“… Recently, during a scientific expedition to Mars, the Mars landing office encountered a sudden dust storm, which caused a scientific researcher to lose contact during the mission.
“After investigating the situation, the ground command center immediately organized rescue work, using a number of equipment including the near-Earth orbit optical observation system, unmanned reconnaissance vehicles, and other equipment to carry out emergency rescue work for the missing person.
“The entire rescue work lasted five hours and 27 minutes, and finally, they managed to successfully rescue the missing person.
“According to the person in charge of the Mars scientific research base, the researcher entered the nearby mountain range to avoid sandstorms. Due to the special landform and geographical environment of Mars, the electromagnetic wave signal attenuation coefficient is relatively large, which greatly affects the normal use of communication, positioning, and other equipment. This caused a serious safety accident…
“More details are still under investigation.
“CCTV reporting for you.”
The lunar scientific research station.
Sun Lieyang sat in the public cafeteria watching the news on the LCD screen. He frowned as he spoke.
“I don’t know why.”
“Why what?”
“I feel like this news is missing something.”
Missing something?
Tao Muye raised his eyebrows with interest. He put down the chopsticks in his hand.
“You mean, there are hidden things that haven’t been disclosed?”
“Yeah.” Sun Lieyang nodded and said, “You’ve received training before, right?”
“Everyone has.”
“I remember the third article in the safety manual very clearly says that, in the event of an aerospace accident, the person involved should wait in place for rescue.”
“Maybe it was an emergency.”
“A sandstorm on Mars is an emergency?”
Tao Muye shook his head after hesitating.
“I don’t know… I haven’t been there after all.”
“I think it’s a bit far-fetched.”
Due to the ultra-low air pressure on Mars, sandstorms were not a big threat at all.
Hiding in the nearby mountains to avoid a sandstorm, then losing communication due to the hematite, was like a person who jumped into a river in order to avoid the rain. Not to mention this person was a planetary geologist.
He was risking his own life.
Although Sun Lieyang knew that life was full of accidents, his instincts told him that something must have happened.
“Who cares, if there’s more to the story, we’re not privy to that information anyway,” Tao Muye said with a smile after picking up his chopsticks again. He continued, “I guess the ground command center is in chaos. Fortunately, they found the person; otherwise, this plan would have gone south.”
Sun Lieyang agreed with Dr. Tao’s point of view. Even if there was something hidden behind this, it had nothing to do with the researchers on the Moon.
Tao Muye changed the subject with a smile.
“Speaking of which, how is the second-generation controllable fusion research going? Have you made any progress?”
Sun Lieyang replied casually, “Yeah, in my dreams.”
“…”
…
Originally, in Lu Zhou’s plan, the unified theory of algebra and geometry was his final work in the field of pure mathematics.
At least before all of his disciplines reached level 10, unless he encountered a problem of special interest, he probably wouldn’t refocus his work on mathematics.
One reason was to leave opportunities for others.
The other reason was that he was too busy.
Other than the maxed-out physics and mathematics, there were five other disciplines that he needed to deal with. These disciplines were areas that focused on application fields with a long research and development cycle and a large amount of uncertainty.
Especially when the research involved specific application scenarios, it was not something that could be solved by sitting in the study room with a pen and just doing calculations.
However, life was always full of surprises.
Just like how he had never thought that the Void would contact him like this…
“Why are you here?”
Jin Ling University, mathematics department building.
Professor Perelman saw Lu Zhou entering his office. He was sitting at his desk writing something. He put down the pen in his hand and cast a questioning glance at Lu Zhou.
“A question is bothering me. I heard that you are still here, so I came here…” Lu Zhou walked in and glanced around the slightly messy office. He smiled and greeted him, “Speaking of which, are you not going back to St. Petersburg?”
“I will probably stay here for a while before Hodge’s conjecture is solved,” he answered the question concisely. Perelman twisted the pen in his hand and said, “I am more curious about the problem that puzzles you. May I ask, is it mathematical?”
“It is.”
Lu Zhou walked to the sofa and sat down. He smiled and nodded to the assistant who brought him tea. He looked at the mist rising from the cup, lowered his voice, and continued, “To be precise, it is the ABC conjecture.”
The pen in Perelman’s hand fell on the table.
Perelman frowned.
“ABC conjecture… Why are you interested in that?”
“Because of curiosity.” Lu Zhou thought for a while and said vaguely, “And some practical reasons.”
“Is it related to the meeting at Jinling University some time ago?”
“Meeting?”
“Well, I heard from other mathematics professors here.” Perelman frowned and continued, “Recently, you seem to be planning to concentrate on conquering the ABC conjecture. It seems that you have also provided a research funding of 100 million as a reward? Actually, with all due respect, this kind of problem cannot be solved by throwing money at it.”
When did that happen?
Lu Zhou was stunned.
“I’m not quite sure about this. Maybe someone else did something superfluous… But this conjecture is really important to us. Do you have any good ideas?”
Perelman: “I have read Shinichi Mochizuki’s paper.”
“Me too… So?”
“Then you should know what I’m going to say.” Perelman continued, “If Riemann’s conjecture is the Mount Everest in mathematics, then the ABC conjecture is the cloud floating above Mount Everest. There is no doubt that it is a mathematical problem that can be described in mathematical language, but it is not like a problem that can be solved by mathematics.
“Professor Mochizuki’s work is equivalent to creating a special mathematical language parallel to mathematics itself… That’s my opinion on his Abelian geometry.
“To put it bluntly, the biggest difficulty in solving this problem is that no one in mathematics today has really done research on this problem that is useful. If you really want to research this problem, you have to redefine addition and subtraction, thus redefining the whole of mathematics.
“Maybe alien mathematicians have an easier time solving this problem…” Perelman murmured, “Of course, this is just my guess.”
Lu Zhou’s nerves tensed up subconsciously upon hearing his words.
But he soon realized that Perelman was just joking, not as if he knew the inside story.
Lu Zhou’s expression became a little more subtle.
This is tricky.
The higher-ups are still discussing whether to make this public. If it is made public, will today’s conversation make this old foreign friend feel like I’m lying to him?
After thinking about it, Lu Zhou quickly left the matter behind.
For a scholar who was obsessed with mathematics, even if Perelman knew the inner story behind it, he probably wouldn’t be interested.
“Redefine the language of mathematics like you redefine addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?” Lu Zhou stood up from the sofa and said, “I will go back and think again.”
Perelman nodded and spoke.
“If I have any new ideas, I will communicate with you.
“In fact, I recommend that you discuss this issue with Shinichi Mochizuki or Schultz. They seem to have done more research on this issue.”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“I’ll think about it.”
