Zhou: "It's normal. You can't expect a group of plasma physicists to also be good at materials science, right?"

Yang Xu replied with a joke, "Isn't there someone like that standing right here? Good at mathematics as well."

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he realized that Yang Xu was talking about himself. He smiled and shook his head.

"It's totally different."

While they were talking, the German visiting group already stepped off the airstair.

Lu Zhou began to walk toward the airstair.

The old engineer walked in front of the team. He took off his black hat and extended his callus-filled hand.

"Hello, Professor Lu, I am Rand Ulic from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy. This is my colleague, Simson Eugene."

"Hi, I'm Lu Zhou." Lu Zhou shook hands with this Geman engineer as he looked at him with surprise. With a smile, he asked, "You speak Chinese?"

"I worked at Jinling for two years. I'm not very good at it, but I know a little," the serious old man smirked and said in a funny tone.

"Really? It sounds good to me," Lu Zhou said. He then gave a friendly smiled as he introduced the three people standing next to him. "This is the director of the Institute of Materials Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Yang Xu. These two are the general manager of Baosheng Group, Sun Chengwu, and chief engineer, Mr. Cao Ganwei."

"On behalf of Baosheng Group, I would like to welcome you all." Sun Chengwu shook Ulic's hand and said with a smile, "Our company has prepared a hotel for you. Are you going to leave your luggage at the hotel or do you have other plans?"

Ulic: "We can go to the hotel later, can you guys take us to the factory first?"

Sun Chengwu paused for a second. Obviously, he didn't expect the Germans to be in such a rush. He then glanced at Lu Zhou.

When General Manager Sun saw Lu Zhou nodded, he looked at Professor Ulic and said with a smile, "Of course, no problem at all."

The German visiting group wasn't large; there were only six people there. However, most of them were top carbon nanomaterials experts at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy.

After the group boarded their cars, General Manager Sun sat next to Lu Zhou and couldn't help but ask, "Why are these German folks in such a rush?"

When Lu Zhou heard General Manager Sun's question, he smiled.

"For example, when you were in school, when your friend who usually got seventy or eighty in a test, suddenly scored 120 in the latest test, what would you think?"

Yang Xu thought for a moment before he replied, "Depends on the grading system?"

"The grading system doesn't matter." Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Regardless of the grading system, you will definitely wonder how he did it, whether something fishy happened."

Manager Sun hesitated and said, "So, you're saying they think we're tricking them?"

"Anyone would be extra cautious when it came to important cooperation like this." Lu Zhou paused for a moment before he said, "We just have to prove it to them that we're legit."

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Chapter 496: Conquering The Germans With Technology

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Not far from Jin Ling University, the Baosheng Group factory was located in the municipal government's newly planned high-tech zone.

There was a piece of large production equipment in the middle of the spacious factory.

From the outside, this equipment might look a bit strange, or rather, a bit elementary. It almost looked like something that was pieced together in a hurry.

If someone didn't introduce it, no one would guess that this non-science fiction looking thing was actually the core equipment in the production of thousand-nanometer wide graphene wires. No one would ever think that the silver strand between the opening and closing metal plates was actually the SG-1 wire, which was worth more than its weight in gold.

Of course, that was only for the time being.

Once the production and equipment improved, and the production of scales goes up, the cost would naturally come down.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming from outside the factory.

When the engineers inside the factory noticed the sound, they turned to look at the door. They then saw a group of people walking behind General Manager Sun and Engineer Cao.

An engineer wiped the sweat off his face. When he saw a young man smiling with General Manager Sun, he couldn't help but curiously ask his colleague.

"Who is that?"

"Which one?"

"The one next to Manager Sun."

"It's Lu Zhou, didn't you watch the news?"

"Lu Zhou? The one that won the Nobel Prize?"

"Of course!"

"Amazing… The Nobel Prize laureate is talking about research at our factory, so this must be going on the news tomorrow?"

It wasn't just the news; it might even cause the stock price to soar.

Superconducting materials wasn't a popular topic within the A-shares industry. However, once Lu Zhou's name was involved, the situation was completely different.

After all, everyone in the world knew how hot the lithium battery market was doing.

The engineers whispered a few words to each other. When they saw General Manager Sun's team walking over, they shut their mouths.

With Engineer Cao leading the way, the German experts walked up to the equipment at the center of the factory. They finally saw the legendary machine that could mass-produce thousand nanometer-sized graphene nanoribbons.

Simson Eugene had a tinge of suspicion and contempt in his heart when he looked at this featureless machine.

Just looking at it from the outside, he couldn't believe that this simple equipment could work on the nanometer scale.

However, his face soon began to look more and more dignified. Finally, his eyes were glued to the equipment, and he couldn't look away.

The lines of silver wires were connected between the two metal plates, and the slightly thinner metal plate was connected to a sieve-looking ring-shaped object, which converged to a thumb-size ring.

Even though the speed of the metal plates opening and closing was as slow as a snail's movement, it was still producing wires…

Looking at it from the outside, he had no idea how they managed to do it.

Ulic stood next to Eugene as he asked in a serious manner, "Is this it?"

Lu Zhou smiled and explained in a relaxed tone, "This is the core of the entire production process. You can interpret it as the wire drawing machine of the cable production line… However, these two things are completely different in principle."

Eugene couldn't help but ask: "Are you sure… this thing is producing graphene wires that are only a few thousand nanometers in width?"

Lu Zhou glanced at him and said, "Listening to me alone isn't that convincing. If that's the case, you can take a sample from the product and we can do a test on it together."

Since Lu Zhou said this, Eugene didn't hesitate anymore. He walked next to the machine, and with the help of another Chinese engineer, he took a short piece of the SG-1 wire and placed it into his pre-prepared sample bag.

They all walked into the product quality testing room. When the red-haired German engineer saw the scanning electron microscope, he took the initiative to ask.

"Can I do it?"

Lu Zhou made a welcoming gesture. "Of course you can."

Eugene walked up and carefully inspected the equipment. He placed the sample onto the device and skillfully operated a fine probe through a computer. He aimed at the thousand-nanometer wide SG-1 wire.

Soon after, the probe gave the feedback data to the computer.

Eugene looked at the data collected by the scanning electron microscope and the simulated three-dimensional atomic structure diagram. It wasn't just Eugene, but even Professor Ulic and the other four German experts looked bewildered.

Eugene couldn't believe what was happening in front of his eyes; it was like he was grabbing onto his last strand of hope. He then asked, "What about its superconductivity?"

"I knew you would probably ask this." Lu Zhou looked at the researcher standing next to the scanning electron microscope and said, "Show it to them."

The wires were removed from the scanning electron microscope and transferred onto another experimental equipment.

The Keithley Model 2182A Nanovoltmeter and Keithley Model 6220 current source were installed on this piece of laboratory equipment, as well as pipelines and temperature controllers for liquid helium.

The final measurement was obvious; the "resistance/temperature" curve quickly fell to the bottom at the exact same time when the transition temperature was met. This was just like the graph Professor Keriber observed at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Even though Eugene didn't want to believe it, he couldn't help but become thoroughly convinced.

They actually did it…

"Unbelievable… How did you guys do it?"

Lu Zhou: "Simply put, we stack single atomic layers of rhodium metal sheet. After that, we punch holes in it and adjust the overlapping angle. Then, we use the principle of chemical vapor deposition to deposit the SG-1 material into the pores on a macroscopic scale. It's almost like the resulting graphene nanoribbons are grown into a specific shape… This is the rough process. As for the more specific technical details, Baosheng Group's engineers will give you a detailed explanation."

Ulic frowned and asked a more professional question, "Single atomic layer of metal foil? How did you guys guarantee its monoatomic structure?"

Due to the sea of electrons in the metal atoms, it was very difficult for them to form a three-dimensional closely-packed structure. Theoretically, it would be very difficult to prepare a metal foil one atom thick. And even if it were prepared, it would be difficult to guarantee and maintain its monoatomic layer property.

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "We don't need to do anything special."

Ulic was stunned. "Don't need anything special?"

Lu Zhou nodded as he replied, "Yes, there is a special localized large π bond in the enameling metal sheet which stabilizes the monoatomic layer structure."

This was a research result that only came out in the past two years.

Actually, this was the reason why he chose rhodium.

Even though the price of rhodium was expensive, the monoatomic sheet could be used as a mold for a long time due to the extremely anti-oxidation properties of rhodium. Therefore, the cost was generally acceptable.

As for the exact method to prepare a piece of monocrystalline thick rhodium, it was just like the method he had previously mentioned—by reducing the weak ligand polyvinylpyrrolidone with formaldehyde.

After that, the group of German experts asked many questions, and Lu Zhou answered them one by one. For the theoretical questions that were out of his scope of knowledge, Chief Engineer Cao answered them.

They stayed in the high-tech zone until evening.

When they were leaving, Yang Xu got in the same car as Lu Zhou, and he couldn't help but speak emotionally.

"I didn't think that we could conquer the Germans with our technology."

Lu Zhou smiled as he replied, "Germany's industry technology is strong, especially in the field of precision machining and automation. We still have a big gap to catch up to. However, they're not gods, and you shouldn't think of them as omnipotent."

China was behind Germany in many technological developed areas; there was nothing they could do about that. However, since everyone was searching for a way to implement new technology, this meant that all of them had the same starting point.

With the help from the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials, Baosheng Group was fortunate enough to be at a starting point ahead of others. If everything went well, with the investment China was putting into controllable nuclear fusion, they could continue to be the world leaders on carbon based superconducting materials.

Maybe in the future, they would even be the leading manufacturing country…

But that wasn't something Lu Zhou could control.

He was only interested in research.

…

In the evening, Lu Zhou returned to his mansion at Zhongshan International. He was in his study room and on the phone with Sheng Xianfu, who already arrived in Germany.

"Did you guys arrive safely?"

Sheng Xianfu: "We arrived in Berlin yesterday, and we're already at Greifswald now."

"Is the WEGA at Greifswald?"

Lu Zhou recalled back to his last trip to Greifswald; he didn't remember seeing the WEGA device.

Sheng Xianfu: "Not quite. It's just that our first training stage will be done at the Wendelstein 7-X laboratory."

Lu Zhou replied with a joke, "We're paying 500 million for this training session, so be sure to try your best."

Professor Sheng, who was holding his phone, nodded seriously.

"We will!"

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The days quickly passed by, and soon, it was already April.

The construction of the STAR Stellarator Research Institute went even faster than planned. The construction team used five or even ten times the manpower to finally complete the construction project.

After Regiment Commander Dai gave Lu Zhou the scissors to cut the red ribbon, he solemnly raised his right hand and gave him a military salute.

Even though Lu Zhou wasn't a soldier and that he didn't know what the salute meant, he could still see the eager expectation in Regiment Commander Dai's eyes.

At the same time, the WEGA Stellarator, which was disassembled and packaged, followed the visiting team's footsteps and entered the port of Haizhou.

500 million was almost 4 billion yuan.

Even though this wasn't Lu Zhou's own money, he still felt a little heartbroken when he saw this money disappeared.

However, he knew that this money was definitely well spent.

Even though the WEGA machine had been shut down for more than five years, during these five years, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics didn't just let it rust and collect dust, they still did regular maintenance on the machine.

Also, once they added up the cost of research and development, the Germans spent more than 1 billion on this machine.

Thinking about it this way, he actually got a discount.

After all, the worth of SG-1 wire technology was nowhere near 1 billion.

With coordination from the Suzhou provincial government, the WEGA Stellarator machine quickly arrived at Jinling and was sent to the STAR Stellarator Research Institute near Purple Mountain.

As Academician Pan stood in the laboratory that was under the mountain and looked at the pile of valuable equipment and parts, he was full of excitement.

But suddenly, the excited old man sighed.

"Unfortunately, we had to buy it…" Academician Pan shook his head as he said, "If only we have the ability to build one completely from scratch…"

When Lu Zhou heard him, he nearly choked on his own saliva.

We just bought the thing and now you're already thinking about making a counterfeit?!

Isn't this a bit greedy?

Lu Zhou wasn't an engineer, so he couldn't evaluate the engineering difficulty of the tokamak. However, from an outsider's perspective, he could tell that the stellarator was much more difficult than the tokamak in terms of the engineering requirements.

Honestly, even the Americans, who designed the Stellarator, couldn't produce one themselves. They gave up half-way through the production of their C type stellarator and decided to follow the Russians by working on the tokamak instead.

Therefore, not being able to create a stellarator was nothing embarrassing.

Specialization of fields didn't only exist in academia; it also existed in the industry.

Lu Zhou gently coughed and said, "We just started, so it'd be fantastic if we can just follow the steps one-by-one. We don't have to make every step perfect; we just have to make sure the crucial steps are done properly."

Academician Pan shook his head and said, "Even though you put it like that, it feels like we're inferior to them in some way. It just doesn't sit well with me."

After hearing Academician Pan, Lu Zhou went silent for a while.

Because he didn't know how to reply.

After all, not everything could be solved with an engineering blueprint.

Otherwise, that wouldn't be considered a problem.

Sheng Xianfu stood next to Lu Zhou as well, and unlike Academician Pan who was going through a roller coaster of emotions, he was so excited to the point that he began to rub his hands together.

"Do we start assembling now?"

After receiving more than a month of training in Germany, now was finally the time for him to show his skills.

Lu Zhou looked at Sheng Xianfu and nodded.

"Yeah, you can start now."

"Also, for the time being, don't install the external coils. We'll replace them with new ones when the time comes."

…

According to their original plan, after WEGA arrived in China, it would be officially renamed as STAR Stellarator.

With the staff and equipment in place, the stellarator research project had officially entered its next phase.

So far, Lu Zhou had completed two parts of the controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor puzzle.

One was the "eye", which was his atom probe He3 technology. The other was obviously the "torso", which was the STAR Stellarator.

In fact, since STAR Stellarator was the prototype for the Wendelstein 7-X, it had most of the crucial components. Lu Zhou was confident that he could update the components in such a way that STAR Stellarator could go toe-to-toe with the Wendelstein 7-X.

The key to all this was the completion of the third controllable nuclear fusion blueprint puzzle piece, the "legs" of the reactor—the superconducting magnet.

Actually, Lu Zhou already completed half of this puzzle piece.

After the SG-1 wire synthesis technology was completed, the "superconducting magnet based on carbon-based superconducting material" project had begun.

Just like Lu Zhou had expected, the superior thermal conductivity of the SG-1 wire could greatly reduce the size of the liquid helium refrigeration unit. The data on the blueprint showed that, when compared to copper oxide coils, it would decrease 20% of the engineering footprint.

And what did this 20% decrease in engineering footprint mean?

This meant that he could make STAR Stellarator's magnetic field strength double that of WEGA's field strength!

On the other hand, due to the 500 million yuan order and pressure from the state, Baosheng Group had been continuously expanding its SG-1 factory production capacity.

The wires they produced were directly sent to the STAR Stellarator Research Institute, where they were then modified by the STAR's engineering team into cluster coils around an arm's thickness and 3 meters in length.

These coils had a conduit that allowed liquid helium to pass through, and this maintained the SG-1 material to be below superconductivity critical temperature.

In order to produce a stable output of the magnetic field during the energization of the coil, a sturdy insulator holder was also mounted on the outside of each set of bundled coils. After all, for a sophisticated instrument like this, even a millimeter movement in the wire could lead to serious experiment accidents.

Also, the temperatures inside the stellarator were as high as the temperatures inside the stars…

Lu Zhou spent his days in the laboratory at the STAR Stellarator Research Institute as he overlooked this project in person.

After more than a month of hard work, on the first week after Labor Day, the team of STAR engineers finally completed the assembly of the last set of coils.

Lu Zhou stood in front of the reborn STAR Stellarator and wiped off the beads of sweat from his forehead.

Even though he didn't personally drill in the screws, he was involved from day one, from the design of the superconducting magnet. He knew exactly how many difficulties he had to go through to get to this step.

But thankfully, this work was finally completed.

All they had to do now… was to test his hypothesis!

Lu Zhou smirked as he looked at Sheng Xianfu, who was standing next to him. He then ordered him, "Check the installation status of each component. If there are no problems, get ready to connect the power source!"

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Chapter 498: First Step Toward The Sun

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Even though "checking" the status of the components sounded simple, it actually took all of the STAR engineers three days to complete all of the necessary examinations.

At the laboratory inside the mountain, all of the STAR project team members were standing in their respective positions, just like they did three days ago.

Lu Zhou stood next to the computer inside the control room, and through the floor-to-ceiling windows, he overlooked the giant steel behemoth that was densely surrounded by coils. His heart was beating out of his chest.

Soon, this reborn STAR Stellarator would perform its first experimental run.

He waited half a year for this moment…

Sheng Xianfu walked toward Lu Zhou. As he stood next to him, he took a deep breath. He restrained the excitement in his voice as he said, "The water-cooled divertor is operating normally… We can begin the experiment."

When Lu Zhou heard Sheng Xianfu's report on the situation, he nodded.

"Then let's begin."

Sheng Xianfu stood up straight and replied energetically.

"Ok!"

The first experiment wasn't going to be too cumbersome; they weren't going to ignite, nor would they use hydrogen isotopes.

There were only two simple goals for their experiment.

One was to confirm that the maximum magnetic field of the coil could exceed the theoretical limit of 50T while the other was to ensure that the temperature of the plasma could reach 100 million Celsius.

The timing for the experimental run wasn't long; one second was enough.

After receiving orders to begin the experiment, the laboratory staff immediately began to start working.

The liquid helium valve opened, and as expected, the SG-1 wires quickly reached its superconductivity transition temperature.

The loud rumbling sound hurt the staff's eardrums. The current through the superconducting coil began to gradually increase the external field strength, causing them to approach the critical current of the SG-1 wires.

The feedback data of the magnetic field strength was sent to the computer. Lu Zhou looked at it carefully as it moved on the computer screen. When it stopped at the maximum value of 51.14T, a smirk appeared on his face.

51.14T!

Wendelstein 7-X.

The magnetic field strength of the bounded plasma was the key to solve controllable nuclear fusion. They were able to achieve magnetic confinement of more than 50T; there was no doubt that they had solved this piece of the puzzle.

The first experimental goal was successfully achieved!

When Lu Zhou saw the same kind of joy on Sheng Xianfu's face, he nodded toward him.

"Begin the next phase of the experiment!"

Sheng Xianfu immediately said, "Okay!"

In the wounded coil on the streamlined track, other than the superconducting coils attached by the irregularly shaped blue insulating bracket, around 20% of the non-superconducting coils were attached using the red insulating brackets. They were mainly used to fine-tune the shape of the magnetic field in the stellarator.

As the experiment progressed to the next stage, the current in the blue coil began to drop while the current in the red coils began to rise. This would then mold the shape of the magnetic field inside the stellarator into the desired shape.

Lu Zhou looked at the non-stop jumping parameter measurements on the computer screen and said, "Inject the helium!"

"Ok!"

The conduit connected to the stellarator began to inject 1mg of helium into the stellarator.

The helium that was injected quickly dispersed inside the vacuum chamber and quickly thinned out.

However, after the microwave heating device was turned on, the temperature inside the stellarator began to continuously rise. The plasma gradually began to shape and the magnetic field bounded by it was continuously under pressure. Finally, a light blue membrane appeared in the fusion chamber, trembling at a frequency invisible to the naked eye.

Everyone was in their respective seats, and whether it was the engineers or the researchers, they all subconsciously clenched their fists.

At that moment, the stellarator in front of them was like a monster, brewing the most terrifying energy on the planet.

Actually, even nuclear cores were only at 6,800 degrees.

But right now, the helium flowing inside the stellarator fusion chamber was hundreds of millions of degrees.

Even though it only weighed 1mg…

This short second felt like it lasted a century.

Sheng Xianfu's fists were tightly clenched when he suddenly looked excited and began to shout, "We did it! We did it!"

When Lu Zhou heard him shouting, a smile appeared on his face as well.

"Yeah, we did it!"

Even though this was only in-progress results, the achievement was still satisfying.

The next project would be to solve the damage on the first wall done by plasma irradiation.

Structural and functional materials in fusion reactors could experience severe swelling and embrittlement due to the high concentrations of radiation defects and the accumulation of nuclear reaction products. This resulted in an overall decline of the core component and joint structural material properties.

The high-speed neutrons were hitting the closely arranged first wall atoms like pool balls. However, the atoms that were hit did not disappear. Instead, they traveled to other places inside the first wall. Eventually, the atoms in the center of first wall moved to the surface of the first wall, causing the material to swell like a hollow foam.

So far, the academic community hadn't found a suitable way to solve this problem.

Lu Zhou wasn't confident he could solve this problem, but he had some ideas in his mind.

Of course, other than the wall materials, there was also the vital control system, which was the "brain" of the controllable nuclear fusion device.

However, compared to the material-related problems, this was actually relatively easy to fix.

After all, the demands of a supercomputer could be solved with money.

Still, it seemed that they would have to spend money from the research fund again…

The microwave heating unit was turned off.

The current in the superconducting coil gradually weakened.

The plasma temperature began to decrease…

This "metal behemoth" stopped rumbling, and this experiment was finally completed.

After all of this was over, the cheers that were previously suppressed were finally heard in the laboratory.

Many people were so excited that they began to tear up.

In order to celebrate this hard-won success and to thank everyone for their countless days and nights of hard work, Lu Zhou announced in front of everyone that he would host a celebratory dinner at the Purple Mountain Hotel in the evening.

Obviously, this was coming out of his own pocket; it had nothing to do with the research fund.

After the experiment ended, the engineers began to overhaul the equipment for maintenance. After Lu Zhou asked Sheng Xianfu to be in charge, he took off his white coat and left this laboratory that was under a mountain.

The moment he stepped out of the tunnel, he was hit by the bright rays of sunlight that pierced through the leaves of the trees.

Even though Lu Zhou was blinded by the rays of the sunlight, he was faintly aware of what he was seeing.

Suddenly, the light blue dialog box floated into his sight without any warning.

[Fusion Light mission chain.

[Optional branch mission: 50T superconducting magnet. (complete)

[Optional branch mission: First ignition. (complete)]

As Lu Zhou looked at the two dialog boxes, he paused for a second. After that, a look of excitement appeared on his face.

He completed two missions at the same time.

This was his first time ever doing so.

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Bam!

A newspaper was slammed on the table.

The big eye-catching headline made people turn their heads.

[Big News! STAR Stellarator test runs successfully!]

Even though it wasn't heavily advertised to the public, this and other similar news still appeared in China National Nuclear Corporation's newspaper, "China Nuclear Industry News".

