Chapter 44
On the very day of the Nano Society's recruitment, Xue Hua even had his friends create alternate accounts to widely publicize the matter on the forum, thus generating momentum for the society.
Just as the related discussions were gaining momentum, another event stole the spotlight.
"Zero Gravity Club is really ordering meals for its members at Shiyueju?!"
“It’s true, my roommate received it, and from now on they can order their own meals and late-night snacks from Shiyueju.”
"Holy crap! If I'd known about this perk, I would have signed up no matter what! I feel like I've missed out on a fortune!"
"It's really important to have the right boss!"
"My roommate loves fish the most. Yesterday she ordered West Lake Vinegar Fish, Steamed Wuchang Fish, and Pan-fried Ribbonfish, while I'm eating small, miscellaneous fish that I took home from the cafeteria. What a miserable life!" (Tears streaming down my face.jpg)
"It's just a pittance. Like the members of the Nano Society, who have shares in their hands, once the company goes public, what kind of fish can't they catch?"
"I don't know when that will be, but Shiyueju is a place where you can actually eat right now."
"Waaaaah, when is Zero Gravity Club going to expand its recruitment?"
Xue Hua stared at the trending comments on the forum, so angry that she snapped the disposable chopsticks in her hand in two. She couldn't eat the braised chicken rice in front of her anymore.
Ji Zhixing dragged his heavy steps out of the library; it was another fruitless day.
Not long after I got back to the dorm, someone knocked on the door. It was Qiu Lan.
"Zhixing, um, finals are coming up soon, do you have time to run a tutoring class?"
Qiu Lan is here on behalf of everyone to ask. In addition to the 18 students who attended the tutoring class last semester, many other students are very impressed with the effectiveness of Ji Zhixing's tutoring class.
"Ah, finals are almost here?" Ji Zhixing had been so preoccupied with the global existence of smooth solutions to the MHD equations that he had lost track of time.
He had promised to hold tutoring classes for the final exams long ago. Although he was indeed very busy, he could still manage to dedicate one or two hours each evening to help students review before the exams. Moreover, he felt he had completely reached a dead end and needed something else to clear his head.
After receiving confirmation, Qiu Lan happily spread the news far and wide.
Counselor Chen Yan still handed the key to the activity room on the top floor of the dormitory building to Ji Zhixing, and Ji Zhixing's tutoring class started again.
There were about 40 people gathered in the activity room for class this time, which is about four-fifths of the second-year students from the School of Physics.
Ji Zhixing did not disappoint them. He studied one subject per night, which was very efficient. Moreover, he highlighted the key points and difficult points, and his problem-solving methods were easy to understand. Many students felt that compared to the teachers' profound problem-solving methods, Ji Zhixing's methods were simpler, easier to understand, and more suitable for ordinary students like them.
That night, we reviewed mathematical physics methods.
Ji Zhixing no longer needs to look at textbooks. He simply picks up a marker and quickly writes down the relevant knowledge points of the Laplace transform on the whiteboard, then copies the corresponding exercises he prepared in advance onto the whiteboard.
"If g(t) is a periodic function with period T, then its Laplace transform can be expressed as..."
After giving everyone some time to think, Ji Zhixing began to analyze the problem.
"The periodic function g(t) is defined in..."
As he was explaining, suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: this problem…
In fact, H(t) is a unit step function, i.e., H(t) = {0 (t>0) 1 (t<0)}, then the function g(t) can be simplified to...
When everyone saw Ji Zhixing suddenly stop talking, they thought he was feeling unwell.
Qiu Lan said, "Zhi Xing, how about we stop here for today?" Anyway, there are only two or three exercises left to go over.
Ji Zhixing snapped out of his daze, his eyes gleaming with boundless light: "No! Continue speaking!"
As he explained function simplification, his mind raced through the three simplification algorithms. First, he derived the definition of a periodic function, then used the results to directly calculate the Laplace transform for each term…
That's right! That's exactly it!
After Ji Zhixing finished explaining the exercises, he rushed out of the activity room before everyone could express their gratitude to him as usual.
Back in his dorm, he grabbed a pen and some draft paper and began to work out the deductions.
"Using Fourier decomposition and mathematical induction, we prove the L2 decay and Hs (s≥2) decay of the solution respectively..."
When Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang returned from the club, they didn't dare to disturb Ji Zhixing because they saw his somewhat crazy state.
From the moment the moon rose high in the sky until the first light of dawn, Ji Zhixing finally put down his pen, feeling both excited and exhausted. He let out a long sigh of relief. It was finished!
Indeed, the simplest way is the best! From the momentum equation to the mass conservation equation, from the porous medium equation to the unbounded domain dissipation evolution equation, he explored countless possible directions, and finally found a feasible method from the most basic integration.
