The Science Fiction World of Xueba

All these controversies have been broken with the publication of the latest issue of "Explorer" magazine in 2022.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Boston metropolitan area, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Early in the morning, Pablo Jarillo Herrero came to his laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The 2020 recipient of the Wolf Prize in Physics, Herrero is best known for discovering superconductivity in twisted graphene.

Cao Yuan, who has returned to China and teaches at the University of Science and Technology of China, is the student he brought out. Cao Yuan played a key role in the experiment that discovered the superconductivity of twisted graphene.

But the leader is Herrero himself.

Herrero even won the 2020 Wolf Prize in Physics for this discovery.

It's just a pity that since Cao Yuan returned to China, the research on graphene superconductivity has fallen into a low ebb in the past two years. Whether it is Cao Yuan's team or Herrero's own team, there has been no progress for a long time.

Until three months ago, Pang Xuelin's paper on the new theory of superconductivity awakened Herrero all of a sudden.

Although Pang Xuelin's theory only has a purely mathematical model, according to the results given by this model, Herrero vaguely realized that the room-temperature superconductor that the scientific community has been looking for may fall on two-dimensional superconducting materials.

Thinking about it this way, is there a more suitable superconducting material than two-dimensional graphene?

Therefore, in the past three months, Herrero and his team have been concentrating on studying Pang Xuelin's paper, trying to build a full sense of graphene room temperature two-dimensional superconducting material on the basis of this paper.

But this kind of work is very difficult. They have tried many methods, but the superconducting transition temperature of graphene has never been raised, even from the temperature of liquid helium to the temperature of liquid nitrogen.

But this is also impossible.

Sometimes doing scientific research is like this. It is a process of constant trial and error. Maybe you spend a lot of time and energy, but you may get nothing.

In fact, not only the Herrero team has found nothing, but hundreds of teams around the world have done similar work, but they have not been able to find the ideal room temperature superconductor.

Herrero originally wanted to contact his students to see how Cao Yuan was doing.

It's just weird that,

Whether it was sending an email to Cao Yuan's mailbox or calling the phone number he left behind, Cao Yuan could not be contacted.

According to the feedback from the University of Science and Technology of China, Cao Yuan went to Qiantang Laboratory to participate in a cooperation project, and may not be back in a short time.

This made Herrero slightly uneasy.

Cao Yuan went to Qiantang Laboratory, which made him immediately think of Pang Xuelin.

In fact, in the first half of this year, Qiantang Lab sent an invitation to Herrero, hoping that Herrero could join.

Only to be rejected by Herrero.

Not because of Herrero's patriotism.

Herrero is a Spaniard who has been in the United States for more than ten years, but he still has not become a U.S. citizen.

He is purely because he has a good stay at MIT, whether it is salary or research funding, he belongs to the top group.

Under such circumstances, he naturally would not think of starting a new adventure in China.

It's just that he never expected that Pang Xuelin would suddenly become interested in the theory of superconductivity, and successfully unify the superconductivity theories of various schools through mathematical means, forming a new theoretical system.

And after that, his disciple Cao Yuan got mixed up with Pang Xuelin.

Herrero is very aware of Cao Yuan's level.

He also became famous at a young age. Cao Yuan is an excellent experimental physicist. In addition, he has been immersed in the research of two-dimensional graphene materials for many years. It is hard for Herrero to imagine that once Cao Yuan cooperates with Pang Xuelin, the relationship between the two , what kind of chemical reaction will take place.

Before today, this worry had been in Herrero's heart.

Until his student Ask, holding a newly published "Exploration" magazine, hurried into the laboratory.

"Guys, the latest news, the team of Pang Xuelin, Cao Yuan, and Li Changqing in Qiantang Laboratory has discovered a superconducting material with a transition temperature as high as 353K under normal pressure!"

"What?"

The laboratory suddenly boiled up.

A dozen or so doctors and postdoctoral fellows under Herrero gathered around Asker in an instant to read the cover paper of the latest issue of Exploration magazine.

Which naturally includes Herrero.

"How is the superconducting transition temperature of 353K possible?"

"Under the condition of 353K, ordinary two-dimensional materials cannot exist normally at all."