Considering the fact that the stellarator for Lu Yang was still being transported, this was probably the first time a stellarator set foot in China.

However, even though this was something worthy of celebration, it was impossible for everyone to be satisfied.

At least when Zhou Chengfu was reading this newspaper, he wasn't happy at all.

Jiang Liang was standing next to his desk. When he read the newspaper, he secretly pouted. He looked like he was both jealous and envious at the same time.

"This kid really doesn't care, spending 500 million in the blink of an eye."

Zhou Chengfu was expressionless when he spoke slowly.

"It's not like he's spending his own money, why would he care…"

Also, after one successful stellarator ignition, it was much easier to receive additional research funding.

Zhou Chengfu glanced at the newspaper on his desk and laughed coldly.

"1 second…"

This achievement was far worse than that of HL-2A.

Zhou Chengfu picked up the newspaper; he was about to throw it in the trash can.

Suddenly, while holding the newspaper in his hand, he had an idea in his mind.

Maybe, he could capitalize on this…

…

The successful STAR Stellarator experiment opened the door for stellarators to the Chinese controllable nuclear fusion field.

Two days after the successful experiment, reporters from magazines such as China Nuclear Industry News, Science and Technology Weekly, etc ran reports and interviews on the latest STAR project. When the members of the city council of Jin Ling heard the news, they came to visit the laboratory under the Purple Mountain and to show their appreciation for the stellarator project.

Lu Zhou let Academician Pan deal with these trivial matters.

He wasn't interested in doing any media interviews before any decisive results came out; he was even less interested in the city council members.

Other than the in-progress STAR Stellarator results, the greatest joy this successful experiment brought him was probably the system rewards that came out of nowhere.

He completed two of the system's branch missions at once, which gave him various experience points—100,000 in materials science, 50,000 in biochemistry, 50,000 in physics, 100,000 in engineering, and 1,000 general points.

This was undoubtedly an unexpected surprise for him.

The total accumulated experience was over 300,000; it was not an exaggeration to say that he hit the jackpot.

While Lu Zhou sat in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study, his consciousness was currently in the system space.

He looked at his updated characteristic panel.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 7 (144,000/1.2 million)

B. Physics: Level 5 (83,215/300,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 4 (74,000/100,000)

D. Engineering: Level 3 (5/100,000)

E. Materials science: level 5 (13,000/300,000)

F. Energy science: Level 2 ( 0/50,000)

G. Information science: Level 1 (3,000/10,000)

General points: 4,975 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

He leveled up both in materials science and engineering.

His materials science level was at level five now, which was the same level as his physics.

As for engineering…

Even though he wasn't really involved in engineering research, there was no harm in having more talents.

Also, a scholar that had an understanding of the engineering field often gave more constructive suggestions. Their laboratory research results were also more like to be easily applied in the real world.

After Lu Zhou closed his characteristic panel, he double-checked the branch mission of the Fusion Light mission chain before he exited the system space.

After his consciousness was brought back to his office, he stretched his back and leaned against his office chair.

It was pretty tiring sitting in the same position.

He stretched his stiff arms and looked at the clock on the wall; it was already half-past twelve in the afternoon.

He felt a bit hungry, so he got up and left his office. He then went straight to the cafeteria of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Since it was a bit past lunchtime, there weren't many people in the cafeteria.

After Lu Zhou got his food, he found a place to sit down and began eating.

Coincidentally, Yang Xu came to the cafeteria as well. He noticed Lu Zhou sitting there, so he walked over and placed his food tray across from Lu Zhou.

"What a coincidence, you're having a late lunch as well?"

Lu Zhou: "There's been a lot of work piled up, so it slightly delayed my lunch."

Yang Xu: "I really think that you should hire two assistants. Whether you need help making your coffee or not, at least they will save you a lot of trouble."

Lu Zhou: "I'll think about it. What about you? What have you been up to?"

"Mainly research-related work." Yang Xu suddenly thought of something, so he said, "Oh yeah, there's something I have to talk to you about."

Lu Zhou: "What thing?"

Yang Xu: "We hired a bunch of new people at the beginning of the year, right? Most people don't really know each other, so they're lacking a bit in cooperation and teamwork. I talked about it with Liu Bo, and we plan on organizing a sports event next month, to boost everyone's morale and friendship."

"Sure, health is the capital for scientific research. I support this," Lu Zhou smiled and said. "Give me a budget statement, and I'll cover the prizes."

Yang Xu smiled and said, "I'll remember that."

After Lu Zhou ate his lunch, he returned to his office and switched on his computer. He began to work on his unfinished work from the morning.

A few hours ago, the STAR team finished the experimental report and summarized the plasma diagnostic data, which they sent to his work email.

After Lu Zhou opened the email, he downloaded the attachment and began to read it carefully.

[Longitudinal wave field 51.14T, plasma current 0kA, plasma confinement time 1.11s, maximum time 1.75s, auxiliary heating power 40MW, plasma line average density greater than 7.51019m-1, electron temperature 9.86keV (around 1.1 billion degrees)…]

Lu Zhou looked at the data on the spreadsheet and nodded with satisfaction.

From the data alone, it seemed that the last experiment was quite successful.

We can try putting in hydrogen for our next experiment.

Also, we have to solve the supercomputer and plasma control schemes as soon as possible. Otherwise, the magnetic confinement time isn't going to increase.

And the water-cooled divertor; if we want to accommodate higher fusion temperatures and confine high-density plasma for more than 30 minutes, we might have to redesign this component.

Lu Zhou was thinking about this in his mind.

Suddenly, he heard hasty footsteps coming from the corridor.

Soon after, he heard someone knocking on the door.

Lu Zhou closed his email and looked at his door.

"Come in."

Sheng Xianfu was holding a newspaper as he walked in, obviously exasperated.

"This is ridiculous!"

He placed the newspaper on Lu Zhou's desk.

When Lu Zhou looked at the headline of the article, he raised an eyebrow.

Are they… trying to provoke us?

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Chapter 500: 4 Billion Yuan Well Spent?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

[WEGA Transforms Into STAR, Is This 4 Billion Yuan Well Spent?]

This title was meant to stir up public discussion, while the article body used three paragraphs to objectively portray a simple narrative of the past and present of the STAR Stellarator.

However, this so-called objective narrative was only five hundred words.

And even the five hundred words were only used to merely pave the way for their biased opinion.

Lu Zhou saw this and raised his eyebrows with interest. He couldn't help but wonder what Academician Zhou planned on doing; therefore, he continued to read the article.

He quickly realized the intention of the article.

Simply speaking, this scientific article had two main intentions.

The first was to pour cold water on this burning fire. They explained the 1-second plasma confinement time from a simple scientific standpoint, saying how it wasn't anything novel in the controllable nuclear fusion field.

Then, it subtly pointed out the work done by the STAR project team so far, saying how all they did was spend 4 billion yuan to buy a "second-hand machine" from someone else.

As for the central idea of the article, other than criticizing the technical route of STAR Stellarator, they also said that he was "trying to impress people", "wasting our country's resources", and "affecting the development of controllable nuclear fusion".

Lu Zhou could probably guess why Academician Zhou was doing this.

It was nothing more than trying to defeat Lu Zhou before his wings were fully grown.

After all, the country's investment into the controllable nuclear fusion field was limited. If Lu Zhou received more resources, then naturally, he would receive less.

Did this article have any impact?

It actually had a little.

A commentary article signed by a big name had a certain amount of influence in the higher-ups' decision-making process.

Furthermore, this article wasn't a normal article.

This was written by Zhou Chengfu himself, the head of the ITER China project team as well as the director of the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center.

If this article were targeting some no-name scholar, they would be killed just by the influence of this review article alone.

As for Lu Zhou…

It did have a certain amount of impact, but it was limited.

This was the power and aura of a Nobel Prize winner.

But then again, average scholars weren't worthy of being personally attacked by Zhou Chengfu.

"Nicely written." Lu Zhou chuckled and turned over the newspaper.

Seeing that Lu Zhou wasn't angry and casually dismissed this matter, Sheng Xianfu couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you angry?"

Whether it was Professor Li Changxia, or Professor Sheng Xianfu, or the others, the technical backbone of the STAR project team comprised of middle-aged scholars who were in their thirties. They often weren't able to hold back their anger.

After all, if they could manage their anger and understand the philosophy of playing safe, they wouldn't have come work for Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou knew he was going to ask this, and he smiled as he replied nonchalantly, "Do you see Academician Pan getting angry?"

"I don't know… But how can we just leave it like this?" Sheng Xianfu asked, feeling unjust.

"What else are we going to do? Write a scientific review and criticize the tokamak? Offending most of the controllable nuclear fusion experts?" Lu Zhou threw the newspaper aside and said, "Why am I still doing research then, why don't I just become a reporter for the newspaper…"

Actually, if he really wanted to, he could write an article.

If any unresolved technical problem was a flaw, then every technical route had flaws.

For example, the tokamak was an external magnetic field coupled with the magnetic field generated by the plasma current, which was equivalent to running tens of millions of amps on an unstable, turbulent conductor.

Serious problems such as twisting, magnetic tearing, and magnetic reconnection could all lead to the collapse of the entire system. And the consequences could be far more dangerous than the stellarator; it could cause serious damage to the equipment.

This was one of the reasons why every tokamak experiment was done cautiously and carefully.

Actually, Lu Zhou sometimes wondered if there were any new ideas that could jump out at him. He wondered why mathematics was so easy to deal with compared to this. After all, he solved the existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation and the plasma turbulence problems. If only he could also solve the twisting, magnetic tearing, and magnetic reconnection problems for everyone.

But then again, even Old Zhou wouldn't use this kind of ridiculous argument to attack his opponent.

He noticed that Sheng Xianfu looked like he didn't want to take this loss, so Lu Zhou spoke slowly.

"Facts speak louder than words, and our result is the biggest counterattack.

"Right now, your job is to prepare for the experiment in August.

"Next time, we will aim for thirty minutes."

After hearing thirty minutes, Sheng Xianfu's facial expression changed; he looked a bit reluctant.

"Thirty minutes… Isn't it a bit too difficult for STAR Stellarator?"

Even with the upgraded water-cooled divertor and improved control scheme, the Wendelstein 7-X was barely able to reach this number.

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Scared?"

Sheng Xianfu looked at Lu Zhou's confident expression and paused for a second.

He went silent for a while before a smirk gradually appeared on his face and reignited his fighting spirit.

"… No way, I'm not scared of anything."

…

There had always been a power hierarchy problem in academia.

There were some people at the top of the academic hierarchy that didn't talk about specific academic problems. Instead, they incorporated the issue of morality, race, and even politics into academic problems. They also took advantage of the general public's knowledge gaps and tried to incite their sense of justice and nationalism to attack their opponents. This was one of the common tactics used by tyrants in academia.

Even the international big names like Old Qiu had been screwed by the Chinese academic community.

These people didn't reason, didn't disprove. They only selectively chose facts that were beneficial to them and exaggerated them.

Zhou Chengfu was definitely an expert in using this tactic.

Even if Lu Zhou wanted to respond to this article, it would be difficult.

However, Lu Zhou actually didn't have to do that.

Because the end result was always the best counterargument.

He never really cared about what Zhou Chengfu said.

Of course, even though he didn't care, there were many people that cared for him.

Like Academician Pan.

Even though the old academician was retired, he had been paying attention to the things that were happening in the industry.

After he read that article signed by Zhou Chengfu, his first reaction was to call Lu Zhou. He tried to persuade Lu Zhou not to do anything out of anger. If Lu Zhou acted impulsively, he might fall into Zhou Chengfu's trap.

Lu Zhou obviously already knew this; therefore, he told Academician Pan not to worry.

Lu Zhou knew exactly what to do and what not to do.

Other than Academician Pan, there was also the principal of Jin Ling University, Principal Xu.

Principal Xu's temper was not nearly as nice as that of Academician Pan's.

The STAR project was one of the key projects for Jin Ling University. Furthermore, Lu Zhou was the pride of Jin Ling University. Old Pan had a history with Zhou Chengfu, but Principal Xu was having none of this.

Lu Zhou found Principal Xu. He was about to discuss the control scheme of the stellarator with him when Principal Xu spoke first.

"What is with this Zhou Chengfu guy?"

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Chapter 501: Building a Supercomputer

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou was stunned when he heard Principal Xu's concern, so he smiled and spoke.

"Actually it's not a big deal, maybe Old Zhou thinks that my development is going too smoothly and is worried about me surpassing him. He probably wrote that article hoping I would slow down and wait for him to catch up."

Principal Xu heard Lu Zhou's words and shook his head.

"Your mentality is so strong, still able to make jokes with me."

"It's not that big of a deal, making a joke isn't a big deal," Lu Zhou carelessly smiled and said. "From Mr. Zhou's point of view, he owns the controllable nuclear fusion field. Obviously, he wants to control everyone in this field. To put it bluntly, this isn't a fight between the Stellarator and Tokamak. Regardless of what I am researching, as long as he isn't in control of the STAR Stellarator project and my research is affecting his authority in the field, he will definitely have some negative opinions about me."

Principal Xu smiled and said, "… You're seeing the whole situation thoroughly. So you really don't care at all?"

"I really don't care what he says." Lu Zhou smiled lightly and said, "It might have impacted someone else, but it isn't impacting me."

"… Okay then, if he's intimidating you with his authority and does something out of line, you can tell me. I can't help you much with your research, but I can still help you write a couple of letters," Principal Xu said. He unscrewed his vacuum flask lid and took a sip of hot tea. He then paused for a while and said, "It's not just me, your supervisor Old Lu and the entire Jin Ling University is on your side."

Lu Zhou: "If it really comes to that, I will tell you."

"I'm relieved to hear you say this." Principal Xu nodded and said, "What I'm most worried about isn't your research going wrong, it's you not speaking up about some issue."

Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly and said, "You must be kidding, am I the type of person that will mistreat myself?"

"Okay, enough of this. I know you're not here to talk about this thing." Principal Xu smiled and asked, "Tell me, what trouble have you encountered?"

Lu Zhou put on a more serious expression and spoke.

"The reason I came to visit you today was mainly to talk about the program problems."

"Program problems? I'm decent at that." Principal Xu put down the vacuum flask and said with interest, "Let's hear it. Even if I can't solve it, I can recommend a couple of information technology academicians that can."

Lu Zhou: "It's about the control scheme for the stellarator."

"Stellarator's control scheme?" Principal Xu frowned after hearing Lu Zhou's question, and he asked, "This… I really don't know a lot about it. Can you elaborate?"

Lu Zhou nodded and explained the specific problem from an academic point of view.

In short, whether it was the tokamak or stellarator, the high destiny plasma in the fusion chambers was highly unstable, and turbulence could occur at any time.

The magnetic field that constrained the plasma was like an invisible hand, while the computer that controlled the outer field coil was like the brain. Having just the brain alone wasn't enough, the plasma changes could occur in an instant. It was impossible for people to control the computer, this could only be done by a program.

The Max Planck Institute was quite well-versed in this regard. According to the control scheme established by referencing Lu Zhou's plasma turbulence model, the operation time of Wendelstein 7-X successfully increased to 30 minutes, thus shocking the entire world.

Now that Lu Zhou's plasma turbulence model was proven correct by the Wendelstein 7-X, all Lu Zhou had to do was to prepare a reliable control scheme for his STAR machine.

The Institute for Advanced Study didn't have anyone proficient in information technology. With his scrappy programming knowledge, he could write a couple of programs, but he was way out of his league when it came to large-scale scientific research project software.

Therefore, Lu Zhou focused his attention on Jin Ling University.

Jin Ling University's computer science department was second only to the physics department. It was ranked as one of the highest in China. Plus Principal Xu himself was an academician of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, so asking him for help was the perfect match.

After hearing Lu Zhou's explanation, Principal Xu thought for a moment and said, "The problems you talked about, it's not just software problems, right?"

Lu Zhou was a little embarrassed as he said, "Yeah, that is the case."

This was quite shameful. As of now, not only was the STAR machine brain lacking in software, but it also had hardware problems that had to be solved.

Like building a supercomputer, this was all something that would require professionals to complete.

Professor Xu sighed and said, "Okay then, I'll gather the professors from the computer science department and form a small team. We'll help you solve both the hardware and software problem as well as the control scheme… Can I ask how much is your budget?"

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "Around a billion yuan."

Principal Xu: "…"

Lu Zhou hesitated for a bit and asked, "Is it not enough?"

It's not like I'm building a Tianhe-2 supercomputer, one billion is surely enough?

Principal Xu gently coughed and said, "… Nothing, it's enough. I was just a bit surprised."

What he really wanted to say was how rich the controllable nuclear fusion industry was, but it wouldn't be appropriate to say this out loud.

They had hundreds of millions in research funding, and any research project they outsourced would be able to fund countless professors.

No wonder Zhou Chengfu was jealous.

"The computer science department here can solve the control scheme and supercomputer problem. Is there anything else?"

Lu Zhou was about to say that there wasn't anything else, but he suddenly remembered Yang Xu talking about a staff sports event thing, so he spoke.

"Oh yeah, one more thing."

Principal Xu: "What thing?"

"It's not anything important. It's just that our institute plans on hosting a sports event, but our gymnasiums are still under construction." Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly as he said, "If it's not too much of a hassle, I'd like to borrow a sports venue or something."

When Principal Xu heard this request, he replied with a smile, "That's it? Piece of cake, I'll call the academic affairs office. Oh yeah, Dean Liu was also talking to me about hosting a faculty sports event. How about we find a time to host it together?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Sure, I don't mind."

The Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and Jin Ling University 1 were part of a family. Not only did they collaborate on research projects, but many researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study also had faculty positions at Jin Ling University. Having a sports event would boost everyone's morale.

Also, sports events would be boring if there were not a lot of people; it would be much more fun with more people.

Since Lu Zhou agreed, Principal Xu smiled and patted his thigh. He quickly said, "Okay then, it's ad one deal. We'll provide the venue, and you guys will take care of the prizes."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Why does it feel like…

There's some kind of strange agreement mixed into this.

Whatever, it's not like we're lacking money anyway.

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Chapter 502: Faculty Sports Games

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

This was completely opposite of what Zhou Chengfu expected. He waited for a week and didn't hear anything from the STAR project team.

STAR didn't announce any new experiment plans, nor did he see Lu Zhou respond publicly to his scientific review article.

It was like…

He was being ignored…

Zhou Chengfu felt like he was being punched out of nowhere; it made him uneasy.

Originally, he thought that after Lu Zhou saw his article, even if Lu Zhou didn't reply with a rebuttal article, he would at least immediately begin the next controllable nuclear fusion experiment, in hopes of proving himself.

And regardless of which one Lu Zhou chose, it would be beneficial for him.

If Lu Zhou chose the former, he wouldn't lose to him in terms of article writing abilities. If Lu Zhou chose the latter, at least he could get an understanding of the STAR machine.

After all, he didn't know exactly what was the situation with the STAR machine. Whether it "only decided to run for one second" or "could only run for one second", he had no idea.

Even though he didn't feel optimistic about the WEGA machine, that was only a guess based on the fact that the Germans were willing to sell the machine for 500 million. Therefore, he didn't want to say anything too controversial and absolute. At the very least, he had to be cautious with his words.

Zhou Chengfu was in his office, reading the latest issue of China Nuclear Industry News. As if he was talking to himself, he asked, "Why is this kid staying so silent?"

Jiang Liang was also puzzled. Logically speaking, Lu Zhou had no reason to take the loss.

His eyes turned as a thought appeared in his mind.

"Maybe… They really bought a piece of trash?"

Zhou Chengfu pondered for a while and said, "That could be possible. After all, the WEGA machine has been retired since 2013. Anything could have happened within these six years."

Ever since the Wendelstein 7-X project was launched, the WEGA machine was forgotten and faded out of everyone's mind. The only information about the WEGA machine was that it was still on the laboratory's list of devices.

After all, controllable nuclear fusion wasn't a popular field. The important research was basically centered around a few nuclear fusion devices that were still operational. No one would pay attention to a device that couldn't produce any research results.

And if a device wasn't able to produce theses, then no one would know what the situation of the device was.

From the very beginning, Zhou Chengfu had suspected that this equipment was defective. Otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense for the Germans to so readily agree to a sale.

After all, from his objective opinion as an insider, the price tag of 500 million was a bit cheap…

Zhou Chengfu thought for a bit.

"Let's see what happens in a few days.

"We'll wait until the end of the month."

If they really bought a 4 billion yuan piece of scrap metal, then it would be interesting…

…

While Zhou Chengfu was planning on how he should play the cards in his hands, there was a beautiful clear blue sky thousands of miles away in Jinling.

On this day, the staff of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study as well as the faculty of Jin Ling University finally met each other at their jointly held sports games.

Other than traditional track and field events, such as running, hurdling, high jump, long jump, and relay running, there were also a wide variety of ball sports, such as table tennis, football, and basketball. There were also events specifically designed to promote teamwork, such as table tennis ball relay and the three-legged race.

At the opening ceremony, the contestants raised the national flag. They were arranged by their faculty departments and shouted the oath of sportsmanship. After the principal's opening speech, this sports event finally officially began.

"Old Tang, are you fine?"

Professor Lu Fangping was warming up at the start of the hundred-meter race. He's actually been gaining quite a bit of weight over the years, but he still jokingly teased Professor Tang Zhiwei, who was standing next to him on the race track.

Old Tang heard his friend's joke and laughed. He then said, "You don't have to worry about me, just worry about yourself, and don't break your back."

Old Lu: "I'm not trying to offend you, but your posture isn't correct at all, aren't you going to warm up?"

Old Tang: "Warm up? It's only a hundred meters."

Old Lu: "Ah, don't blame me when you trip and fall."

When the referee next to the race track raised his gun, the two old professors shut their mouths and focused on the race track in front of them. They both planned to prove to each other who would be the real winner.

"Everyone…

"Get set…

"Run!"

The moment the gun went off with a bang, the professors sprinted like a couple of rabbits.

However, within two seconds, something embarrassing happened.

First, Old Tang's shoe flew off his foot, landing a couple of meters away. Then, Old Lu, who was running behind him, saw the shoe fly off, and he fell onto the ground. He even nearly got a cramp from laughing too hard.

Obviously, being good at running had nothing to do with warming up beforehand.

Thankfully the running track was made from soft polyurethane, therefore the fall wasn't too painful. Not to mention, Professor Lu's beer belly helped him reduce the impact. With people on both sides of the race track cheering for him, he still stood up while wincing.

The teachers and students who were standing on both sides of the running track tried their best to cheer Old Lu on. But falling onto the ground would undoubtedly make him come last.

