From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 79 Silent dedication? Courageous sacrifice? Those are inappropriate terms!

After domestic media published a series of reports on room-temperature superconductivity, which caused a public uproar, it quickly attracted the attention of foreign media.

Many foreign media outlets and independent media personalities have also reposted related reports on the international internet.

Some of these are influential media outlets, such as The Times, Al Jazeera, Silicon Valley Today, and so on.

Both mainstream media and independent media outlets simply repost reports, or even repost comments written by domestic independent media outlets. While mainstream media reports are relatively rigorous, they also tend to be biased.

Silicon Valley Today is a media outlet focusing on the technology sector, specializing in in-depth reporting on the global technology ecosystem.

Their report used several words like "suspected" and "possible," and commented that "a Chinese team claims to have created a high-tech olefin material and achieved 100% edge conductivity at room temperature."

"Judging from numerous reports, their research must have made a breakthrough, but whether the new material can achieve conductivity in normal environments or still requires other conditions, such as high voltage, remains unknown for the time being."

The Times' report was biased, describing domestic public opinion as an "absurd carnival," stating that "it is not 50 years from now, let alone 100 years from now, and solving the problem of room-temperature superconductivity is not realistic."

"They're having an absurd celebration for an unrealistic technological material!"

Following the report, The Times also provided a professional explanation of the material's properties and elaborated on the international research and development status of tinene, stating that "the room-temperature superconducting material they prepared is not superconducting in the conventional sense, but a high-tech multilayer olefin material, which is considered a two-dimensional material."

"It is understood that the theory behind achieving 100% room-temperature conductivity in two-dimensional stanene originated from the team of Zhang Shoucheng, a Chinese scientist at Stanford University, and most of the subsequent verification of the theory has also been carried out in China..."

"Few scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom, where research in related fields is more in-depth, are optimistic about this direction..."

The Al Jazeera report was quite interesting.

The previous hot topic of 'room temperature superconductivity LK-99' came from the Peninsula. The Peninsula News Agency also mentioned LK-99 in its report and compared LK-99 with STN-01.

"LK-99 is a copper-doped lead apatite that exhibits superconducting-like behavior and can clearly demonstrate the Meissner phenomenon."

"STN-01 is a high-tech material with multiple layers of tinene. It does not have superconducting properties because it requires the overall arrangement of multiple atomic layers. It is only a material that exists in theory and cannot be manufactured with current technology."

"LK-99 exists and exhibits certain superconducting properties."

"STN-01 does not exist at all."

"The frenzy surrounding STN-01 and room-temperature superconductivity was destined from the start to be an even more absurd farce than LK-99!"

……

Foreign media outlets have published a series of reports on the matter, and the relevant information has also attracted the attention of foreign teams.

Many laboratory teams are very interested in replicating and verifying materials, and many have started looking for research papers on pre-published websites.

Once a research finding is published, the paper can be found on a pre-publication website.

LK-99, that's it.

After LK-99 was officially announced, researchers submitted their research papers on the laboratory preparation of the materials to a pre-publication website.

The advantage of doing this is that the material can be replicated and prepared by other experimental institutions, which allows for the verification of the material's properties.

Once other teams have identified the material's properties, their research papers can be published in influential academic journals, greatly enhancing the researchers' reputation.

Conversely, without other experimental teams verifying the material properties, similar research papers cannot be published in top academic journals.

Because there is no actual evidence, academic journals are unable to review the papers.

When deliberately searching for information, some teams found relevant papers on pre-publication websites.

Preparation characteristics of multilayer tinene thin films.

The authors of this experimental research paper are, in order, Zhang Minghao, Xue Kun, Zhu Bingkun, Chen Shuai, and Fang Huimin, followed by a long list of other individuals who left their names.

You can match the papers and research by looking at the names at the very beginning.

However, upon opening the paper, it was found that it only stated that multilayer tinene films were prepared on bismuth telluride substrates and that topological insulating states and Ising superconducting properties were detected.

The core of the paper is that the material was directly detected to have a topological insulating state and Ising superconducting properties, which verifies the relevant theories of two-dimensional tinene materials.

"During the experiment, very obvious topological edge states were detected in the material, and insulating properties were found at the center location, as shown in the figure below..."

"The edge enables pathways for electrons..."

"It is a layered Ising superconductor, and a dimension-driven zero-magnetic-field anomalous metallic state was observed, revealing the existence of spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking..."

What about the material preparation process?
The verification of topological edge states and Ising superconductivity is also a significant achievement, but it is nothing compared to room-temperature superconducting materials.

Other related papers can also be found on the pre-release website, including one titled "Detection Characteristics of Multilayer Tinene Thin Film Materials" by Fang Huimin and He Hui.

