At the computational materials laboratory of Jin Ling University.
Lu Zhou looked inside the translucent cube, at the black cylinder that gradually formed under the guidance of the blue light beam. He then spoke in a rather emotional tone.
“When I was at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, Dr. Hou and Deputy Director Yang were discussing how to synthesize SG-1 superconducting materials stably. Deputy Director Yang smoked cigarettes for an entire afternoon… Guess how we solved it?”
The machine in front of him was the core equipment of the Institute of Computing Materials: a molecular-level 3D printer.
Unlike the popular home 3D printers on the market, the awesome thing about this thing was that it could autonomously set the spatial order of atomic stacks within a certain accuracy range and even adjust the energy of chemical bonds.
This meant that no matter whether the molecule existed in nature, as long as it could exist theoretically, it could be “printed” in batches using this thing.
Lu Zhou couldn’t even think of a suitable word for how amazing this machine was, just like how very few people could accurately describe how awesome his hyperspace theory was.
There was no doubt that if this machine was taken into the 21st century, materials scientists, biologists, and medical scientists around the world would go crazy…
Standing next to Lu Zhou, the young doctoral student who demonstrated the molecular-level 3D printer for him asked curiously, “How did you solve it?”
“Vapour deposition method.” Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I don’t know if this is feasible now, but the only way we could think of at the time was to mix it layer by layer like a cake. The graphene six grids would then be stacked at an angle of 1.1°, forming a Mott insulator between each layer of cross-section, then we would find the ‘semi-filled’ structure that we dreamed of.”
The young doctoral student spoke.
“This is too…”
He originally wanted to say that it was too troublesome, but he felt that it would be a little impolite.
Seeing the expression on this young man’s face, Lu Zhou smiled and continued, “The route of the vapor deposition method was determined, the road after was a little smoother. We tried to improve the laboratory preparation method and cooperated with the engineers from Baosheng Group to explore the method of industrialized mass production. But even so, the cost was only acceptable relative to a strategic industrial facility, such as a controllable fusion core.
“In the past, an idea in scientific research needed to go through rigorous demonstrations and tedious design experiments before it could be tested. However, the cost of verifying an idea now is only 1 hour of time and 10,000 credits.
“The technology of this era is really beyond my imagination.”
After hearing the compliment from the grandmaster of computational materials, the doctoral student scratched his head in embarrassment.
“In fact, it is not as ridiculous as you think… There are many Pan-Asian scientific research personnel, but our funds are very limited. In fact, there are not many opportunities to try. Moreover, most of the relatively novel materials have already been discovered using molecular printing technology. If we want to produce new results, we still have to go through rigorous calculations and design.”
Lu Zhou shook his head and smiled.
“What a first-world problem.
“Be content, kid.”
The PhD student’s expression was somewhat subtle.
Although Lu Zhou came from a hundred years ago, he was not that much older than himself.
Regardless of what the young man of the 22nd century felt, Lu Zhou glanced at the translucent cube in front of him and said, “I already understand the basic situation. I have some ideas here that I want to verify. You can leave now.”
“Do you know how to use the equipment here?”
Lu Zhou said with a faint smile, “You have underestimated me. Before I entered the lab, I did some homework beforehand.”
“Of course I didn’t underestimate you…” The doctoral student touched the back of his head awkwardly and said, “I’m just worried that you won’t be able to operate these pieces of new equipment. But if you insist, I won’t stay here.”
After that, he walked out the door.
But at this moment, Lu Zhou stopped him from behind.
“Wait a second.”
The doctoral student stopped and asked him about something, “What’s wrong?”
Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.
“If it’s okay, can you pour me a cup of coffee? An instant one is fine.”
What surprised Lu Zhou was that there was no such thing as instant coffee. It was either coffee machines or canned coffee beverages sold in convenience stores.
People in this era didn’t seem to like boiled water very much. Although drinks made with dry powder still existed, it had become a rare thing, and few people would deliberately prepare them at home or in the office.
