Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Jinling high-tech zone.
A couple of years ago, this place was a wasteland, waiting to be used. But now, it was very well developed.
With support from the municipal government’s policies, a large amount of high tech company workers resided at this place. They relied on the talent resources from the universities nearby. This place had become a standard model for economic development, taught by universities.
Even though the original intention of this area was only to retain local talents, it seemed that this goal had been overfulfilled. Also, it brought enormous economic value.
Especially in the lithium battery industry.
According to the latest industry reports, this year’s modified PDMS lithium anode material and the HCS-2 lithium-sulfur battery positive electrode material occupied 32.7% and 47% of the national market share respectively. They were basically the pillars of this industry.
There were also the SG-1 superconducting magnets, recently put into production by Baosheng Group. They were sold all over the world.
For the city council leader that first designed this high-tech area plan, this was a dream come true.
Of course, the reason why they were able to achieve this level of development had little to do with government policy support.
One of the reasons was that Zhongshan New Materials, the leader of the domestic material industry, was able to successfully ride the wave of the lithium battery market. Another reason was obviously everyone’s personal efforts.
Of course, the most crucial reason was probably the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
All of the companies in the high-tech zone were like stars that rotated around this black-hole like research institute, as if they were a galaxy system. More than 60% of the economic output here was directly or indirectly related to this research institute’s technology. As the market expanded, this proportion would continue to increase.
The industry was led by academia, while the factories were being led by laboratories.
For any other research institute in China, this was unthinkable.
Even in a developed country with a scientific research to industry conversion ratio of more than 40%, there were only a handful of research institutes that had the capabilities.
Especially after the Nobel Prize laureate returned to China, this became a holy place for countless scientific researchers.
Regardless of how the researchers inside the research institute viewed their own work, at least from an outsider’s perspective, being able to conduct research alongside a Nobel Prize big name was a nutty thing in and of itself.
After all, this was a Nobel Prize winner’s Nobel Prize laboratory. This meant that their experiments were on another level.
A Nobel Prize winner’s research project had to be at least on a Nobel Prize level, right?
In fact, this was true.
The STAR fusion machine from Purple Mountain ignited the entire world’s hope for controllable nuclear fusion technology. Not just that, but even the STAR’s research partner, Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, also received a lot of attention.
In the beginning, this research institute was only able to attract researchers that didn’t have their own laboratories. But now, even some semi-famous scholars were extremely interested in working at this place.
After all, it was backed by a 40 billion yuan large project. Not to mention, it was also a major national scientific research project. This was on another level compared to most domestic research institutes.
Of course, even though all of this sounded attractive, when one really entered this institute, the beauty inside wasn’t as good as what an outsider might think. At least, it was no paradise…
There was no bureaucracy, no quota for the number of research theses produced… These were all major features for this research institute, and the researchers conducting scientific research here only had to focus on their own work.
On the other hand, the pressure and work intensity here were much stronger than normal research institutes. After all, if they didn’t try their hardest, these people wouldn’t be able to keep up with Lu Zhou’s footsteps.
At least, in Hou Jinli’s opinion, this place was full of opportunity.
But it was also extremely intense and competitive.
Working until midnight was a common occurrence. When they were particularly busy, they even slept in the laboratory. This was more intense than any other materials research institute in the country.
As for the Institute of Mathematics or Institute of Physics…
He hadn’t worked there yet, so he couldn’t give a fair evaluation.
Of course, even though Hou Jinli was busy working here, he was still quite satisfied with his life here.
Both the scientific research environment and salary were at the first-class level in China.
Of course, this was when he compared with his peers. It wouldn’t be fun if he had to compare himself with those working in tech.
Since he bravely jumped into the pit of materials science, he had to be prepared to be buried.
Not to mention, scientific research required a certain amount of passion.
Even though academic and research funding were closely related, it’d be boring to only care about the money side.
This was what Hou Jinli told himself in order to encourage himself whenever he felt like he couldn’t handle it any longer.
By the time he published a couple of theses and became a small boss of his own, the situation would be completely different.
However, dreams were beautiful, but the reality was cruel.
Almost a year had passed, but the research project he successfully applied for hadn’t progressed at all.
Even though there were many interesting discoveries, they were far from being outstanding.
Up until now, all he did was explore a set of laboratory synthesis methods.
If he were in any other research institute in China, he would have to worry about how he would pass the end-of-year assessment.
Thankfully, Professor Lu didn’t have a quota on the number of theses publications. He only had to write a monthly report on the things he did that month, and his experiment would be allowed to continue.
This way, he didn’t have to worry about his research project being cut out halfway through.
“This is the data you want, figure A is a XRD diagram, figure b, c, and d are the TEM material tests. There are also the characterization phase graphs for the SEM and XRD diagrams, I did those for you as well.”
Hou Jinli picked up these graphs and began to look at them carefully.
Yu Junda stood next to the experiment table with his arms crossed. He sighed.
“I told you, this thing is just some carbon residue, what’s the point in researching it.”
They had wasted nearly a year researching this thing, so Yu Junda wasn’t in a good mood.
Honestly, he was intrigued at that time, so he decided to work on this research project with Hou Jinli, but now, he was starting to regret doing so.
“Calling it carbon residue is such an understatement…”
“Maybe you can think of something that sounds better?” Yu Junda shrugged and said, “Regardless of what it is called, I think we are wasting our time.”
When Hou Jinli heard his friend’s words, he went silent.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to argue, it was just that he didn’t know what to say.
Nothing significant came out of this experiment.
Whether it was dispersing this material into other materials or using it alone, it was hard for him to think of the potential value of this material.
Hou Jinli sighed and put down the data on the table. He was thinking about how he would write the experimental report when he suddenly looked at the mortar and pestle on the experiment table.
The mortar and pestle were used to grind carbon nanotubes.
Normally, they would use a ball mill, but the mortars were used for handling small samples.
What attracted him wasn’t the mortar itself, but rather…
An idea suddenly popped up in Hou Jinli’s mind, and he spoke thoughtfully, “Speaking of which, we haven’t tried ceramics yet…”
Yu Junda paused for a second.
“I don’t think we did…”
It was like Yu Junda had suddenly thought of something. He had a strange expression on his face.
“Are you thinking of…”
Hou Jinli nodded.
“Let’s try it, we’ve already wasted all this time anyway.”
He had a bitter expression on his face when he spoke.
If this doesn’t work out, then it’s whatever…