Into Unscientific

"Red Bank?"

Hear Xu Yun's speech.

Yang Zhenning subconsciously repeated the word in his mouth, and then asked Xu Yun with some confusion:

"Xiao Xu, this name you chose. Does it have any meaning?"

"It means"

In Xu Yun's mind, the big face of Liu Cixin in later generations appeared subconsciously, and the corners of his mouth were raised in a wicked way:

"Red Bank, Red Bank, as the word suggests, is the abbreviation of Red Bank."

"Our earth civilization is like a large drifting ship, sailing cautiously in ignorance. There are also many conflicts among the captain, first mate, and chief engineer."

"But no matter how far the voyage is, there will eventually be a day when it reaches shore and is unified - no matter how bad things go, there is always a leader."

"The meaning of Red Bank is that I hope that when we land on the other side of the river, there will be red flags flying in the wind."

Yang Zhenning nodded slightly when he heard this, and his whole body was in awe:

"I see."

Then he thought for a while, decided to focus on the original topic, and continued to ask:

"Xiao Xu, according to what you said before, pulsar detection is only part of this Hong'an base, right?"

"At the same time, the main mission of this base is to detect the universe. In other words, other projects of the base must also be related to the starry sky, but..."

"Is there really so many projects in the universe that we can and need to spend a lot of time studying?"

universe.

This is a mysterious place that human civilization has been tirelessly exploring since ancient times.

For example, China has said that stars and Tengu eclipse the sun since ancient times. The Egyptian civilization discovered Algol very early and measured time through this galaxy.

Later, Galileo invented the Galileo Telescope, and humans began to have a more intuitive understanding of the universe. They learned that the surface of the moon is not smooth and white, but has acquired enlarged pores.

Then came the discoveries of Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus, and then I began to use general relativity to mathematically explain the universe.

In 1932.

Lemaître, a Belgian priest, first proposed the concept of the Big Bang.

In the 1940s, Gamow, together with his two students, Ralph Alfie and Robert Hermann, introduced the theory of relativity into cosmology and proposed the hot big bang cosmology model.

By this time, cosmology has become a minor and valuable subject.

but

Even across the sea, which is the most technologically advanced country, investment in the study of cosmic phenomena is relatively limited—or in other words, knowledge is limited.

Across the sea, more energy is focused on the near-Earth, that is, the field of space shuttles and satellites. The current major scientific research bases are, to put it bluntly, satellite R\u0026D and launch centers.

It can be said like this.

The solar system. No, the vast starry sky beyond Mars is not considered a priority by any country today.

At most, they just have the mentality of setting up an observation center on some small islands, highlands, and the like, and arrange for seven or eight people to collect data for a long time.

The overall number of these observation centers is quite considerable. Dozens or hundreds of points will usually encounter a few valuable phenomena every one or two years, slowly advancing the scientific community's understanding of the universe, and then that's it. .

In Yang Zhenning’s perception.

The ground-based gravitational wave detection base he wants to build this time can be regarded as the pinnacle project in the field of cosmology in terms of cost.

The result was unexpected.

Xu Yun actually opened his mouth and said that he wanted to build an integrated large-scale space exploration base?

Is this really necessary?

At least Yang Zhenning himself thinks it is open to question.

And opposite him.

Hearing Yang Zhenning's question, Xu Yun gave the answer without hesitation:

"Of course it's necessary!"

He took a deep breath and said solemnly:

"Mr. Yang, you are the top physicist in the world. You should know that with the development of human science and technology, in the future, we will inevitably cast our sights on the universe above our heads."

"In terms of technological applications, satellites and rockets should be the typical representatives - at least in the next eighty years, it will be difficult for us to expand carry-on space exploration beyond the moon. This is an objective fact."

Yang Zhenning hummed noncommittally.

Xu Yun's statement was very close to his opinion, but he knew that Xu Yun must have something to talk about later.

As expected, Xu Yun quickly said:

"But in terms of theoretical research, the areas we can cover are far beyond and should not be as simple as the 'earth and moon' level."

