The door of the laboratory was locked. There was no movement inside for a long time, so no one knew if something went wrong inside.
For any experiments involving chemistry, no matter how well-developed the protective measures were in a laboratory, the experimenter still had a non-zero chance of accidentally dying.
Just when the crowd was anxiously discussing whether to break in, the door finally opened.
Lu Zhou looked at the faces standing at the door. He was about to ask what was going on when Chairman Li Guangya stepped forward and spoke first.
“Academician Lu, are you done?”
When he said this, there was a fake smile on his face.
Although Lu Zhou thought this guy was a bit strange, he nodded and said concisely, “Yeah, sort of.”
Li Guangya smiled and continued, “Already doing experiments at Jin Ling University. Your love for science is really admirable!”
Although this was a compliment, the tone of this was unclear whether this guy was complimenting himself or not.
Lu Zhou looked at Chairman Li Guangya a little strangely and spoke.
“Chairman Li, you’re too kind, I just happened to be interested in something and wanted to find out.”
“Your love for science is a role model for our Pan-Asian scholars!”
With a hearty smile, Chairman Li Guangya glanced at the door behind Lu Zhou. He then asked curiously, “It must be a very interesting proposition that you care about so much? Is it convenient to disclose?”
This guy…
What does he want?
Should I tell the truth?
It’s nothing worthy of hiding, but it’s difficult to explain.
Lu Zhou thought about it slowly for a while. He suddenly noticed the curiosity in the eyes next to him.
Some of the gazes were from researchers of the Institute of Computational Materials and experts in the field of materials science, such as Dean Zhou.
Lu Zhou thought of these diligent and studious scholars. He didn’t want to lie to them, so he said, “In fact, it’s not a mysterious thing. After seeing how advanced the experimental equipment of this era is… I tried to experiment with some of the insights I had made with carbon materials before.
“For example, by modifying the chemical bond energy, one or more tunnels are formed on the large π bond, which can exist stably and allow free electrons to pass stably.
“Tunnel through which free electrons pass stably?” A PhD student was stunned. He asked subconsciously, “The big π bond allows free electrons to pass through… What is this tunnel?”
This question was also what many scholars present wanted to ask.
The big π bond had the characteristics of some metal bonds, allowing free electrons to pass through… Even 100 years ago, it was something that junior high school students would know.
Lu Zhou read the confused expressions on everyone’s face. He spoke after thinking for a moment.
“Let me give a simple example… Have you ever done a puzzle?”
“Pu-puzzle? I was exposed to them when I was a child.” The doctoral student was bewildered by this question and asked, “Why?”
“Suppose you have a lot of hexagonal puzzles in your hand, and each puzzle piece corresponds to a big π key of a carbon hexagon. Now we arrange these hexagons next to each other in a straight line, and the hexagons are opposite each other. The angular line is a straight line… Right?”
Isn’t this just a single-layer graphene nanoribbon?
What’s so special…?
The student couldn’t figure out where the problem was. He nodded in a daze and said, “I guess.”
Lu Zhou gently smiled.
“Then you are wrong.
“If I use a knife or something to draw a line on the surface of the puzzle, the straight line will be much smaller than the puzzle itself.”
Student: “???”
Although Lu Zhou knew that the kid probably didn’t understand, he didn’t explain much. After all, if he wanted to describe the theory clearly, it would take all day.
Also, judging by the thoughtful expressions on the faces of Dean Zhou’s several other experts, Lu Zhou knew that at least some people understood his theory.
Science itself was an esoteric field. As long as one or two people understood what he said and produced some results in this direction, it would be enough.
Lu Zhou looked at Chairman Li Guangya, who had been waiting for a long time, and asked, “Didn’t you go back to Beijing? Why… are you back again?”
In fact, he originally wanted to say “why do you have so much free time”, but Lu Zhou thought that he hadn’t gotten acquainted with the chairman yet, so he decided to put it in a more polite way.
Li Guangya coughed dryly when he heard Lu Zhou’s words.
“I have some business here… So I came back. When I passed by Jin Ling University, I wanted to come and see you.”
After hearing these words, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
We just met two days ago, and now you’re back at Jin Ling University again.
This lie is too ridiculous.
However, Lu Zhou didn’t bother to care about these trivial issues. He went straight to the point.
“Let’s be more direct, what do you want?”
Li Guangya was embarrassed to continue beating around the bush, so he nodded. His tone became serious.
“I’m very sorry to disturb you, but I do have something very important that I must discuss with you.”
Lu Zhou: “In private?”
Li Guangya nodded.
Not wanting to waste time, Lu Zhou said simply, “Okay, let’s talk outside.”
After that, Lu Zhou thanked President Cai and Dean Zhou for lending him the laboratory. He said goodbye to everyone and left with Li Guangya.
After the two walked away, Cai Mingrui secretly grabbed Dean Zhou and asked curiously, “What was the thing Academician Lu talked about? I don’t understand it.”
Although he was curious back then, he was too embarrassed to ask. Now he finally had the chance to ask the experts.
After hearing President Cai’s words, Dean Zhou finally snapped back to reality.
After a wry smile, he spoke.
“Actually… I’m not sure either.”
“Just try to explain it to me!”
Dean Zhou sighed and tried to explain in terms that ordinary people could understand.
“In short, we used to use silicon plates and graphene to make chips and to print integrated circuits. We used visible materials to engrave on a visible flat panel.”
Dean Zhou paused for a moment. After digesting his words, he continued, “And Professor Lu just now provided a… new idea.
“It is not necessary to print integrated circuits with visible materials. Instead, we can use invisible chemical bonds to form an abstract circuit that exists only in logic.
“For this abstract circuit, the wire is the macroscopic trajectory of free electrons moving on the surface of the material. When this trajectory can be maintained stably or condensed into a band of electrons with a finite width… Then it becomes a circuit.
“If this kind of technology can really be realized, we can even directly engrave the circuits we need on the surface of graphene. Not only will the difficulty of printing integrated circuits be drastically reduced, but the integration of circuits will also increase geometrically!”
Cai Mingrui looked at Dean Zhou in a daze as he said, “Is it that game-changing?”
Although he did not understand materials science, he still knew a little about the development of the electronics industry.
After a century of development, the space in which carbon-based chips could be excavated was very narrow, but apart from carbon materials, they could not find a more suitable substitute.
After all, this was something that was restricted by the periodic table…
After seeing the shocked expression on President Cai’s face, Dean Zhou relaxed his tone a little and said, “It’s just a conjecture about the technical route. I don’t think it is… After all, this concept is too advanced.
“But being able to come up with such a concept…
“I’m afraid only Academician Lu can do that.”
If the research on chips was likened to Lego pieces, then the focus of their research in the past decades or even hundreds of years had been how to cut the Lego pieces as small as possible, or use as few pieces as possible to complete.
However, what Lu Zhou proposed was a different approach. It was like if others were thinking about building a tower using Lego blocks, he carved a tower onto the Lego blocks.
There was no doubt that this also counted as a tower.
And it was definitely the kind that no one had ever seen before.
Regardless of whether this research idea could produce results, it would undoubtedly open a new door for the future development direction of the electronics industry in the 22nd century…
After thinking about this, Dean Zhou couldn’t help but feel impressed.
In the past, he often heard people say that Lu Zhou stood at the pinnacle of the human mind, but he had never taken this seriously before.
After all, history was history. It was impossible for a dead person to resurrect. If resurrected, he would just be an antique left behind by history, not providing benefit for the future.
However, today, he finally learned what kind of terrifying power Lu Zhou possessed…