However, the two old professors still persevered. They stumbled to the finish line and received applause from the students and teachers.

Inside the gymnasium, there were two teams fighting on the basketball court, defending and chasing the ball.

This competition was between the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study and Jin University chemistry department.

It was obvious the ball sports were more enjoyable to watch than track and field events.

There were many more people surrounding the basketball court.

Of course, it also could've just been because of Lu Zhou's presence on the court.

Some random professors accidentally gossiped in class, which ended up causing all of the students in the maths, chemistry, and physics departments to find out that the Fields Medal and Nobel Prize winner was going to participate in this sports event. This put the number of spectators on a whole other level.

However, Lu Zhou didn't pay attention to the spectators; his focus was on the basketball competition.

Over the past six months, he had been busy with research. He hadn't exercised this intensely in a long time.

As for how many shots he landed…

That wasn't important.

Playing basketball was more about having fun.

After all, everyone was bad at the game.

Besides, he knew that the reason why there were so many people watching him and cheering him on wasn't because of his skillful basketball techniques.

What was the real reason?

Was that really a question that needed to be answered?

Obviously it was because of his handsomeness…

A couple of chemistry students stood on the edge of the basketball court while watching the game. They began to brag to each other.

"Whenever our new lecturer on computational materials talks about the Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure, his PowerPoint presentation would show a photo of him and the Nobel Prize laureate. The main thing is that he's in the background of the photo, and you can only see half of his face. I think it might even be photoshopped."

"Bro that's nothing. Every class, our experiment professor will talk about how useless we are and brag about how nutty God Lu was when he was our professor's assistant."

"Is it Professor Li?"

"Of course!"

"He probably just wants to show off he had a Nobel Prize laureate as his assistant."

"Sigh, what's the point? These professors just brag to us undergrad students all day."

Suddenly, they heard a jarring voice from the crowd behind them.

"Ah, what are you guys talking about?"

The students turned their heads and saw Li Rongen with his hands behind his back as he smiled at them.

It was like the students saw a ghost, and they turned around as they scattered away.

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Chapter 503: I Didn't Expect You to Be Very Popular

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Break time.

Qian Zhongming sat on the side of the basketball court. He gasped for air and looked at Lu Zhou, who was sitting next to him.

"I didn't know you can play basketball."

"I can do a lot of things." Lu Zhou smirked and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his collar.

Suddenly, someone handed him a bottle of Gatorade.

Lu Zhou looked over and saw a familiar figure standing there.

"I-I saw you were sweating a lot, so I bought this for you."

When Han Mengqi looked at Lu Zhou in his basketball clothes, her cheeks felt a little warm.

Up until now, she always thought of him as a trench coat in the winter, t-shirt in the summer kind of guy.

This was her first time seeing him like this.

Without hesitating, Lu Zhou took the bottle of Gatorade from her and said thanks.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." Han Mengqi's ponytail swung like a squirrel's tail, and she threw away her strange fantasies as she raised her fist. "You got this, Master!"

"Oh, thanks!"

Seeing how energetic she was, Lu Zhou's strength recovered quite a bit. He smiled and shouted with her.

But speaking of which, she was in the chemistry department, right?

Is it really fine for her to cheer me on?

While he was thinking about this problem, Han Mengqi already left with a blushing face.

When Lu Zhou placed the half-finished bottle near the basketball hoop, he noticed Brother Qian looking at him thoughtfully. Lu Zhou was feeling kind of suspicious by it.

"What?"

"… Nothing." Qian Zhongming adjusted his glasses and said, "It's just a bit surprising, I didn't expect you to be this popular."

Lu Zhou: "I'm popular?"

Qian Zhongming asked seriously, "Are you not?"

"… A bit." Lu Zhou looked at the students cheering him on and scratched his head. He then said awkwardly, "Probably because I'm so handsome."

Qian Zhongming: "…"

The final competition score was 52:37, the winner was the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Lu Zhou played his heart out in this competition.

The only unfortunate thing was that in the second half of the game, Brother Qian, who was the point guard, didn't pass him the ball at all.

Is Brother Qian jealous of me?

…

The chemistry department wasn't the only one that lost.

Over the next three days, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study overcame all of the obstacles and successfully won the championship.

However, Lu Zhou was carried by his team…

At night, when the sports event ended, several teachers from the sports department gathered at the top floor of Jin Ling University cafeteria. They were giving out award certificates and prizes to the first, second, and third place winners.

The prizes weren't extravagant; the individual competition gold medalist won a watch worth tens of thousands of yuan, and the silver medalist won a phone worth less than ten thousand yuan. As for the team competition, everyone got their share of the prize money.

The award ceremony was lively. However, Lu Zhou, who was holding a trophy on stage as he represented his teammates, didn't feel a sense of accomplishment at all.

After all, the Institute for Advanced Study had a huge age advantage. It wasn't easy for the Jin Ling University departments to assemble a team with an average age of around 35 years old. It wasn't like they could only send the young school counselors, they had to let the old professors participate as well.

Also, the most important thing was that the prizes were coming out of Lu Zhou's pocket, which made it even more boring for him.

"The International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference is in Los Angeles next month. Do you plan on going there?"

Professor Yu Jinsong asked Lu Zhou this question when they were at the dinner table.

Professor Yu was one of the few plasma physics professors at the Jin Ling University physics department. He was doing a collaborative research project with the STAR Stellarator Research Institute on plasma reactions inside the stellarator reactor.

Not just that, but he also played the role of a technical adviser for the group of software experts established by Jin Ling University for the STAR machine control scheme and supercomputer equipment.

When Lu Zhou heard him talking about this topic, he smiled and said, "I might be attending, why?"

The International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference was regarded as the highest level academic conference in the entire nuclear fusion field.

It was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was headquartered in Vienna. The conference aimed to provide a platform for scholars in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, as well as for those greedy industry folks who were interested in commercial fusion reactors… Actually "greedy" would be the wrong adjective. It should be those who were "brave" enough to embrace the future and provide investment for research and development.

After all, any great cause couldn't be carried out without money.

Lu Zhou obviously didn't want to miss an opportunity to communicate with his peers.

Also, he could use this opportunity to put an end to his work at Princeton.

Professor Yu Jinsong smiled and said, "Here's the thing, two of my students signed up for this conference. However, I'm caught up in some matters, so I can't go. If you're not busy, I'm wondering if you could take care of them?"

This didn't sound like a big deal, therefore Lu Zhou agreed to it.

"Sure, they can come with me."

Professor Yu toasted Lu Zhou and said, "Then thank you so much."

…

The dinner lasted until nine o'clock at night.

Lu Zhou was fed quite a lot of alcohol. Even though his alcohol tolerance was pretty good, thanks to the system strengthening his metabolic capacity, he still stumbled a little when he walked outside.

Wang Peng was standing outside next to a car with their national flag when he saw Lu Zhou stumbling out of the main cafeteria entrance. He just finished smoking his cigarette, so he threw the cigarette butt into the trash can.

He had driven Lu Zhou for a long time, so he knew Lu Zhou didn't like the smell of cigarettes. Every time he had a craving for a cigarette, he would smoke when Lu Zhou wasn't around.

Lu Zhou sat in the passenger seat and put on his seatbelt before he casually asked a question, "Did you eat?"

Wang Peng smiled and said, "I already did. Where to?"

"Zhongshan International."

"Ok."

He started the car engine, and soon, they were on the way out of the university campus.

Lu Zhou, who was sitting in the passenger seat, pinched his eyebrows. He felt his phone in his pocket vibrate, so he took it out and glanced at his screen.

Unsurprisingly, Xiao Ai was harassing him again.

Xiao Ai: [Master, you have a new mail. Are you buying a supercomputer? I'm so happy! (/)]

Lu Zhou resisted the urge to fall asleep. He yawned and typed.

[You read my email?]

Xiao Ai: [Hey! Didn't you say Xiao Ai can read it? ()]

Actually, I think I did say that.

After all, this thing feeds on information, and it won't grow without eating.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and typed.

[I do have plans on buying a supercomputer… But that thing is very expensive, and it's for the fusion machine, so don't even think about it.]

Xiao Ai: [But I can help you. (o_o)]

Lu Zhou's fingers rested on the screen. He then typed hesitantly.

[You can help me?]

Xiao Ai: [Yeah! I don't know what exactly I should do, but my learning abilities are very strong! (.)]

Lu Zhou looked at the stupid emojis and wasn't convinced at all.

However, keeping Xiao Ai on standby wasn't a good idea either.

If it was possible, he'd rather find a way to utilize Xiao Ai.

Lu Zhou looked down and thought for a bit.

"… I'll think about it."

Wang Peng, who was holding the steering wheel, suddenly heard this come out of nowhere.

"… Think about what?"

"Oh, nothing…"

Lu Zhou burped, and it smelled like alcohol. He leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and began to think.

Should I do it?

It's worth considering.

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Chapter 504: Headed to Los Angeles

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou had always been cautious toward Xiao Ai.

Even though he had researched its core software, to this day, there were still many things that he didn't fully understand.

After all, this wasn't some advanced technology that he invented himself; it was given to him by the system.

He still didn't know if there were hidden dangers inside of Xiao Ai.

However, Lu Zhou decided it was worth a try.

If Xiao Ai really could be of use, it would undoubtedly be a huge helping hand for him.

However, his information science level was at the bottom of all his disciplines.

But he believed that it was one of the three pillars of modern science. As his research continued to dive deeper into the unknown, the scope of his research would continue to expand. The value of information science would gradually unfold.

A few days after the faculty sports event, Lu Zhou tidied up the collected data from the STAR machine's last experiment. He also arranged assignments for his researchers and began to prepare for his Los Angeles trip.

Professor Li Changxia was going with him to the International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference, since he had to do a report at the conference. Manager Sun Chengwu and Chief Engineer Cao from Baosheng Group were going as well.

The reason why Manager Sun and Engineer Cao were going was simple, it was obviously to develop their international market.

Of course, other than these three, there were also two PhD students that were going with Lu Zhou.

The day before the departure, Lu Zhou went to Jin Ling University to sort out some matters. He also went to the physics department and met Professor Yu Jinsong's two PhD students.

"You guys are?"

"I'm Fei Jingti."

"I'm Dian Cili."

One is called amorphous solid, one is called electromagnetic force. 1

When Lu Zhou heard these two names, he couldn't help but ask, "Do you guys have a friend called Ning Jutai?" 1

Brother Dian and Brother Fei paused for a second and looked at each other before smiling awkwardly.

"… We don't have a friend named that, but we do have a friend who is still studying for a master's."

Lu Zhou: "What is his name?"

Fei Jingti said awkwardly, "Liu Ti." 1

Lu Zhou: "…"

…

Lu Zhou didn't care whether or not Professor Yu had a weird thing for physics sounding names. He still arranged a time and place with Brother Dian and Brother Fei to meet up for departure.

This year's International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference would be held on July 1st. The location was at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In order to have more time, they decided to leave two days in advance, departing on June 29th.

On the day of departure, the squad first flew to Shanghai before transferring from Shanghai onto a plane heading toward Los Angeles.

As soon as Engineer Cao got on the plane, he immediately closed his eyes and began to nap.

"I hate flying." Fei Jingti looked at the ground gradually becoming smaller, and he shivered as he said, "I feel unsafe when I'm this far away from the ground."

Dian Cili, who was sitting next to him, mockingly said, "Don't worry, from a statistical point of view, the probability of you falling from the sky is much lower than the probability of you winning the lottery jackpot."

Fei Jingti argued, "But from a quantum mechanics perspective, you can't rule out any possibility until the plane is re-observed by a ground radar station."

"That's not how quantum mechanics works. You two go take a break, don't jinx it for us."

Lu Zhou, who was sitting beside them, couldn't stand listening for any longer. He couldn't help but interrupt their argument.

Talking about a plane crash on an airplane wasn't a good thing.

Just now, he noticed many passengers looking at them with dissatisfied expressions.

Since Lu Zhou said this, the two blabbers immediately realized their mistake and shut their mouths.

Suddenly, the white guy sitting next to Lu Zhou asked in a poor Chinese accent, "You guys are going to the academic conference?"

Surprised, Lu Zhou looked at the old man and asked curiously, "How did you know?"

"Because I often attend academic conferences. Plus I know a little bit of Chinese, so I listened to your conversation," the old man said with a smile. "I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm just curious… Are you guys physics researchers?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "My colleagues are physics researchers, I'm a mathematician, I only know a bit about physics."

Li Changxia: "…"

Fei Jingti: "…"

Dian Cili: "…"

Since Professor Lu said he only knew a bit about physics…

Then did that mean that they knew nothing about physics?

Manager Sun, who hadn't said anything, touched his forehead and smiled as he said, "They're the researchers, I'm just a layman. I know a bit about high school physics, but for anything bachelor's and above, I'll leave it to the researchers."

The old man smiled and said, "That's all good, I'm a researcher, but I'm also a layman. I know a bit about condensed matter physics, but my research is mainly focused on materials science. What about you guys?"

Professor Li Changxia: "Plasma physics."

The old man nodded and said, "I've heard about it before, it's a very esoteric field."

Meeting someone from academia while being on a plane was improbable.

Flying was boring, and it was a bit too early to start fixing their sleep schedule. Therefore, they began to start chatting.

According to the old man, a few days ago, he went to an international materials science conference in Shanghai, and he was now on the way back to America.

Lu Zhou felt like this person looked familiar, so he asked with a smile, "Can I ask what your name is?"

"Moungi G Bawendi." Professor Bawendi smiled and asked cheerfully, "What about you?"

When Lu Zhou heard this name, he paused for a second.

Bawendi?

This is such a coincidence, how did I bump into him?

"… Lu Zhou."

When Bawendi heard Lu Zhou's name, he was stunned and surprised by it.

"Lu Zhou? You're that Lu Zhou? This is… This is such a coincidence."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "What a coincidence, I didn't expect to bump into you here."

Professor Li Changxia: "You guys know each other?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Kind of, but we only communicated through work. This is our first time meeting in person."

Lu Zhou remembered a long time ago, when he was still doing his bachelor's degree at Jin Ling University, Professor Bawendi was his thesis reviewer.

Lu Zhou still remembered that the thesis was about computational materials.

Back then, the entire computational materials field was a new discipline that was quite unpopular. But a few years later, this new discipline began to become more and more popular in the international scientific field. It became much easier to fund a thesis reviewer.

During the flight, Professor Bawendi and Lu Zhou talked a lot about materials science.

Especially the carbon nanomaterials field, which they were both familiar with.

During their conversation, Bawendi began to talk about the recent development of carbon nanomaterials research.

"… I don't know if you've been paying attention to the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. A few months ago, at the conference, Professor Banerjee from the University of California, Santa Barbara, reported their latest research on carbon interconnection technology."

Lu Zhou: "Carbon interconnection technology?"

"That's right." Professor Bawendi smiled and said, "Simply put, they designed a computer chip and replaced the copper in the chip with a carbon-based nanomaterial. I heard IBM is interested in their research. This is a very trendy research direction. I can bet that after you read their thesis, you'll be interested."

Using a carbon nanomaterial for computer chips?

This does sound interesting.

Lu Zhou connected this to his recent breakthrough in SG-1 wire synthesis and suddenly looked interested.

"This does sound interesting, if I have the time, I'll pay attention to it."

The two talked a lot during the flight.

Because there was someone Lu Zhou could discuss academic problems with, even though the flight was tedious, he didn't think it was boring.

After a dozen or so hours of flight, the airplane finally landed on the Los Angeles airport runway.

After Professor Bawendi and Lu Zhou walked down the airstair, they shook hands and bid farewell.

"If you have the chance, you can come to visit me at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Goodbye."

Lu Zhou shook Professor Bawendi's hands and smiled as he said, "Have a nice trip. If you ever come to Jinling, you can also visit me at Jin Ling University."

After they parted ways, Lu Zhou found two taxis outside the airport. The squad went straight to the InterContinental Hotel, which was where the meeting would be held.

Lu Zhou walked through the hotel lobby and was about to walk toward the elevator.

Suddenly, he heard a voice come from the side.

"Hello, are you Professor Lu?"

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Chapter 505: International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou stopped walking and looked at the person who asked the question.

"Who are you?"

"Mihir Benderbauer, chairman and chief technology officer of Tri Alpha." Benderbauer reached out his right hand to Lu Zhou and said with a smile, "It's nice meeting you here."

Tri Alpha?

Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows.

He had obviously heard of Tri Alpha, one of the biggest companies in the controllable nuclear fusion field.

It was a privately owned commercial controllable nuclear fusion company. The parent organization behind this company was Google, the company with a "clean energy complex".

In order to speed up the experimental progress of Tri Alpha's C2-U machine, Google utilized its advantage in software engineering and tailored a specific "Optometrist Algorithm" for them. This algorithm used a stochastic perturbation method combined with the human choice to generate the plasma required for the nuclear fusion experiment in a much efficient manner.

Google wasn't the only nutty one; Tri Alpha itself was also very competitive. The company independently developed a "field-reversed configuration (FRC)" machine. The outside of this machine looked like a long cylinder with several small cylindrical chambers inside the cylinder. This machine could increase the plasma temperature much more efficiently than conventional microwave heating.

There was no doubt that the Optometrist Algorithm and the field-reversed configuration machine were considered advanced technologies in the controllable fusion field.

However, Lu Zhou always felt like they had put their attention and focus on weird places.

After all, neither an advanced human-computer interaction algorithm nor a faster way to increase plasma temperature was a difficult bottleneck in the controllable nuclear fusion field.

Lu Zhou shook his right hand and said, "It's nice meeting you too… Do you want something from me?"

Benderbauer smiled and said, "Can we talk in private?"

Lu Zhou looked at Professor Li Changxia and gave his suitcase to him.

"Sorry to bother you."

Professor Li Changxia smiled and said, "It's fine, I'll head upstairs first."

Lu Zhou: "Okay, I'll be there in a sec."

Lu Zhou followed Benderbauer and walked to a cafe next to the hotel.

After they found a quiet place to sit down, Benderbauer picked up a menu.

"Do you want anything?"

"A mocha is good."

"One mocha and one black coffee, please."

"Okay, sir." The waiter quickly wrote down their order on a notepad and left while taking the menus with him.

The coffee soon arrived at their table.

Lu Zhou looked at the coffee on the table and leaned back against his chair. He then asked, "Now, can you tell me what you plan on talking about with me?"

Benderbauer placed his interlocked fingers on the table and looked at Lu Zhou with interest. "I heard you're interested in nuclear fusion research?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Yeah, it's a very challenging and meaningful research project."

Benderbauer: "Can I ask if it's spiritually meaningful or financially meaningful?"

Lu Zhou: "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I just said." Benderbauer took a sip of coffee, the bitterness made him pucker his face. He dropped two sugar cubes into his cup and looked at Lu Zhou as he said, "If it's the latter, why don't you consider working with me?"

"Oh yeah?"

"Whether it's a billion or two billion USD, that's other people's money. It's not yours. If we join forces, we can expand our company and then go public. 10 billion, or 100 billion, it's all possible.

"What do you think about my proposal? Mr. Genius Professor Lu, youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history," Benderbauer had a smile on his face as he said, "I can promise you, you will have at least 5% equity, and its value will far exceed your imagination."

Is he…

Trying to get me on his side?

Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head when he heard this request. He put down his cup of coffee.

"I originally thought you were planning on talking about the FRC device.

"Thanks for your coffee, but also no thanks. I can't help you."

Benderbauer obviously didn't expect Lu Zhou to refuse so swiftly, so he paused for a second.

He saw Lu Zhou stand up and couldn't help but ask, "… Why?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "There's an old saying in Chinese, those who have different beliefs shouldn't work together."

Benderbauer was astonished. He looked at Lu Zhou and asked in disbelief, "Don't tell me… You're actually planning on achieving nuclear fusion?"

Lu Zhou: "Why don't you ask the researchers in your company this question? I'm sure they'll give you a more reliable and rigorous response from a professional's perspective."

"I don't talk about this problem with them, it's meaningless. Their answer is always the same." Benderbauer shook his head and said, "Anyone betting on ten years in the future is a genius, anyone betting on twenty years is a dumb*ss."

Lu Zhou smiled and replied, "What a coincidence, my answer is the same."

…

1st of July.

The International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference officially began.

On the first day of the conference, Dian Cili and Fei Jingti ate their breakfast and came to the lecture hall yawning. They walked into the first conference seminar and found a seat in the back row.

Their supervisor, Professor Yu Jinsong, couldn't come due to some urgent matters. Therefore, before they got here, Professor Yu Jinsong assigned them some special tasks. Not only did he specify which seminars they had to attend, but he also asked them to make detailed notes about the seminar.

Therefore, they couldn't just goof off at the conference as usual.

The seminar report soon began.

The person on stage was Professor Botham from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. His report was on a plasma interaction experiment discovery.

The pair took out their notebooks. Regardless of whether or not they understood the seminar, they still felt like they should take notes of the important parts.

When the seminar was halfway done, Fei Jingti's eyelids were feeling heavy, and he suddenly lowered his voice as he said to his friend, "Over the past six months of reading theses, I discovered something very interesting."

Dian Cili: "What?"

Fei Jingti: "If you explain a very easy concept using academic terminology, you can confuse anyone."

Dian Cili: "Like what?"

Fei Jingti: "Just like so-called 'trivial' content we find in theses. Maybe the author of the thesis only meant that the laboratory person who was responsible for checking the thesis thought it's 'trivial'. Or sentences like 'according to our statistically-based predictions', which basically means, 'we just made an estimate, don't take it seriously'."

Dian Cili: "Can you give a more specific example?"

Fei Jingti: "A more specific example? Like the thesis you're holding right now, look at the last few lines. 'We hope our research can motivate scholars to explore more deeply into this field…'"

Dian Cili was curious. "What does that mean?"

Fei Jingti: "It means that I'm done, whoever else wants to do it, can continue doing it. I'm not doing it."

"Pfft…"

Dian Cili huffed out a quiet laugh and slammed his forehead on the table.

Fei Jingti was muddled, and he glanced at him.

Does this guy really find it that funny?

Professor Botham was standing on stage with his back turned against the blackboard, which was full of calculations. He spoke in a warm and slow voice.

"… We used a high-order harmonic XUV generated by a high-intensity laser and plasma interaction to measure the structure of plasma with a high image resolution.

"As shown in the PowerPoint, we received a very interesting data set from the observations and derived a series of conclusions based on these results.

"This involved a multi-scale analysis of non-linear growth and compressed turbulence… It's not an easy task to solve. Fortunately, we have produced in-progress results."