After taking a sip of the bitter black coffee, Lu Zhou put the cup on the table. He then took out a memory card the size of a pen cap and gently placed it on the holographic computer in the laboratory.
When the blue light beams lit up, Xiao Ai’s holographic image quickly appeared in front of him.
“Laboratory has been successfully taken over! Now it belongs to Xiao Ai! φ(≧ω≦*)♪”
When Lu Zhou saw the little guy jumping up and down restlessly in the holographic beam, he said, “Don’t mess up. Let’s just borrow the equipment here. We have to return it when we leave.”
Xiao Ai: “Understood! What does the master need Xiao Ai for? (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”
Lu Zhou didn’t answer immediately. He took out an orange metal ball about the size of a fist from his arms and gently placed it on the table next to it.
Kill Core.
The initial memory of the Private-1 intelligent human guard!
Although intuition told him that this thing was dangerous, he still wanted to try to research it.
After all, this was the technology of the Calan Empire; the super civilization that once completed the wonders of the Ring world…
“I have something here that needs to be analyzed.”
The entrance of the computational materials laboratory.
The doctoral student who just came out of the laboratory was hesitating whether to go to the library to pass time when he saw President Cai and Dean Zhou of the Institute of Materials Science walking in from outside with a group of people.
His face changed in an instant. He thought of Dean Zhou’s previous instructions to him. He turned around and wanted to leave, but Dean Zhou noticed him sharply.
Dean Zhou walked up quickly, stared at him, and asked anxiously, “Why did you come out alone? Where’s Academician Lu?”
“Lu… Academician Lu is still inside.” the doctoral student said quickly, “He told me to leave.”
Dean Zhou stamped his foot anxiously. He stared at him and spoke.
“Didn’t I tell you to follow him? Why did you leave him alone!”
He wasn’t worried that Academician Lu would break his precious instruments… Well, actually, he was still a little worried. But what he worried the most was that Academician Lu could hurt himself.
Although the 3D molecular printer was not dangerous, some unstable products and incorrect operations might cause a series of serious consequences, including explosions.
Although this had never happened at Jin Ling University, it did happen at other universities.
An intern imported the wrong model into a 3D molecular printer, creating a group of extremely unstable folded-chain CHO compounds. This compound only existed in the natural environment for less than 1 millisecond. It then quickly decomposed into CH4, CO, oxygen, and a lot of heat.
In the end, the intern didn’t just blow himself up, but the whole laboratory building was filled with black smoke.
Because of this incident, the university did not publish a single computing material paper last year, and everyone in the whole school was taken to a safety education class.
A frozen man from the 21st century, no matter how much homework he did beforehand, would have zero operating experience of experimental equipment in this era.
Letting such a person stay in the laboratory was no different from throwing cigarette butts into a gasoline can.
Seeing Dean Zhou was angry with the student, President Cai spoke.
“Old Zhou, don’t embarrass this kid too much. It was Academician Lu who asked him to leave. It’s not like a student can do anything. Think about it.”
Although he understood this, Dean Zhou kept shaking his head and said angrily, “Ridiculous, this is ridiculous!”
Cai Mingrui then looked at the doctoral student and continued in a gentle tone, “This is not your fault, just take us over and find Academician Lu.”
Seeing how the principal forgave him, the doctoral student was finally relieved and nodded quickly.
“Okay, no problem, please follow me!”
After entering the research institute, the group soon came to the door of the laboratory.
The doctoral student stepped forward and pressed his fingerprint on the door lock.
However, something unexpected happened.
The red light flashed on the door lock, but the door remained locked.
Seeing the word “locked” appearing above the door handle, the doctoral student was slightly taken aback. He muttered “strange” in a quiet voice and then tried again.
The result this time was the same.
The door remained locked.
Li Guangya, who couldn’t wait any longer, couldn’t help but speak anxiously.
“What’s the matter? Can you not go in?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to go in…”
The expression on his face was full of embarrassment. The doctoral student standing at the door turned his head to look at Dean Zhou and Principal Cai behind him with an embarrassed expression. He gulped and continued, “The door… is locked from the inside.”