As dawn broke, Ji Zhixing couldn't wait to go find Professor Yan and report this final plan to him.
Yan Anjin flipped through the draft paper page by page, then gently closed it and praised, "Very good!"
This startled Yan Jiusheng. He had spent two and a half years in Professor Yan's office and this was the first time he had ever heard those two words come out of Professor Yan's mouth. The best evaluation he could get for the algorithms or solutions he submitted to Professor Yan was "okay." Many times, he felt that Professor Yan was forcibly suppressing the word "bullshit"...
Previously, after receiving Ji Zhixing's message, Yan Anjin summoned Yan Jiusheng, Zhao Yi, and Sun Er to gather at the laboratory.
He then raised the draft notebook in his hand and said to the four students, "Later, Ji Zhixing will explain the plan to you, and we will make the final adjustments based on this plan."
Everyone cheered, as this was the final stage. It was essentially about adjusting the production process, producing samples based on those adjustments, and then the project would be successfully completed!
Before leaving the lab for the administration building, Yan Anjin gave another task: "In this final stage, you should also write a paper according to your respective tasks from the second stage and submit it."
Papers? Everyone looked at each other, wondering if Ji Zhixing, who could write about the regularity and decay of the MHD equations in incompressible fluid dynamics, had any of their respective parts worth writing a paper about.
Despite their doubts, they couldn't ignore their supervisor's advice. So the four of them worked on the final, challenging experiments while also working on their thesis.
Working together, the four of them produced the final form of the material in just one week. Meanwhile, the paper was also completed and sent to Professor Yan's email address.
The next day, Yan Anjin annotated the four documents with her comments and sent them back, then took the document.
A few days later, Yan Anjin pointed to the four revised papers and said, "They're ready. Go submit them to Science and Nature."
Ji Zhixing was stunned. Both of these journals were top-tier journals in their respective disciplines!
For example, Science, founded in 1880 with investment from Edison, became the official publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1894, and is now one of the most authoritative academic journals in the world.
How authoritative is it? If you can publish an article in Science, you can basically dominate your field in China!
However, approximately 8,000 papers are submitted to the editorial office of Science from all over the world each year, but only about 15% are accepted, which shows how difficult it is.
Ji Zhixing originally thought that this paper writing was just a final assignment. After finishing it, he thought that he might try his luck with domestic Q2 journals. He did not expect that Professor Yan would set his sights on top-tier Q1 journals with an impact factor of 30+!
The other three were also dumbfounded.
Yan Jiusheng is a full-fledged third-year graduate student. Compared to the other three, he has more experience in writing papers and understands better the difficulty of publishing in journals like *Science* and *Nature*. Therefore, he is also the one with the least confidence in this paper.
"Teacher, is our paper really worth submitting to 'Science' or 'Nature'?" Yan Jiusheng asked hesitantly.
Yan Anjin looked at his eldest disciple, who had been sitting in his office for two and a half years, and gave him a boost of confidence: "Whether it is valuable depends on the topic. Your papers are all written around the protective gel, which is the new material in this experiment. The protective gel will soon start a materials revolution. Currently, the only papers related to this emerging field are the project papers and your four papers, so they are naturally valuable."
Protective gel? The four of them simultaneously recalled the new material they had experimented with.
It is a non-Newtonian fluid that can be both soft and hard, a strain rate-sensitive polymer material. In its natural state, it is as soft as a lump of clay, but more elastic than clay.
Under gravitational impact, material molecules lock together within nanoseconds, becoming incredibly rigid and thus absorbing the impact force. When the impact force disappears, the molecules rearrange themselves, and the material returns to its original elastic and flexible state. Moreover, this change is highly sensitive and instantaneous.
Such a material is indeed unprecedented, but what can it be used to protect against?
While everyone was still pondering, Yan Anjin began calling on people to ask questions: "Yan Jiusheng, you answer first, in what fields can this material be applied?"
Yan Jiusheng scratched his head, racking his brains to stammer out, "A phone case?"
Yan Anjin's expression froze for a moment, but she still affirmed, "This is also a feasible direction. Next, Zhao Yi, you answer."
"It can be made into wearable protective gear to protect the human body." Zhao Yi got this hint from Yan Jiusheng's answer.
Cell phones are fragile but have limited value; if they break, they can be repaired or replaced. But people, especially the bones of the elderly, are not so easy to repair, and they are basically not replaceable.
Protective gear made from this material can perfectly protect human bones from external force when a person accidentally falls or suffers a serious impact such as a car accident. It can be said that it has a wide range of applications from daily life to sports.
