Shanghai.
A restaurant near the ILHCRC headquarters.
Waiting for food was always a boring process. Normally, Witten would try to find something to do; sometimes he would read papers, other times he would read some magazines or something related to his hobbies.
He was flipping through the newspaper he took from his office when he suddenly frowned and spoke.
“Whittle has gone crazy.”
Frank Wilczek, who was sitting across from him, looked at him with a confusing gaze
After a while, Witten spoke.
“He’s trying to use the public opinion to help the Brookhaven Science Associates. He’s abusing his academic power, forcing scholars to make wrong choices.”
Frank Wilczek raised his eyebrows and said, “Then what would you do?”
“If I had to make a choice, I wouldn’t do what he’s doing.” Witten put down the newspaper and said, “Regardless of what the experiment is, this is the first Lunar Hadron Collider experiment. Even if the experiment doesn’t produce results, this will be a memorable and historic experiment.”
Witten paused for a second and smiled.
“Not to mention, that the physics community hasn’t been this exciting for a long time.”
Wilczek drank a sip of lemonade and spoke.
“I wish it wasn’t this exciting.”
Having excitement in the physics world only brought trouble. Theoretical physics was something that could benefit humanity as a whole. In his opinion, both Lu Zhou and the Brookhaven Science Associates were making irrational decisions.
Of course, he knew that…
Most people in this world were not rational.
He hoped that the Lunar Hadron Collider could focus on more meaningful projects, such as the time crystal theory he was researching.
Unfortunately, he would have to wait at least a year before he could use the lunar collider for experimentation.
…
It seemed like the warnings from the United States Department of Energy did not work. After the press conference, Brookhaven National Laboratory took matters into their own hands.
As the center of North American theoretical physics research, the withdrawal from the Brookhaven National Laboratory was undoubtedly a massive blow to the ILHCRC… At least in their opinion.
After all, 23% of all physicists and engineers at the ILHCRC were Americans, and Brookhaven National Laboratory accounted for more than half of these American workers.
Not to mention that this statistic only included long-term workers; it did not include visiting scholars. Even if other American scholars were not related to the Brookhaven National Laboratory, this withdrawal would more or less affect their chances of working at the ILHCRC.
The withdrawal of the Brookhaven National Laboratory spread throughout the ILHCRC community.
Almost everyone was discussing this matter, and how this might affect the physics cooperation between China and the United States.
Especially regarding the American physicists that worked at the ILHCRC.
Even though people knew Whittle was not satisfied with Lu Zhou’s decisions, the withdrawal from the ILHCRC still angered many people. It seemed like no matter how they looked at it, this was not a good thing for the American workers at the ILHCRC.
This incident had a significant impact on the progress of the 750 GeV characteristic peak project.
Inside the chairman’s office.
Secretary-General Luo Wenxuan came here to report the situation to Lu Zhou.
“… The Brookhaven National Laboratory officially submitted a written application to me. They’re requesting to withdraw from all scientific research projects in 2023 and recall their researchers and engineers in Shanghai.”
When Luo Wenxuan was speaking, he had a complicated look on his face.
He never would have imagined the Brookhaven National Laboratory to have such an extreme response. He couldn’t believe they withdrew as a way of protesting against Lu Zhou’s actions.
Lu Zhou looked at the document on the desk and didn’t say anything. He signed his name on the document and gave it back to Luo Wenxuan.
Luo Wenxuan looked at Lu Zhou and couldn’t help but say, “You seem like you don’t care?”
“What is there to care about.” Lu Zhou looked at him with a strange look and said, “They’ve already paid their funding, I don’t care if they’re listed as a partner institute or not.”
Luo Wenxuan: “…”
I guess he makes sense.
After hesitating for a bit, Luo Wenxuan spoke.
“Also, about the 750 GeV characteristic peak…”
Lu Zhou: “What?”
Luo Wenxuan said, “I dug up CERN’s paper and read it. It seems like their experiment was quite detailed, there really isn’t any… If there isn’t anything there, we’ll be in an awkward situation.”
When Lu Zhou heard this, he suddenly smiled, put down the pen in his hand, and looked up.
“So you understood the paper?”
Luo Wenxuan sighed and said, “I know you are looking down on me, but I did understand the paper.”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “I’m not looking down on you, I just want you to tell me, what did you extract from the paper?”
“What am I supposed to say…” Luo Wenxuan said, “Basically, they’ve done every experiment possible.”
Lu Zhou: “Did they do a proton collision?”
Luo Wenxuan: “Of course, the experiment records are there.”
Lu Zhou: “What about heavy-ion collision?”
Luo Wenxuan paused for a second and said, “Heavy… Heavy-ion collisions? How is that related to the 750 GeV characteristic peak?”
Lu Zhou said, “How is it not?”
“…”
Luo Wenxuan opened his mouth; he was speechless.
“If you have time, read more useful papers. Just because I placed you in an administrative role doesn’t mean you can forget about physics completely. If you’re curious as to why I’m doing heavy-ion collisions, just wait and you’ll understand. Take this.”
Luo Wenxuan took the stack of A4 papers from Lu Zhou and asked, “What is this?”
Lu Zhou said, “Read it first, and ask me if you have questions.”
Luo Wenxuan: “…”
At least tell me what it is first?
Luo Wenxuan was about to ask Lu Zhou what his role was in the experiment, but Lu Zhou spoke first.
“Don’t say anything.”
Luo Wenxuan: “?”
Lu Zhou looked at the blueprints on his table and spoke.
“I got it.”
Luo Wenxuan: “…”
Got… what?
Do I still need to read this paper?
Luo Wenxuan felt like the “small problem” of the 750 GeV peak wouldn’t take a whole year of experiments. He looked at the thick stack of papers in his hand and sighed.
Sigh.
Working for a dictator boss is boring sometimes…
