Chapter 68: "Science is rigorous, but it doesn't have to be serious. I hope you can experience the joy of science, immerse yourself in this laboratory, and play with us."
This was what Professor Gao Xiao told Ji Zhixing on his first day in the lab.
The atmosphere in this lab is indeed very lively; the master's and doctoral students are all enjoying the fun of scientific research.
In the past, in Professor Yan's laboratory and the zero gravity laboratory, during working hours, one could only hear the sounds of experimental operations and machine operation, and the volume of communication between partners regarding data and solutions would be controlled.
But in Professor Gao Xiao's laboratory, the phrase "controlling the volume" doesn't exist. Whoever makes a brilliant experimental response or obtains effective experimental data can't wait to call everyone over to admire their masterpiece and then kneel down and sing "Conquer".
Ji Zhixing was initially a little uncomfortable with the noisy atmosphere; he almost suspected that the most energetic group of physics students had gathered here.
However, he later observed that everyone wasn't just fooling around recklessly; rather, they incorporated a sense of balance into the experimental rhythm. The experimental plan was clearly and logically organized, and the participants maintained a high level of concentration during the experiments, prioritizing efficiency rather than deliberately emphasizing hard work.
Ji Zhixing appreciates this work style that prioritizes efficiency and balances work and rest. Although the forms are different, he has also done a good job of balancing work and rest.
In the fourth stage, the "Comprehensive Ability" task adds a puzzle-solving and level-based component to the "Holographic Game" in the third stage, which can both exercise your brain and get plenty of physical exercise—a perfect balance of work and rest!
The "Comprehensive Curriculum" offers an incredibly rich array of knowledge, essentially draining the ocean of knowledge and leaving only the gold mines on the seabed for the student to pan for. So, while acquiring new knowledge is certainly mentally taxing, it's also enjoyable—a perfect balance of work and rest!
However, in the eyes of Deng Zhi and others, Ji Zhixing lived like an ascetic, endlessly trekking on the long journey to the pinnacle of knowledge.
"It's so boring! So inhumane!" Deng Yi said privately when discussing Ji Zhixing in the dormitory. "If I had to live like this, I'd rather find a noodle and hang myself!"
"But he's clearly enjoying it," Ye Shi said while practicing the Ip Man squat. "Just like me, even though I'm sore all over from all the falls, but... oh my god!"
"Hahaha! You're just asking for trouble, or you have some kind of weird hobby. Don't try to scam Ji Zhixing!" Deng Zhi retorted.
Ye Shi said as she grimaced as she got up, "To be honest, I don't really know how to get along with him."
The Fields Medal is too prestigious and too far away, like something from another planet. He always felt a bit constrained in front of "aliens".
Deng Zhi rested his chin on the back of the chair and watched Ye Shi continue squatting. He said casually, "What's so difficult about it? She's just being modest." Ji Zhixing certainly had the right to be arrogant, but modest people always make people like him.
On his first day in the lab, he said that he was just an undergraduate student. Although he had some knowledge of fluid mechanics, he was basically a novice in the field of quantum mechanics.
Ye Shi pinched her pinky finger and imitated Lin Daiyu, saying, "I have never studied. I only went to school for a year and know a few words."
After saying that, he continued squatting: "Isn't the principle the same? You actually took his modesty seriously. Putting aside everything else, there are quantum mechanics courses at the undergraduate level."
"He has an undergraduate degree, and you have a doctorate. What do you have to be afraid of in quantum mechanics?" Deng Shi, who was always oblivious, couldn't understand Ye Shi's complicated thoughts.
"Getting the Fields Medal as an undergraduate is even more terrifying, okay!" Ye Shi said, then fell down again.
Although there is one undergraduate who has won the Nobel Prize, Koichi Tanaka was able to invent the "matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization source" basically because of an operational error. Even he himself was under great pressure and constantly doubted himself: Why could an ordinary electrical engineer who graduated with a degree in electrical engineering win the highest honor in the scientific community—the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
But Ji Zhixing is different; his honors stem from solving the Navier-Stokes equations.