While various body protective gears are available on the market, they generally prioritize thickness over effectiveness. This protective gel, however, has a density of 0.2 to 0.3 grams per cubic centimeter, making it lightweight and requiring only a thin layer to deliver its benefits. Furthermore, its softness and elasticity allow for a good fit to the protected area without hindering movement. Overall, this material is undoubtedly more comfortable to wear than traditional protective gear.
Professor Yan nodded approvingly: "This is exactly what I intended when I designed this project. Sun Er, it's your turn."
While Zhao Yi was answering, Sun Er was thinking to himself that it would be great if he were the second to answer, because he had also received the same inspiration as Zhao Yi from Yan Jiusheng's answer.
However, she dared not say "Me too" to Professor Yan. Sun Er's thoughts wandered wildly, and she suddenly remembered the police and gangster movie she had watched last night.
"Could it be used in police and military protective equipment to provide bulletproof and stab protection?" Sun Er spoke more and more fluently. "Furthermore, it could even be extended to weapons development."
Imagine if tanks, warships, fighter jets, and other aircraft incorporated this "soft-weak but not hard" material into their hull designs; under ideal conditions, they could practically withstand any attack from the enemy!
Of course, for military applications, the technological content may need to be further improved, and special properties such as fire resistance, explosion resistance, and detection resistance may need to be added.
"Indeed, applications in this field can give protective gels special significance and greatly enhance their value," Professor Yan said.
By now, everyone understands just how valuable this material is.
Initially, they only knew that the experiment was to develop a special material that could adjust its hardness according to external forces, but they didn't think much about its applications. Of course, they were too busy with the experiment to think about it further. Now it seems that this is indeed a new type of material that could revolutionize processes in many fields.
So that's what they were doing!
The four people who had initially doubted the value of their paper now had much more confidence. How could a research paper on such a new material that could change people's lives and the world not be valued?
Now, only Ji Zhixing has not yet answered. Yan Jiusheng, Zhao Yi, and Sun Er are all secretly relieved, thinking, "Great, I'm not the last one."
In general, the person who is last in line is often the most unlucky, because almost all the possibilities have already been discussed by the people in front of them.
However, Ji Zhixing had already had his own ideas.
"It could be considered for use in the construction field to improve the earthquake resistance of buildings." He came up with this idea after last year's earthquake.
Last year, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Gwangnyeong City. Because earthquake prediction software provided an early warning ten minutes in advance, no one died and only about 30 people were injured.
However, tens of thousands of houses were damaged or collapsed, and countless people suffered direct or indirect economic losses. The broken walls and ruins seen in the news at the time left a deep impression on Ji Zhixing.
Of course, protective gel may not be suitable as a building material, but if the process is improved to become a paint spraying applied to the exterior of the building, it may be able to resist the threat of earthquakes to some extent.
“That’s something I hadn’t thought of.” Yan Anjin pondered for a long time before saying, “This direction is very good, but the impact of an earthquake on a building is very different from that of a normal external impact. If we want to apply it in practice, we need to further improve the technology, which is not something that can be done in just two or three years.”
Ji Zhixing understood this as well. This direction was quite far removed from physics, involving many unfamiliar fields such as architectural design, engineering structures, and geological surveying, which he was not actually very interested in.
After praising all four students, Yan Anjin gave them some pointers on the important points of submitting their papers.
"You can write your own name as the first author, and I can be the corresponding author."
All four of them breathed a sigh of relief. Actually, they had been debating whether to list Professor Yan as the first author and themselves as the second author. After all, this project was basically completed based on Professor Yan's papers and guidance.
Yan Jiusheng had spent the most time with Professor Yan and understood his academic ethics best. Zhao Yi and Sun Er both felt deeply that they had truly found a wonderful mentor.
Due to the domestic academic evaluation mechanism, such as for professional title evaluation, the more articles published, the better, and only the first author is recognized. Therefore, some supervisors will force students to list themselves as the first author on all their papers. Yan Anjin is clearly not the kind of supervisor who would arbitrarily steal students' achievements.
Yan Jiusheng, who has the most experience in submitting manuscripts, asked again: "Teacher, isn't it too early to submit the manuscript now?" After all, it is a new material that has never been published before. What if the experts reviewing the manuscript are not good at recognizing the value of this material?
“It’s alright. The editors of Science and Nature do have good judgment,” Yan Anjin said casually. “Besides, I’ve already transferred the patent to Huaxia Technology Group. They will naturally publicize it extensively in a few days.”
Huaxia Science and Technology Group Corporation is a major state-owned enterprise directly managed by the central government. It has 46 national-level research institutes and more than 700 enterprises and institutions under its umbrella, and shoulders important responsibilities for serving the people's livelihood, accelerating the development of science and technology economy, and promoting the modernization of national defense.
Actually, their offer wasn't the highest, but it was certainly the most suitable. Yan Anjin didn't want to see this new material fall into the hands of private enterprises.
