Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Professor Stanley obviously wasn’t the only one who was shocked.
Director Li returned to Beijing with the sample and helped Lu Zhou register the patent. He then asked someone to send it to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation.
On the second day after the sample was sent to the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, Academician Yuan Huanmin rushed to the State Administration for National Defense and found Director Li’s office.
“The SF-1 super fiber! Which department made it?!”
Director Li looked at Academician Yuan, who was standing at the door in amazement. Director Li was just as surprised.
If he remembered correctly…
The sample was delivered to the old academician just yesterday…
“Um, drink some water and calm down first.” Director Li looked at the assistant standing in the office and said, “Xiao Li, go and pour a cup of tea for Academician Yuan.”
“Oh, okay.”
The assistant named Xiao Li quickly walked to the cupboard where the electric kettle was kept. He poured two cups of tea and put them on the coffee table.
Director Li stood up from the desk and led Academician Yuan to the sofa. After they sat down, he said, “A while ago, you asked me to ask Academician Lu if he could make this thing, right? I casually asked him when I went to Jinling this time, and he gave me this thing.”
Academician Yuan Huanmin, who was drinking tea, almost spat out the tea he had just drunk.
“Then he just gave it to you?” After he swallowed the sip of tea forcibly, Academician Yuan’s face turned red. His tone was full of excitement and disbelief. He said, “How?”
Director Li knew what Academician Yuan was thinking. He couldn’t help but smile as he said, “I know you are surprised. In fact, I am more surprised than you. After I asked him whether he could do it, it took less than five minutes for him to bring the finished product to me. You can imagine my reaction… I was probably more surprised than you are now.”
Academician Yuan nodded, then shook his head again.
What made him baffled was how exactly Lu Zhou was able to produce this thing in five minutes?!
“But how did he—”
“I know what you want to ask, but I don’t know either. I just heard that he used a computational materials science method to build a model, then the laboratory quickly did some tests… Forget about this, tell me if this is good stuff.”
“Is this good stuff?” Academician Yuan shook his head with a smile. He sighed and said, “Have you seen nylon rope before?”
“Of course I have, why?”
“Replace the polyamide fiber twisted into the nylon rope with the super fiber you gave me yesterday.” Academician Yuan said in a serious tone when looking at Director Li, “Then the tensile strength is at least a thousand times higher.”
“A thousand times?!”
Director Li was shocked by this number.
“Is it that big of a difference?”
Academician Yuan Huanmin nodded his head.
“It is.”
The Young’s modulus of nylon rope was about 1.4 GPa, the unit of the Young’s modulus for the SF-1 super fiber was on the scale of TPa. Even considering a series of factors such as the manufacturing process, this statement was not an exaggeration.
“It is no exaggeration to say that using this thing to make clothes would be like body armor. If turned into a rope, its tensile strength is high enough to be used on an aircraft carrier. We haven’t tested its other physical properties, but in terms of tensile strength, I can’t imagine a stronger material than this!”
“It’s that amazing…”
“It is amazing.” Academician Yuan said with a sigh, “The only restriction is our imagination, maybe…”
“Maybe?”
After imagining for a while, Academician Yuan felt like his idea was too ridiculous. He quickly shook his head and spoke.
“No, that… That would be too ridiculous.”
Director Li immediately became anxious and asked, “What is ridiculous?”
What is he even talking about?
Academician Yuan Huanmin hesitated for a while and finally spoke.
“What I wanted to say is, maybe this can be used for a…
“Space elevator!”
The more you know, the less imaginative you are.
Scholars like Dyson were in the minority after all. As most people increased their knowledge and understanding of science, they would gradually lose their unrealistic illusions about science.
After Director Li heard the term “space elevator” from Yuan Huanmin, an old academician who had been researching in the aerospace field for decades, Director Li was stunned.
Even compared to the Lagrange point space station and the Mars Scientific Research Station, this was out of his imagination.
While Academician Yuan was at his office, the entire materials science community was shocked by a paper!
Shuimu discussion forum.
“Have you read the paper? The one that God Lu recently uploaded on arXiv!”
“I didn’t pay attention. We’re in materials engineering, not mathematics and physics. Why would we read his paper?”
“His paper is on materials science!”
“Oh f*ck?! Really? How long has he not researched materials now? Didn’t he go research physics?”
“Some time ago, he resigned from the chairman position of the ILHCRC… Forget about it, go and take a look. When our professor saw the paper, his mouth was wide open!”
The title of the paper was so short that it could be read in two seconds.
However, the amount of information in this title was huge!
Ever since the birth of computational materials science, theoretical calculations of complex systems had faced two major challenges. One was how to transform accurate theoretical processing at the micro-level into a direct description of macro-level phenomena, and the other was how to further improve the accuracy of the density functional method that was the basis of existing large-scale calculations.
The limitations of the implicit functional density method in describing van der Waals forces and metal bonds had always been a headache for researchers in computational materials science.
However, now this problem was claimed to have been solved by an arXiv paper?
Everyone was shocked by this unexpected news.
And not just that!
What was even more surprising was that the author of this paper was Lu Zhou!
People didn’t even remember the last time he published a materials science paper.
No one thought that his resignation from the ILHCRC board of directors would actually pave the way for a return to the field of materials science.
What was even more unexpected was that he produced earth-shattering research as soon as he came back…
This was insane!