There was a commotion in the audience as the scholars and experts whispered to one another.

"… If the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy really solved this problem, then it will provide a theoretical basis for solving the magnetic surface tearing problem in the tokamak."

"I can't believe it… Do you think their data is reliable?"

"I don't know, I'll have to do my own research."

Professor Botham was satisfied with the chatting going on around him, and a smug smile appeared on his face.

Just like he had expected, their research results were amazing enough to surprise people.

It was soon the QA session.

Professor Botham looked at the first person with their hand raised and nodded.

"Sir, do you have a question?"

Lu Zhou stood up and looked at the calculations on the blackboard. He then opened his mouth and spoke.

"If my guess is correct, you used a differential geometry method to solve the nonlinear equations."

Professor Botham adjusted his glasses and looked at the Chinese scholar. He then frowned and said, "That's correct, is there a problem?"

Lu Zhou sighed and said, "Integrating the L Manifold to solve the nonlinear topology transformation like this is incorrect. Your method is wrong, you can't use the L Manifold like this."

Botham wasn't angry at the fact that he was being questioned. Instead, he laughed.

He then replied in a sarcastic tone, "I don't know how you came to this conclusion. But in my opinion, it is nonsense. There are no problems in my calculations, I know exactly how to use the L Manifold. I don't need you to teach me."

The scholars caused a ruckus in the lecture hall.

Lu Zhou looked at the crowd in the venue and coughed.

"I'm the one who created the L Manifold."

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Chapter 506: Useless Notes

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Immediately after Lu Zhou said that sentence, the lecture hall went quiet for a few seconds.

This was followed by a commotion in the lecture hall.

Lu Zhou could clearly hear a tint of quiet laughter buried in the conversations.

Obviously, when he said that he was the one that created the L Manifold, many people recognized his identity.

There were also a lot of people that were confused, and these people were waiting patiently for the situation to unfold.

After all, not everyone would know about the "trivial content"; it was only specifically for those who had read the relevant literature.

It wasn't easy for most scholars to read all of the papers in their field, let alone reading research papers in other fields.

Unless someone studied differential geometry and partial differential equations in-depth and did their research on the proof of the existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution, then they likely didn't know what the L Manifold was.

Not to mention that it had been less than a year since the Millennium Prize Problem Navier–Stokes equations were solved.

Of course, since Professor Botham's research was in this field, he knew quite a bit about the L Manifold. He obviously knew who the inventor of the L Manifold was.

But even so, it was difficult for most people to remember a face from a foreign country.

Forget about a foreign Nobel Prize laureate, he didn't even recognize his own country's Nobel Prize laureate!

It wasn't like there were photos attached to the papers…

Professor Botham's wrinkly face turned red, and he stared at Lu Zhou for a long time and couldn't say anything.

You're just a mathematician, what the hell do you know about the L Manifold… I obviously can't say this.

He took a deep breath and decided to bite the bullet.

"Where was I wrong?"

To be honest, he didn't think he was wrong.

After all, before going on stage, he had gone over his thesis numerous times.

And no matter how many times he checked, he was convinced that his calculation process was perfect.

Botham clearly didn't admit his mistake.

Lu Zhou sighed.

"Can I use the blackboard?"

Even though Professor Botham wasn't convinced, he still made a gesture of invitation.

He was already being humiliated, so he should try to appear generous.

Professor Botham watched Lu Zhou walk toward the stage. He stared at Lu Zhou expressionlessly as he comforted himself in his mind.

On the other hand, under the gaze of the scholars, Lu Zhou walked onto the stage.

He picked up an eraser from the multimedia lecture station. He looked at the blackboard and began to contemplate for a moment. Then he began to erase the middle part of the blackboard.

Lu Zhou didn't notice how stiff Professor Botham was. After he erased the blackboard, Lu Zhou threw the eraser aside and picked up a piece of chalk from the lecture station.

"You have a fundamental misunderstanding on the L Manifold. Differential geometry is a very effective tool for solving partial differential equations. However, it cannot be directly applied like other methods. First of all, we have to construct a bilinear operator B'…"

This type of situation was very common in the field of mathematical physics.

The rise of an interesting mathematical tool. The physicists didn't completely understand the tool but that wouldn't prevent them from using it.

Because if they were correct, they might have made a physics discovery.

If they were wrong…

Then they could at least produce a paper, demonstrating how the mathematics tool couldn't be applied like this.

Lu Zhou spoke while filling in the part he erased.

[μ(t)=e(t)·μ0e(t-t')B(μ(t'), μ(t'))dt']

"We set a Schwarz divergence vector field μ0 to the equation and set the time interval I [0, ). Then define a generalized solution N5 of the nonlinear equation as an obey integral equation μ with the continuous mapping of t, ie μN5df(R3)…"

Professor Botham looked at the lines of calculations on the blackboard and had a headache.

Even though Lu Zhou didn't move at a fast pace, he never took a pause.

It was difficult for Botham to keep up with Lu Zhou's train of thought.

If Lu Zhou prepared all this to give him a hard time, then… whatever.

But if Lu Zhou thought of all this on the spot…

Then that would be terrifying!

Botham spent a week to prepare the content that he wrote on the blackboard earlier…

Compared to Professor Botham, the scholars sitting in the crowd were even more muddled…

In order to listen to this seminar, they spent a long time studying the thesis from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. But now, someone was telling them that the calculations in the thesis were wrong?!

???

Excuse me?

As expected, new physics discoveries didn't happen that easily.

Of course, other than the majority who were muddled, there were a small number of scholars who were actually listening and understanding the content on the blackboard.

These were the only people in the lecture hall that could appreciate the value of these calculations.

And for Lu Zhou, that was enough.

Lu Zhou wrote down the last line of calculations and looked at the blackboard. He briefly checked his work and nodded.

"It's basically like this.

"Even though there's no new physics discovery, this is still a very interesting phenomenon.

"I'm not well versed on the tokamak. I can't form an opinion on the magnetic surface tearing problem from these conclusions alone. However, in my opinion, due to the uncertainty of the internal current in the plasma, even if we construct a perfect external field coil, it would be difficult to control the magnetic field inside the reactor…"

Lu Zhou placed the chalk on the lecture station and nodded toward Botham. He then turned around and walked off stage.

The moment he stepped down from the lecture stage, the lecture hall was filled with tumultuous applause.

Soon, the muddled scholars stopped daydreaming and joined in on the applause.

The applause echoed in Professor Botham's ear. He watched Lu Zhou leave the lecture hall and couldn't say anything. Finally, he silently took out his phone and took a photo of the blackboard.

This made him very upset.

However, he still learned something from this seminar…

…

Dian Cili stared blankly at the calculations on the blackboard. He had totally forgotten about what notes were; he was speechless.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Whose seminar am I listening to?

Suddenly, Brother Fei, who was sitting next to him, let out a long sigh.

"Professor Lu really is nutty…"

Even though they didn't understand anything, they didn't feel too frustrated.

He was willing to bet that even if their supervisor, Professor Yu Jinsong, was sitting here, he wouldn't be able to understand anything either.

Dian Cili blankly nodded and gulped.

"Yeah…"

When he looked down at the notes that he had written, he suddenly realized a serious problem.

"Oh yeah, we just finished writing these notes…"

Fei Jingti smiled bitterly.

"They're probably useless."

In less than half an hour, their notes were proven to be wrong.

I feel bad for this British professor…

The two looked at each other, they were at a loss for words.

F*ck sake!

Why did we wake up so early for this?

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What happened at the seminar was only a minor disturbance for Lu Zhou.

He hadn't done any research on the tokamak. Therefore, he obviously didn't read the thesis from the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.

The main reason he attended this academic conference was for the "technical exhibition" segment. He woke up a bit too early on the first day of the conference, so he found his way into a random seminar, causing the previous incident.

After correcting Professor Botham's mistake, Lu Zhou left the lecture hall. He already killed quite a lot of time, so he slowly wandered to the technology exhibition hall.

Compared to the academic conference happening nearby, there was another level of liveliness in the technology exhibition hall.

What was shown at the exhibition wasn't theoretical research results. Instead, it was actual technology.

Because of this, it wasn't just scholars and researchers that paid attention to advancements in this area, but many entrepreneurs and investors interested in controllable nuclear fusion were also standing here with great interest.

Even though human civilization was still a long way from fusion energy, this didn't prevent the imaginative people from turning their heads into this untapped land.

What was interesting was that most people thought the emergence of controllable nuclear fusion would inevitably affect the profits of the energy giants. They also thought that most energy giants hated controllable nuclear fusion to the bone and wanted to get rid of nuclear fusion…

However, the truth was the complete opposite of what they thought. Many investors of nuclear fusion companies were precisely the energy giants that were seemingly on the edge of losing their profits.

For example, the famous General Fusion Company was led by the Canadian oil company Cenovus. As for the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics stellarator project, not only were they funded by ITER and the German Energy Agency, but part of their research project was also funded by French oil giant Total S.A.

Of course, other than those oil companies, there were also a bunch of wealthy tech companies that were equally as interested in the cool-sounding controllable nuclear fusion.

Like Google's investment in Tri Alpha.

Lu Zhou personally thought Tri Alpha might be defrauding investors. However, looking at it objectively, this private company was able to build a fusion reactor from scratch within a year. Even the famous Nobel Prize laureate Burton Richter was shocked, which meant the team at Tri Alpha had a certain amount of skills.

Professor Guo Houyang, who was the chief scientist and experiment operation director of Tri Alpha, was also a nutty Chinese scholar in the field of plasma physics. Even though his name didn't sound familiar, but this big name was in the 1996 edition of Marquis Who's Who. This was a manifestation of the academic community's recognition of him.

Because there were so many talented people entering the field, and because of the capital being invested into the field, this field was able to go from being unwanted into one of the most popular fields in academia.

Coincidentally, not long after he walked in, he saw Benderbauer, who he chatted with at the cafe the day before yesterday.

This chairman and chief technology officer of Tri Alpha was standing in front of a gray curtain. He was presenting a PowerPoint presentation, which was about their C2-U fusion machine as well as their world-leading field-reversed configuration, to some scholars and investors who were interested in the controllable nuclear fusion field.

Even though Benderbauer's speech on stage was enthusiastic, Lu Zhou thought about what Bendebauer said to him the day before yesterday, and he felt that this enthusiasm was somewhat fake.

"Life is just like a movie, you really do need acting skills."

Lu Zhou shook his head and didn't say anything. He listened to a brief explanation of the FRC machine technology and walked toward the booth next to it.

Other than Tri Alpha, Baosheng Group also had a booth in the technology exhibition hall.

After all, state-owned companies were not the same anymore. Even though this high tech company had special subsidies from the state, they still had to worry about sales.

Otherwise, by the time they finally increased their production capacity, they might have to actually decrease their excessive production capacity.

At Baosheng Group's booth, they demonstrated their SG-1 wire technology, which they developed in cooperation with the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, to scholars from all over the world.

Even though the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres had also mastered this technology, this technology was still dominated by Baosheng Group due to their production cost and production scale advantages. Even though the Germans had received this technology, they still had to pass on a large number of orders to Baosheng Group due to their insufficient production capacity.

In short, when the representatives from major research institutes saw this wire, which was only a few thousand nanometers in diameter, they couldn't believe it was real.

That was until Chief Engineer Cao calmly operated the experiment equipment in front of everyone. He showed them the thermal conductivity of the SG-1 wire and the most important one—superconducting properties. The people around the booth had their eyes wide open in disbelief.

At the end of the first day of the conference, Lu Zhou originally planned on going back to his room and rest.

But General Manager Sun insisted on treating his guest. Therefore, the group found a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown and sat down around a table.

At the dinner table, General Manager Sun Chengwu raised his glass and looked at Lu Zhou.

"Professor Lu, thank you so much!

"We've secured more than US$200 million worth in orders just this morning alone!

"This toast goes to you!"

Even though a few hours had since passed, General Manager Sun still couldn't forget how the foreigners responded when Engineer Cao was showing them their SG-1 wire technology, and how shocked and astonished the foreigner experts were.

As the general manager of Baosheng Group, there was nothing more exciting than watching his own company be at the forefront of the industry…

Lu Zhou toasted with General Manager Sun and smiled as he said politely, "There's no need to thank me, you deserve this."

US$200 million in orders was a lot, that was almost 1.4 billion in yuan.

According to the current cost of the SG-1 wire, Lu Zhou roughly estimated that the US$200 million worth of wires was enough to build the outer-field coils of three medium-sized stellarators.

If it was the tokamak, it wouldn't need as many wires.

However, Lu Zhou didn't know much about the Tokamak. Therefore, he couldn't give an accurate estimate.

"What do you mean? Without your technology, we couldn't have come this far by ourselves." General Manager Sun downed his shot glass and cheerfully said, "If Professor Lu has any more good suggestions in the future, I hope you're generous enough to share them with me!"

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Chapter 508: Forecast of Carbon-Based Chips

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Even though investing in materials research was a bottomless pit, it still depended on who one invested in.

After experiencing the success of the SG-1 wire, General Manager Sun made up his mind and decided to stick with the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

And for Lu Zhou, since General Manager Sun was willing to ask him, he was willing to teach General Manager Sun.

This might even help Chinese companies to establish their competitiveness in the global market.

Looking at it from a practical point of view, this was also profitable for him.

Just take the SG-1 material as an example. For every meter of SG-1 wire produced by the Baosheng Group, they would have to pay patent licensing costs to Lu Zhou. Even though this wasn't as rich of an income as what the lithium batteries had brought him, it was still a considerable amount.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "I don't have much to say regarding the future direction of your company. However, since you guys already have an advantage in terms of carbon-based production, why don't you consider expanding it to your advantage?"

When General Manager Sun heard Lu Zhou, he immediately took this seriously.

"Oh? Professor Lu, do you have any insights that you want to share?"

"Not exactly an insight." Lu Zhou smiled and paused for a second. He then opened his mouth and said, "I just heard that there's a research team at the University of California that used a very interesting method to successfully synthesize a one-nanometer width, 50-nanometer length graphene nanoribbon. So far, this research result has already attracted IBM's interest, and the industry is optimistic about it being used in the production of the next generation of carbon-based chips."

Everyone knew that 5 nanometers was the physical limit of silicon-based transistors. Once the transistor size was less than 5 nanometers, the behavior of the silicon electrons became unpredictable due to the laws of quantum uncertainty, which might even result in quantum tunneling effects. This could cause the electrons to teleport through the transistor "walls". Therefore, silicon transistors were becoming less and less reliable, and the upgrade of computer chips was becoming more and more of a challenge.

In order to face this challenge, the industry and academic community had formed a consensus. They had to find a new material to replace the traditional silicon in order to produce smaller and better performing electronic devices.

And according to the latest research results, the technical routes that were considered feasible were carbon nanotubes, molybdenum disulfide, black phosphorus, graphene, and tungsten diselenide.

Because Lu Zhou was in carbon nanomaterials research, he obviously was more optimistic about the graphene route.

And the fact was that Lu Zhou's intuition was correct. Under the conditions of the Mott insulator, the graphene had the potential to be applied as a semiconductor material in electronic devices.

Chips…

When General Manager Sun heard Lu Zhou's words, he had a headache.

Even though Baosheng Group had a fat bank account, investing in the big pit of computer chips still made him nervous.

"Professor Lu… You're not suggesting us to invest in the big pit of computer chips, right?"

Lu Zhou saw General Manager Sun's distressed facial expression and smiled as he said, "You're not in the electronics industry, so it's not realistic for you guys to develop computer chips. I just think that since we've already accomplished a few-thousand-nanometer wide graphene wire, why not try to accomplish a few nanometers wide graphene nanoribbon? I know these are two very different technologies, but I think we have the ability to do it."

Lu Zhou was actually being serious.

When he was chatting with Professor Bawendi on the plane, he already had this idea in his mind.

Of course, right now his research was still focused on controllable nuclear fusion.

Not to mention, even if he was interested in computer chip technology, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study didn't have talents in this area.

I'll wait until the controllable nuclear fusion project finishes before diving into computer chips.

I'm sure that by then, a lot of the problems will be solved.

General Manager Sun had a helpless expression on his face, and he shook his head.

A few nanometers wide graphene nanoribbon…

Sounds easy.

But how much is it going to cost…

…

The controllable nuclear fusion conference lasted for five days.

Lu Zhou had gained a lot over the five days.

Other than attending the interesting seminars, the advanced technologies presented by major research institutes also greatly enriched his outlook on the field.

Including Tri Alpha's FRC machine, he had purchased at least US$40 million worth of equipment.

The FRC machine was only a little faster and slightly more stable than the microwave-heating machine. It wasn't a key technological component, but it was still useful.

Other than the non-key components such as the FRC, Lu Zhou's list of purchases also included the He3 atom probe, which was considered a key component.

Speaking of the He3 atom probe, Professor Lazerson was doing well.

This former PPPL engineer had entered the industry as a technician and was now doing pretty well for himself in the plasma physics world.

With his networking skills from the time he was in academia, he knew better than anyone else exactly what kind of equipment the scholars needed. He helped to make the He3 atom probe technology even more powerful and strong.

At the closing conference dinner, when chatting with this old friend, Lu Zhou learned that his business was getting bigger and bigger. Not only was he working closely with more than 20 plasma research institutes, but he was one of the suppliers for the ITER project.

It wasn't just that. Now that the He3 atom probe technology was improved by him, the observation accuracy for high-density plasma had significantly improved.

Speaking of which, when the He3 company was first founded, Lu Zhou seemed to have invested a few million USD.

Therefore, he seemed to be one of the shareholders as well.

"I am willing to bet this is definitely one of the most successful investments you will ever make." Professor Lazerson began to chat about the past, and he smiled and said, "That few million dollars would be worth at least US$100 million. The future of controllable nuclear fusion technology is clear. I plan on going public on Nasdaq and wait for it to rain money."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Really? I wish you good luck."

Surprised, Professor Lazerson looked at Lu Zhou as he asked, "How come you're not excited at all?"

Lu Zhou made a helpless expression as he said, "… When you have more money than you could ever spend, if someone tells you that you've made another hundred million, you won't react either. That's how I feel about money, you must feel the same sometimes."

Even though Lu Zhou's hundreds of millions in dollars was nothing compared to the billionaires on the Forbes Fortune list, the thing was that Lu Zhou's money was all in cash, which was entirely different.

Not to mention, Lu Zhou didn't have a lot of expenses. Even though he spent quite a bit to establish the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, not only did he make back his initial investment, but due to patent licensing fees, he had even made quite a profit.

Professor Lazerson looked straight at Lu Zhou for a while.

After a long time, he shook his head.

"… No, I don't feel the same at all."

…

After the conference dinner ended, the group of people returned to their hotel rooms and began to pack their bags.

Their flight back to China was tomorrow morning. In order to not have to rush in the morning, they naturally had to pack their bags the night before.

Lu Zhou found Dian Cili and Fei Jingti in the hotel corridor and reminded them.

"Tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock, you guys will take the plane with Professor Li Changxia. Don't be late."

Fei Jingti: "Okay, Professor… Are you not going back with us?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and smiled.

"I still have some matters to take care of, you guys go back first."

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Chapter 509: The Future Is Yours

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

A secluded office at the corner of the corridor, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

Vera's white chin was buried in between her palms as she stared at the empty seat and lifelessly slouched at the table.

It's been seven months…

Although it was common for Princeton researchers to be away from Princeton all year round, being away for such a long time made it inevitable for people to miss Lu Zhou.

Over the past seven months, she had basically taken over Lu Zhou's number theory class.

This was one of her main jobs as a teaching assistant, and because of the existence of emails, it didn't hinder her ability to teach. However, the feeling of communicating online was different from the feeling of communicating face-to-face.

She thought back to seven months ago at the Stockholm Gold Hall, it seemed like it was yesterday…

She began to daydream when suddenly, her white cheeks began to blush…

Vera's face was feeling slightly hot, and she leaned sideways and put her face on the desk.

There was almost steam coming out of her brain, and the cold desk made it better. Her mood began to get better, but it went back down again shortly thereafter.

Summer really is a season that makes people sleepy.

Vera sighed quietly and turned around, placing the other side of her face on the desk.

I'll lay here for a bit…

I just finished my work anyway.

Hardy and Qin Yue, who were sitting nearby, heard the quiet sigh. They looked at each other helplessly.

It had been half a year.

She had been like this for the past six months.

Even though they wanted to comfort her, they didn't know what to say.

Actually, anyone that paid the slightest amount of attention could tell that her feelings toward Lu Zhou was far more than just gratitude or gratefulness. It had reached a level way beyond that; it was even a type of admiration.

Qin Yue didn't know if Professor Lu knew about this.

However, when he thought about it, even if Professor Lu knew, this situation wouldn't be easy to resolve.

Whether the end result was rejection or acceptance, it would still depend on one party taking the initiative.

And with Vera's personality, if Professor Lu wasn't the one initiating, there would never be any progress.

But if Professor Lu was the one initiating…

Qin Yue stopped writing at his desk and looked toward the air conditioner at the corner of the room.

He could never imagine someone like Lu Zhou, who spent all of his time studying difficult research problems, would be interested in anything outside of research.

I don't think anything will ever come of this…

When Hardy noticed Qin Yue staring at the air conditioner, he nodded thoughtfully and said, "I think Vera is feeling too hot… How about I lower the temperature?"

Qin Yue sighed and said, "… It's fine. It's better if you don't do anything."

Honestly, Qin Yue was sometimes quite impressed at how smart Hardy was.

Suddenly, a wave of hot air came from the door.

When the office door was fully opened, a familiar figure was standing at the doorway.

The moment they saw that familiar face, everyone in the office was stunned.

"I think Hardy is right, it is pretty hot… Hey, why aren't you guys talking?" Lu Zhou looked at everyone staring at him. He then smiled awkwardly and said, "Or should I have said hello first?"

"Professor?!"

Vera's eyes were wide open as she looked at the doorway in disbelief. The moment Lu Zhou's figure appeared, Vera's beautiful pair of blue eyes regained its color.

Lu Zhou looked back at Vera and smiled as he said, "Hi, long time no see."

Hardy stood up and walked toward the air-conditioner remote.

Jerick and Wei Wen were sitting not far from the door, and they looked at each other in disbelief. Jerick quietly said, "We thought you were going to resign."

Lu Zhou: "You are correct, I actually am planning on resigning."

The second the words left his mouth, the office became quiet.

Even Hardy, who was walking toward the air conditioner, froze in place.

They went silent for a minute or so.

The first to break the silence was Qin Yue.

"… Do you plan to continue teaching at Jin Ling University?"

