Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
Institute of Computational Materials.
Because it was already lunch break, the people in the office were quite relaxed. Other than Qian Zhongming, who was still reading through theses, most of the people were either browsing the latest industry news or chatting while drinking coffee.
“I heard Jin Ling University had a group date a few days ago?”
“Yeah, I heard about it as well. I think they had an autumn field trip with the foreign language department. They stayed at the Purple Mountain hotel for two nights.”
Liu Bo sighed and said, “Damnit… How come the chemistry department never hosts events like this?”
Most of the researchers at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had faculty positions at nearby universities, most of them being Jin Ling University, followed by the Jinling University of Science and Technology. After all, the head of the institute was Lu Zhou, Nobel laureate in chemistry and the founding father of computational materials science. Even in the international field, the Institute of Computational Materials was one of the top research institutes in the materials science field.
Therefore, no university would refuse to hire researchers from an institute like this.
Hence, they should also receive a share of the faculty benefits.
Unfortunately, the chemistry department didn’t have any activities this year, and October was going to pass by quietly.
Yang Xu laughed when he heard Liu Bo’s sigh. He made himself a second cup of coffee as he said, “Don’t count on it. Even if the chemistry department did have a group date, you think those foreign language girls will be interested in us? Forget about the rest, just our hairline alone will kill our game.”
Not only did the people in the natural sciences, such as biology, chemistry, environment, and material sciences, not make any money, but they didn’t have good hairlines either.
In order to accurately measure a set of data, they often had to stay in the laboratory until after midnight. The old professors were fine, after all, they could delegate the work to noob researchers. However, this meant that the noob researchers had the short end of the stick.
Of course, one should stay hopeful.
Liu Bo wasn’t happy, and he immediately refused.
“I mean, it’s not like our hairlines are much worse than those from the mathematics department, right?”
Yang Xu casually drank his coffee and shook his head as he said, “Not quite, have you seen Professor Lu’s hair?”
Liu Bo was speechless, and it took him a while to think of a comeback.
“I think he’s an exception.”
Yang Xu smiled and said, “Okay then, when you get off work, take a stroll around the chemistry department and mathematics department buildings. Find staff members who are around the same age and compare their hairlines.”
Qian Zhongming, who was scrolling with his mouse wheel, couldn’t help but join in on the conversation.
“It’s probably not easy to find staff members who are around the same age…”
The office became silent.
No one said anything.
In the end, Liu Bo broke the silence.
“Let’s not talk about this sad topic…”
This time, everyone in the office agreed with one another, and no one said anything else.
When it came to their actual age and biological age…
This topic was too heavy for these noob researchers to talk about.
The lunch break was quickly over, and at around one o’clock, the crowd sitting at their desks began to start working. By half-past one, everyone was working on their tasks.
Yang Xu returned to his office and sat down. He opened his laptop.
He suddenly saw a new email message in his mailbox. It was from Lu Zhou.
“The application of high permeability oxygen molecular membranes to the lithium-air battery?”
After glancing at the email title, Yang Xu raised his eyebrows. He quickly downloaded the attachment in the email and opened it carefully. The more he read, the more shocked he was.
Lithium-air batteries had always been a controversial topic in the academic world. Many people supported the idea, but many people also questioned it. The most basic reason was that the extremely reactive nature of lithium metal made it reactive with almost all gases in the air except for the noble gases.
If someone wanted to solve this problem, they would have to separate out the oxygen in the air and only allow oxygen gas to enter the reaction system.
The most realistic method was to add a layer of molecular sieve or membrane that only allowed oxygen molecules to contact the lithium metal surface. This might sound simple, but this was extremely difficult to achieve.
However, in this email attachment, not only did Professor Lu point out a clear research pathway, but he also listed several seemingly feasible technical ideas.
“Did he do this while studying the Yang-Mills equations?” Yang Xu said after reading the last line of the attached document. He sighed softly, leaned on his chair, and stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t help but say, “This guy really is a monster…”
He did this while researching a world-class problem, is he even human?
Of course, Yang Xu didn’t know about one other thing.
If he knew that in addition to solving the Yang-Mills Equations, Lu Zhou also solved the miniaturization of controllable fusion problem, Yang Xu would begin to have doubts about his life…
Regardless, the technical ideas were there. Whether or not it would work, that would depend on them experimenting.
Yang Xu selected the email Lu Zhou sent him and forwarded it to his colleagues. He then stood up from his chair.
He walked to the cubicles and knocked on a door.
“New mission, guys, time to get to work.”
The researchers in the office looked up at him.
Qian Zhongming was the first to speak. He adjusted his glasses and said, “New mission? Is there a research project?”
Yang Xu said succinctly, “A high permeability oxygen molecular separation membrane. As for the technical information and experiment methods, I have sent them to your emails.”
High permeability oxygen molecular separation membrane?
The second Qian Zhongming heard this, he looked astonished.
Liu Bo, who was sitting at a desk nearby, also looked shocked. He spoke with a hint of excitement in his tone.
“High permeability oxygen molecular separation membrane? Is this research project about…”
“Yeah,” Yang Xu nodded and said, “our next research project is… lithium-air batteries.”
