Chapter 201: The Fewer Words, the Bigger the Thing
Xing Shuping led Xu You and Qiao Sen to his office, told Xiao Liu to make tea, and then closed the door.
At the meeting just now, Xing Shuping could only talk about some general directions.
Xing Shuping cannot disclose some specific details to everyone yet.
"Professor Qiao, Xu You, there are some details I need to tell you. After seeing the progress of our project, the higher-ups decided to allocate a supercomputer to us. This way, we can start searching for superconductors."
Upon hearing the news, Xu You and Qiao Sen were very excited.
In the previous first phase of experiments, due to limitations in equipment, funding and other aspects, the project team could only use the supercomputer for a period of time.
After all, everything only exists in theory. If a lot of resources are used and a lot of electricity is spent, there will be no results.
It is indeed difficult for the project team to explain to their superiors.
However, after this breakthrough result.
This is enough to show that the current direction is correct.
"That's great, Academician Xing. This way, we will definitely find more superconductors with higher superconducting critical temperatures."
Just the first calculation found hundreds of superconductors.
Xu You felt that it was very possible to break through the 195K limit next.
"Of course, even if we have a supercomputer, its computing power is limited and it is impossible to exhaust all substances. Xu You, you still need to plan the calculation plan and try to test the molecular configuration with the highest probability of superconductivity. We also need to have a rough estimate of the time the supercomputer will be used."
"Okay, Academician Xing, I understand."
Xu You had also been thinking about the next calculation plan.
It is definitely not advisable to perform calculations blindly.
But Xu You already had a preliminary idea of the general ranking of possibilities.
After returning, Xu You began planning a new round of experiments.
“This feeling is a bit like when artificial intelligence plays Go,” Xu You sighed.
In the layout stage of Go, there can be more than 300 options for each step.
But even artificial intelligence with powerful computing power will not try to exhaust all possibilities.
For example, the opening move will never be made to the center of the board or to the very edge of the board.
The possible landing points are only the star positions and their vicinity.
In this way, the amount of calculation is greatly reduced.
Following this line of thought, Xu You planned the computing plan for the new stage.
"Let's calculate it in several batches. First, calculate the batch with the greatest probability, and then proceed step by step. The total amount of calculation is still quite large, so we can only do it step by step."
Xu You didn't know how much money the higher-ups were going to invest in this project and how long it would last.
Xu You is making the next plans based on his understanding of the theory and the statistics of the previous batch of results.
…
On this day, the mainstream media in China released such news:
"The Chinese research team recently discovered a new superconductor, and the superconducting critical temperature under normal pressure reaches 150K."
The entire news content is only twenty or thirty words.
When the news was first released, it did not attract much attention.
But soon after, some people who were more familiar with the current state of world physics noticed the significance of this news.
"Holy crap! We actually discovered a superconductor with a critical temperature of 150K under normal pressure? This is normal pressure! We've set a new record!"
"I checked and found that it is 12K higher than the previous record of superconducting critical temperature under normal pressure. I just don't know what kind of material this superconductor is and is it easy to prepare?"
"It's true that the fewer words there are, the bigger the story is. This should bring us one step closer to discovering room-temperature superconductors."
With the discussion and spread of these netizens, this news gradually became popular.
More and more netizens have joined the discussion.
"I remember someone discovered room temperature superconductors before. Superconductivity can be achieved at 15°C."
"That's superconductivity under high pressure, which has no practical significance. It's much more difficult to achieve such high pressure than to achieve low temperature."
"Our scientific research team is really amazing! I don't know which scientists made the contribution. Why didn't the news mention the specific team and their names?"
"It should be temporary news. There may be detailed reports later."
But after that, there were no follow-up reports.
This also shows that such reports with very little information are likely intentional.
Soon, the news spread to other countries outside China.
"Huaxia has discovered a superconductor with a critical temperature of 150K under normal pressure? Is this true? Why didn't they explain what this substance is?"
"It can't be just a smokescreen, I don't believe China has such strong scientific research capabilities."
"Yes, if they really found out, they should have reported it in detail. There's no reason to just write two short sentences like this."
But some people don't think so.
"A young scientist from China published a paper a while ago that explained the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity. I think there may be a great connection between the two."
"Yes, being able to publish the title of this paper on the cover of PRL, this is definitely a very important theory. It is unlikely that China would casually release false information."
"Oh my god, China is actually ahead this time? What on earth are our scientists doing? Isn't the theory already public? Why haven't our scientists made any discoveries?"
At this moment, on China's Bihu, the popularity of this news has risen to the top, and some people have already imagined a true room-temperature superconductor.
"It seems that our research team has found a new direction for searching for high-temperature superconductors. If I'm not mistaken, Xu You should be a core member of this team, at least one of the core members. We may not be far from finding a true room-temperature superconductor."
"If room-temperature superconductors really do appear, the impact on humanity will be subversive. Maglev trains, magnetic resonance imaging, superconducting quantum interference devices, and so on, can all achieve leapfrog progress. The cost of electronic transportation will be greatly reduced, and humanity may enter a new era."
"This way, Xiaomi phones no longer have to worry about overheating."
"This is a global technological revolution! The power consumption of superconducting quantum computers will be greatly reduced, and computers will enter a new era. Research on controlled nuclear fusion will also be put on the agenda."