"For example, our research on astrophysics may help us establish a complete asteroid early warning system - this is actually a very important thing."

"For another example, if we capture and study the gamma rays of the universe and explore the background of the universe, we can know the initial age of the universe, so that we can study and optimize our existing physical theories in a broader framework."

"This process may discover some kind of new particle, it may discover some new technology that is useful in reality, it may even discover a new physics."

"What's more important is that cosmology is bound to become an extremely cutting-edge research direction in the future. In a sense, it will become a link in the puzzle of our public opinion."

To the end.

Xu Yun's tone already contained some personal emotions.

In 2023, when he traveled back in time, cosmology was a very complex subject with a lot of controversy.

Some people think that it is meaningless for humans to study the universe today and it will not be of any help to human technological applications. For now, we can just think about landing on the moon or Mars.

It's like you, a junior clerk, have to understand the daily routine and content of meetings held by provincial leaders. What's the use of letting you know?

But this is actually a very wrong perception.

One of the most basic reasons for exploring the universe in the first place is naturally the desire to explore. In addition to life, human beings also have a spiritual world.

Just like children will ask why and readers will ask when the author will update, humans will also be curious about the origins of the universe.

In the words of a literary youth, "People not only have the present, but also poetry and the distance."

And this is only one of the lowest spiritual demands. Cosmology has many advanced values ​​and meanings.

In addition to the asteroid system Xu Yun mentioned, there are many technologies related to cosmology and reality.

Take, for example, primordial black holes.

Primordial black holes are a type of celestial body predicted by theory to exist in the early universe, and may be observable through the radio bursts they cause.

In order to more effectively extract weak signals from the noisy background, O'Sullivan, an engineer on the Kangaroo side, led the team to develop a technology based on fast Fourier transform.

Many years later, people began to look for efficient wireless communication solutions and needed to solve the noise problem caused by continuous reflection of indoor signals.

As a result, O'Sullivan discovered that the technology used in cosmological observations at that time could just solve this difficulty - so the prototype of Wi-Fi we use daily was born, and O'Sullivan is also called the father of Wi-Fi.

and the Webb Space Telescope.

The mission of this telescope is to observe high-redshift galaxies. The technical team has optimized very advanced optical technologies such as wavefront imaging based on the high-redshift results, which has promoted the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases and the design of new contact lenses. .

The red-shifted wave frequency of the energy spectrum is also related to the imaging of the human eye. If the kind of artificial eyes in cyberpunk can appear, it will most likely be born out of this research.

There is also a universe model containing the cosmological constant Λ, and its static universe solution is a core point of current supercomputing iterations.

At the same time, in addition to the impact of real-world technology, cosmic research is also of great value to the optimization of existing theories.

Mentioned earlier.

The old favorite theory of relativity is still the absolute truth at present, and the standard particle model is adequate for today's physics community.

but

If and when human science and technology develops to the interstellar level, whether it is the theory of relativity or the standard particle model, they will inevitably become the solution in a specific situation just like classical physics.

At that time, there will inevitably be more complete theories to replace them. Of course, those new theories will definitely not be the metaphysical achievements of Minke.

If you want to optimize and discover those new theories, many studies of the universe are obviously a very suitable direction - such as the cause mechanism of the accelerated phase of the expansion of the universe, gravitational wave astronomy, the light-changing mechanism of supernovae, etc.

Of course.

If the reasons were only the above, Xu Yun might not propose spending such a large cost to build the Hong'an base.

The last straw that really made him make up his mind was the public opinion puzzle he mentioned.

As a descendant.

Xu Yun is very clear about the style of cosmological achievements in later generations - its real value in later generations is not to promote the development of science and technology, but to attack rabbits.

Whenever some cosmological results are released internationally, you will inevitably see comments such as "Researchers in your country only open liquor on the table" at the bottom of major platforms.

Otherwise, I think you are too low-level and cannot look at the problem from the perspective of [all mankind].

