Volume 1 Chaos Comes Chapter 17 Red Nose
It was the fifth week of the spring semester, and several courses were about to have midterm exams, including Professor Xie's nonlinear elective course. I had to spend all my energy on preparation, except for going to the laboratory.
Examinations in college are more of a test of skill than an ability test. After all, the grades at that time can no longer strictly reflect the extent of one's mastery of knowledge.
Fortunately, I had gained a lot of points in this skill, and I was in good condition on the day of the exam, and there were no tricky questions on the test paper.
So I was in a very good mood the next day. On the way to the laboratory, I admired the early spring wild flowers on campus. At this time, the Waking of Insects had come to an end, sweet rains fell, and all things were auspicious.
I arrived at the laboratory building and borrowed the key from my senior. I just pushed the door open by itself and I saw Ai Bishui inside packing her bag and getting ready to leave.
"Good morning. I've finished all the tests. If you want to do any other experiments, you can just remove the wires." When she saw me, she smiled softly as if conditionedly, but did not stop packing up.
"Ah, good morning... There's nothing I need to do, just check to see if you need any help."
I came here before to cooperate with her in experiments, and I learned a lot from it.
"Oh, by the way, aren't you going to write anything today? I saw you were typing earlier."
"Are you talking about the previous article? I've already finished writing it and shown it to my teacher. But I just uploaded it to arXiv."
Is this going to be published? A sophomore undergraduate has published an SCI paper, and it has only been more than a month?
"Ah? Will you come to do experiments again in the future?"
"Well...if you don't have any new ideas, I might not come here again. You can operate independently now, but you can always ."
Then I need a red nose now.
"By the way, I also added your name to the paper. After all, you contributed so much."
At most, she would be given a friendly participation award, as the core content was completed independently by her.
"Then... can you tell me a little bit about your work? It's already been submitted..."
"Sure, no problem."
She opened the laptop that she was about to put into her bag. The thickness of the laptop was less than one centimeter. This kind of laptop should be called an ultrabook. I noticed that there was a sticker of a cat eating hot pot on the back of the silver-white display.
"Let me see where to start... Actually, it mainly wants to introduce the specific method of adjusting the dynamic state of the magnetic system."
I stared at the screen, which was full of various formulas. With my limited knowledge at that time, I could only recognize some mathematical expressions of differential geometry and continuous group theory, as well as the renormalization method that I had just learned in the previous class.
Anyway, I don’t quite understand it.
"Based on the unified theory of complex systems, I demonstrated that by designing the structure of the device or adjusting the input current, the dynamic state inside the magnet can be manipulated to transform and evolve."
"Uh... could you explain it more simply..."
"That is, from a purely theoretical perspective, it was predicted that the dynamics of complex systems can be transformed into each other, and I realized this transformation in a real physical system, and the transformation process was consistent with the prediction."
I nodded thoughtfully.
"Haven't we done something similar in the square before? Using sound signals to regulate the flight of pigeons. But that experiment couldn't control the variables, so if we want to publish it, we have to rely on a mature experimental system."
I roughly understood that she might be the first person in the world to apply the grand unified theory to the concrete physical world.
"This... is too impressive. A PhD student publishing an article like this is enough to graduate..."
Later I found out that this was not the first article of this type. The first one was published in the field of meteorology, less than a month earlier than hers.
However, this is still very beyond the syllabus for undergraduate students. After all, if a doctoral student publishes an article of this quality, it is enough to become a professor.
"So... there's nothing to do for now, and I have to think about what to do next."
I don’t know whether it was because of excitement or anxiety, but the moment she finished speaking, the intense electrical pulsations in my brain gathered into a flash of inspiration. And this silent, synchronized discharge irreversibly changed the fate of all mankind:
"Well... I do have a new idea. Do you want to do it with me?"
"Sure, what's the new idea? Have you thought it through very well?"
She turned her eyes away from the computer screen and looked at me, and I felt as if there were flames dancing in her eyes.
"Maybe I need to read a book or an article carefully and then talk about it in detail... It should be ready by next week?"
"That's fine. If you have anything you want to discuss just send me a message."
I spent the rest of that week in the library, working much harder than I did in my senior year of high school.
On weekends, I came to the study area early to study as usual. During the intermission, I liked to wander among the bookshelves. That was because I had a kind of intimacy with books since I was a child. During the holidays, if my parents had something to do and didn't go home for a long time, they would throw me to Xinhua Bookstore.
Borges has a famous poem:
Heaven should look like a library.
However, this is actually a wrong translation. The correct statement is "Heaven is also a library."
What kind of books would be there, or does that statement actually compare the souls of people in heaven to books?
I was walking aimlessly while thinking and found a very interesting book.
The cover of the book is printed with the left and right hemispheres of the human brain, and the title of the book is in pure English:
Self-Consciousness and “Split” Brains
I am now very interested in all knowledge related to brain activity. Just as I was about to reach out to take it down, my joints collided with another delicate hand.
"Ah...I'm sorry, hey, it's you!"
Opposite her was a girl who was thinner than normal. She had a typical oval face, short hair that reached her ears and was dotted with light blue hairpins. Her eyes were very bright under her bangs. Her skin was very white, her eyebrows were thin, and she looked radiant.
This is a girl who is one year younger than me, her name is Liu Yishi, and she was just admitted to the Department of Psychology last year. Our meeting was very coincidental. Last summer, I also took a sleeper train to school. She and her father got on the train and happened to be in the lower bunk. From chatting, I learned that she was not only my junior in high school, but also a freshman in the same university as me.
They were both very cheerful and I talked a lot along the way. When we got there, I took them around the campus and finally added them both as friends.
Naturally, they are the kind of friends who have always been on the list.
"Wow, hello senior, long time no see."
We pulled our hands back at the same time, leaving the book lying quietly there. She quickly glanced at the bookshelf, scratched her hair, and smiled a little embarrassedly.
“Um…are you interested in cognitive science as well?”
Wait, isn’t this nonsense? The other party is studying psychology.
"Well, this book is recommended by our teacher. Can you give it to me, senior?"
"Ah... no problem. Are you studying how consciousness arises?"
She seemed choked by what I said, but this was the correct translation of that incoherent question.
"Emmmm... Not sure if this falls under the category of psychology, but we will discuss some thinking and logic and so on."
She took the book off and held it against her chest, looking at me with a somewhat puzzled look.
"If you want to know what consciousness is, I think you should ask someone in the philosophy department..."
"Yeah, it's okay, just think about it." I was afraid that I would be regarded as a crazy person.
"Then I'll go study first. We have a paper due for one of our classes."
She waved goodbye to me, turned around and left briskly.
Immersed in my own thoughts, I subconsciously dialed Ning Yu'an's number and the call was connected as soon as it rang.
"What's the matter? It's worth your special call."
"Do you have any experimental records on the self-organization of the nervous system? For example, videos recording electrical signals or something? Can you send me some?"
"Ah... this kind of thing, I'll send it to you later. If you don't have anything else to say, I'll hang up now."
The tone told me there had to be something else.
"Oh, by the way, happy birthday to you! Did you receive the present I sent you?"
March 30th is Ning Yu'an's birthday. Last year, I sent her a Travelers' Notebook by express delivery. She said she wanted to use it to make a diary and take pictures to show me when she was done.
She would also give me gifts on my birthday. Last year it was a gray wallet, which is the one I’m using now.
"Got it, thank you. I'll hang up now if nothing else."