On the way here, Lu Zhou planned what he was going to say, but when he heard Qin Yue's question, he suddenly didn't know what to say.

He just nodded. "Yes."

Qin Yue knew Lu Zhou was going to say this, so his facial expression didn't change.

"I want to go with you."

Vera realized what was happening, and she immediately said, "I'm…"

Lu Zhou interrupted his two students and said with a smile, "There's no need for that. Even though I haven't been at Princeton for the past seven months, I can still notice your abilities. With what you guys have achieved so far, you guys have undoubtedly reached the standards set for Princeton PhDs. I don't have any reason to keep you in this office any longer… You guys should have your own office, and your own research projects."

Lu Zhou looked at Vera, then Qin Yue, and finally Hardy. He paused for a second and continued, "One of the main reasons I came back this time was to sort out your graduation."

Qin Yue went silent for a while before he asked, "Then… after I graduate, can I come to work at your research institute?"

Lu Zhou knew he would ask this, so he smiled and answered, "Of course you can, the doors of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study are always open to you… But I don't suggest you do this."

Qin Yue paused for a second and looked at Lu Zhou with a confused look. "… Why?"

"I can teach you the way to think about problems and the way to solve problems. However, the ability to think independently is something you have to practice on your own. I'm not exaggerating when I say that with your abilities, you can become a scholar in any mathematics research institute in the world. However, if you follow me, you will never reach the next step.

"The future is yours, you have to think about how you want to spend it.

"Whether you want to stay at Princeton, or return to your alma mater, or even go to Yan University, all of these options are far better than working for me."

Lu Zhou smiled and continued, "Not to mention, the reason why I taught you guys these things wasn't to make you work for me in the future. Instead, I hope you can help me spread the knowledge further."

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Chapter 510: I've Thought About It for Six Months

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, dean's office.

After the cleaning lady poured some water into the plants on the window sill, she began to wipe the dust on the glass window.

She quickly completed her work and lifted her water bucket, about to walk out of the office.

When she was leaving, she looked at Professor Peter Goddard with a surprised look on her face.

Even though she didn't know a lot about academia, this was the first time in many years that she had seen such a distressed expression on the serious old man's face.

Of course, he only became a dean five or six years ago…

The old man full of white hair sat silently at the desk. He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at the young man standing in front of his desk. He then sighed and said softly, "At the beginning of the year, someone suggested to include you in the team of tenured researchers at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. I know it's not a good time to bring this up now, but… are you really not going to think about it?"

Research institutes such as the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study all had a small, tenured, life-long research team. This team consisted of the best scholars in the world. Even the researches that they undertook were also the most cutting-edge research in all kinds of fields.

In academia, not only did a tenured researcher position at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study meant a guarantee of research funding and living standards, but it also meant the highest type of honor.

There were only ten tenured researchers in the mathematics department. Lu Zhou's supervisor Professor Pierre Deligne was one of them. If Lu Zhou continued to stay at Princeton, within two to three years, he'd become the eleventh tenured researcher.

However…

Lu Zhou shook his head and said softly, "I've thought about it for six months already."

Before winning the Nobel Prize, the resources he received in China were far less than those at Princeton. However, after winning the Nobel Prize, the resources he would have access to in China were far greater.

There was nothing wrong with calling Lu Zhou selfish. After all, whenever he did multiple choice questions, he would consider which option was the "best choice".

Since Lu Zhou said this, Dean Peter Goddard didn't say anything else. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out an application form.

"Really? Since you've already thought about it, I have nothing else to say. Princeton in the nation's service and the service of humanity… This is Princeton's informal school motto. I think your choice is correct."

Dean Peter Goddard gently placed this application form on the desk, as if he were putting down a heavy burden. He then leaned against his chair and looked at Lu Zhou.

"Other than the researcher position at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, there's also your faculty position at Princeton University… I'm guessing you're resigning your teaching position as well."

Lu Zhou: "Yeah, I'm going to Nassau Hall after this."

Dean Goddard smiled and said, "Remember to say hello to Professor Eisgruber for me."

Lu Zhou picked up the application form on the table and nodded.

"I will."

After Lu Zhou left Dean Goddard's office, he didn't stay at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study for long. He immediately went straight to Nassau Hall.

Compared to Goddard's disappointed reaction, Principal Eisgruber's reaction was fairly mild and calm.

After hearing Lu Zhou's request, the principal didn't say much else. He took out a similar form from his drawer.

"… I remember more than twenty years ago, I was still an academic dean back then. Mr. Faltings found me and told me that he was going back to Germany. I also wanted to retain him, but now that I think about it, there's no need for that. This decision can't be made in a day or two, it also can't be changed with just a few words."

He adjusted his glasses and handed the form to Lu Zhou.

"Not being able to have you here is our loss."

Principal Eisgruber paused for a second and said jokingly, "So, in order to make up for our losses, I hope that while resigning as a professor, you can at least accept an honorary professor title."

Lu Zhou paused for a second after accepting the form. He then smiled and said, "It's my honor."

…

By the time Lu Zhou left Nassau Hall, the sun was already setting.

With these two application forms in his hand, Lu Zhou slowly walked back home. He even took a longer route.

His mentality was similar to someone who was traveling far away, who still wanted to stay here for a bit longer.

After all, he had lived here for so long and experienced so many things, so naturally, he had a soft spot for Princeton.

When Lu Zhou walked past Lake Carnegie, he contemplated on whether or not he should go for a nostalgic night run later. He suddenly saw a familiar figure sitting on a bench by the lake.

A smirk appeared on his face. He walked toward the vending machine and bought a sports drink and a can of coffee. He then walked toward the lake.

Molina was in a blue sports outfit, wiping the sweat off her face with a towel.

Suddenly, a drink appeared in front of her.

Molina paused for a second and looked to the side. She then saw Lu Zhou standing there.

She raised her pretty eyebrows and took the drink. She thanked him and immediately opened the can, taking a huge sip.

"You're welcome."

Lu Zhou smiled and sat on the bench. He opened his can of coffee and slowly took a sip.

Even though he normally likes to drink instant coffee, this type of factory-produced cold brew coffee had a special flavor.

Molina: "When did you get back?"

"I got back around noon. I wanted to come here for a run. But after I finished my errands, it was already dark," Lu Zhou said while looking at the students running as well as the rowing team training around the lake.

Molina glanced at Lu Zhou.

"Speaking of which, you haven't been at Princeton for half a year, right?"

"Yeah, time really flies by quickly." Lu Zhou looked at the lake that sparkled under the sunset and said with a smile, "It feels like I just graduated yesterday, but I'm already 25 years old."

Molina: "… I think most people graduate when they're 25 years old."

Lu Zhou smiled in an awkward manner and said, "I think you're right… Speaking of which, what about you? How's your research project with your supervisor going?"

Molina had a smug smile on her face, and she said, "I already graduated. I'm a lecturer at Princeton University now."

Surprised, Lu Zhou looked at her and said, "Already graduated? Congratulations… I wanted to host a party to celebrate you joining the faculty, but I've already resigned."

"Oh yeah?"

Molina didn't look surprised; it was like she expected Lu Zhou to resign.

She looked at the can of sports drink in her hand and said, "So this can of drink is to compensate for that?"

"I guess, but one can isn't enough." Lu Zhou patted the dust of his pants and stood up from the bench. He then looked at her and smiled. "When you get the chance, come to China. I'll take you drinking."

Molina jokingly said, "What if I don't get the chance?"

"Then we'll just have to meet at some academic conferences."

This was how their normal nightly conversations went.

There were no greetings, no farewells.

Molina looked at Lu Zhou walking away and didn't say anything. Instead, she picked up a rock and threw it in the lake.

She didn't have a lot of interests outside of mathematics, and Lu Zhou was just her normal friend.

But when she thought about Lu Zhou leaving, she still couldn't help but feel a little lonely…

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Chapter 511: They Are the Treasure of Civilization

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

By the time Lu Zhou returned home, the sky was already dark.

He returned to his long-separated house. The moment he opened his door, the dust coming onto his face made him sneeze.

"I knew I should have asked a housekeeping company to clean it regularly." Lu Zhou waved his hand around his nose and looked at the dusty doorway.

Maybe I should sleep at a hotel for tonight?

Lu Zhou thought about it for a bit and decided not to.

With the time it would take for him to get to the hotel, he would have been able to clean his bedroom.

Holding a broom and rag in his hand, he spent around an hour cleaning his bedroom and study room.

Lu Zhou leaned the broom against the wall and looked at his newly-cleaned study room. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and had a satisfied smile on his face.

"Next, there's only one thing to do."

He planned to finish his work for today before sleeping.

Fortunately, there was only one thing left to do.

Lu Zhou sat in front of his familiar desk and spent around half an hour writing his resignation letter.

After he looked at the completely dark sky outside his window, he put his two resignation letters into his drawer and walked toward his bedroom.

…

A special ceremony was held at the No.1 lecture hall in the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

After approving Lu Zhou's resignation, Dean Goddard awarded him the title of an honorary researcher.

This title was similar to the honorary professor title at the university. It was mainly given to scholars who had made significant contributions to the research institute but are unable to continue to work here for a variety of reasons.

"You are one of the most outstanding scholars throughout the history of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. As your colleague, your research results gave me a lasting impression.

"Even though it's a pity I can no longer work with you, I still hope that no matter where you are, you can continue down the road of academia."

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "I will."

A round of applause was heard in the lecture hall.

Lu Zhou received the certificate that symbolized the honorary researcher title from Dean Goddard.

Before this, he already had three honorary professor titles. One from Principle Eisgruber, one from Columbia University, and one from Jin Ling University.

Lu Zhou didn't deliberately collect these honorary titles. However, he was still curious whether one day, the history textbooks would dedicate an entire page for his academic titles.

After the ceremony ended, Lu Zhou planned on spending the rest of his remaining time wandering around the Princeton campus. Professor Fefferman, who previously worked on the Navier–Stokes equations with him, suddenly called out his name.

He took out a fountain pen from his pocket and said in a joking manner, "Even though Princeton doesn't have this tradition, I still want to give you something. I got this fountain pen at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki. This is my favorite one, and I'm handing it to you."

Because of the movie, A Beautiful Mind, which was directed by Ron Howard, Princeton became famous for a while. And the most talked-about quirk was probably Princeton's tradition of giving fountain pens as a way of paying tribute.

However, according to author Nasar's interview, the gift of the fountain pen was only an exaggeration from the movie director. There wasn't a tradition like that in Princeton. But after the film was aired, this custom was unexpectedly welcomed by Princeton students and teachers.

After all, for these professors, all they had in their drawers were fountain pens collected at academic conferences.

As for the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki that Professor Fefferman was talking about, that was the year he won the Fields Medal.

"Thank you." Lu Zhou solemnly accepted this meaningful fountain pen and smiled as he jokingly said, "You just gave me such a valuable gift, I'd be embarrassed if I don't give you something."

Professor Fefferman smiled and said, "You definitely should give me something. Gifts should be exchanged, I think that's a saying in Chinese."

Lu Zhou guessed that Fefferman probably meant gifts should be reciprocated.

Lu Zhou smiled and took out a fountain pen in his pocket and handed it to him.

Fefferman took the fountain pen and looked at Lu Zhou with a surprised expression.

"I didn't expect you to be prepared."

"I just have it on me." Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, "By the way, I got this from the International Congress of Mathematicians in Rio de Janeiro."

"Oh, really? I have to take good care of it then." Fefferman smiled and said, "Oh yeah, speaking of which, do you still have your manuscripts?"

Lu Zhou: "I have them, why?"

Fefferman: "If you don't plan on taking them with you, I suggest you donate it to Firestone Library. Even though that old librarian seems to be a little crazy sometimes, he's very good at preserving paper documents."

When Lu Zhou heard this suggestion, he paused for a second.

Donating my manuscripts to the library?

He hadn't thought about this issue before.

Originally, his plan was to give them to his students as a token of remembrance. However, now that he thought about it carefully, he decided that professionals would take better care of them.

Maybe one day, he'd want to come back and look at them.

After all, those pages were the product of his blood, sweat, and tears.

Lu Zhou was a bit uncertain as he asked, "Will Firestone Library collect those pieces of paper?"

Fefferman smiled and said, "Of course! It's not just Firestone Library, I'm sure any museum in the world will be happy to take over those documents."

…

After Lu Zhou left the Institute for Advanced Study, he headed straight to Firestone Library.

When he arrived there, the old man was in his pajamas, and he was taking a nap in his chair.

Even though Princeton was a place full of freaks, it was still rare to see someone wearing pajamas in a library.

Lu Zhou still remembered the last time when he came here to borrow Lyman Spitzer's manuscripts, this old man gave him a lot of trouble.

However, even though the old man had a lot of weird traits, there was no doubt about his love for books.

Perhaps his weird personality was the reason why he did such a good job at preserving these historical documents.

When the old man saw Lu Zhou at the front door, he snorted and made a weird laugh.

"You're here?"

The old man's uncanniness could scare people that were coming to borrow books. Lu Zhou sighed and said, "It's been so many years, do you not plan on changing your style? Not to mention your eerie smile."

"What's the matter, who cares what an old a*s man wears?" The old man smiled and reached for his crutches. He stumbled while standing up. "Not to mention Princeton is full of geeks and freaks, so I'm one of the normal ones."

No, you're probably one of the least normal ones.

Lu Zhou silently complained in his mind.

"When do you plan on retiring?"

The old man smiled. "Retiring? It'll be the day they put me in a coffin."

Lu Zhou heard this and looked at him in surprise.

"I thought someone your age would avoid the word coffin."

"Why should I avoid it? Will I avoid death by avoiding the word? We all grow old, but our wisdom and knowledge will be left for future generations." The old man looked at Lu Zhou with turbid eyes as he smiled and said, "Alright, tell me, are you here to borrow books or are you here for something else?"

Lu Zhou: "I plan on returning to China."

The old man nonchalantly said "Oh" without any other reaction.

After all, he was only responsible for this library. As for the staff changes in the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University, that wasn't within his scope of concern.

Lu Zhou thought about what he was going to say and said, "When I was cleaning the house, I found a bunch of manuscripts. Some are related to Goldbach's conjecture, some about the Navier–Stokes equations, and they might take a while to organize them… What I'm trying to say is, are you interested in keeping them?"

When the old man heard Lu Zhou was planning on donating the manuscripts to Firestone Library, he finally looked interested.

"Of course, this is a treasure of civilization. Give them to me, I'll take good care of them."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "The future generations will judge whether or not it is a treasure. I just think it's a hassle bringing all of them back, and they probably won't fit in my suitcases. Also, if I come back one day, I hope they will remain in the same condition."

The old man smirked and said, "Don't worry about that. Just like how you're an expert in mathematics, I'm an expert in document preservation."

"Really? I'm relieved." Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, "Oh yeah, by the way, if I borrow my own manuscripts, do I still have to swear to the Bible?"

However, the old man didn't find this humorous at all.

He replied seriously, "What foolish things are you talking about? This is the treasure of humanity. The moment you completed them, they no longer belong to you."

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Chapter 512: Farewell to Princeton

It had been two days since he donated his manuscripts to Firestone Library.

Lu Zhou contacted a local house cleaning company and cleaned his entire house.

On the third day, he sent an invitation to his Princeton supervisor, friends, and professors to a party in his backyard.

One reason was to say goodbye to Princeton.

The other was to congratulate his students on successfully graduating.

Other than Professor Deligne, Dean Goddard, Fefferman, and Edward Witten, almost half of the Princeton mathematics and physics tenured researchers were all at this party as well.

Because Lu Zhou was pretty sociable, he had a good relationship with most of the people he interacted with.

Because of this, after hearing he was going to leave, a lot of people tried to persuade him to stay.

"… I still remember twenty years ago, when I heard Faltings was going back to Germany, I nearly laughed out loud in my lecture. But my friend, when I heard you were leaving, I felt sorrowful." Peter Sarnak toasted Lu Zhou, and his words were full of pity.

He was the former editor-in-chief at Annual Mathematics as well as a big name in the number theory field. When he was still at Annual Mathematics, he was one of the reviewers for Lu Zhou's Goldbach's conjecture thesis.

Comparing him to Faltings, Professor Sarnak respected Lu Zhou's humbleness the most.

Even though Sarnak had a pretty good relationship with Faltings, that didn't excuse Faltings' arrogance.

Even though there was no chance to prove it in person, but Lu Zhou believed that there was a reason behind the famous line in mathematics—"You are better at chess, but I'm a better mathematician."

Deligne: "You plan on going back?"

Lu Zhou: "Yeah."

Unlike other people, Deligne didn't try to persuade Lu Zhou to stay. He paused for a second and simply said, "My supervisor… The letter Mr. Grottendick gave you, do you still have it?"

Lu Zhou: "Of course I have it."

Deligne nodded and said, "Don't lose it. If you don't need it, give it back to me."

Lu Zhou gently coughed and said, "… How could I possibly lose it…"

It was quite unfortunate. Even though Lu Zhou was involved in many branches of mathematics, he hadn't made any major research results in the most important branch—algebraic geometry.

Maybe one day, when Lu Zhou needed Grottendick's wisdom, he'd take a trip to France.

But now was not the time.

Deligne stared at Lu Zhou for a while and said, "I've taught many students, some are talented, some are extremely talented. If I had to rate, you're the most talented mathematics scholar I have ever seen, but you're also the most difficult to understand."

"Regardless, I hope you don't waste your talent. No matter what kind of research or work you do, I hope you can continue down the road of mathematics."

Lu Zhou nodded happily.

"I definitely will."

…

All good things had to come to an end.

As the sun began to set, the farewell party came to an end.

Over the next two days, Lu Zhou's students successfully received their diplomas and degree certificates. Before returning to China, Lu Zhou took this time to help them prepare for their further path in education or future jobs.

Actually, he didn't even need to help them; his students were all excellent.

Like he said, no matter which mathematics research institute or university, there wasn't a place on earth that would reject their résumés.

Finally, due to Lu Zhou's advice, Wei Wen decided to do a PhD under Edward Witten. Witten gladly accepted this potential-filled student. Even though this supervisor's reputation gave Wei Wen a lot of pressure, he still accepted this challenge.

As for Jerick, he didn't stay in Princeton. Materials science wasn't Princeton's strong specialty, so it was very difficult for him to take his computational materials science to the next level here. Therefore, with Lu Zhou's advice, he chose to go to MIT to study a PhD.

As for the three graduated PhDs, they all decided to stay at Princeton.

Like this, all of Lu Zhou's worries were solved. He could finally relaxingly embark on his journey back home.

Lu Zhou spent a few hours packing up his things. He then carried his suitcase downstairs and sat in his Ford Explorer, which was parked in his driveway.

Qin Yue was in the driver's seat.

Normally, when Lu Zhou went to the airport, Jerick was the one that drove him there.

However, this time, Qin Yue offered to drive, and Lu Zhou obviously didn't refuse.

Qin Yue drove his Ford Explorer to the airport.

After they got off the car, Qin Yue walked to the back of the car and took out the suitcase from the trunk.

Lu Zhou took the suitcase from his former student's hands and nodded toward him.

"Thank you."

Qin Yue: "You're welcome, this is the least I could do."

Lu Zhou smiled and was about to bid farewell to his student.

However, he suddenly remembered something. He put his hands into his pocket and took out a keyring with a bunch of keys on it.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot something… Take this."

Qin Yue looked at the keys that were thrown in his hand and paused for a second.

"… What is this?"

"The keys for my house." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I probably won't have time to come here, and I probably won't get to live here anymore. You're moving out of your student apartment soon, right? I'm guessing you haven't found a place to live yet. Take care of my house please."

Qin Yue stared at the keys in his hand for a bit and suddenly asked, "Can you tell me your bank account number?"

Lu Zhou: "What?"

Qin Yue said in a serious tone, "So I can pay the rent."

"There's no need for that." Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I don't need that money anyway. Just help me clean the house. Oh yeah, try not to touch my study room and fireplace. Even though I don't know when I'll be back, but I still hope those two places will remain the same."

Qin Yue nodded seriously and remembered Lu Zhou's words.

"I understand, sir."

Qin Yue didn't stay at the airport for long. After he bid farewell to Lu Zhou, he got back in the car and drove out of the airport.

Lu Zhou watched as his Ford Explorer got further away, and he smiled as he waved his hand. He then turned around and walked into the airport terminal with his suitcase.

Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice nearby.

"Lu Zhou!"

Lu Zhou heard someone call his name, so he stopped walking.

When he turned around and looked, he was stunned.

Someone he never expected to see in a million years was running toward him.

It was like Vera had just finished running a marathon as she stopped in front of Lu Zhou and breathed heavily while leaning on her kneecaps. A bead of sweat fell down from her golden hair onto the ground.

Lu Zhou didn't expect to see her here, and he looked at the little girl panting as he asked, "Why… are you here? I mean, how did you get here?"

"I… I took… I took a train here."

Vera stuttered while panting.

Lu Zhou: "… You don't have to bid farewell to me at the airport."

"I'm… I'm not here… to bid you farewell. I just have to tell you something… very, very important."

Lu Zhou looked at her panting and sighed.

"Can't you just tell me over the phone or through email?"

Surprisingly, the usually submissive Vera suddenly became weirdly stubborn. "No, I can't!"

Vera took a deep breath and stood up straight as she tidied her messy hair.

Jesus, this is such bad timing.

I should have put on a dress and some makeup, make myself look presentable.

But I guess it's too late now.

I've been waiting too long for this…

Her thin lips opened and one word came out.

"I…"

Lu Zhou: "I…"

I can't hesitate, I'll never get the chance again…

Vera took a deep breath and gave herself some courage. She then closed her eyes.

She didn't care anymore, and she finally shouted out the words that were buried in her heart.

"I like you!"

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Chapter 513: I Won't Give Up

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The atmosphere suddenly solidified.

It was as if time were frozen.

There were two women that walked by, and they looked at them with interest as they smirked and whispered to each other.

Even though it wasn't polite to speak loudly in public, no one would blame a courageous girl for confessing her innocent crush.

Of course, there were also guys that gave Lu Zhou dirty looks…

These two stared silently at each other in this crowded airport drop-off sidewalk.

It was like Vera's confession exhausted all of her courage.

Her white cheeks that were covered by her blonde hair gradually turned red. Her face felt like it was burning, like steam could come out at any second.

She never spoke so loud before, not even when she was lecturing.

Nor had she ever confessed to anyone.

Will he respond?

He's going to reject me, right?

What if I get rejected?

There were a million thoughts in the girl's mind.

However, for her, these problems were more difficult and complicated than the Collatz conjecture, and there wasn't one question she could analyze and find the answer to.

