“The last problem… Regarding the mystery of the supernova, this proposition comes from the recommendation of the famous astrophysicist Jim Peebles.”
ILHCRC headquarters meeting room.
Professor Whittle, from the Brookhaven National Laboratory, stood in front of the conference table.
He was holding a piece of paper in his hand. He subconsciously glanced at Lu Zhou, who was sitting not far away. He spoke with a slightly nervous expression.
“The supernova remnants are the tombstones of stars, the remains of stars after they exploded at the end of the evolutionary process. They are like brilliant fireworks in the night sky, exuding deadly charm…
“However, what is puzzling is that according to the calculation of the supernova explosion rate and star formation rate, there should be about 20,000 to 30,000 supernova remnants that we can observe in the Milky Way. However, we have only observed around 300.
“99% of supernova remnants seem to be missing, out of our sight.
“The research on supernova remnants will have an important impact on our research in the fields of heavy elements and galaxy evolution. If we can find out where the missing supernova remnants go, it may be able to reveal more profound physical mysteries…”
From a professional point of view, Professor Whittle elaborated on some existing progress or conjectures in this research area, as well as Brookhaven National Laboratory’s opinion on this proposition.
Like he said, if the reasons for the disappearance of supernova sites could be revealed, or if they could find the disappeared energy and matter, the research on astrophysics and particle physics would be greatly improved.
After listening to this lengthy statement, Lu Zhou thought about it for a while, then ticked a tick in his notebook.
Professor Whittle’s attention was on Lu Zhou since the beginning. Professor Whittle noticed Lu Zhou’s movements; his tense face finally relaxed a little as his heart was relieved.
Professor Jim Peebles was a big name recently poached by the Brookhaven National Laboratory. What he worried about the most was that Lu Zhou had a grudge against them because of past events and would deliberately reject the proposal from Brookhaven National Laboratory.
However, it now seemed that Lu Zhou was obviously not interested in doing this.
Even though Whittle was annoyed at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s increasing involvement at ILHCRC, he had no better way to deal with this situation. He could only bear it for the time being.
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Whittle, who bowed slightly and sat back in his seat. He closed the notebook in his hand and stood up. He cleared his throat and spoke.
“Let’s end the preliminary selections.
“A total of 522 problems were shortlisted, 22 more than expected.
“For the end result, we’ll have to wait until the final vote. There are about two meetings in the coming days, respectively on Wednesday and Friday… Thank you, everyone.”
There was a wave of applause in the conference room.
Lu Zhou faced the standing physicists and nodded gently.
…
After the meeting, Lu Zhou packed up the things on the table and returned to his office.
However, just after he sat down, there was a knock on the door. A young assistant walked in quickly from outside.
“Mr. Chairman, there is a strange person who wants to see you.”
Strange person?
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and asked curiously, “Who is it?”
The assistant spoke with an awkward expression.
“His name is Felix. He claims to be a professor from the department of physics at MIT. He says that he has suffered unfair treatment at ILHCRC and hopes to meet you.”
Originally, he didn’t want to bother Lu Zhou with these trivial things, but the strange guy was too persistent. He stood in the lobby with a suitcase and didn’t want to leave no matter what.
This guy was not a nobody, so they couldn’t just throw him out. The front desk downstairs could only call his superiors to ask for instructions. Then, the issue went up the chain of command, eventually arriving at Lu Zhou’s desk.
“Professor Felix?”
Lu Zhou had no impression of this name. He frowned and thought for a while, then spoke.
“… If he wants to discuss academic issues with me, tell him that I can spare half an hour at three o’clock in the afternoon. If he just wants to bother me with some boring problems, give him the contact information of Secretary-General Luo.”
“Oh, okay.”
The assistant quickly left the office. Lu Zhou didn’t say anything else. He continued to flip through the meeting notes in his hand.
He ate a sandwich for lunch and stayed in the office until about three in the afternoon. Lu Zhou walked to the cafe downstairs and saw Mr. Felix, the man who claimed to be a professor from MIT.
From his appearance and the suitcase in hand, Lu Zhou guessed that he arrived here immediately after getting off the plane.
Also, his planet tickets were probably bought last-minute.
“Professor Felix is it? Nice to meet you.”
Professor Felix looked at Lu Zhou nervously, then nodded cautiously.
“Likewise.”
Although he was very angry when he was in North America and even lost his temper in the building reception two hours ago, after seeing Lu Zhou in person, he couldn’t help but lower his head.
He had no other choice.
After all, Lu Zhou’s status was too high.
From the electrostrong interaction to hyperspace theory, his research results shocked the world; the problems that plagued hundreds of millions of people were a piece of cake for him.
His little amount of achievement was not even worth mentioning in front of Lu Zhou.
Professor Felix shrunk into his shell and didn’t say anything. Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then smiled.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“I ordered a cup of coffee, it’s not here yet.”
“Oh, really? I’ll have a cup of black coffee then.” Lu Zhou nodded to the waiter, then looked at Professor Felix. He continued happily, “I’m very curious, what is it that made you come all the way from Boston to see me?”
“Because I need an explanation!” Felix suddenly became excited. His shoulders trembled as he sat up straight from his chair. He then stared at Lu Zhou and asked, “Why did you reject my proposal in the preliminary selection?”
“This was the collective opinion of the review committee. I only fulfilled my right to cast a vote. If it did not pass the vote, it is because it was not suitable—”
“You never read my paper carefully! I heard that after you arrived in Shanghai from Jinling, you only spent three days to read the problems.” Felix said excitedly, “From the beginning, you didn’t intend to take our research results seriously, so why did you ask me to send a paper?”
Three days?
Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly. He actually only took two days, faster than the rumors.
He looked at Professor Felix, whose face was full of excitement, and spoke.
“I carefully read every paper. I can swear by my reputation that every choice I make is from the standpoint of a scholar.”
“Oh, really?” Felix looked straight at Lu Zhou. His face was full of suspicion as he asked, “Are you sure that three days was enough for you to read all the papers?”
“Of course, I even remember your paper.” Lu Zhou smiled faintly. “Introduce the heavy Fermi-field triplet in the standard model to explain the source of neutrino quality. In other words, it is the application of the Type-III Seesaw mechanism in the study of the origin of neutrino mass. Am I right?”
Lu Zhou finally remembered.
He didn’t remember the name Felix, but after hearing him explain his problem, Lu Zhou immediately matched the name with the paper he read a few days ago.
When Professor Felix realized Lu Zhou had actually remembered his paper, he held his breath.
However, he realized that he had waited at least two hours in this cafe. During this time, Lu Zhou had time to investigate his information clearly and quickly go through the paper.
“… Did you read it before you came?”
Seeing the obvious distrust on this guy’s face, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but smile.
Read it before?
I have better things to do with my time.
“Regardless, I have indeed read your paper, and in my opinion… I voted against it. As for the reason, it is because it isn’t worth researching.”
“That’s preposterous!”
“Don’t come to conclusions too quickly.” Lu Zhou smiled at Professor Felix, who was about to stand up, and motioned him to sit down. He said, “Since you came across the ocean to see me, I’ll tell you why I did it.”
The waiter came over with a cup of coffee.
Lu Zhou looked at the steaming cup of coffee on the table. He reached out his index finger and gently touched the cup. He then looked at the waiter and said politely, “Can you grab a whiteboard from the office next to me? And a marker.”
“Yes, sir.”
After the waiter left quickly. Lu Zhou looked at Professor Felix and spoke.
“If I explain it to you in words, we’ll be here all day.
“I’ll show it to you.”
