Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Wang Haifeng was feeling very unhappy recently.
Accurately speaking, he hadn’t been happy for the past six months.
First, he had to redo his research project due to various reasons. Then, his researcher was poached by the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials.
Honestly, he had never thought that the small, honest-looking Xiao Liu would betray him.
To begin with, he didn’t have many skilled students in his laboratory, and now the most capable one was gone. He used to delegate many matters to Liu Hong, but now he had to do these things himself.
Finally, his research project was approved, and he received the research funding.
However, within a few days, he received a piece of bad news from across the Pacific Ocean. The Binghamton University Materials Science Research Institute, sponsored by ExxonMobil, developed a caged carbon molecule that successfully solved the shuttle effect problem of the lithium-sulfur battery.
This thesis was published in JACS and was promoted by ExxonMobil. The entire academic community focused on Professor Stanley and his thesis.
There were several other Chinese research and development teams that were also researching the shuttle effect.
Especially for the companies that invested in the research projects, they had already cut their investments by half.
Research teams were facing the risk of being divested.
In contrast, Wang Haifeng was quite lucky.
His research grant was from the National Research Fund.
The National Research Fund didn’t care as much about profits and were less prone to changes in the market.
At the very least, they didn’t give up on research projects halfway through.
In any case, ExxonMobil had set up patent barriers on lithium-sulfur batteries and had full pricing power control on lithium-sulfur battery cathode materials. This was bad news for the global energy industry.
Wang Haifeng felt sorry for domestic energy companies, but he also felt a sense of comfort.
As for why he felt a sense of comfort…
The reason was that Lu Zhou wasn’t the one that won the lithium-sulfur battery battle.
After all, Professor Stanley was a big name in the lithium battery industry. Professor Stanley was the one that created the earliest lithium battery model, so losing to him wasn’t a disgrace.
However, if Wang Haifeng had lost to Lu Zhou, he would feel extremely embarrassed.
Professor Wang finished his lecture and was about to walk to the laboratory building.
Suddenly, a man in a suit and his assistant greeted him.
Wang Haifeng looked at the stranger and asked, “Who are you?”
The man in the suit had a friendly smile as he handed Wang Haifeng his business card.
“Hello, I am a reporter for the Science Magazine, you can call me Xiao Li.”
“Magazine reporter?” Wang Haifeng frowned and asked, “What do you want?”
Xiao Li said, “Here’s the case. I have learned from many sources that you are a big name in the battery industry. I want to ask you some battery-related questions, are you free right now?”
Wang Haifeng didn’t want to do any interviews, but he was happy to be called a “big name”.
“I am busy, I can only give you ten minutes. Just ask any questions you want.”
“Okay, Professor Wang.” Xiao Li smiled and signaled his assistant to record the conversation before he asked, “What do you think about the recent JACS thesis by Professor Stanley?”
Wang Haifeng said, “The academic community hasn’t come up with a conclusion yet. However, the author is Professor Stanley, and he is quite reputable in academia.”
Xiao Li asked, “Then, do you think the caged carbon molecule is more applicable than Lu Zhou’s HCS-1?”
“HCS-1?” Wang Haifeng laughed and said, “The two are not comparable at all. If the carbon molecule is a light bulb, then the HCS-1 would be a candle. That’s how big the difference is.”
Wang Haifeng wanted to laugh.
Why would anyone trust in a twenty-something-year-old professor?
Lu Zhou lost in the end.
Xiao Li asked, “Don’t you think this is a big exaggeration?”
Wang Haifeng said without hesitation, “Not at all, in fact, it’s conservative. You’re not in the field, so you don’t know much about the material science industry. The materials science industry produces amazing results every once in a while, but less than 10% of these research results have an industrial application uses. The HCS-1 material is an in-progress achievement and is a good result, from an academic point of view. However, this technology is worthless on the market. Do you think anyone is interested in his patent?”
Xiao Li nodded and said, “How can you be sure that Professor Stanley’s caged carbon molecules are applicable in the real world? Did you look at the thesis data?”
“The focus is not on the thesis, it’s on ExxonMobil. They’re an international giant that strives for success, and there is a reason that they funded this research.”
Wang Haifeng then said with emotion, “I have to say that the hollow carbon spheres are a good research direction; many research teams including my own are researching toward this direction.
“I believe that Professor Lu made a mistake talking about his ideas in that meeting. He should have kept his optimistic views on carbon spheres to himself. This way, no one would have copied his ideas.
“But I understand. He’s a young man, he’s full of energy. Maybe he’ll become more rational when he grows up.”
Professor Wang looked sad when speaking.
It was almost like ExxonMobil had won because Lu Zhou spilled the beans.
But actually, the fault wasn’t on Lu Zhou.
Before that meeting, there weren’t many research teams that focused on carbon nanospheres.
This included Wang Haifeng himself. Although he knew about hollow carbon spheres for a long time, he had never done any experiments in this area.
Also, it was the meeting organizers that published the content of the meeting, not Lu Zhou.
However, Lu Zhou was still the one that said the words.
Xiao Li’s eyes lit up. He could sense a story from Wang Haifeng, and he immediately asked, “What do you think of Professor Lu?”
Wang Haifeng smiled and said, “He’s talented in scientific research, but he doesn’t look at the whole situation, so it is quite embarrassing.”
Xiao Li asked, “Why do you say that?”
Professor Wang laughed and said, “Look at the Jinling Institute Computational Materials, hundreds of millions have been invested in that institute, but what results have they produced?”
Wang Haifeng wasn’t afraid to speak his mind.
After all, everyone was aware of the limited application use of HCS-1…
Wang Haifeng successfully finessed the reporter, and he felt extremely satisfied.
He returned to his laboratory and sat on his chair.
Suddenly, his assistant walked into the laboratory holding a journal magazine.
“Professor, this is the new Science journal. You told me to give this to you, so I’ll put it here.”
“Yes, just put it here.” Wang Haifeng noticed that his assistant looked weird, so he asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.” The assistant smiled and placed the journal on the table before he walked away.
Wang Haifeng sensed something was wrong. He reached out and picked up the new Science journal.
He was about to flip the page, but his hands suddenly froze.
He stopped breathing as he was rooted there like a statue.
On the cover of the Science journal, there was a line of text regarding the “highlights” section.
This was Wang Haifeng’s worst nightmare…
[HCS-2 Material: Terminator of the Shuttle Effect]