After all, this was the first time she had ever had a crush on someone.

As for Lu Zhou…

He was standing there dumbfounded.

The dumbfounded expression slowly disappeared from his face, and he went silent for a while before he replied calmly, "Sorry, I can't promise you anything."

The moment she heard this, her blue sapphire-like eyes began to water.

Vera gently bit her lower lip, and she looked down at the ground like an insect as she quietly said, "Do… you like someone else?"

Lu Zhou: "Oh no, not at all."

Rather, he had never liked anyone. He didn't even know what having a crush on someone felt like.

He thought about it carefully and realized he never liked anyone growing up.

Maybe responding to her confession is a good choice.

After all, he couldn't avoid the issue of love. He was already 25 years old, and he should start thinking about having a significant other.

If he lived alone for the rest of his life, like Newton or G. H. Hardy, he would be fine with it. He didn't have any obsession with having offspring.

After all, compared to his DNA, there were things that would be more worthy to leave behind.

However, even though this was his opinion, due to traditional Chinese culture, his father would kill him if he were to actually do this.

He had to consider other people's feelings too.

However, even then, he was clear that giving out an empty promise was irresponsible.

Regardless of what happened, he'd be on a flight back to China in an hour.

Vera used all of her courage to look up, and she stared straight into Lu Zhou's eyes.

There wasn't an ounce of evasion from Lu Zhou's dark pupils.

However, because of this, being rejected made her even more depressed.

There was a flash of despair in Vera's blue sapphire-like eyes, and she lowered her head.

"Is it because I'm too ugly…"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "No way, it's not."

If you're ugly, then there's no one on Earth who can be considered pretty.

Objectively speaking, even though her figure was a bit petite, judging from her face alone, she was undoubtedly gorgeous.

At least that was Lu Zhou's opinion.

Vera quietly said, "Then… is it because my boobs are too small?"

Lu Zhou gently coughed and said, "… No… what are you talking about."

Speaking of which, why would you suddenly bring up such a private topic?

However, he wasn't sure whether or not there was a direct correlation between love and chest size.

"Then… why?" Vera looked up at Lu Zhou and said, "If you're worried about my identity, I'm not your student anymore. Plus I…"

She looked back down at her feet and mumbled in a fragile voice, "… I waited all this time."

Lu Zhou went silent for a while.

He looked down at Vera and thought for a second. He then slowly spoke.

"You're an adorable girl."

When Vera heard Lu Zhou use "adorable" to describe herself, her cheeks began to feel warm again.

She wasn't sure what to respond, but Lu Zhou spoke first.

"The reason why I can't respond to your confession has nothing to do with the fact that you were my student, and it also has nothing to do with what you talked about.

"It's because I'm not available for an intimate relationship…"

"I won't drag you down," Vera interrupted Lu Zhou and quickly said, "I can research by your side. I will try to catch up to you… You don't need to spend a lot of time on me, as long as you're willing to let me be with you."

Lu Zhou quietly waited for Vera to finish talking. He then looked at her in the eyes and said in a serious tone, "It's not that I'm worried about you dragging me down, it's that I don't want to drag you down."

The pair went silent for a minute or so.

After that, the conversation died.

Lu Zhou looked at her thin lips that were moving slightly.

However, she spoke so quietly that he wasn't sure what she said.

When Lu Zhou was about to ask her, Vera suddenly looked at him in the eyes and stood up straight.

"I won't give up…"

There was an unusual sense of courage in her eyes.

This was the first time Lu Zhou had ever seen this expression on her face.

"You told me that if I win the Fields Medal, you'll promise me anything."

Did I say this?

Lu Zhou carefully recalled the past, but he seemed to have forgotten ever saying this.

He probably just casually said it in a conversation. After all, Vera was a timid and shy girl, and she didn't look like someone who would ask for something ridiculous.

However, Lu Zhou didn't expect that not only did she take it seriously, but she was bringing it up now.

"Really?" Lu Zhou smirked and said, "If you still haven't given up by then, I'll have to agree to you."

It had only been a year since the mathematics conference in Rio de Janeiro, the next conference would be three years later.

Not to mention, winning a Fields Medal wasn't that easy.

Even though she solved the Collatz conjecture and improved the Group Structure Method to a certain extent, she didn't produce any striking and outstanding results.

From an outsider's perspective, solving a mathematics conjecture was an amazing achievement.

However, the mathematics community was more concerned with the mathematical tools created in the process of solving conjectures, or any kind of new mathematical theory.

Because of this, the mathematical community viewed Lu Zhou as the biggest contributor to the Collatz conjecture. This was because, since the beginning of this research project, it was clear that Lu Zhou had an idea of how to solve this conjecture.

However, Lu Zhou didn't agree, and he was against this viewpoint.

Therefore, even though Vera had the potential for a Fields Medal, it would take at least seven or eight years for her to win one…

By that time, she'd probably be a little more mature…

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Chapter 514: Restart the Experiment!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

This was probably the most tiring flight Lu Zhou had ever taken.

It was also the longest.

Lu Zhou carried his suitcase as he walked down the airstair. He looked tired as he pinched his eyebrows and felt his entire body was discombobulated.

He thought about it carefully and realized this was the first time in his life that he was ever confessed to.

And it's by my own student…

I guess being handsome is really a curse?

Wang Peng saw how exhausted Lu Zhou was, so he paused for a second and immediately took Lu Zhou's suitcase.

"Are you jet-lagged?"

Lu Zhou yawned and casually said, "I am, I didn't sleep on the plane at all…"

Wang Peng was astonished, and he looked at Lu Zhou.

"Didn't sleep? What did you do during the dozen-hour long flight?"

Being able to stay awake during a dozen-hour long flight was a nutty achievement in and of itself.

"I just thought about some stuff… regardless…" Lu Zhou diverted the conversation and coughed before he said, "Just take me to Zhongshan International. I just want to sleep right now."

Wang Peng nodded and said, "Okay… Do you need me to hold you?"

Lu Zhou: "… That's not necessary."

…

After Lu Zhou returned to China, he immediately threw his attention into the controllable nuclear fusion project.

The professors used Lu Zhou's previous thesis on the stellarator plasma turbulence model as a reference. The computer science department and physics department of Jin Ling University finally finished writing the code for the plasma control scheme.

And almost at the same time, the construction of the supercomputer was also completed.

The superconductive coil and the main computer control scheme was written. Now there was only one thing left for him to do.

Which was to conduct the experiment.

After some discussion in a meeting, Lu Zhou finalized the next experiment plan. He also assigned tasks to various research units. The time of the experiment was finally decided to be on August 20th.

Even though Lu Zhou didn't plan on doing any dangerous experiments, he still decided to report to the Jin Ling city government.

However, he didn't expect that this ordinary experiment would be taken so seriously.

August 20th, under the Purple Mountain, outside of STAR Stellarator Research Institute.

Lu Zhou looked at the armored vehicle and helicopter parked outside of the institute entrance. He coughed and spoke to Regiment Commander Dai.

"Is this really necessary, it's not a nuclear experiment."

Regiment Commander Dai smiled and said, "Please don't be nervous, Professor Lu, we're doing this just in case. The military general even called me, and he said that if there is an accident, the equipment can be left behind, but the people must come out alive."

If the accident you imagined really happens, it's not like we can escape with the help of a helicopter…

The neutron beam of fusion reactions was different from the fission reaction of gamma rays. From the perspective of the neutron beam, armor was the same as cardboard, the only thing that would help was to dive underwater… However, it might not make that big of a difference.

Lu Zhou explained in a serious manner, "I have to clarify that controllable nuclear fusion is safe. It's completely different from nuclear weapons."

Regiment Commander Dai still had a smile on his face as he said, "I know. We're doing this just in case."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Since Regiment Commander Dai was so persistent, Lu Zhou let him be.

An armored truck and helicopter didn't take up much parking space anyway.

After Lu Zhou and Regiment Commander Dai passed through the security check, they followed the guards and went into the laboratory that was under the mountain.

The engineers and researchers were already here, and they were working in their respective workstations.

Other than that, Lu Zhou saw a man and a woman dressed in casual wear.

The young woman's eyes lit up when she saw Lu Zhou, and she immediately walked over to him.

"Professor Lu, hello, I am Wu Qingqing from Jinling Daily, and this is my assistant Zhang An."

The young man, who was holding a camera, nodded and smiled brightly. "Professor Lu, hello!"

Lu Zhou frowned. He didn't look at these two. Instead, he looked at Sheng Xianfu and asked, "Why did you invite reporters?"

Sheng Xianfu was helpless, and he said, "I didn't invite them, they were waiting at the entrance in the morning… I thought you invited them."

Wu Qingqing saw that Lu Zhou didn't seem like he was happy that they were here, so she immediately explained, "Professor Sheng had nothing to do with this. Jin Ling city government invited us to do a live interview… If we are interfering with your research, we can leave."

Lu Zhou sighed and said, "Forget about it. Since you're already here, if you want to stay, you can stay. But after the experiment begins, I hope you guys can remain quiet. Don't say anything, don't walk around, and don't you dare take a phone call. Also, if you want to take any photos, take them now."

Many Chinese and international theoretical physics and plasma research institutes liked to promote themselves using the media. CERN was a prime example of this. Even when they weren't conducting any experiments, they would still hold a press conference every couple of days or so.

However, Lu Zhou didn't have this habit. In his opinion, other than the final experiment result, all of the in-progress results were worthy of celebration, but they weren't worthy of publication.

After all, theoretically, he could produce as many tiny in-progress results as he wanted.

Wu Qingqing smiled and said, "I understand! Oh yeah, before the experiment begins, can I interview you?"

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "If it doesn't take too long."

"Professor Lu, please rest assured, it's only a few simple questions, it won't affect your work." Wu Qingqing smiled brightly and opened her notebook as she said, "Many people turn their eyes when they hear the word 'nuclear'. What I want to ask you is that, is controllable nuclear fusion really as safe as the experts say? Or rather, what will happen if there is a nuclear leak in the STAR machine?"

When Lu Zhou heard this outsider's question, he smiled.

"Have you seen a hydrogen bomb explode?"

Wu Qingqing paused for a second and said, "… I've seen it in movies."

Lu Zhou said, "If an accident happens, you'll probably see a flash of light or you might not see it at all. Then the temperature from the explosion will turn every inch of your body into gas, but I promise this process won't feel painful at all."

Seeing that the two young people were nauseous, Lu Zhou chuckled.

"Just kidding."

"Hahaha…" Wu Qingqing snorted and said, "Professor Lu, you're such a comedian."

Do all scientists make jokes like this?

Honestly, it's not funny at all.

Lu Zhou spoke in a calm voice, "Relax, there's a fundamental difference in fusion and fission reactions. The experiment today is only regarding plasma confinement, it won't actually involve any fusion reactions."

When Wu Qingqing heard that there wasn't going to be any fusion reaction today, she quickly asked, "What is the difference between plasma confinement experiments and fusion reaction experiments?"

Lu Zhou: "The difference is that the nuclear fuel we use is hydrogen, not its isotope; deuterium."

While they were speaking, the engineers had completed the final preparations for the experiment.

Lu Zhou stopped messing around and gestured the two reporters to quietly step aside. He signaled the staff to turn off their mobile phones and cameras. He then looked at Sheng Xianfu.

"Is it ready?"

Sheng Xianfu solemnly nodded and said, "It's ready."

Lu Zhou nodded and looked at the time on his silver watch.

It's two minutes until 3 pm.

Everything was in place.

He looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked at the steel behemoth in the middle of the laboratory.

Lu Zhou spoke in a steady and serious voice.

"Then begin the experiment!"

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Chapter 515: Not Just Thirty Minutes

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Beijing.

There was a controllable nuclear fusion program going on in the CTV Road Of Science studio.

"Welcome everyone to Road Of Science, I am your host, Cheng Nan.

"We always see controllable nuclear fusion in the world of science fiction film and television works. It seems that all of our future energy fantasies are locked up in the words 'controllable nuclear fusion'…

"The theme of today's program is the future energy source that we are all fascinated with— controllable nuclear fusion.

"For this, we invited the director of the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center and the chief engineer, Academician Zhou Chengfu, from the Southwestern Institute of Physics to explain the past and present of controllable nuclear fusion… Everyone, let's welcome them!"

Clap clap clap!

The audience in the crowd was encouraged by the host to give a round of applause.

Zhou Chengfu walked out from the backstage and onto the studio stage. With his head full of white hair, he nodded and gently smiled toward the live audience. He then sat on the sofa.

He had been attending meetings in Beijing over the past few days. He received an appearance invitation from Road Of Science. Since he wasn't busy, he decided to head on over to the studio.

Even though they said that scientists were different than actors and that scientists didn't need publicity, however, for researchers like him that were engaged in futuristic disciplines, it was still necessary for them to make a certain amount of media appearances.

After all, scientists like him were spending a lot of money on scientific research funding. The public deserved to know what the money was being used on and what the research results could do to change their lives.

"Some of you might have heard that a few months ago, the STAR stellarator in Jin Ling City successfully completed its first experiment. Including this stellarator, the magnetic confinement fusion devices such as HT-7 and the EAST tokamak as well as inertial confinement fusion machines like the SG-III and the newly proposed reversed-field pinch devices, our country's researchers are involved in basically all of the possible technical routes for controllable nuclear fusion. We are at the forefront of the world.

"Before the STAR machine, our country's research toward the stellarator was basically non-existent. I want to ask Academician Zhou, what do you think about our country's first stellarator machine?"

When Zhou Chengfu heard this question, he smiled and replied humbly, "Saying it's the first in the country is a bit exaggerated. After all, tritium is very expensive. Before solving the problems of heavy water and plasma irradiation damage on the first wall material, we usually experiment with hydrogen."

The host: "Are you familiar with the STAR machine?"

Zhou Chengfu smiled and said, "I don't know a lot, but I know enough."

The host: "Then can you explain to us the special characteristics of the STAR machine?"

Zhou Chengfu smirked when he heard this question, and he opened his mouth and said, "In terms of its special characteristics, it's just like you said, it's probably the first real stellarator in the country.

"You guys might not have heard of its origin. However, I can tell you that this is Germany's WEGA device. This machine was retired back in around 2013 and was stored in Frankfurt ever since. That was until when Professor Lu went to Germany for an academic exchange, and he had his eyes set on this machine. Therefore, he persuaded the two countries and spent around 500 million in research funding to buy this machine from the Germans."

The host looked astonished, he said, "500 million? That's almost 4 billion yuan… Is controllable nuclear fusion this expensive?"

The live audience members were also astounded.

4 billion yuan!

Their poverty limited their imagination. They could never imagine that research would cost this much money.

Zhou Chengfu smiled and didn't react at all to this large number.

"It's all relative. It's quite a bit compared to mathematics research funding. But if you compare it to the space station or the hadron collider, it's slightly cheaper."

Of course, it was more than just "slightly" cheaper.

The host: "Then do you think the resurrected STAR machine can replicate the 30-minute mark of Wendelstein 7-X?"

Zhou Chengfu didn't seem to like the word "resurrected", so he subconsciously frowned. However, he realized he was taping a show, so his eyebrows relaxed again.

"30 minutes?" Zhou Chengfu smiled and shook his head. "It'd be great if they could run the machine for 2 minutes."

Surprised, the host looked at Zhou Chengfu as he asked, "Are you not optimistic about the STAR machine?"

When Zhou Chengfu heard this question, he said, "It's not a matter of whether or not I'm optimistic about it. The reason why Wendelstein 7-X was able to maintain a 30-minute plasma confinement time was due to the special external field coil design and the most important factor; the water-cooled divertor.

"Even though WEGA also has this water-cooled divertor, their divertor was a 20-year-old tech. It's a lot worse than the current Wendelstein 7-X divertor. If the STAR stellarator wants to replicate Wendelstein 7-X's success, then they would have to innovate on the water-cooled divertor. However, they obviously didn't do this."

He wasn't bullshitting. The reason why the Wendelstein was able to achieve the 30-minute mark was mainly due to the water-cooled divertor. At least, that was what the Germans thought.

And the newest water-cooled divertor obviously wasn't installed on the WEGA machine.

Even if one disregarded these factors, just judging from that science review article that came out attacking them two months ago, the STAR Stellarator Research Institute hadn't done anything in return.

Right now Zhou Chengfu was confident that Lu Zhou wanted to fight him, but the STAR machine simply couldn't do anything.

Therefore, he had no pressure saying this on television.

"… Right now, the mainstream international controllable nuclear fusion research is still the tokamak. Then, it's the inertial confinement fusion device as well as the reversed-field pinch device you just mentioned.

"Theoretically, all of these technical routes are possible. We just have to solve all of the problems a certain technical route faces, and the final destination will be the fusion energy that we all desperately want. It's just like a truck and a sedan, as long as they have four wheels, they can drive on the highway."

The audience was amused by this analogy, and they were all grinning.

Zhou Chengfu paused for a second and continued, "The stellarator is too difficult from an engineering perspective. In contrast, the tokamak is much more succinct, and it has a relatively low engineering difficulty.

"We don't have to attempt every single technical route. Rather than trying every possibility, it'd be better to focus our limited resources on a few optimal routes.

"Instead of carelessly attempting random technical routes, this is the logical way to do research!"

…

After the interview finished, the sound of applause resonated in Zhou Chengfu's head. He left the studio and couldn't even describe how happy he was feeling.

Even though this kind of science shows for the public didn't have a lot of purposes, whenever he thought about that young man who ignored him, he couldn't help but feel relieved.

Suddenly, his phone in his pocket began to ring.

He took out his phone and saw Jiang Liang was calling, so he picked up the call and put his phone against his ear.

"Hello?"

"Director! Director Zhou!"

"What?" Zhou Chengfu heard how flustered Jiang Liang was, so he furrowed his eyebrows.

"The STAR research institute!"

Zhou Chengfu said impatiently, "Speak in full sentences, what happened with the STAR research institute?"

"Yesterday, they restarted their experiment!"

Zhou Chengfu's heart dropped to his stomach when he heard this, and he immediately asked, "They restarted their experiment? How come I didn't hear anything about this? Tell me, how was their experiment? Did they achieve the 30 minutes of run time?"

Jiang Liang was being fired with questions, and he had a bitter smile on his face.

"Not thirty minutes…"

When Zhou Chengfu heard it wasn't thirty minutes, he sighed in relief.

However, before he could feel relieved, something else happened.

Jiang Liang, who was still on the other end of the telephone, spoke bitterly in disbelief.

"… I saw on Jinling Daily that they achieved one hour of magnetic confinement time…"

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Chapter 516: This Is Impossible!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

He almost wasn't able to breathe.

"One hour?!"

Zhou Chengfu's fingers were trembling, and he nearly dropped his phone on the ground. His eyes widened, and his wrinkly old face was red from his rising blood pressure.

"How is this possible!"

This is impossible!

There's no way!

Even the latest Wendelstein 7-X's achievement was only 30 minutes.

How did they modify the WEGA machine, which was retired in 2013, to be able to achieve a one hour run time?

How the f*ck?

Jiang Liang was sweating bullets as he said, "I-I only just heard about this. I called you as soon as I heard about it… How about… I go to Jinling and see if it's legit?"

"… It's fine."

Zhou Chengfu took a deep breath and gradually calmed down.

Even though he didn't want to believe it, but since Jinling Daily reported heavily on this issue, it was unlikely that it was fake news.

It wasn't like it couldn't be fake, it was just that the only benefit from faking something like this was to make the members of Jin Ling city council happy. It was quite useless otherwise.

After all, private capital investments in these types of large-scale projects were basically negligible. Most of their research funding came from the government. A non-expert article from Jinling Daily or even a scientific journal for that matter wouldn't come into play in terms of government scientific research funding decisions…

Therefore, since the news was released by Jinling Daily first, the legitimacy of the news source was high.

However, by the time the public heard about this news, Lu Zhou and his team were probably already preparing their Science and Nature theses.

Zhou Chengfu thought about this and had a sliver of fear in his eyes.

He didn't expect this kid to be this smart. He purposely didn't respond to his provocative article. Instead, the kid dug a hole and waited for him to jump into it.

Fortunately, he didn't do anything out of line. Otherwise, this mess would be even more difficult to clean up…

However, Zhou Chengfu didn't realize something.

Which was that since the beginning, Lu Zhou never viewed him as a worthy opponent. All Lu Zhou did was follow his research plan step by step.

Jiang Liang quietly asked, "Director Zhou, what do we do now?"

Zhou Chengfu had a bitter smile on his face.

What do we do?

He was contemplating this as well.

This would be easy to solve if Lu Zhou was under the same jurisdiction as him. Unfortunately, Lu Zhou wasn't part of the China National Nuclear Corporation, nor was he part of the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center.

Simply put, he had no power over Lu Zhou.

It seemed that his usual tactics wouldn't work here.

Of course, these were all secondary.

The most important part was this one hour magnetic confinement time since it was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.

This result in and of itself was breathtaking…

…

In some sense, Zhou Chengfu's analysis on the television program was correct.

The water-cooled divertor was one of the most important components in the controllable nuclear fusion device. Which was also one of the shortcomings in China's controllable nuclear fusion field. Without solving the problem of the divertor, theoretically, there was no way for the STAR machine to perform better than the WEGA did.

In other words, if the water-cooled divertor problem was solved, then the domestic tokamak magnetic confinement times would also increase by quite a bit… Of course, there were also other unsolved problems, like the magnetic surface tear of the internal plasma current.

However, this wasn't it.

To achieve a long plasma confinement time, one would have to solve the heat dissipation problem of the first wall material. Increasing the cooling rate wasn't the only way to solve this problem.

Improving the control scheme and precisely controlling the external field coil could reduce the direct contact of the plasma and the first wall material. This could produce the same cooling effect.

Even though this approach was more difficult than the water-cooled divertor from a technical perspective, it was very easy from an engineering perspective.

After they created a control scheme, achieving a 30-minute confinement run-time was only a matter of time.

However, Xiao Ai played a crucial role as for how Lu Zhou went from half an hour to one hour.

After the supercomputer was built, he fulfilled his agreement with Xiao Ai and gave it a new home.

His original server acted as a "repeater" between his local network and the internet, which was stored in his home so that he could contact Xiao Ai through his phone.

As for the cybersecurity problems…

Honestly, if someone could hack into the artificial intelligence that the high tech system gave him, he would admit defeat.

After all, anyone that could do such a thing probably didn't come from Earth.

In short, after Xiao Ai was moved into its new home, it finally did something useful.

Through the control scheme algorithm that was stored in the supercomputer and its analysis of the plasma experimental data, it had greatly improved and optimized the original control scheme algorithm.

