From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 2: The experiment must be replicated!

Dragging my suitcase, I strolled slowly down the street.

Being a new student is a completely different experience.

Vehicles coming and going, people flowing endlessly, a busy urban life.

In my past life, I only felt anxious.

I don't know where the future lies yet, but joy keeps welling up in my heart.

My former mentor, Xue Kun, called very quickly, and his voice was still the same hearty, gruff one I remembered.

"Zhang Minghao, I heard you clashed with Yang Xuewen. Well done!"

"Teacher Xue!"

Zhang Minghao greeted him politely.

Xue Kun was his former doctoral supervisor, who had always taken good care of him. However, he switched jobs to Jiangzhou University more than half a year ago, and the university later assigned him a new supervisor.

Xue Kun continued, "I called the school about your experiment, and Yang Xuewen said it didn't matter whether the experiment was done or not; what mattered was that the data was fake and wrong?"

"Listen to this, what kind of twisted logic is this!"

"Is falsifying experiments the same as making experimental mistakes? They've lost all logic in their actions!"

After venting his frustrations, he asked with concern, "Zhu Bin told me you got expelled? Are you alright?"

"Nothing much, just strolling around the street with my luggage."

"That's good. Come to my side. I'll guide you through experiments and projects. With your abilities, graduating in two or three years shouldn't be a problem."

"Got it! I'll be right there!"

Zhang Minghao chuckled, "I was just thinking that if I didn't get your call, I was prepared to spend the night on a park bench, and maybe I'd become a homeless person in a few days."

"Your call was a lifesaver!"

"Ah!"

Xue Kun chuckled, "Alright! You can still banter with me, so it seems you're really alright. I'm relieved."

"Come here, come directly to the Office of Applied Electromagnetism Research and find me."

I felt relieved after hanging up the phone.

The boat will straighten itself when it reaches the bridge; a new village will appear after the darkest hour.

He was expelled from Donggang University, but went to Jiangzhou University to pursue a doctorate under his original supervisor, which is great.

I bought a train ticket, boarded the train to Jiangzhou, and looked out the window at the city where I had lived for many years, feeling a different kind of emotion.

It contains both nostalgia for the past and hopes and anxieties about the future.

Start all over again.

When I sat down and closed my eyes to rest, the experimental questions involuntarily came to mind.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes again.

"its not right!"

Why am I so sure the experiment is real?

"Under normal circumstances, experimental results that violate the laws of physics are definitely wrong. Even the predecessor wasn't 100% certain. How could I possibly think..."

"And I'm absolutely certain."

"why?"

Zhang Minghao pondered carefully, and then simply closed his eyes to search his memory.

The memories of the predecessor are vast, including a large amount of knowledge, people, events, and some things that don't belong to memory...

system?

He was stunned.

The system consists of two parts; the first part is personal data assessment.

Thinking: 77.

Body: 59.

Academic reputation: -177.

Wealth: 7309.

Below is a prompt: Knowledge can improve thinking, and exercise can improve physical health.

The second part is about 'special abilities'.

He possessed an ability called 'correct perception,' which allowed him to judge the conclusions of problems.

"Correct perception?"

"Therefore, the reason why people believe the experimental conclusions are correct is because of correct perception..."

"The experiment was correct from the start?!"

Thinking about this made my blood flow faster and my brain was in a state of extreme excitement.

Previously, I thought my trust in the experiment was influenced by my past memories, but now my trust comes from the bottom of my heart and is 100%.

The experiment was correct.

The experimental procedure and conclusions were correct. The air molecule fluctuations detected during the experiment are real, which means that they contain an 'undiscovered physics'.

What would it mean if it could be replicated?
Zhang Minghao was full of energy. The replication experiment not only proved that the experiment was not fake, but it would also be a huge scientific research achievement.

"The experiment must be replicated!"

"Go to Jiangzhou University and do research with Professor Xue Kun to continue experiments related to metamaterials."