"According to Pang Xuelin's theoretical calculations, there is indeed a superconducting material with this transition temperature, but other conditions will become very strict."

"Would this material exist in the real world?"

...

There was a lot of discussion.

But this kind of discussion fell silent after Akers opened the "Explorer" magazine and entered the main text.

"It turned out to be a multi-walled carbon nanotube!!"

Herrero looked at the multi-walled carbon nanotubes in the magazine. Layers of carbon tubes curled up to form a new two-dimensional interface, which instantly made Herrero react.

Two-dimensional graphene has a low transition temperature. According to calculations, in addition to forming a special angle between graphenes, the distance between each carbon atom also has very high requirements.

In the past three months, hundreds of teams around the world, including the Herrero team, have put forward thousands of proposals, but none of them is feasible.

Herrero never expected that after Pang Xuelin and Cao Yuan's team actually produced this material, it would be so simple.

Asker muttered to himself: "Why didn't we think of that?!"

Another student, Joanna, said: "Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are indeed no more suitable than this material. On the microscopic level, they have the characteristics of two-dimensional materials, and on the macroscopic level, they form multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Hierarchical three-dimensional structure, this material is too perfect. If we can think of this material earlier, I am afraid..."

Before Joanna finished speaking, Herrero shook his head and said, "Even if we think about it in advance, it's useless."

"It's useless to think ahead, why?"

Joanna looked at Herrero and said.

Other students also turned their attention to Herrero.

Herrero smiled bitterly: "There are hundreds of teams all over the world. I'm sure that not only Pang Xuelin's team thought that there might be a room-temperature superconductor in this material. But why did Pang Xuelin's team succeed?"

"Why?"

Herrero said with a wry smile: "Currently commonly used carbon nanotube preparation methods mainly include chemical vapor deposition, arc discharge, pyrolysis polymer method, gas combustion method and laser steam method, etc. The carbon nanotubes prepared by this method Tubes are often of very low purity, and various single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes of different sizes are mixed together. In this case, if we want to find out the multi-walled carbon nanotubes that meet our requirements, what do you think? Is it difficult?"

Joanna and the others nodded involuntarily.

Hearing what Herrero said, they immediately understood the difficulty.

Asker said: "I see, Professor, you should be talking about the flying blade material?"

"What flying blade material?"

Joanna asked curiously.

Asker said: "You have been studying Pang Xuelin's paper for the past few months, and you may not have paid much attention to the news in the materials industry. Just two months ago, in the second issue of "Exploration" magazine, the invention of Qiantang Laboratory was reported. A carbon fiber material composed of ultra-long single-walled carbon nanotubes, which is called flying blade material. It is said that the strength of this material is more than ten times that of T1000 carbon fiber material, and the toughness is more than a hundred times that of steel , can be called the strongest material in the world."

Joanna showed a look of shock on her face, and said, "Ask, the material you mentioned, was that Professor Pang made again?"

Asker nodded and said with a wry smile: "Up to now, the materials science community has not yet figured out how this material is manufactured. It is said that the length of their single single-walled carbon nanotubes has reached the kilometer level, and there are almost no defects in the middle. Thousands of single-walled carbon nanotubes are combined to form a flying blade material as thin as a hair... Think about it, since Qiantang Laboratory can manufacture this flying blade material, for them, manufacturing It seems that it is not so difficult to produce multi-walled carbon nanotubes that meet the requirements, right?"

After Asker's explanation, Joanna and others immediately recalled it.

Joanna couldn't help but exclaimed: "Professor Herrero, if there is nothing wrong with this result, doesn't that mean that next year's Nobel Prize in Physics will be won by that Professor Pang again?"

Herrero nodded, and said with a wry smile: "I'm afraid that's the case. Your brother Cao Yuan is one of the three corresponding authors of this paper. I'm afraid his probability of winning the Nobel Prize is also not low."

For a moment, the entire laboratory fell into silence.

At the same time, the same scene happened in thousands of similar laboratories around the world.

Almost everyone was shocked by the latest achievement of Qiantang Lab.