On the day of the experiment, Lu Zhou executed the experiment as planned.

Their original plan was to achieve a thirty-minute run time. However, after thirty minutes of experimenting, they didn't expect the sensors to indicate that the reactor was running normally.

After that, he received a text from Xiao Ai.

[(๑•̀ᄇ•́)و].

Therefore, after a short conversation with Xiao Ai, Lu Zhou decided to change the experiment plan on-the-go. He ordered his assistant Sheng Xianfu to continue the experiment and set the experiment target to one hour…

This was the story behind the shocking one-hour run-time achievement.

…

Inside the pure white system space.

Lu Zhou stood in front of the translucent mission panel and confirmed his mission completion details.

1. [Congratulations, User, for completing the "artificial intelligence" technology branch mission!]

2. ["Fusion Light" mission chain]

[Optional branch mission: 1-hour high-density plasma confinement. (complete!)]

The first mission was from his technology branch.

After so many years, he almost forgot it existed.

According to the system's experience reward rules, leveling up his "artificial intelligence" technology branch to level 2 also gave him 10,000 information science experience points, which leveled up his information science discipline to level 2.

The second mission rewarded him with 50,000 engineering experience points, just enough for him to level up.

Other than that, there were also 500 general points.

This experiment could be considered a huge success.

Lu Zhou closed the mission panel and ordered, "System, open my characteristic panel!"

A blue light swept across the screen. Soon, his updated characteristic panel was presented in front of him.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 7 (144,000/1.2 million)

B. Physics: Level 5 (83,215/300,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 4 (74,000/100,000)

D. Engineering: Level 4 (0/200,000)

E. Materials science: level 5 (13,000/300,000)

F. Energy science: Level 2 ( 0/50,000)

G. Information science: Level 2 (3,000/50,000)

General points: 5,475 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

[

Technology branch:

Artificial intelligence: Level 2 (0/50,000)

]

Lu Zhou looked at his updated characteristic panel and nodded in satisfaction.

Ever since he activated the controllable nuclear fusion mission chain, he felt like he was leveling up at the speed of light.

The only downside was that he didn't get a lot of mathematics experience points.

As a mathematician, he couldn't help but feel a little gloomy…

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Chapter 517: Explosion of the Plasma Physics Community

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The researchers at the STAR Stellarator Research Institute spent around three days wrangling the experimental data.

At the same time, Lu Zhou, who was responsible for summarizing the data, finished writing the relevant thesis. With more than thirty authors named on this thesis, Lu Zhou finally submitted it to the Science journal editorial department.

Just after he finished submitting the thesis, his phone began to ring.

Lu Zhou picked up the phone. When he saw that it was Academician Pan who was calling him, he answered the call.

The second the call connected, he heard laughter from the other end of the phone.

"Kid, you're not bad at all! You're really giving Old Zhou a headache with this one. He's probably wondering how he's going to take back his words."

Lu Zhou was leaning against his office chair as he made a careless expression.

He's the one that is coming after me, it's not like I did anything wrong.

Even if I say my comeback wasn't intentional, I'm sure not a lot of people will believe me.

Academician Pan paused for a second before he said in a more serious tone, "Honestly, when I heard that your second experiment target was thirty minutes, I was more than astonished. I never expected to have actually underestimated your abilities. I'm sure the Germans also didn't expect their garbage WEGA machine to perform this well."

Even though the run-time was only doubled, this type of thing couldn't be compared linearly.

It was no exaggeration to say that this achievement alone would put them miles ahead of the world in terms of controllable nuclear fusion research.

"What's next? What's your next plan?"

Lu Zhou smiled. "Next time, I plan on taking this seriously."

There was a subtle change in Academician Pan's facial expression as he spoke in disbelief.

"Demonstration reactor?"

Lu Zhou, while holding the phone, nodded.

"Yes."

When Academician Pan heard Lu Zhou's decisive answer through the phone, he took a deep breath. He was completely shocked.

Even though the experimental reactor sounded similar to the demonstration reactor, they were two completely different things.

The former was only able to achieve the most basic experimental set up for plasma experiments, while the latter was a demonstration reaction device that required a series of technical requirements such as plasma confinement, fusion reaction, and the appropriate power output.

It came as a surprise to no one that for a long time, this demonstration reactor became China and the world's controllable nuclear fusion target project.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the former was child's play compared to the latter.

Even though controllable nuclear fusion research experiments had been going on for more than half a century and various experimental reactors had emerged throughout the world, but whether it was the Princeton Institute for Plasma Physics or the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, there wasn't a single institution on earth that could create a nuclear fusion demonstration reactor.

And the plan for building a demonstration reactor had always been on the timelines of various large research institutes.

Academician Pan hesitated for a bit before asking in an uncertain tone, "Isn't it a bit too early to start building a demonstration reactor?"

Even though a one-hour high-density plasma magnetic confinement time was worthy of celebration, it was still quite ambitious to start building a demonstration reactor now.

As far as Academician Pan was concerned, there were many major issues that were unsolved.

When he heard how confident Lu Zhou was, he couldn't help but worry if Lu Zhou was becoming too arrogant.

Lu Zhou smiled when he heard Academician Pan's question.

"It's not too early. There are a lot of things we can do while researching. We don't have to wait until everything is ready. Not to mention, the most important superconducting magnet and control scheme is already solved. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until anti-radiation materials for the first wall is invented. As long as the conditions are matched, I have an 80% certainty of building this demonstration reactor."

Lu Zhou wanted to first build the components for the reactor, such as the plasma track, external field coil, water-cooled divertor, etc. For the problems that were impossible to solve from an engineering perspective, such as the first wall material, he would have to wait until the theory was solved. After that, he could invent and implement the material.

However, the scale of a demonstration reactor was completely different from the experimental reactor, and they were on a different order of magnitude.

And his research funding was running low.

When Lu Zhou thought about this, he subconsciously looked at the fountain pen laying on the corner of his table.

Looks like I'll have to write some letters again.

…

For most people, submitting a thesis to top journals such as Science and Nature wasn't an easy task. However, this wasn't difficult for Lu Zhou at all.

Even taking out the fact that he was a Nobel Prize winner and had a good reputation in academia, just from his past cooperation with the Science editorial department and the power behind the words "nuclear fusion" alone was enough for the editorial department to take his thesis seriously.

The data didn't have any problems, and Lu Zhou didn't have to wait long before his thesis was quickly reviewed and published in the latest issue of Science.

After the publication of the thesis, the people finally learned about the miracle that happened on the STAR machine. The entire plasma physics community exploded.

How long was one hour?

Just a year ago, various countries were using seconds as a measurement for their tokamak run-time.

The results of this thesis were leaps and bounds beyond any other national research institutes.

However, if one used a pulse igniter, one wouldn't need such a long confinement time. But the shock that came with this one-hour achievement was still able to surprise all of the scholars that were paying attention to this machine.

Not only in academia, but the success of the STAR machine also aroused the general public's attention, which led to a lot of heated discussions on the internet.

Some people pressed the like button as they thought it was a huge step toward the future.

Some other people expressed their concerns when they thought humans were moving closer and closer to their own extinction.

While some people didn't care at all.

After all, it wasn't their first time seeing news about controllable fusion energy. Twenty years ago, someone said that controllable nuclear fusion energy would be achievable in twenty years at the latest. However, no one was able to fulfill that original promise.

But in any case, for a major scientific breakthrough like this, the CTV stood on the political side and gave widespread coverage of the news.

In its latest news broadcast, CTV allocated a specific segment for a comprehensive report on this matter.

"A few days ago, the Jinling STAR Stellarator Research Institute published a paper in Science, which revealed the details of their latest controllable nuclear fusion experiment.

"In that experiment, Chinese Nobel Prize laureate Professor Lu Zhou and his research team were able to successfully achieve a one-hour plasma confinement run-time.

"According to experts within the industry, this technological breakthrough is expected to open a new chapter for controllable nuclear fusion research…"

As usual, the CTV news segment cited a foreign media interview.

Stanford Professor Burton Richter, 1976 Nobel Prize laureate and Tri Alpha consultant, was sitting in front of the camera. He was asked by a CBS reporter on his opinion regarding the STAR machine, in which he described how astonished he was.

"… When my colleague told me that someone was able to achieve a one-hour magnetic confinement runtime, I first thought it was a ridiculous joke. That was until he found the paper in the latest Science issue and presented it in front of me.

"Even now, my heart is still full of amazement. Especially when I heard that the machine was a modified version of the retired WEGA machine, that just added to the surprise even more.

"There was no way WEGA could achieve something like this when even the Wendelstein 7-X couldn't.

"In my opinion, China is at the forefront of controllable nuclear fusion research. If the most important superconducting material and plasma control scheme is solved, then they only have to solve the first wall plasma anti-radiation material problem before they could build a real demonstration fusion reactor. After all, converting heat energy into electrical energy wasn't a difficult problem in and of itself."

Burton Richter had a mixture of emotions on his face.

"We've been leading the controllable nuclear fusion field for half a century, but it's very likely that we'll lose at the finishing line. I'm not joking, the Department of Energy should take this matter seriously…"

Regardless of whether or not the American Department of Energy took this matter seriously, the STAR machine attracted attention from many high ranking Chinese government officials.

The paper that was published in Science pushed the word "controllable nuclear fusion" to the cusp of global media coverage. At the same time, a hand-written letter from Lu Zhou appeared on Mr. President's office.

This letter triggered a lot of sensitive nerves…

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Chapter 518: 40 Billion Yuan Engineering Project!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Beijing.

A mysterious place inside a ring road.

Director Lu stood in front of the office door and took a deep breath. He reached out his hand and gently knocked on the door.

After he heard someone say, "Come in," he opened the door and walked inside. He spoke respectfully.

"Sir, did you ask for me?"

The old man looked at the head of the energy department standing at the doorway, and he gently smiled.

"I have a letter here, take it and read it."

Without hesitating, Director Lu walked up and picked up the letter from the desk.

He looked at the title of the letter and had an epiphany.

This made sense; there were only a few people in the country that could directly send letters to this office.

Just as he expected, this letter was related to the matters at Jinling.

[Dear…

[I'm sure you have heard about our STAR research institute's latest experiment. Where our researchers were able to achieve a one hour magnetic confinement time.

[This research result allows me to believe that in the near future, deuterium will become a brand new, important energy source for us to use. This type of energy is cleaner and more efficient than any other type of energy that we are familiar with.

[In theory, one kilogram of deuterium and tritium mixture can release 108 million kWh of energy in a complete reaction. Using an energy conversion ratio of 35%, 37.8 million kWh of electricity can be produced.

[Using a rough estimation, we would only need 167 tons of deuterium and tritium mixture to satisfy China's yearly energy demands.

[Aside from the fact that tritium can be used as an intermediate product, the main consumption material, deuterium, costs less than 4,000 yuan per kilogram. And by expanding the production scale, this cost could be greatly reduced.

[Based on these apparent facts, we can deduce through a simple calculation that the cost of nuclear fusion energy will be less than a thousandth of the cost of traditional thermal power.

[The creation of nuclear energy will completely change society's energy structure. It will completely change our lifestyles and production capacity… It will change everything we know of.

[As a scholar, it's my duty to remind you that we are at an inflection point in history, and the door to a new era is right in front of our eyes.

[Of course, the cost of opening this door will be huge.

[The decision of opening this door is in your hands.

[…]

The letter wasn't over; it was followed by a timeline for the commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion technology, the goals of the demonstration reactor, and a budget statement.

For the time being, Director Lu didn't finish reading the letter. After reading the first page, his eyebrows twitched.

The entire letter was full of polite wording. It was about how good the future of fusion energy was and how important it was. However, between the lines of the handwritten letter, all he could see was, "give me the money".

He turned the page to the demonstration reactor plan.

It contained a detailed list of Professor Lu's estimated specifications for the various DEMO reactor components, as well as an estimation for the performance of the DEMO machine.

[Project objective: To complete the construction of the DEMO demonstration reactor by 2025.

[Assessment Criteria: Radiofrequency prototype negative ion source surface: 0.45 x 3.2m, radiofrequency plasma under multi-drive has a uniformity of over 95%, negative ion extraction current density is greater than 300A/m2, beam intensity greater than 20A, negative ion beam synthesis energy indicator reaches 200keV, beam stability lasts for 60 minutes…]

Even though he had met Lu Zhou a few times, he never knew that Professor Lu Zhou was involved in engineering as well. The plan looked legit.

He read the plan from start to finish.

The more he read, the most serious he looked.

Director Lu was irritated, and he put down the letter and shook his head.

"43 billion yuan… Professor Lu really knows how to make us spend money."

This wasn't just about money.

Especially that one specific line in the plan—"This reactor alone can satisfy the electricity needs of the entire Jiangsu province."

It was an obvious boast and likely wasn't backed by facts.

One should know that the yearly electricity consumption in Jiangsu was 580.78 billion kWh, second only to Guangdong's 596.89 billion kWh, with Jiangsu's consumption ranking second in the country!

Even if this power generator was running 24 hours a day, to produce 580.79 billion kWh a year would require at least 66,300 MW of continuous power!

What did a power output of 66,300 MW mean?

The total power capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was only 22,000 MW, while the six nuclear power units in Daya Bay only added up to around 6000 MW.

Which meant that the power of one fusion reactor was equivalent to three Three Gorges Dams? Or eleven Daya Bay nuclear power units?

What kind of monster reactor was this?

Common sense told Director Lu that this was impossible.

If it were anyone else that drafted this plan, he wouldn't think twice before throwing it in the garbage bin.

However…

This was from Professor Lu.

And when he thought about it carefully, it was actually kind of tempting…

When the president looked at how perplexed Director Lu was, he smiled and asked, "What do you think about this?"

"The plan is extremely ambitious, I don't know where he got this confidence from, but…" Director Lu realized that the old man wasn't asking for his opinion, so he hesitated for a second before saying cautiously, "I am certain that the things he said, are exactly what we need!"

China was a huge energy-consuming country. Their annual coal and oil consumption was measured in billions of tons. Especially their coal consumption, which accounted for almost half of the world's total coal usage!

If Professor Lu's letter was correct, that their entire country's electricity needs could be met with just 167 tons of deuterium and tritium mixture, then with the wide application of fusion energy, China's future energy expenditure would be a fraction of the current cost!

Also, the motivating factors weren't just the political and economic value behind it, but it was also the cleanliness factor.

Due to the Renewable Energy Assessment subsidy provided by the state, the various provincial administrative regions were inclined to meet their quota for minimum renewable energy consumption. The state had always been determined to develop clean energy.

This was one of the reasons why "conserving energy" was mentioned at every large government meeting.

Fusion energy was efficient, cheap, abundant, and hardly produced any type of pollution. It could basically solve all of China's sustainable energy problems, once and for all.

If all of this was achievable, the state should develop this technology at all costs.

"It is quite ambitious." The president nodded and paused for a second before saying, "But I think it is worth trying."

Director Lu's made a subtle expression, and he immediately said respectfully, "I understand, sir."

Even though there were still some doubts in his heart about the contents of that letter, his doubts were no longer important.

A 40 billion yuan project couldn't be decided by one individual alone. Hearing how relaxed the president's words were, it was obvious that this proposal was unanimously agreed by the National People's Congress.

Since the highest governing body agreed to this proposal, there was only one thing left for him to do.

Which was to draw up a plan that would meet all of Professor Lu's conditions and to try his best to ensure that this "DEMO demonstration reactor" project could begin as soon as possible!

Sitting behind the desk, the president suddenly thought about something.

"Oh yeah, how is the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center project going?"

Director Lu replied honestly, "Looking at the timeline, they plan on constructing the demonstration reactor in 2025… However, given that the various conditions are not met, I'm afraid it might be postponed."

The president shook his head and said, "So slow."

Comparison is the thief of joy.

By comparing these two demonstration reactor projects, the timeline gap was apparent.

Director Lu: "… Scientific research cannot be rushed."

"You're right, slow and steady is the way to go." The president nodded and said, "Then let them slowly do their research. Since they don't need money for the time being, just take out part of their research funding."

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Chapter 519: Hopeless Future

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

While the STAR stellarator machine completely ignited the controllable nuclear fusion field, shocking the entire plasma physics community, Greifswald, which was at the edge of the Baltic Sea, was as calm as always.

The Wendelstein 7-X laboratory was located in this small rural town. The researchers and engineers were going to work on time, doing their usual tasks, just casually drinking coffee, and chatting during their lunch breaks…

However, there was more or less a look of depression on everyone's face.

Just a few days ago, the newly published paper on Science completely shattered their pride.

For a long time, they were at the forefront of stellarator research.

Even the Princeton PPPL, which invented the stellarator technical route, couldn't keep up with their stellarator research.

However, a few days ago, their lead was completely demolished.

The STAR machine located in Jin Ling City, China, was able to achieve a one hour confinement time on 100 million-degree plasma.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that not only was this technological breakthrough leaps and bounds ahead of their current research, but this breakthrough was at the cusp of the finishing line.

And the most frustrating thing was the fact that they had no idea how the hell the STAR machine did it…

Keriber looked at the paper with a solemn expression on his face.

He had read the thesis in its entirety more than a dozen times.

However, no matter how many times he read it, when he saw the dazzling data, he couldn't help but feel shocked at the implication behind this thesis.

His assistant, Price, was standing next to him. Price took a deep breath and couldn't help but exclaim, "I can't believe this… How did they do it?"

Professor Keriber shook his head. When he placed the thesis on the table, he said, "I don't know. If I knew, we wouldn't be so inactive right now."

He was the head of the Wendelstein 7-X laboratory, so average researchers couldn't imagine the amount of pressure he was under.

After all, he was the one that convinced the Max Planck Society and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres to follow through on selling the WEGA machine.

Even though this wasn't entirely his fault, he promised that all of WEGA machine's component technologies were at least two generations behind that of Wendelstein 7-X's…

But even though he still firmly believed in his previous statement, there probably weren't a lot of people that trusted him.

Price suddenly began to wonder, and he quietly asked, "Maybe they… faked it?"

Keriber shook his head and said, "There are no problems at all in the data. The possibility of them conducting fraud is almost zero."

In a soft voice, Price reminded him, "But Professor Lu is a mathematician…"

What Price really wanted to say was, if a big name Fields Medal winner wanted to create fraudulent data, no one would even be able to tell the difference.

However, Keriber shook his head and spoke in a serious manner.

"I trust in his academic reputation. Also, there's no reason for him to do something like this."

Suddenly, a knocking sound was heard at the door, and a researcher walked in.

"Professor, the president of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Professor Millek, and Secretary-General Norbert from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is outside."

Professor Keriber's body was drained of energy. He sighed and pushed himself up from the office chair.

"Understood, I'll go there right now."

…

Laboratory first floor.

Just as Professor Keriber walked out of the office, he saw a group of people marching into the building.

Professor Keriber looked at the two people leading the group. He cleared his throat and forced a stiff smile on his face.

"Professor Millek, Mr. Norbert, welcome to Wendelstein 7-X laboratory… What brings you guys here?"

Professor Millek didn't smile. Instead, he said with a blank expression, "Cut the crap, take me inside."

Professor Keriber was stunned, and he said, "Inside?"

"Inside the Wendelstein 7-X."

"Wendelstein 7-X? Sorry, there isn't any experiment planned for today…"

"I don't care if there's an experiment or not." Professor Millek stared at Keriber and said, one word at a time, "Take. Me. Inside."

"Okay…"

Professor Keriber hesitated for a bit before nodded.

In academia, whoever had control of the research funding was the boss.

This was true in any country.

Professor Keriber didn't feel the best right now. Actually, he felt horrible. However, he still had to bury those negative emotions in his heart.

After all, most of the research funding for the Wendelstein 7-X laboratory was controlled by these two big names.

With Professor Keriber leading the way, the group of people walked into the research institute. They soon arrived at the laboratory in which the Wendelstein 7-X machine was stored.

This medal behemoth was situated in the middle of the laboratory. Professor Millek walked up and personally examined the instrument.

Professor Keriber was confused at his actions, and he asked, "Are you satisfied?"

Professor Millek took two steps back and nodded. "Very good, it's still here."

Keriber: "What is still here?"

Professor Millek stared at Keriber and replied bluntly, "I thought you sold all of the components for 500 million."

Keriber had a strange expression on his face.

"I don't know why you would think that, but rest assured, because… the Wendelstein 7-X doesn't have that kind of capability."

Even though this was frustrating, it was nothing but facts.

An hour-long magnetic confinement experiment would burn their first wall material to ashes.

But if they really tried to replace their outer field coils with the SG-1 material and improve the control scheme, it might be possible.

However, this might sound simple, but it would take a lot of time and resources to actually execute…

And now was obviously not a good time to ask for more research funding.

"That's the problem," said the president of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Mr. Norbert looked at Keriber and slowly said, "How come the improved WEGA machine, the STAR machine, can do it? How come the Wendelstein 7-X, which you guys spent five years renovating, can't? Maybe I'm not being scientific with my words here, but I want to ask, aren't these machines born from the same mother?"

The few staff standing around couldn't help but chuckle.

Keriber's eyebrows twitched, but he still explained patiently, "Yes, you're right, their machine is only an improved version of our old WEGA machine. However, I can guarantee that their WEGA machine has been completely remodeled.

"The key to their one hour magnetic confinement time isn't our device. It's the superconducting magnets and the control scheme… Also some other secrets only they know."

Norbert interrupted Professor Keriber's explanation. "I didn't come here to listen to you explain your failure.

"We've spent countless billions of euros on you, and you've been beating around the bush for decades. Not only are you far from achieving any type of significant results, but a country that has been terrible at nuclear research has surpassed us. I have to say, this isn't something I like. I need you to catch up to them and give a reasonable explanation to the government and our allies."

Professor Keriber bit the bullet and said, "I'm doing my best."

Mr. Norbert looked at Professor Keriber. "Don't just give me empty promises, I want to see results."

Norbert turned around and walked away while his staff followed him.

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Chapter 520: The Fewer Words There Are, the More Information There Is

Beijing.

Even though it was late at night, the China National Nuclear Corporation building was still brightly lit.

Su Yiwen received a call for a conference even though he had already left work and was already laying in bed. He climbed out of bed, put on some clothes, then drove to the corporation building.

Su Yiwen yawned while sitting in the conference room. He looked at Section Chief Zhang, who was sitting next to him, and he couldn't help but speak, "What the hell is going on, why are we having a meeting so late?"

"I don't know." Zhang Xueqian shook his head. He thought about something and said, "I just heard that it has something to do with the recent stellarator experiment at Jinling."

