As 2021 drew to a close, Luo Shu wandered around the University of Hawaii at Hilo, feeling that this year had been particularly difficult for him.
He even doubted whether he would be able to graduate normally.
The Mauna Kea Observatory, which belongs to the Shiloh campus, has been taken over by the American government, and international students like him from China can no longer access astronomical observation equipment.
It's like being in your third year of doctoral studies and suddenly having to change your research topic and direction.
If we continue with this research topic, without obtaining astronomical observation data, it's impossible to publish a paper, and fabricating data ourselves is even more unrealistic.
Luo Shu's mentor could immediately tell that something was wrong with her fabricating data without ever having access to astronomical observation equipment.
Luo Shu could only wait for his mentor to help him find direction.
In fact, during the doctoral stage, the most important role of the supervisor is to help you find a good research direction.
Here, "good" means good in a utilitarian sense: easy to publish articles, with a moderate level of research difficulty that you can achieve through effort, and a supervisor who has a certain influence in the field and can help you publish articles.
The academic community is now just as competitive as the internet industry; an academic background that would have gotten you into a top-tier university ten years ago is now making it difficult to get into a regular university.
The competition is fierce both domestically and internationally; even getting a teaching position at a top 50 university in America is incredibly difficult.
The academic phenomenon is global, not just in China.
Luo Shu originally hoped to complete her PhD in Hawaii and then do postdoctoral work at an Ivy League school, even a public Ivy League school would be fine.
However, things took an unexpected turn. Students from America needed background checks to participate in astronomical observations, let alone someone with a Chinese background.
Now, even graduating with a doctorate smoothly is a problem.
Luo Shu's advisor suggested that he switch to astrophysics, which has sub-fields that don't require observation or data and can use physical models to explain the structure of celestial bodies observed in the past.
Luo Shu was speechless after hearing this. "I've been doing my PhD for three years already, and I estimate I'll graduate in another three years. You want me to do astrophysics? That's like starting all over again."
It's difficult to graduate smoothly in six years. More importantly, he chose to pursue his doctorate at the University of Hilo because of its observatory and astronomy advantages. If he wanted to study astrophysics, there would be no need to come here.
The astrophysics program at UC Hilo is quite average. As a graduate of a 985 university in China, if Luo Shu were to study astrophysics at the University of America, he could probably get into one of the top 50 schools in America.
The Hilo campus is ranked 150th or lower.
He sat on a chair on campus, wearing a mask, watching the students coming and going, and was speechless again. "Damn it, none of you are wearing masks. I'm so scared that even though I've been vaccinated, I still have to wear a mask every day."
Luo Shu took out the Mi Mix 4, which she had specially asked a classmate to buy from China and send over the ocean, and took out the brain-computer interface headphones from her pocket and put them on.
"Putting everything else aside, brain-computer interfaces are really convenient. It's so convenient to browse Weibo and read novels."
Novels are a form of entertainment that can provide intense satisfaction simply by using your hands. With brain-computer interfaces connected to mobile phones, you don't even need your hands anymore; you can just click and browse using your mind.
Brain-computer interface phones are the best-selling type of mobile phone among food delivery riders in China, as they completely free up their hands while waiting for orders and while riding to accept orders.
Moreover, most food delivery riders are single and have relatively high incomes, which means they have high disposable income.
While Didi drivers also have demand, many of them have families and relatively little disposable income.
With the price of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4 dropping repeatedly, many food delivery riders have bought one after discovering the convenience of brain-computer interface with their phones. It offers excellent value for money in a high-end product.
"I've had a rare period of leisure since I started my doctoral studies, so I basically went through all the books that had been on my bookshelf."
Luo Shu used his brain to access domestic stock trading software and check yesterday's domestic stock market data.
Because Hawaii and Beijing are 18 time zones apart, Luo Shu can only operate in the medium to long term.
"It was definitely the right decision to buy one lot of Kechuang Biotechnology with all my savings on the day it went public. It has been rising steadily with slight fluctuations recently."
Almost immediately after its listing, Kechuang Bio was included in the Sci-Tech Innovation 50 and Double Innovation 50 indices.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship 50 Index refers to an index composed of 50 representative companies from the ChiNext and STAR Market. (I lost at least 10 points on this index...)
The performance of Kechuang Bio after its listing has been widely praised by shareholders: it truly lives up to its name as a company called Kechuang Bio, and it truly deserves to be the leading company that the Science and Technology Innovation Board has been waiting for for so long.
"The price-to-earnings ratio of brain-computer interfaces is only around 100 times, which is not expensive at all."
Many chip stocks in the A-share market have a price-to-earnings ratio of over 100. In 2021, many companies with lithium mines even saw their forward price-to-earnings ratios rise to several hundred.
"Recently, countries around the world have been investing heavily in astronomy and high-energy physics, and I don't know why."
"Logically, the theme of willpower influencing reality should be related to biology, so why develop high-energy physics?"
"Could it be that some new particle has been discovered?"
After briefly reviewing today's A-share market, Luo Shu saw while browsing the news that various countries were starting to build their own particle accelerators, and he realized that there must be new discoveries in physics.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have invested so heavily.
In recent years, thanks to economic globalization and technological progress, coupled with the fact that most regions are at peace, the world's GDP has been increasing.
However, starting from a certain year, the proportion of scientific research investment in GDP has been fluctuating and declining.
Luo Shu hasn't seen such a large-scale investment in basic theoretical research in the news for a long time.
China often calls for encouraging scientific research and the development of basic disciplines, but American media would never promote these things; they would rather the lower classes indulge in entertainment.
Even the proportion of middle and senior-level employees engaged in scientific research is decreasing, with most preferring to work in finance, media, and medicine.
As a result, Bharata and students from China basically occupied the majority of the seats.
Many professors even have only Asian students under their supervision.
Unable to make any academic progress and in a state of complete stagnation, Luo Shu devoted most of his energy to pleasure and researching financial markets.
As for the magic coin, he realized that it was not something he could possess. He had finally figured out how to calculate the cosmic coordinate system, but all the observation equipment was unusable. Was he supposed to judge the position of the planets with the naked eye?
"The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are still as stable as ever today."
"When will the A-shares market finally perform better? If America falls, you will fall too; if America rises, you will selectively follow suit."
In addition to securities apps, Luo Shu's phone also has futures and cryptocurrency apps.
Luo Shu realized from the high price of MC that it must represent a magic coin, and no one was willing to bid even when the buyer offered $100 million.
He logged into the software and found that there were still no sell orders on MC, only a few buy orders hanging there.
"Sigh, I don't have Magic Coin, and neither do the big shots. Now we're even."
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