Later generations of rabbits also realized the importance of this right to speak, so they can see results such as FAST released after a while.

However, because they started too late, Rabbit currently has many projects that are in the research and development stage that sound exciting but have not actually been put into production.

In order for future generations to keep up with the pace of the international forefront, the rabbits' investment in related fields every year is astronomical.

all in all.

Cosmology is a cutting-edge research field, and it is also a cutting-edge public opinion position.

Xu Yun had spent a lot of effort to gain the right to speak in the particle model. At this time, it was naturally impossible to give up cosmology, the smoke-filled battlefield of the future.

When the cosmology puzzle piece is put together, Xu Yun's layout on the public opinion side is basically complete.

In addition, the Rabbits also had an interest-free loan borrowed from Neon, which allowed Xu Yun to easily propose his ideas to the organization.

"."

However, after hearing these explanations from Xu Yun, Yang Zhenning still had some hesitation on his face.

After all, whether it is wifi technology or future public opinion, Chen Ning Yang’s current vision will definitely not be able to see that far.

But at least compared to the initial stage, Yang Zhenning's inner resistance is indeed less intense.

Then he thought about it and asked Xu Yun:

"Xiao Xu, what are your plans for this Hong'an base? In addition to pulsars, what other specific research projects are there?"

When Xu Yun heard this, he glanced at the note on the table. He had actually had an idea about this matter a long time ago:

"Mr. Yang, according to my plan, Hong'an Base will mainly study five projects."

"The first project is naturally the exploration of pulsars. This part can be combined with gravitational waves into a complete project, and the code name can be called the 'Pulse Gravitational Wave Detection Plan'."

"The second project is related to the detection of dark matter. In addition to the solitary point, ahem, the dark matter you calculated, this part also includes the exploration of dark energy."

This time.

Although Yang Zhenning did not continue to speak, there was obviously some movement on his face.

dark energy.

This is a pretty good subject.

According to Fritz Zwicky’s inference, the largest proportion of the universe is not dark matter, but dark energy:

Matter visible to the naked eye accounts for about 5%, dark matter accounts for 25%, and the remaining 70% is dark energy.

Now that Chen Ning Yang has deduced mathematical evidence for the existence of dark matter, dark energy can indeed be listed as a follow-up project.

So Yang Zhenning quickly said:

"What's behind? What are the other three?"

Seeing that Yang Zhenning did not object to his idea, Xu Yun subconsciously clenched his fists and continued:

"The third project is cosmic rays. This is a relatively basic project that can help us understand the distribution of matter in the universe, acceleration mechanisms, etc. It mainly assists the research of high-energy physics."

"The fourth project is black holes, and the fifth one is cosmic microwave background radiation."

"Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation?"

Yang Zhenning raised his eyebrows:

"Xiao Xu, it seems that you are very confident in the theory of thermal explosion of the universe?"

Xu Yun nodded:

"Um."

Xu Yun's idea of ​​building a Hong'an base can be traced back to the Zhuxian Sword Platform period, so the several projects he proposed at this time basically covered several key spans of cosmology.

Let alone pulsars, this is a subject that Chen Ning Yang himself would agree with.

If the dark energy detection project had appeared before the meta-hadron model, Chen Ning Yang might have chosen to oppose it. However, now that he has personally calculated the existence of dark matter, dark energy has become a promising direction.

At the same time, dark energy is also a major research direction recognized by later generations. According to the measurement results obtained by the research team at the University of California, Riverside, across the sea in 2020, matter and dark matter together account for about 31.5±1.3% of the total mass and energy of the universe, and the rest It's all dark energy. (DOI: 10.1126/science.1146673)

The third item, cosmic rays, is the field that Yang Zhenning is most specialized in, and it is also the most basic link of the five major project teams.

So among these five major projects, Xu Yun really wants to promote the last two:

Black holes and cosmic microwave background radiation.

Note:

I will go through the discharge procedures in the next two days, so I will update it with 4,000 words.