He had written and patented this project paper two or three years ago. Because the protective gel could directly or indirectly affect people's livelihoods, the economy, the military, and politics, he didn't intend to publish his project paper. However, the paper by Ji Zhixing and the other three only involved technical details and was not related to the overall situation, so it didn't matter if it was published.
Given the unique nature of protective gels, it's impossible for this material not to attract worldwide attention; as a new technology and material, it will certainly garner attention from relevant scholars, experts, and editors of major journals.
"You submit your manuscript first. It usually takes one or two weeks from submission to the first review, which is enough time for the material to make a name for itself."
After saying that, Yan Anjin left the office. It was the end of the semester, and he, as the dean of the Physics Department, was swamped with trivial matters.
All four were impressed by Professor Yan's confidence and, without further hesitation, took turns submitting their articles on Yan Jiusheng's old computer in the office.
Based on the characteristics of their papers, Yan Jiusheng and Ji Zhixing submitted their work to *Science*, while Zhao Yi and Sun Er submitted theirs to *Nature*. After finalizing their submissions, the four looked at each other, feeling a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.
Final exam week has begun, and Ji Zhixing still has to take the final exams this time.
Given the considerable controversy caused by the adjustment of the examination method last semester, the final exams this semester have reverted to the regular examination method, with the exam week lasting for two weeks.
After taking the first exam, Information Theory Fundamentals, Ji Zhixing saw that the submission status had changed to Editorial Assessment, meaning that the article had entered the editorial evaluation stage.
At this stage, the technical editor is responsible for quality control of the paper's format; incorrect formatting will result in the paper being returned for revision. However, since Ji Zhixing and his colleagues' papers were revised under Professor Yan's guidance, they are unlikely to have this problem.
If the paper's formatting is correct, it will be sent to the academic editor's email address. The academic editor will then evaluate whether the paper aligns with the journal's theme and whether it's worth sending for external review. This stage tests both the quality of the paper and the expertise of the academic editor.
Since the vote was already cast, there was no point in overthinking it. Ji Zhixing turned on his computer and began a simulation experiment for the club.
Professor Yan's lab is currently free of new activities, and the exams are quite easy, so he suddenly has a lot of time, which he has divided equally between club simulation experiments and learning system tasks.
Considering that club members, including Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang, have to spend a lot of time and energy preparing for their final exams, club activities have been suspended recently. However, Ji Zhixing has managed to push the experiment forward quite a bit by working on it alone.
After finishing his third exam in optics, Ji Zhixing discovered that the status of his manuscript had changed to "Under-Review" the day before yesterday. This meant that the academic editor considered his paper valuable and it could be sent to relevant experts in the academic community for further review.
Ji Zhixing took out his phone and browsed the news, but didn't see any reports about protective gel. It seems the academic editors of the world's top scientific journals are indeed skilled and discerning.
On the other side of the ocean, in the editorial office of Science.
"This speed makes me doubt whether you've actually reviewed the paper carefully, Terence. After all, you usually waste a month or two, only opening the review emails a day or two before the deadline." Science editor-in-chief Taylor crossed his arms and looked at his gray-haired old friend sitting across from him with dissatisfaction.
Terence immediately retorted, "That's slander! You'll see my lawyer this afternoon. In fact, I usually start reviewing papers three days before the deadline."
Taro sighed and clutched his head. "Okay, let's get back to business. Do you really think it's necessary to formally accept this paper now? In fact, I haven't received any information about the protective gel mentioned in this paper. Perhaps we should wait..."
Terence interrupted him bluntly: "I beg you to spend 60 seconds each day opening your eyes and looking at the outside world. My old friend, Martin Corporation has already sent a team of 60 people to China to negotiate for this protective gel."
Martin is one of the world's largest arms manufacturers, and in some respects, they are sometimes more sensitive to and quicker to react to new technologies than academics.
It was precisely because Terence heard this news that he saw the relevant paper titles while browsing his email directory and quickly picked them out for review.
"Look, the corresponding author of these two papers is the same person. I think the only two papers in the world related to this protective gel are right here. Are you still waiting for them to retract their papers and resubmit them to Nature?"
Both being top-tier journals, *Science* and *Nature* have long been rivals, each vying to outdo the other. The primary method of competition is to be the first to publish papers in cutting-edge science or emerging fields. For example, in the early 21st century, the two journals fiercely competed for four years to be the first to publish a map of the human genome.
Taylor looked at the paper in his hand. He knew that given Terence's current achievements and status in academia, his continued unpaid service as an external reviewer for *Science* was entirely due to their long-standing friendship. Therefore, he decided to trust Terence's judgment.
Taylor opened the editor's backend and sent an email to the contributor confirming his acceptance of the submission.
A note from the author:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
