Chapter 337: Key Moment
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The red signal light kept flas.h.i.+ng.
The engineer finally decided to terminate the program and the temperature of the processors was lowered.
The blue signal light of “hope” was then turned off.
“Experiment number 31.”
David looked through the cha.s.sis in a radiation-proof isolation room, and his eyes appeared to be gloomy and hopeless.
31 experiments.
This was undoubtedly a failure.
Other than the computing engineers who were still talking about technical problems, everyone inside the research inst.i.tute was bored and quiet.
Even the supercomputer was tired.
Over the course of a month, the D.E Shaw Inst.i.tute spent more than ten million dollars on this mathematical model.
During this period, the D.E Shaw Inst.i.tute continued to improve the calculation process, and Lu Zhou also continued to modify the details of his theoretical model by using the data from the calculation.
However, no significant results were produced.
David looked at the engineers and sighed as he said, “Sure enough, it doesn’t work.”
Lu Zhou was embarra.s.sed. “How about I pay for the costs?”
David said in a relaxing tone, “No, it’s fine, the money is nothing. Research is like gambling, we just went to Las Vegas and lost.”
His scientific intuition told him that this idea was worth exploring.
Therefore, he was willing to spend the money.
However, he couldn’t help but add on, “Although I’ve never lost this much at Las Vegas before.”
There was a summary meeting at the end of the experiment.
Everyone was silent at the meeting.
Lu Zhou briefly talked about his own point of view. The heads of the two experiment groups talked about the experiment.
As for David, he stayed silent until the end of the meeting.
“Do maintenance on Anton, and start the 32nd experiment three days later.” David looked at the engineer closest to him and simply said, “Making sure Anton is running at its best before the next experiment.”
The engineer nodded. “Yes, boss!”
“I need to rest, and I’m sure you guys are the same.” David rubbed his eyes as he said, “That’s it, meeting over.”
…
A little setback was nothing for scientific research.
Even though they failed thirty times, no one talked about giving up.
After all, everyone knew that scientific truth wasn’t that easy to obtain.
Lu Zhou was prepared to fail a hundred more times.
However, if the 50th experiment still didn’t produce any results, he wouldn’t let David pay for the experiment anymore.
Even though this money meant nothing to David, Lu Zhou felt that, morally, it wasn’t acceptable.
Lu Zhou left the research inst.i.tute and didn’t return to his dorm. Instead, he walked around the Columbia campus.
It wasn’t just Anton that needed a break, Lu Zhou also needed time to relax his overheated brain.
He planned to spend at least a day not thinking about the experiment.
Lu Zhou walked past the library, subconsciously avoiding all of the academic buildings.
He didn’t know how long he had walked.
Without him knowing it, he was at the Columbia University philosophy building.
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but smile.
“Is this fate?”
Even though he had fate with philosophy, he wasn’t happy at all.
A bronze statue was erected on the lawn in front of the philosophy building.
The statue was of a man thinking while he was kneeling down, and his muscles were tensed as if he were immersed in a depressing thought.
This was one of the four “Thinker” statues of the world.
However, this statue was in a more deserted area than the other three. Lu Zhou was the only one on the lawn.
He placed his hands on the bronze statue and felt the coldness on his fingertips.
“I can see myself in you.”
Thinking was a painful thing.
Especially endless thinking.
Suddenly, Lu Zhou had an idea.
If only someone could give him some inspiration.
Even just a little bit of inspiration…
But then, Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.
Inspiration didn’t come that easy.
This was the theory that could change the chemistry world, it wouldn’t be cheap to buy inspiration.
Suddenly, something happened.
Something appeared in front of him.
A blue dialog box showed up in his field of view.
[Congratulations, user, for completing the reward mission!]
Lu Zhou: …?
What the h.e.l.l?!
…
Unlike the D.E Shaw Research Inst.i.tute, the Materials Research Inst.i.tute at Binghamton University was cheering.
“Now is not the time to celebrate, the experiment has been successful but don’t sink the s.h.i.+p at the last minute.” Stanley then said to his a.s.sistant, “Apply for patents right now!”
The a.s.sistant nodded excitedly as he said, “Yes, professor!”
Professor Stanley looked at the SEM images and couldn’t help but smile.
Preliminary a.n.a.lysis proved that the caged carbon molecule could inhibit the diffusion of polysulfide compounds to a certain extent, and the production costs were acceptable.
However, more experiments were needed to test the effects of applying it to lithium-sulfur batteries.
For example, to mix sulfur element with cage carbon molecules, they needed to find a suitable mixing ratio as well as a mechanical dispersion method. Also, they had to test out how much suppression effect that could be achieved.
However, this didn’t affect the patent application; it also didn’t affect the thesis submission.
The second they found a way to create caged carbon molecules, they had already succeeded.
Without a doubt, they had won!
They were the leading developers of lithium-sulfur batteries!