After calming down a bit, he became curious about 'correct perception' again. "Can we judge whether an experiment is correct or not? Can we judge it in ordinary math and physics problems or research papers?"

"Can you make judgments about other things?"

Then I overheard a middle-aged man next to me say, "Everyone says it's hard to get by in a public institution, but my whole family works for the government. There are police officers and tax officials, and we're all doing quite well."

fake!

"This trip is a business trip to the capital to attend a meeting, as required by my department..."

fake!

"There were a lot of leaders at the meeting, including the municipal government secretary, Chen Anguo, you've heard of him, right?"

fake!

"The capital city also needs to attract investment. Our company is planning to invest 200 million yuan, and this trip is just for inspection..."

Fake……

Zhang Minghao turned to look at the middle-aged man, and couldn't help but complain inwardly. He had said a lot, but not a single word of truth.

However, upon closer examination, the determination of 'fake' is also quite vague.

"Is all the content fake, or is only part of it fake? If a 'family' of government employees works together, and one of them is a student, does that count as fake?"

He was thinking about it seriously.

The listeners opposite him listened attentively, as if they completely believed him, and even nodded in agreement from time to time.

The middle-aged man also turned his head to look over, as if he wanted to observe the young man's opinion.

Zhang Minghao and he exchanged a glance.

The middle-aged man seemed intrigued and asked, "Young man, where are you going?"

"Jiangzhou." "Going back to your hometown? You look to be in your early twenties, a college student, right?"

“I’m a college student,” Zhang Minghao said honestly. “I was expelled from my original university and went to another one.”

The people around were stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"You're so funny!"

"Can universities expel students? And if you're expelled, can you transfer to another university?"

"Are you going to school?"

Zhang Minghao smiled but didn't say anything.

These days, nobody believes the truth, and his experience is indeed very rare.

He stopped chatting with others and continued his research on 'correct perception'.

'Correct perception' means being able to judge whether an experiment is correct, and in daily life, it also means being able to judge the truth or falsehood of what others say. It's just that we don't know the specific 'falsehood', but the ability to make judgments in itself is quite novel.

He listened to what others were saying while also using his abilities to make judgments.

I fell asleep without realizing it.

When I opened my eyes again, the train was about to arrive in Jiangzhou.

He was woken up by the middle-aged man next to him, "Young man, wake up! We've arrived at our stop!"

"You really slept the whole way!"

Zhang Minghao drowsily opened his eyes, heard the announcement that the train was about to arrive at the station, thanked the middle-aged man, and quickly unloaded his luggage to get off the train.

He hadn't rested since he transmigrated, but after sleeping for a few hours on the train, he felt refreshed.

It was still past midnight when I got off the train.

I took a bus to Jiangzhou University, found a youth hostel nearby to drop off my luggage, then lay on the bed and dozed off for two hours. When I checked the time, I went to the university.

Jiangzhou University covers a vast area and is divided into several departments, making it a university town in itself.

Xue Kun's laboratory is the Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory of the School of Physics in the southern part of the Faculty of Science.

The research office is located on the first floor of the laboratory.

Zhang Minghao found the office but couldn't find Xue Kun. He asked around and learned that Xue Kun was in the conference room on the second floor.

He waited for a while, and then simply went upstairs to take a look.

The conference room on the second floor is located next to the stairs. Once you get to the second floor, you can hear people talking inside. It seems they are discussing experimental issues.

He had just reached the door when he saw Xue Kun inside. Xue Kun noticed him as well and said, "You're here! Come in first!"

Zhang Minghao entered the room and simply sat down on the stool by the wall.

Xue Kun was discussing the issue with two other middle-aged men, while several younger men were listening. “Our analysis of the properties of bismuth telluride has shown that high-quality tinene can be grown on substrates covered with multiple layers of bismuth atoms.”

"However, the actual result did not match the expectations, and it was no different from the previous result."

"Is there a problem with the calculations?"

Another middle-aged man immediately denied it, saying, "The calculations were handled by our group. Every piece of data was compared repeatedly, and every step was verified over and over again. There's absolutely no way there could be a problem!"