A week ago, very few people would know what a stellarator was. Even if they were familiar with the word, they would not be able to precisely explain what it was.

But now, anyone that looked at the news broadcasts or saw the trending pages online would know about the shocking one hour run-time of the STAR machine.

After all, this was the research result that shocked the entire plasma physics community.

However…

What did this have to do with the China National Nuclear Corporation?

"Stellarator?" Su Yiwen stared at his boss and said with a strange expression, "Aren't the Chinese Academy of Sciences researching that thing? What does it have to do with us?"

Old Zhang glanced at him and said, "You're asking me, who do I ask?"

They didn't wait for long before the conference began.

While chatting with Old Zhang, Su Yiwen learned that this conference was personally hosted by the CEO of the corporation. Not only did the department level leaders receive notice of the conference, but high-level engineers and senior researchers from various city-level research institutes also received a notice for the conference, and almost all of them were coming.

Even though Su Yiwen didn't know what the CEO planned to speak about at the meeting, looking at the dozen or so Academy of Sciences academicians and the Academy of Engineering academicians sitting in the front row of the conference room, Su Yiwen put on a serious attitude.

Normally speaking, these big names wouldn't attend the same meetings as them, and even if they did, only a few of them would come.

But now, all of these big names were sitting here.

Obviously, important things were about to be discussed at this conference.

Soon, a dignified looking man walked on stage.

Xu Jianfeng cleared his throat and reached out for the microphone. He didn't waste time on his opening statement, and he spoke in a simple and concise manner.

"My apologies for hosting a meeting at this hour. You've all worked hard during the day, so I know it's not easy for you all to be here.

"The things I am about to say are very important, and I hope everyone will carefully listen to every word and take notes.

"There are a lot of things that I have to say, but I'll try to keep it short."

CEO Xu paused for a second and spoke in a more serious tone.

"I'm sure everyone has heard that a week ago, there has been a huge breakthrough in the controllable nuclear fusion field. Professor Lu Zhou's research team was able to achieve a one-hour high-density plasma confinement time.

"I'm glad to see our country is at the forefront of controllable fusion technology.

"Our country is a major energy consumer, and we have an urgent need for sustainable energy. Two hours ago, the Communist Party of China issued an administrative document to relative government departments, which outlined a plan and implementation guideline for a controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor.

"The main contractor for this project is the China National Nuclear Corporation!"

There was a commotion in the crowd.

Some people's eyes lit up with excitement.

Other people shook their heads, looking worried and anxious.

The vast majority of people looked bewildered.

Controllable nuclear fusion…

For most people, this was something that they would only see in science fiction movies.

Even just yesterday, a lot of them were discussing designs for the next-generation nuclear fission power plants and the future prospects for nuclear fission development.

However, within a day, their designs seemed to have been tossed into the garbage bin.

Xu Jianfeng, who was standing on stage, didn't care about the commotion. He knew in his mind that it wasn't easy for them to digest this information.

He said in a clear and sonorous voice, "Designing, preparing, building… This is the government's instructions.

"As the leading corporation in China's nuclear power, we are responsible and obligated to follow the national energy development strategy and stand at the front line of new energy development!

"From now on, the research project for the fourth-generation nuclear fission technology will be suspended. The controllable nuclear fusion project will be the main project for our group and will be executed with the highest priority!

"I know there are many difficulties yet to be solved, but I believe in you, and I believe that we can overcome those difficulties!"

There was a thunderous applause in the conference room.

Xu Jianfeng instructed everyone to be quiet. He gently sorted his documents on the multimedia desk and said in a steady voice, "Our corporation will work closely with the STAR Stellarator Research Institute. At the same time, we will assemble a small team of experts that would be based in Jinling, and we'll also cooperate with the research team at STAR Stellarator Research Institute.

"I have a list of names here. I will name everyone that will report to Jinling tomorrow.

"I hope everyone who is named will follow the higher-ups' orders. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me."

This indicated that the conference was about to be over.

The only thing left to do was to announce the names of those who would be part of the Jinling team.

Controllable nuclear fusion…

Su Yiwen looked at the list of names in the CEO's hand and felt his heart warming up.

Why do I feel like…

I might have the opportunity to witness history.

…

The government's response was much faster than what Lu Zhou had anticipated.

Three days after he sent out that letter, he received a response from the president.

There were only two words.

[No problem.]

There was a saying—"the fewer words there are, the more information there is."

Lu Zhou fully experienced this after he received the letter.

The first to arrive was the 43 billion yuan research funding.

His nearly empty research fund was once again filled with cash.

It wasn't just research funding, the relevant government policy support also came along.

After the Communist Party of China released the administrative documents to the relevant departments, the controllable fusion demonstration reactor didn't encounter any barriers. Instead, it was launched at an extraordinary speed.

After consulting Lu Zhou's opinion, this fusion machine would be called the "STAR-2".

The main responsible party for this was obviously the STAR Stellarator Research Institute, and the main contractor was the China National Nuclear Corporation, a leading enterprise in China's nuclear energy field.

From developing and designing nuclear power technology to the design of nuclear power plants, not to mention the production and supply of nuclear fuel, this state-funded enterprise was directly managed by the Communist Party of China, and they had a lot of experience in nuclear-related projects.

There were a lot of small cooperating parties, such as Sinopec Group, State Grid Corporation of China, and other state-owned or state-funded enterprises. In total, there were more than a hundred parties that were involved in this project.

Some of them were giving research funds, some were giving research talents, the others gave both.

In short, all of the issues outside of research were solved by these state departments.

All Lu Zhou had to worry about was how to implement this massive engineering project…

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Chapter 521: Boiling Water Is Wasteful

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou spent the past few days attending meetings.

Some were internal meetings for the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, some were for the STAR Stellarator Research Institute, and others were with the companies that were cooperating with STAR…

He already had a rough blueprint in his mind for how to implement a controllable nuclear fusion reactor. However, he couldn't execute this blueprint on his own.

He was the chief designer as well as the person in charge of this massive project. Therefore, it was his responsibility to dissect this research project into multiple sections and subsections. He then had to allocate these small projects to various organizations, pinpoint any particularly difficult problems, and concentrate his resources on those problems.

For example, by digging through the relevant literature, one could find out that research problems such as "recycling and cleansing tritium and deuterium from the plasma exhaust" or "safe confinement of tritium" had been conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Therefore, Lu Zhou didn't have to repeat the research himself. He only had to make sure the people or organizations in these research fields had enough research funding so that they could continue their research and find ways to implement their technologies on the stellarator.

As for the more difficult research projects such as the "first wall material", "anti-neutron irradiation material", "proliferation and extraction of tritium", or "tritium stagnation", Lu Zhou wanted to hand them over to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Three days after the project was launched.

In the STAR Stellarator Research Institute, Lu Zhou met the task force sent by the China National Nuclear Corporation.

The person in charge of the task force was Academician Wang Zengguang, chief engineer of the China National Nuclear Corporation. This old academician had been working in the nuclear industry for many years and had plenty of experience in the design of fission reactors and nuclear power generators.

Even though his experience on fission reactors wasn't fully applicable to fusion reactors, they were both nuclear power, so they still had a lot of similarities.

For example, the design of the generator set.

The old academician brought a design sketch on how to convert the heat energy generated by the reactor into electrical energy.

The concept of a very-high-temperature reactor could be implemented on the nuclear fusion machine.

However, Lu Zhou briefly looked at the sketch and put it down.

"It's a waste to boil water using such an advanced piece of technology."

Academician Wang: "But you have to admit, boiling water is still the most efficient way."

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Not necessarily."

Academician Wang didn't say anything. He waited for Lu Zhou to continue.

However, Lu Zhou didn't give an explanation. Instead, he took a piece of A4 paper from his desk. He then picked up a pen and began to sketch on the paper.

After his engineering level reached level four, he could gradually feel the upgrading effects of his engineering level.

If his mathematics level increased his intuition of numbers, ability to calculate, and ability to learn mathematics, then not only did his engineering level increase his ability to absorb engineering knowledge, but it also strengthened his ability to articulate his abstract concepts and ability to convey graphs and numbers.

Like right now.

He had never gone through formal training for drawing engineering blueprints and had only read some related textbooks. However, it was like the muscles in his hands formed a type of muscle memory; all of his strokes were accurate and precise.

Academician Wang looked at Lu Zhou drawing, and his eyes squinted. He had a surprised look on his face.

"You know how to draw technical drawings?"

"Not really." Lu Zhou smiled and said, "It's probably because I drew quite a lot of pictures when I was researching topology questions."

Academician Wang couldn't believe this explanation.

Even though he had never studied mathematics before, it was obvious that mathematical drawings were completely different than mechanical drawings.

He knew that without a few years of professional experience, one wouldn't be able to draw these drawings.

Lu Zhou didn't care if Academician Wang believed him or not, he didn't have to explain these unimportant matters. He was concentrating on his work at hand.

He first drew a simple outline of the stellarator. Then, he outlined a simple structure of the generator set.

The more he drew, the clearer the lines were. When Academician Wang finally had a rough idea of what was going on, he raised his eyebrows.

"Ferrofluid power?"

"That's right." Lu Zhou stopped drawing and looked at the paper. He then nodded with satisfaction and said, "This is the best I can draw. I haven't made any specific designs yet, so I'm afraid you will have to do the grunt work."

Just like controllable fusion, ferrofluid energy-generating technology wasn't a particularly new concept. It actually had a long history.

Looking at its timeline, this concept was first proposed together with the "Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Power Plants (GTCC)".

In the 1980s, ferrofluid electric energy technology was even included as a key project in the 863 Program. It was rated the same importance as that of nuclear fission power.

The full name of the 863 Program was the "State High-Tech Development Plan". The projects included were basically the hot topics in the international academic community at that time. Therefore, it was easy to see that the academic community viewed ferrofluid energy as a hot area.

However, the situation changed in the latter half of the twentieth century.

The aerospace and military arms races led to the rapid development of engine and gas utilization technology. The GTCC benefited heavily from this development, which led to it being the main type of power generator.

In contrast, even though ferrofluid technology had a more attractive prospect, it was difficult to achieve due to various technical reasons. Its economic benefits also couldn't keep up with the market demand. Nothing significant came from it for decades, so it was gradually abandoned by the industry and academic community.

Academician Wang looked at the sketch and shook his head. "Forgive me, but ferrofluid energy-generating technology isn't perfect, I'm afraid it's not a suitable choice. The world's nuclear fission reactors are mainly based on pressurized water reactors. I've never heard of any nuclear power plant that's using ferrofluid electricity-generating technology."

Lu Zhou knew Academician Wang would say this, so he smiled and continued, "That might be the case for nuclear fission, but it's not true for nuclear fusion."

"Oh yeah?" Academician Wang looked amused, and he looked at Lu Zhou as he asked, "Why do you say that?"

Lu Zhou: "The difficulty of ferrofluid energy generation is the gas ionization part. It's difficult to heat the gas beam to 2,000 Celsius and form a plasma beam. Even if this is achievable, this process will incur a lot of thermal energy waste. It's difficult to achieve more than a 20% cycle efficiency with ferrofluid electric energy technology… Am I right?"

Academician Wang nodded and said in a serious tone, "That's the gist of it."

Even though there were other problems, this problem was undoubtedly the most important.

There were ferrofluid electric energy generators on the market, so a lot of laboratories had the capabilities of making one. Some were powered by coal, while others were powered by fuel. However, no one was able to achieve an energy conversion efficiency of more than 20%.

But if it was nuclear fusion…

"In the case of nuclear fusion, this problem doesn't exist." Lu Zhou looked at Academician Wang's confused expression and smiled as he said, "After all, the nuclear waste generated by the nuclear fusion itself is helium gas, which is billions of degrees hot."

Academician Wang's expression made a subtle change, and he immediately looked at the sketch before quickly realizing what was happening.

Everyone knew that the principle of ferrofluid electric energy was to heat an ionized gas to a temperature of 2,000 degrees. They would then ionize the gas into a conductive plasma beam before cutting the magnetic lines of force to generate an induced electromotive force.

The helium generated by the fusion reaction in the stellarator itself was in the form of a hundred million degrees plasma!

In other words, they didn't have to spend any energy to heat the ionized gas; they could just utilize the plasma that carried these huge amounts of energy!

Using this technology on coal or petrol generators was undoubtedly a waste. However, it was basically made for nuclear fusion power!

It would be a complete waste to use the high-temperature plasma to boil water.

Academician Wang was still staring at the sketch, and there was a flash of excitement in his eyes.

He looked up at Lu Zhou and said in a cautious tone, "You're making sense… And this is theoretically possible. However, I can't give you a definitive answer right now. I have to discuss with the other experts in the task force."

He then looked at the sketch on the paper again.

"Can I take this technical drawing with me?"

"Of course you can," Lu Zhou said, "I look forward to hearing good news from you."

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Chapter 522: Not Taking the Usual Path

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Chief Engineer Wang left the STAR Stellarator Research Institute with the technical sketch. He flew back to the China National Nuclear Corporation headquarters in Beijing on the same day and contacted ferrofluid electric energy experts at the Academy of Engineering. They began to discuss the feasibility of applying ferrofluid electric energy technology on the controllable fusion device.

However, even though their leader was gone, the China National Nuclear Corporation task force still stayed in Jinling. They were working with the STAR Stellarator Research Institute researchers on technical issues.

At the same time, the STAR machine was undergoing experiments.

After the institute received sufficient research funding, the institute had been conducting experiments almost every three days. Their research targets were hydrogen and helium, and their job was to observe their various complex physical properties in the stellarator plasma.

In order to collect valuable data, Lu Zhou even demanded to mix the 1mg of precious deuterium into the reaction chamber, which had the risk of damaging the first wall material.

In fact, this experiment did actually cause some damages to the STAR machine. Thankfully, the damage was repairable. But even then, the entire machine had to be shut down for at least a month.

Of course, even though the cost was high, the return was also high.

Not only did they verify the feasibility of a fusion reaction ignition, but they also obtained a slice of lithium that was hit by a neutron beam carrying 14MeV of energy.

The scientific research value of the piece of lithium couldn't be measured with money.

They were probably the only institute in China that could conduct such extravagant experiments.

This hard-fought lithium metal slice was lying quietly in a specially treated oxygen microscope slide. Which was placed under a scanning electron microscope and observed by a worker in protective clothing.

Outside of the isolated room, Lu Zhou and other researchers were standing in front of a computer in the laboratory. Through the computer screen, they were able to observe the numbers and graphs from the scanning electron microscope.

Just like they had expected, the original smooth metal surface was covered with holes.

Through the infrared spectrometer, they could even see traces of tritium and helium in the metal.

A piece of good news was that this proved the 14meV neutron energy beam did react with lithium-3. This meant they were able to successfully recover part of the tritium used in the experiment.

Unfortunately…

They were facing countless problems.

Professor Li Changxia stared at the graphs on the computer screen and gently sighed.

"I'm willing to bet that this thing will break the instant someone touches it."

Lu Zhou stared at the hard-fought data on the computer screen and replied casually, "There's no need to bet. Even if it wasn't hit by the neutron beam, it wouldn't be that strong."

Sheng Xianfu shook his head and said, "It's not just the radiation damage, the recovered tritium is way too low. And the most important problem isn't even recovering the tritium. The energy carried out by the neutron beam is too high. Not only did the surface of the lithium-3 react, but so did the interior layers. Even if the tritium was collected in the lithium interiors, we wouldn't be able to extract it."

The neutron energy beam carrying 14MeV of energy was like a missile, the metals were no match for this monster.

Also, not only did the neutron beam penetrate a hole in the first wall, but it will form an empty space inside the first wall material, just like a balloon. This could ultimately result in the swelling, embrittlement, and even surface material shedding of the first wall material, which could lead to serious accidents.

This was one of the main reasons why the fission reactor layer material couldn't be used in the fusion reactor.

The two had different orders of magnitude in terms of their radiation-resistant capabilities.

From now on, their research had entered into an unknown field. This meant that there wasn't any more literature they could consult. All of the problems from this point onward had to be solved by themselves.

Professor Li Changxia thought for a bit and suggested, "What if we use molybdenum instead?"

"Molybdenum won't work." Lu Zhou instantly rejected this idea. He shook his head and said, "Molybdenum has decent heat-resistant properties, but it will produce radioactive elements when it undergoes neutron irradiation."

Another researcher suggested, "What about tungsten? Tungsten has good heat-resistant properties, and its by-products are osmium and rhenium, so there's no radiation!"

Lu Zhou didn't even have to speak himself. Li Changxia shook his head and said, "This is a common misconception. Tungsten has good heat-resistant properties, but it is not malleable enough. The thermal stress will cause cracking on the surface of the material… When I was doing an academic exchange in the DIII-D tokamak experiment, there was a specific research project regarding this problem. In short, tungsten won't work."

The laboratory became silent again.

Lu Zhou, who had been staring at the data on the computer screen this entire time, suddenly asked, "If we can't contain the neutron beam inside the stellarator, why don't we let it pass through?"

"Pass through?" Sheng Xianfu paused for a second and smiled while shaking his head. He said, "If we let it pass through, how are we supposed to recycle the neutrons produced by the reaction?"

Recycling the deuterium-tritium neutrons produced in the fusion reaction was a key part of the nuclear fusion technology. After all, the price of tritium was tens of thousands that of deuterium's. It was sold by the grams, costing US$30,000 per gram1.

If they couldn't retrieve the neutrons generated by the reaction, not only would they lose a large amount of energy, but the reactor would also "shut down" due to the loss of tritium.

In an ideal scenario, both the tritium and neutron should be able to be preserved as an intermediate product. The final waste should only be helium and heat.

Therefore, they shouldn't let the neutron just pass through, they had to preserve it no matter what.

Lu Zhou heard Sheng Xianfu's remarks and smiled.

"Letting them pass through doesn't mean releasing them. In theory, no matter the design for the first wall material, we cannot avoid the damage of the neutron beam to the metallic bonds. Also, the repair properties of metals are poor, not to mention the metamorphosis problem.

"Hence, why not make first wall material to be something that allows neutrons to pass through and has a strong self-healing ability. Then we can use liquid lithium-3 to recover the neutrons behind the first wall material. As for the side beyond the liquid lithium, we can put a layer of beryllium metal to reflect the unreacted neutrons that penetrate the liquid lithium layer."

His design was equivalent to sandwiching liquid lithium between the first wall and the beryllium.

Sheng Xianfu lowered his head and contemplated it for a bit. He thought that this method seemed feasible, but he also felt like there were problems.

He thought for a while and came up with two of the most obvious problems.

"But where can we find a material that allows neutrons to pass through and has great self-repairing capabilities? Even after using lithium as the first wall material, we still can't solve the radiation damage problem. Also, like you just said, after we recover the tritium, how do we carry the tritium back into the reactor?"

When Lu Zhou heard these two questions, he smiled and said, "The second problem is easy to solve. Under liquid lithium's temperature, both the tritium and helium are in their gas forms. They are incompatible with each other.

"We just have to apply a weak upward force to the neutrons inside the liquid lithium and transport the neutrons to the top of the reactor.

"Then we just need to recycle the gas that comes out of the reactor."

The generated tritium and the exhaust gas helium would then be injected into the reaction chamber for ionization. As for removing the helium from the reactor, that was the job of the divertor.

As for choosing a water-cooled divertor, a tungsten-copper divertor, or any other divertor, that choice would depend on their specific needs. Even though this part was crucial, it wasn't something that they couldn't solve.

Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, "As for your first question, that metal can't be found in alloys. So how about we discard the entire metal layer?"

Everyone in the laboratory, including Li Changxia and Sheng Xianfu, was frozen.

Getting rid of the metal layer?

This…

Is outrageous, right?

"We're not using a metal?" Professor Li Changxia looked at Lu Zhou with an astonished expression. He said, "Then what are we going to use?"

Ceramics?

Even though other research institutes had tried using ceramics and produced decent results, the killing factor was the poor thermal conductivity of ceramics.

If they couldn't remove heat from the reactor, they would end up with other problems.

"We're going to use carbon." Lu Zhou paused for a second and said in a confident manner, "Or more precisely, carbon fiber composites!"

Lu Zhou didn't suddenly come up with this creative idea. He had been thinking about this for a long time, even back when he was still working with Professor Keriber at the Wendelstein 7-X research institute.

The carbon core was relatively stable. It didn't react with neutrons easily. Also, it could act as a buffer for the neutron beam, so when the neutron beam contacted with the liquid helium, it could prevent the neutron beams from instantly breaking down.

The energy reduced by the carbon fiber layer would be released in the form of heat energy. Due to its stellar thermal conductivity properties, the heat energy generated inside the reactor could be easily diverted.

It also had good heat-resistant properties.

When it wasn't exposed to air and oxidants, carbon fiber could withstand temperatures above 3,000 degrees. This was comparable to the melting point of tungsten, which met the requirements for the first wall material!

Lu Zhou looked at the people in the laboratory and said, "Remove the first wall metal layer completely. Use carbon fiber as the main structural material. Then fill in liquid helium in the middle layer and use beryllium on the outer layer to reflect the neutrons. The shielding layer should be a mix of paraffin and water carbon carbide, covered with nuclear-grade cement. If all of this is successful, we will solve the tritium retention problem!"

As for the choice of carbon fiber composite materials and the self-repairing component, that research project would be conducted by the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study materials research division.

Even though the problem was severe, Lu Zhou had a feeling that he would be able to solve it!

Professor Li Changxia couldn't help but say, "This is too…"

What he wanted to say was that this was too outrageous.

However, before he could finish, Sheng Xianfu interrupted him.

"No, maybe… this could work!"

Sheng Xianfu rubbed his chin with his finger as his eyes began to light up.

"I've read the relevant literature on replacing tungsten and steel structures with carbon fiber. The international academic community is optimistic about this technical route, just like nanoceramics!

"However, using carbon fiber composites to completely replace the metal as the main body of the reactor and to allow the neutron beam to react with the liquid lithium outside the first wall before recovering the tritium in the liquid lithium… This is my first time hearing about something like this."

The difficulty involved in something like this was high. They had to face carbon fiber composite problems. For example, the problem of temperature. The carbon fiber composite material had an operating temperature of around 3,000 degrees, while the boiling point of lithium metal was only at 1,340 degrees.

If they couldn't transfer the heat in time, the liquid lithium could risk being vaporized, which could result in it being mixed in with the tritium reaction. This could blow up the whole reactor…

There was also the volume changing problem where the lithium liquid would be solidified after the machine was turned off…

However, just like Lu Zhou had said, this idea might be feasible.

It was at least worth a try!

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