Although as early as a few months ago, Pang Xuelin proposed a new theoretical system of superconductivity.

But no matter how optimistic Pang Xuelin was, no one could have imagined that in just over three months, Pang Xuelin and his team would actually produce a room-temperature superconductor.

This is a cross-age achievement since the discovery of superconducting materials by the Dutch physicist Heike Kammering Onnes in 1911.

In history, countless physicists tried to increase the superconducting transition temperature to above 300K, but the best they did was 253K created by the Germans, and it was formed under the condition of several million atmospheres.

There is no way to compare this with the achievements of Pang Xuelin and the others.

While the world of physics and materials science is boiling, the world's major media are also boiling again.

Xinhua News Agency: "At two o'clock in the morning capital time today, the superconducting material research and development team led by Professor Pang Xuelin officially released a new superconducting material paper in the fourth issue of "Exploration" magazine. In this paper, Pang Xuelin's team successfully Found a superconducting material at 353K. The appearance of this superconducting material will be an epoch-making progress for the entire scientific and industrial circles..."

Agence France-Presse: "Pang Xuelin's team created another miracle. Chinese genius scientists successfully found a new material that exhibits a superconducting state at room temperature and pressure. This discovery is expected to change the global industrial ecology, and it will have a great impact on the future rail transit, power facilities, and electrical automation industries. As well as aerospace and other fields have a very significant impact ... "

Kyodo News: "After the era of lithium-air batteries, the era of superconductivity is coming. Pang Xuelin, a Chinese national treasure scientist, leads the era again. He will surely become one of the greatest scientists in human history!"

Reuters: "There is no language that can compare the amazing achievements of Pang Xuelin. The emergence of new superconducting materials will once again push China to continue to lead in the new technological revolution. At the moment when the Anglo-Saxon nation is weakening, the distant East , an ancient nation is slowly rising..."

Associated Press: "After missing the lithium-air battery revolution, will we continue to miss the superconducting revolution? The answer seems self-evident. As long as that young man is still in China, it seems difficult for us to see the hope of catching up in the future... "

...

Compared with the turmoil in the media, domestic public opinion seems to be much calmer.

Even the sand sculpture netizens seemed much calmer in their reactions.

"Why am I not surprised by this news? Haha, I seem to be used to it!"

"Professor Pang has produced results again? Professor Pang is making headlines again? Our technology is about to improve again? Hey, why do I say again?"

"Haha, let me just say, when Professor Pang came up with the theory of superconductivity three months ago, I thought that superconducting materials might break through, and the academic circles are still arguing about it. What's there to argue about? When has Professor Pang let us down?"

"Lithium-air batteries, flying blade materials, room temperature superconducting materials, is the next nuclear fusion reactor?"

"I just bought a BYD Jinlong battery car today. It smells so good... The room temperature superconducting material has appeared, and superconducting motors should be used next. But what I am most looking forward to is the next major upgrade of high-speed rail. This kind of superconducting As long as the material can be industrialized, the legendary vacuum tube maglev train will no longer be a problem, and I feel more and more looking forward to the future..."

"Do you still remember the electromagnetic catapult space launch system project that broke out in the second half of last year? At that time, many people still swore that this was unreliable and that was unreliable. How long has passed since the flying blade material came out, and the superconducting material came out, What's next? Except for the high-power power supply (capacitor), at the theoretical level, there is no insurmountable problem, right? The rest is purely an engineering problem!"

...

Compared with the new scientific and technological revolution that superconducting materials can bring, more people focus on the Nobel Prize in Physics.

"Professor Pang Xuelin just won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year, and next year's Nobel Prize in Physics will probably be in the pocket of Professor Pang, right?!"

"If there is no accident, it should be like this. The Fields Medal, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Nobel Prize in Physics, and the three top awards, Professor Pang can soar into a god!"

"You say that if this continues, can God Pang surpass Einstein?"

"For now, surpassing Einstein is not enough. After all, apart from the achievements of Pang Shen in mathematics, the rest are achievements at the application level. Even the theory of superconductivity is not much related to basic physics. But if If Newton and Einstein are placed in the same category, Professor Pang should be able to rank at the forefront of the second echelon!"

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