How difficult are the Navier-Stokes equations? The famous theoretical physicist Heisenberg once said before his death, "When I meet God, I will ask him two questions: What is relativity? What is turbulence? I believe God can probably only answer the first question." Even if Ji Zhixing used Felix Felicis from Harry Potter as water, he couldn't possibly solve the Navier-Stokes equations by mistake.
Therefore, Ji Zhixing's strength is indeed very solid. Even though he may have shortcomings in quantum mechanics, Ye Shi still wouldn't dare to act arrogantly in front of him.
The other people in the lab shared similar concerns, unsure how to gauge the appropriate boundaries in their interactions with Ji Zhixing. While laymen might see the spectacle, experts understood the intricacies; the more they grasped the difficulty of the Navier-Stokes equations, the less they dared to presume to teach Ji Zhixing.
Only Deng Zhixing was straightforward and honest. Perhaps it was the friendship they formed when they met at the airport that made him feel that Ji Zhixing was not far away, and he often put his arm around Ji Zhixing's shoulder.
Ji Zhixing spent a month in the lab, adhering to the principle of listening more, observing more, and disturbing less, basically just quietly observing and learning. Then, he would return to his dormitory at night to review the experimental details he had seen during the day, filling in any gaps in his knowledge.
Professor Gao Xiao wasn't in a hurry to get Ji Zhixing involved in the experiments, allowing him to look around freely and giving him ample autonomy. Of course, to help Ji Zhixing quickly integrate with everyone, he also arranged a workstation for him in the office.
This workstation was coveted by Deng, because his own workstation was right by the door, roughly equivalent to the "left and right guardians" next to the teacher's desk in a primary or secondary school classroom. Those who could sit in those two VIP seats were students that the teacher kept under his nose so that he could suppress them at any time.
Initially, his supervisor handpicked him to be the face of the lab, personally drawing a circle near the entrance and assigning him his workstation there. From then on, he lived a precarious and anxious life of slacking off in scientific research.
Although he could switch the boss key as fast as if he were being electrocuted, his tutor always managed to sneak in unnoticed and then casually walk past him, leaving him constantly caught in a superposition of "being caught" and "not being caught"—like Schrödinger's cat, which was both dead and alive.
It's not that he spends all day thinking about slacking off, but who can guarantee that they can concentrate on their work or school all day without touching their phone or daydreaming? Let me see!
Therefore, this position is indeed not one that ordinary people can handle! Deng Zhi felt deeply bitter and was so envious of Ji Zhixing's fortress, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, that he drooled and wept.
At the far end of the office, Ji Zhixing was leaning against the wall, facing his computer, reading documents and taking notes.
There's a joke in the research community: "Read 300 papers a day, and even if you can't do research, you can still make things up!" Professor Gao Xiao also requires his students to excel in both experiments and literature review! So, everyone usually reads literature or organizes experimental data in the office before starting their experiments each day, when their minds are still clear.
Although Ji Zhixing has a wealth of knowledge in his learning system, he also needs to supplement his reading with papers from major journals in a timely manner to grasp the development of the scientific research field and track the research dynamics of similar topics.
When upgrading from level three to level four, Ji Zhixing also requested the system to scan his brain. The most prominent conclusion was that the connectivity between his left and right hemispheres was now three times that of an average person, enabling him to exchange information at high speed and continuously perform multi-threaded, multi-tasking processing. Therefore, he was extremely efficient when reading literature.
The list of references was not assigned by Professor Gao Xiao; rather, everyone searched and analyzed them themselves according to their needs. During the weekly group meetings, Professor Gao Xiao would randomly select a few students to analyze the references they had read the previous week.
Whenever he encountered literature he hadn't read, Ji Zhixing would write it down and review it later. In this way, over the course of a month, he combined the literature with the courses in the system to gain a preliminary understanding of the general outline of quantum physics and the basic knowledge involved in the laboratory's research direction.
