Chapter 319: Science Should Do
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The editorial department at Science was as busy as ever.
Every day, they would receive a large number of thesis submissions from all over the world. Less than one-tenth of the submissions were actually accepted.
Instead of an editorial position, Warren felt like his job was more like a gold miner. He had to screen hundreds of theses to find the few worthy manuscripts to hand over to reviewers.
Warren’s job undoubtedly impacted the entire word.
However, at the same time, it was a boring job.
As for why it was boring…
It was because Science was one of the top two journals in the world; its reputation was just too big.
In order to publish in this journal, the theses writers were often unethical. They would claim to have created “groundbreaking” results.
To be honest, the editors couldn’t judge the correctness of the theses. They could only look at the thesis writer’s identity and reputation to determine if the paper was eligible for peer review.
As usual, Warren made himself a cup of black coffee before starting work. He opened his work email and received a thesis from a technical editor.
He looked at the email and had a headache.
“I think the technical department should develop some new features for our office software.”
Brock, who was working, asked, “Like?”
Warren sighed and said, “For example, before sending the theses to us, the theses should be ranked by the cumulative impact factor of the author’s past submissions. It should also be ranked according to the reputation of the research institutes.”
Brock smiled and said, “This is a good idea, but it would be unfair to those unknown authors.”
“Who cares? We’re Science. Shouldn’t we use a more scientific method to screen theses?” Warren said as he dragged the thesis into his recycle bin. He said, “Some theses are a complete waste of time.”
He soon opened the next thesis.
Warren looked at the title and couldn’t help but complain in his heart.
Another lithium-sulfur battery one!
The previous thesis also claimed that it had solved the shuttle effect, but it only researched solid electrolytes. To be honest, there is nothing wrong with solid electrolytes, but some of the mistakes in the thesis were way too obvious.
He had seen too many subpar theses recently.
He subconsciously looked at the research institute and author. Just as he wondered if he should waste a few minutes reading the thesis, he was suddenly stunned by what he was looking at.
The author’s name looked familiar…
It was from the Frick Chemistry Laboratory.
Then Warren discovered something surprising.
There was more than one thesis that was submitted; there were two…
Warren silently looked at the calendar sitting at the corner of his desk.
He remembered that the last time Science published “highlights” on the modified PDMS paper was half a year ago. He couldn’t believe that within half a year, another “PDMS” level thesis appeared.
First Lu Zhou solved the lithium dendrites problem, now he solved the shuttle effect?
This is unbelievable!
Due to Lu Zhou’s reputation, Warren read the thesis carefully and line by line.
He then made a difficult decision.
During lunchtime, Brock stood up from his desk and was about to go grab some lunch.
Suddenly, he noticed that his colleague was staring intently at the screen. He curiously walked over and stood behind Warren.
“Lu Zhou? That Princeton professor?”
Warren meticulously looked at the thesis and said, “Yes, I don’t think there’s another Princeton professor with such a strange name…”
Brock said, “I cannot believe it, it has only been half a year… Two theses this time?”
“And it’s regarding lithium-sulfur batteries. Obviously, he has made some big progress.” Warren was still staring at the computer screen when he twisted his pen and said, “Two theses; one thesis on the specific surface area of hollow carbon spheres and the effect of pore sizes on the diffusion rate of polysulfide compounds, and the other thesis is about the research of HCS-1 hollow carbon sphere materials. The two theses are related. The former focuses on theory and the latter focuses on application… What do I do?”
Brock was hesitant, and he asked, “I think Professor Lu’s reputation is quite trustworthy. Wouldn’t it be better to leave it to the reviewers?”
Warren said, “I know, but the question is, which reviewer?”
This was a difficult question.
Brock was also troubled by it.
“The thesis on the hollow carbon sphere material HCS-1 is easy to deal with. Many carbon nanomaterials professors can review the thesis, but this other paper…” Brock thought for a while and couldn’t come up with a suitable candidate.
Not many mathematics professors were interested in organic chemistry. On the other hand, very few organic synthesis experts could understand the math behind Lu Zhou’s thesis.
There were many people dealing with carbon nanomaterials in the field of materials science. However, people that did both computational materials and carbon nanomaterials… There weren’t many at all.
Many computational material experts became programmers instead, as it had a much higher salary.
Because of Lu Zhou’s modified PDMS material, the computational materials community basically treated him as a god. It was like David Shaw in the field of computational chemistry.
It was really difficult to find a professor qualified enough to review Lu Zhou’s thesis.
Brock thought for a bit before saying, “How about we ask Professor Bawendi?”
“But is he in the field of carbon nanomaterials?” Warren said, “I heard he has been very busy recently and rejected many thesis reviews.”
Brock said, “But he has served twice as a reviewer for Lu Zhou. Or do you have a better idea?”
Warren hesitated for a bit before saying, “Then write him a letter and ask him to review it.”
Warren had no doubt that these two theses were worthy of publication.
If the shuttle effect was actually solved by using the HCS-1 material, then this result would be groundbreaking.
This type of groundbreaking result was a perfect match for the Science journal.