Chapter 1665: Antimatter?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
At the ILHCRC headquarters.
As a holy place for the minds of global physicists, this scientific research inst.i.tution located in the Yangtze River Delta city group was a concentration of the world’s best brains, and its research fields covered almost all branches of contemporary physics.
Whether it was the popular hypers.p.a.ce theory or the relatively unpopular antimatter research.
Because of this, a well-known Lu Zhou Science Award winner declared this place as a paradise to satisfy all physicists’ curiosities.
Of course, dreams were expensive, and the opportunity to embrace dreams was even more so.
As the sacred place of global physics, it was not as easy to work here. Not only did this require hard work and extraordinary talent but also a little bit of luck.
As a lifelong researcher at the ILHCRC, Bruno was undoubtedly one of the lucky ones in the eyes of his colleagues.
Having just turned 40 years old, not only was he nominated for the Lu Zhou Science Award, but he also received a permanent residency at the Pan-Asian Cooperation for his outstanding achievements in the field of antimatter theory.
In the eyes of the people in his hometown, he had undoubtedly become a G.o.d.
Of course, Bruno himself did not have so much pride in himself. He was not interested in those insignificant things.
Apart from Academician Lu’s thesis, the only thing that aroused his interest was probably his own research on antimatter.
One morning, he carried a sandwich and walked into the office as usual.
After instructing the robot a.s.sistant to help bring a cup of coffee, he enjoyed his breakfast while reading the academic updates on the LSPM website.
A popular anonymous paper suddenly attracted his attention.
With a feeling of curiosity in his heart, he clicked on the post and downloaded the paper.
However, before he could read the paper carefully, he saw the t.i.tle of the paper, and he was so stunned that the bacon in his sandwich fell on the table without him noticing it.
“Research on antimatter generation and containment technology?”
His tone of voice was full of doubt.
There was only one reason.
Because this sounded ridiculous.
Of course, it was not just the t.i.tle that was ridiculous. When he saw the abstract of the paper, his eyebrows suddenly twitched.
“Is this an April Fool’s joke?”
It was an exaggeration to say that this paper was complete nonsense, but looking at the abstract alone, this paper sounded like a fictional work.
To be honest, it was not the concept of antimatter that surprised him. After all, people had been researching this as early as the last century, and his research direction was in antimatter as well.
What really struck him was that someone tried to use it in the energy field as an intermediate material for energy storage?
This was too big of a stretch.
Bruno had a perfunctory att.i.tude as he read the main text. He skimmed through the paper quickly.
“Oh, interesting… The experiment design is quite new, but I wonder if the author has thought about how he intends to preserve the extremely unstable antimatter? There is also the problem of energy utilization… The energy released by annihilation is not the kind of nuclear energy that can be used gently, everything around it will be swallowed by the annihilation energy it releases.”
After shaking his head, Bruno swiped his index finger in the air and dragged the paper that had just been downloaded into the recycle bin.
In his opinion, this paper was a waste of time…
After working the whole morning, Bruno stretched in his office chair. He then leaned his hands on the table and stood up.
It was lunchtime.
He was unwilling to eat his meal in a hurry, so he left the office humming a tune and walked to the cafeteria.
Coincidentally, as soon as he entered the cafeteria, he ran into his old friend Professor Sun Qiguang.
As an expert in hypers.p.a.ce theory, Professor Sun was also a prominent figure among the young scholars of ILHCRC.
The two met first because of a discussion at a seminar, and they clicked unexpectedly and became friends for life.
The two greeted each other, then took their plates and sat down in a secluded place.
Bruno was about to ask him if there was any interesting news in hypers.p.a.ce theory, but his old friend eagerly spoke first.
“Have you read that paper?”
Bruno paused for a second. He then responded, “Which one?”
“Which else? Other than the anonymous paper on antimatter, is there any other news today? Don’t tell me you haven’t read it yet.”
“I have read it… but you call that a paper?” Bruno glanced at his old friend and said in an incredulous tone, “Jesus… in my opinion, that is a fictional work. You don’t actually think that antimatter can be used just by relying on the a.s.sumptions in that paper?”
Professor Sun: “Can it not?”
“Very difficult.” Bruno shook his head. “From what we have learned from the field of astronomy, there are no antimatter celestial bodies within 30 million light-years. It means that even under extreme conditions, this kind of material is difficult to exist on a large scale.”
“Although that is true… But I don’t think you need to be so pessimistic.” Professor Sun took a sip of coffee and continued, “Moreover, I heard a rumor that might interest you.”
Bruno: “What rumor…”
“Apparently, some time ago, Star Sky Technology spent 1 billion credits to build an antimatter laboratory in Tiangong City and also designed a small laboratory for antimatter experiments through East Asia Heavy Industries… You probably know that Star Sky Technology was an enterprise founded by Academician Lu.”
Bruno vaguely felt that something was wrong. He frowned and asked, “So…?”
“So this paper was published from Mars, and you know that the Martian physics community is not interested in antimatter. They are only interested in research in applied fields…” Professor Sun shrugged and continued, “Now there have been rumors that this paper was released by Academician Lu.”
The moment Bruno heard this, he was suddenly embarra.s.sed.
“Academician Lu?! This… How is this possible…?”
He suddenly lost his confidence.
Although his heart told him that just relying on those simple ideas to solve a problem that had plagued human civilization for two centuries was a childish dream…
But…
The person who challenged this proposition was the man who created miracles.
Bruno couldn’t even remember how many miracles the man had accomplished that seemed absolutely impossible in the eyes of others.
He suddenly became a little less confident in the “common sense” he firmly believed in…
Seeing his old friend suddenly become hesitant, Professor Sun gave him a comforting smile.
“I understand what you’re feeling… Those of us who are in hypers.p.a.ce theory were probably in the same mood as you a few months ago. Even now, we have not fully understood the technology of the warp drive, and the stargate has been open for more than a month. The feeling of being left behind by the times is really uncomfortable.”
Bruno’s face forced a grudging smile, not knowing how to reply.
Looking at his silent old friend, Professor Sun sighed and continued with a touch of fascination in his tone.
“Putting aside the author of the paper and its academic problems for the time being, what interests me is that if the ideas he put forward in the paper are realized, what will happen to physics?”
“To be honest, I don’t know either.” Bruno stared at his plate with a complicated expression. “That paper is beyond my imagination of physics…”