At the group meeting in the first week of Ji Zhixing's second month in the lab, Professor Gao Xiao finally called his name.
"Come on! Zhixing, show them what you're made of!"
Facing 18 pairs of scrutinizing eyes, Ji Zhixing was not intimidated. He walked to the front, plugged the USB drive into the multimedia device, and then double-clicked several times to open a PPT.
Wow! Deng Zhi let out a small scream in his heart. The folder Ji Zhixing opened had two subfolders: one for intensive reading and one for extensive reading. The intensive reading folder contained 17 articles. He had clearly seen the previous week's date written on the upper-level folder, meaning that Ji Zhixing had intensively read 17 articles last week. The number of extensive reading articles was unclear, but he estimated it wouldn't be less than the number of intensive reading articles.
Deng Yi silently wept. He averaged one article every two or three days, while Ye Shi, a PhD student, could only read one article a day at most. What kind of absurd reading efficiency did Ji Zhixing have?!
What Deng Zhi could see, everyone else could see too, and they were all secretly astonished. If it were anyone else in their lab, they would have immediately started jeering, calling it a vanity project. But since it was Ji Zhixing standing there, everyone was three parts convinced and seven parts skeptical about this reading efficiency.
Besides spending most of his time observing experiments, Ji Zhixing also managed to read two or three papers carefully and N papers superficially every day. Did he really understand those papers? If they were related to the Navier-Stokes equations, they would definitely believe it, but this is quantum physics that he himself said he had no background in!
The first paper analyzed by Ji Zhixing is "Photon squeezing coherent state manipulation of quantum states in anti-bunching light field," published last month in Physics Reports.
"First, the core of this paper is to construct a sub-photon squeezed coherent state by manipulating the photon annihilation operator, and then measure the second-order correlation function of the prepared optical field using a hard X-T device under the experimental environment of anti-snagging effect..."
"The experiment introduced a non-Gaussian method, using normalization-induced subtraction of a certain number of photons. Numerical simulations confirmed that this state can enhance the fidelity of entanglement and teleportation..."
The look of disbelief in everyone's eyes gradually turned into shock. Ji Zhixing's narration and analysis clearly showed the depth of his understanding of the paper.
The initial summary of the paper's core ideas is fine; even humanities students could grasp the central theme if they treated a science paper like a reading comprehension exercise. However, the subsequent analysis of the experiments truly tests one's physics aptitude.
Every aspect of the settings, including conditions, variables, and operating conditions, is explained in great detail, and the various scatter plots, MAP plots, and fitting curves reflecting the experimental results are also described clearly in the paper.
When Ji Zhixing finished his presentation, everyone spontaneously burst into applause.
Professor Gao Xiao gestured towards the others, then towards Ji Zhixing, implying, "Look at other people's students, blah blah blah..."
He seemed afraid that everyone wouldn't be convinced enough, so he said to Ji Zhixing, "Please explain the experimental plan in more detail."
Everyone immediately felt sympathy for Ji Zhixing, and he worked backward from the paper's results to deduce the experimental design. It was like giving someone a bottle of beverage and then having them drink it and work backward to deduce the entire production process of that beverage.
If the paper already described it, that would be fine, but this paper clearly only included the research methods and omitted the experimental design due to space limitations. Wasn't the supervisor trying to make things difficult for Ji Zhixing by asking him to explain the experimental design? They'd never asked such a difficult question in group meetings before!
Ji Zhixing didn't find it difficult at all. The content of this paper wasn't too profound, and he was well aware of his own level. He only skimmed through papers that were far beyond his knowledge, saving them for later when he had studied them more deeply. The papers he chose to study carefully at this stage were all within his current comprehension ability.
His excellent learning ability and long-cultivated self-study habits enabled him to thoroughly understand each concept three or four times when reading papers. Therefore, although the experimental design section was not made into a PowerPoint presentation, he could still talk about it fluently after a little recollection.
