Director Li left the office. He was walking along the corridor when he suddenly frowned and looked at his assistant.
“… Did I forget something?”
The assistant thought, “How would I know?”
However, he obviously wouldn’t say this to Director Li’s face.
“Of course not, you never forget things, sir.”
“No… I definitely forgot something.”
Suddenly, it was like a light bulb went off in Director Li’s head, and he was finally able to remember what he forgot.
Before he came here he was talking with Academician Li Qingquan about how Lu Zhou should spend more time living his life and that he should at least start making a family or something. However, when he heard that Lu Zhou had a new idea, he totally forgot about this.
“My god, I nearly forgot!”
Director Li turned his head and wanted to go back into the office, but he decided not to.
Even though he only just left the office, going back just to tell Lu Zhou to live a little was a bit weird.
This was a conversation that should be talked about over coffee; it wasn’t a serious topic.
“Forget about it.” Director Li shook his head and sighed. He said, “I’ll leave him alone.”
Assistant: “…?”
The announcement of ILHCRC’s experiment plans for 2023 caused a huge sensation in the physics community.
The 750 GeV peak…
Before the announcement, the physics community made speculations regarding ILHCRC’s focus for the next year. People thought they would focus on finding a critical point of the quantum chromodynamics phase transition, or maybe continue to collide protons and verify the standard model, or maybe even try to explore dark matter…
No one thought that Lu Zhou would revive the unpopular 750 GeV experiment, which CERN had failed to find any success with.
Discussions spread from physics forums to the general public.
A popular physics forum visitor wrote the following answer.
[It’s so nice to be noticed by the big names in the industry. Who cares if you create any scientific research results? You’ll have millions in funding and at least a few papers to publish.]
While the entire physics community was debating this matter, various kinds of gossip spread like the plague.
There were rumors that a certain Nobel Prize laureate was disappointed about the ILHCRC’s decision.
There were also rumors that Professor Whittle, the representative from the United States, slammed the door and left the meeting. This rumor was further strengthened with the Brookhaven National Laboratory press conference.
It was obvious that the American physics community, just like the Brookhaven National Laboratory, was displeased with the outcome. CERN was less vocal with their opinions. Perhaps the other physics research institutes that were dissatisfied with the decision from ILHCRC would speak up.
But for now, it seemed like the ILHCRC had not given in to Brookhaven National Laboratory’s demands. They almost totally ignored the Brookhaven National Laboratory and even arranged specific experimental tasks for various departments.
The Brookhaven Science Associates seemed to be irritated by the ILHCRC’s lack of reaction. A week after ILHCRC announced their experimental plan, the Brookhaven Science Associates held another press conference.
Professor Whittle was the one speaking at the press conference.
He was much more aggressive than last time.
“I have to say that this is an asinine decision! Yes, asinine! Many excellent scholars have done many experiments on the 750 GeV anomaly characteristic peak. If you doubt their conclusion, you should prove that your theory is worthy of verification. That is the standardized procedure!”
“But look what happened? That dictator chairman, Professor Lu, totally ignored the board of directors. He threw us an experiment plan and wants us to fund his dream, his unrealistic dream!”
“No matter what he thinks about the 750 GeV characteristic peak, he should abide by standard procedures and discuss with the ILHCRC board!”
A reporter in the audience asked, “But Professor Whittle, the ILHCRC said they already held a meeting and discussed it with the board?”
“That wasn’t a discussion at all!” Whittle said. It was like the reporter had ignited a fire in Whittle’s heart as Whittle furiously said, “I can guarantee that American scholars will not participate in this project! All of the researchers at the Brookhaven National Laboratory will not participate in this project!
“They can go waste their time on their own!
“Time will prove that we are correct!”
There was an uproar at the press conference.
The Brookhaven National Laboratory will not work with the ILHCRC anymore?
They are publicly going against the ILHCRC?
As the administrative director of the Brookhaven Science Associates, Professor Whittle’s words had weight to them.
The Brookhaven National Laboratory worked on the Manhattan Project and was directly under the administration of the US Department of Energy and jointly managed by the Brookhaven Science Associates.
The Brookhaven Science Associates had control over the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and they answered to the Department of Energy.
If Professor Whittle was speaking the truth, then things were about to become interesting.
Regardless of whether there was a political factor behind this, one thing was certain was that the Brookhaven Science Associates was not joking around.
They already had theories to explain the 750 GeV characteristic peak; they claimed it was nothing other than a quantum fluctuation.
As Whittle looked at the excited reporters, he couldn’t help but grin.
If Lu Zhou wants to waste time on the 750 GeV peak, then he can do as he pleases.
But once the experiment fails, we will have enough cause to hold him responsible and even impeach him.
Of course, they couldn’t impeach Lu Zhou by themselves. But if they cooperated with other research institutes that were dissatisfied with Lu Zhou’s actions, they might be able to take Lu Zhou down.
After all, the Chinese physics community did not have enough scholars to support the huge operation of the ILHCRC. In the end, they would have to cooperate with other countries.
Regardless of whether or not Lu Zhou would be removed as Chairman, the failure would be enough to damage his academic reputation.
Whittle had a clear plan in his mind.
Right now, he had front row seats to the show.
All he had to do was sit back and wait.