"If the experimental data remains unchanged and the calculations are correct, then where is the problem?"

"It could also be..."

Zhang Minghao listened attentively and, combining his existing knowledge, understood the general idea.

Simply put, it's metamaterials research!
Xue Kun participated in a nationally supported electromagnetic metamaterials research project, the theme of which was 'theoretical design and property research of metamaterials'.

Electromagnetic metamaterials are a major research direction in electromagnetic advanced materials. These materials are artificially synthesized and possess extraordinary physical properties that natural materials do not have.

For example, negative refraction, phase manipulation, electromagnetic wave manipulation, and so on.

Even if it is just a research project on theoretical and basic properties, it is of great significance, after all, it is at the forefront of electromagnetic and materials technology.

Therefore, Xue Kun came to work at the Applied Electromagnetism Research Laboratory of Jiangzhou University.

They are now discussing experimental issues, with preliminary experiments demonstrating that a substrate covered by a specially arranged layer of bismuth atoms can grow high-quality tinene.

Stanene is a theoretically existing single-atom-layer tin material that is considered a potential replacement for graphene as a future semiconductor material.

The research is advanced and significant, but it is also very difficult.

Their recent experiment revealed that, just like before, there was absolutely no progress.

The group began analyzing the reasons.

We re-analyzed the preliminary experiments midway through the process, and confirmed that there were no problems with the preliminary experiments. Then we continued to analyze them, and no problems were found.

Zhang Minghao listened to the gist of it, though he only half understood it. He tried to exert more effort to 'perceive correctly'.

"Was the preliminary experiment wrong?"

The moment I used my abilities, a conclusion was immediately reached in my mind.

"why?"

do not know……

'Correct perception' can only provide results, not causes and analysis.

The people in the meeting room talked and talked but couldn't find the problem, so they simply fell silent and thought about it.

Zhang Minghao looked left and right, then met Xue Kun's gaze, raised his hand weakly, and said, "Professor Xue, is it possible that your preliminary experiment was wrong?"

"Either the calculation of the conclusion is incorrect, or there is a problem with the experiment itself..."

"impossible!"

Before Xue Kun could speak, a younger man suddenly retorted loudly, "We have conducted multiple characterization tests on bismuth telluride and have reached a clear conclusion!"

"Combining the characteristics of the multi-layered bismuth atoms with the original data, we can already..."

"Liao Shuyan!"

A middle-aged man suddenly shouted, then looked at Xue Kun.

Xue Kun waved his hand dismissively, "It's alright. I'm also planning to involve Zhang Minghao, the doctoral student I supervise at Donggang University, in the project."

He pointed to two middle-aged men and introduced them as "Professor Chen Shuai and Professor Zhu Bingkun".

Zhang Minghao stood up and greeted them with a smile, "Hello Professor Chen, hello Professor Zhu!"

Chen Shuai nodded.

Zhu Bingkun pointed at Zhang Minghao in confusion, "Your student, a doctoral student? How old is he?"

Xue Kun looked at Zhang Minghao uncertainly.

“He’ll be twenty-three in September,” he said, adding, “in the gifted youth program.”

Zhu Bingkun and Chen Shuai were both stunned for a moment.

He will be 23 in September, which means he will be 22 and a half years old. Xue Kun's doctoral students take at least a year and a half to complete their doctoral studies. Doesn't that mean he can start his doctoral studies at the age of 21?
Zhu Bingkun turned to look at his students and gave a wry smile, "Donggang University truly has a wealth of talent!"

He said a few words of praise.

The discussion on experimental issues continued, and Zhang Minghao was no longer avoided, but the preliminary experiments were no longer mentioned.

Was the preliminary experiment wrong?
impossible!
What Liao Shuyan said represents the thoughts of others.

Zhu Bingkun, Chen Shuai, and other associate professors and doctoral students involved in the research all have great confidence in the preliminary experiments.

That's the biggest achievement in the last six months!

(End of this chapter)