"The first step is to obtain the second-order photon correlation and its theoretical value through numerical simulation, and to prepare the anti-super-focusing light field to be manipulated in this paper using a crystal with a degenerate second-order nonlinear polarizability of χ2; the second step is to calculate the maximum theoretical compression parameter of the vacuum-state light field resolvable by a lossless beam splitter by defining the second-order correlation function..."
Ji Zhixing explained his reverse-engineered experimental plan in six steps, and then concluded: "Because it is necessary to comprehensively consider the influence of factors such as compression parameters, background light noise and detection system efficiency in the author's laboratory, my reverse-engineered experimental plan may have many problems and is for reference only."
Deng Yi felt that Ji Zhixing was being far too modest; he even thought that if the original author were to say so, it would be about the same level. The others shared the same sentiment, and once again they gave Ji Zhixing a warm round of applause and bowed down in admiration.
Due to time constraints, the group meeting ended after Ji Zhixing finished presenting one paper.
After watching Professor Gao Xiao leave, Deng Zhi immediately rushed to Ji Zhixing's side: "Boss, please save the child!"
He then showed Ji Zhixing the top of his head: "See this parting in my hair? I'm only 24 years old, I don't want to be like Qiu Qianchi!"
Ji Zhixing said, both amused and exasperated, "It's alright, less than half a centimeter."
Deng looked at Ji Zhixing's thick, black hair, fearing that he wouldn't be able to empathize with her suffering, so she rushed back to her workstation and brought back a few strands of his hair.
"Look! Look! This is a week's worth, and I haven't been able to bear throwing it away..."
Uh... that's quite a sight to behold. Although Ji Zhixing couldn't truly empathize with Deng Deng now, he remembered his own past struggles with hair pulling and worried that he might also be unable to escape the curse of male pattern baldness in the future, so he still felt quite sorry for Deng Deng.
Deng insisted on treating Ji Zhixing to a meal outside the school, and Ji Zhixing did not refuse. Ye Shi also went along.
After eating a few bites of the dishes, Deng began to reminisce about the past.
"Long ago, I was such a clever child!"
From elementary school to high school, he slept in class and played basketball after class. His only homework was playing games. He could get first place in exams just by flipping through his textbooks. Back then, the word "genius" seemed tailor-made for him.
He originally thought that this word would be welded to his head for life, but after going to university, especially studying physics, he found that the old way of thinking was not so effective anymore.
He was still in the middle of the pack for first-tier universities, barely made it to second-tier, and almost failed third-tier. But he still had ideals, and after a year of hard work, he finally made it to university and became a student of Professor Gao Xiao.
It's worth noting that Professor Gao Xiao is arguably the most popular professor at Yenching University. He's humorous, well-funded, a strong researcher, and generous to his students—practically the perfect mentor in their eyes, with countless students wanting to become his student. However, with such high qualifications comes high standards; Professor Gao Xiao only accepts two doctoral students and three or four master's students each year.
At that time, Deng Yi didn't have much confidence in himself, but he never expected to actually pass. He was so excited that he wanted to dedicate himself to his mentor until his dying breath, but the reality was cruel.
For more than a decade, he has primarily relied on his natural talent to solve problems. Even though he worked relatively hard during his senior year of college, he still hadn't developed the good habit of calmly reading academic literature.
So, whenever I sit in front of the computer reading academic papers, I don't know if I've actually absorbed anything, but I always end up with a whole bunch of hairs falling out of my eyes.
During master's and doctoral studies, you won't learn much without reading academic papers and professional books. Supervisors won't break down the knowledge points and try to feed them to you like primary and secondary school teachers do.
He tried, but it was painful; his past disdain for knowledge finally brought him retribution.
"Honestly, sometimes reading it is like I've wasted my time." Deng stood up and began to imitate the ramblings of a marketing account, "What exactly is reading academic papers about? I believe everyone is familiar with the term quantum physics. Reading academic papers is actually reading papers on quantum physics. You might be surprised why we would read papers on quantum physics, but that's the truth. I was also very surprised..."
After finishing his performance of nonsensical literature, Deng sat back down and continued to act out a classic scene from a melodramatic soap opera: "So, beneath my sunny exterior, there lies an anxious and broken heart..."
"Ugh!" Ye Shi couldn't help but gag. "Just tell the story! Stop being sentimental!"
Ji Zhixing understood Deng Zhi's predicament: "Unable to sit still, unable to remember, unable to understand"—this is a common pain point for many when reading academic documents. He quite liked Deng Zhi's temperament, and Deng Zhi had given him a lot of help this month, so he took the initiative to say:
"What do you need my help with?" Actually, he had already guessed it; it was nothing more than discussing papers.
Sure enough, Deng put his hands together and asked Ji Zhixing, "Could you show me your thesis when you have time in the future?"
“Sure,” Ji Zhixing readily agreed, as he particularly enjoyed seeing people study hard.
Talent is the foundation of a nation's strength. He may not be comparable to teachers who have nurtured countless students, but he can still do his best to help one or two sparks of talent burn brighter.
After discussion, the two agreed on a plan for explaining the papers. Every two days, Deng would choose a paper he needed and hand it to Ji Zhixing. He would read it himself on the first day and then listen to Ji Zhixing's explanation on the second day.
It started with one-on-one lessons, but later Ye Shi also joined in as an auditor.
Although he holds a doctorate, his ability to read academic literature isn't particularly strong. After all, no professor in the world will dedicate a class to teaching students how to read academic literature. Master's and doctoral supervisors often only play the role of "leading the way," and everyone has to "practice on their own."
Moreover, Ji Zhixing spoke very well. From the core findings of the paper to the research methods, from the theoretical basis to the experimental scheme, he explained everything in a clear and concise manner, making people's minds light up and their vision suddenly become clear.
In addition to analyzing the paper itself, he also appropriately draws on a wide range of sources and analyzes the references, while also generously sharing his methods for studying the literature.
This reading method, which effectively grasps the key points and allows for in-depth reading layer by layer, is invaluable. Many people may not learn how to read literature efficiently and effectively until graduation.
Once there's one, there's two; once there's two, there's three. Gradually, more and more people started to listen in, and even students from other professors came to attend.
Quantum physics is, after all, a cutting-edge and hot topic in physics, and quite a few master's and doctoral students in physics specialize in quantum physics. So, in just half a month, more than twenty people regularly gathered in the office to listen to Ji Zhixing analyze his papers.
Professor Gao Xiao suggested that Ji Zhixing shouldn't limit himself to their lab's research direction, but rather read as much literature as possible related to quantum physics to solidify his foundation and broaden his horizons. So later, the people who came to observe the class discussed taking turns choosing papers for Ji Zhixing to analyze.
Ji Zhixing didn't see this as a waste of time; on the contrary, he felt he benefited greatly. Explaining papers to others was, in fact, practicing the "Feynman Learning Technique." By teaching others, he efficiently forced himself to learn proactively, thereby gaining a deeper and more thorough understanding of the knowledge.
Just like back in the final exam cram school, he suddenly got the inspiration to master three sets of algorithms while explaining problems. During this period, because he had to regularly analyze various papers, he not only forced himself to quickly delve into quantum physics, but also gained a lot of inspiration.
After some time, the lab offices were no longer big enough for all the people.
Upon hearing the news, Director Zhu specially arranged a dedicated classroom for Ji Zhixing. Initially, it was a small seminar room with thirty or forty seats, but it was later changed to a tiered classroom. A "Read Literature Together" reservation module was also launched on the official website to facilitate Ji Zhixing's lesson preparation and classroom management.
Ji Zhixing stood on the podium, pointing to the figure in the paper, and explained: "From the changes in the curve and the proportion of the scatter points in this figure, we can see..."
Looking at the packed classroom, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have inexplicably started taking classes at Yenching University.
A note from the author:
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