The main topic of this paper is the detection of multilayer tinene thin film materials.

Clearly, this only describes the material testing process; the core issue remains the detection and verification of topological edge states and Ising superconducting properties.

Looking again...

More than twenty related pre-published papers can be found. Apart from the two mentioned above, the rest are all peripheral studies.

These are all papers written by researchers and doctoral students in the Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory. They were first published on a pre-publication website, and after the copyright ownership was confirmed, they waited for the academic journals to review and respond.

While the lab project may have made progress and yielded significant results that are not directly related to them, they can still summarize their work and publish an SCI paper to enrich their resume.

Their papers certainly wouldn't involve the core technologies of materials preparation.

"STN-01, no papers on materials preparation have been published?"

"If you don't know how to prepare the material, how can you conduct verification?"

"In that case, the paper will have no chance of passing the academic journal's review!"

After searching for a long time without success, one experimental team could only angrily remark, "It's not even as good as LK-99!"

……

Foreign research teams cannot find papers on material preparation, and domestic teams certainly cannot either.

There are still differences between the two.

Some domestic experimental teams believe that STN-01 possesses room-temperature superconducting properties.

Hong Zhenyu's team at Donggang Polytechnic University had great confidence in STN-01. Hong Zhenyu brought back a small sample of tinene, and his team clearly measured the topological edge state phenomenon from the sample.

The measurement process surprised everyone on the team because the topological edge state phenomenon was so distinct, it felt like turning on a light bulb.

The light bulb lit up, and the measurement results were available.

At the same time, they also detected clear Ising superconducting properties.

Detection of Ising superconductivity is quite complicated, but a clear signal means that the material is very likely to be an Ising superconductor.

The sample quality is too high.

Looking at the extremely high-quality tinene sample, and recalling the exciting scene of meeting Zhu Bingkun, Xue Kun, and others in the applied electromagnetics laboratory, I felt a surge of emotion.

Hong Zhenyu couldn't help but exclaim in amazement, "A stable multilayer tinene thin film material? They might have actually created it!"

Cao Wang made the same judgment, and his reasoning was the same.

The problem is, he doesn't want to believe it.

STN-01 is a multilayer tinene thin film material, and its actual existence signifies that research in the tinene field has come to an end.

There is absolutely no need to continue producing and researching single-atom tinene.

The next step in research is technology: how to manufacture more stable multilayer tinene thin film materials, and how to increase the atomic layer thickness of STN-type materials.

Furthermore, there are questions about how to reduce manufacturing costs and improve processes, among others.

These are all technical issues, and his research can be considered terminated.

Will higher authorities, or even the materials research center, consider canceling his project?

The fact that millions of dollars were invested with no success has had a huge impact on his personal development.

After that, it became very difficult to apply for projects and lead research and development teams; one could only join other people's projects.

His personal career has gone downhill!
……

Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory.

The lobby and corridors on the first floor were packed with people. Zhu Bingkun and Zhang Minghao stood together, shaking hands with the arriving leadership team.

Zhu Bingkun was visibly nervous, so excited that he stammered as he spoke.

Zhang Minghao acted naturally, shaking hands with the visiting leaders and jokingly remarking, "Before you came, I specifically looked for news articles about you. You look younger in person than in the news."

The leader laughed, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "You look much more handsome than you do on the news!"

After the leader finished speaking, he went to shake hands with the next person, Xue Kun.

Zhu Bingkun immediately leaned closer and muttered, "You're really something, I don't even dare to speak!" The person who came was an important figure, Teacher Xu, the head of the Science and Technology Department.

Professor Xu's personal visit was naturally for the hot topic of room-temperature superconducting materials. He couldn't have come alone; he was accompanied by a large group of officials and experts.

They talked about the relevant announcements and reports the whole way.

This matter has had a huge impact.

Room-temperature superconducting materials are considered one of the biggest scientific and technological challenges of the 21st century.

The applications of room-temperature superconducting materials are enormous, enabling revolutionary breakthroughs in all aspects of electronic technology and even potentially disrupting existing technologies.

To give a simple example, all kinds of electronic components have heat dissipation problems, and there are tens of thousands of research patents related to heat dissipation of electronic components internationally.

Room temperature superconducting materials directly solve the heat dissipation problem of components because the materials have superconducting properties and will not release heat due to resistance, so the components will not dissipate heat.

This kind of materials technology is absolutely revolutionary.

There has been extensive coverage of this issue in domestic media, as well as international media.

This incident made Professor Xu somewhat embarrassed, as he only learned that a team had developed room-temperature superconducting materials after the public outcry.

After learning the news, he immediately asked around and found out that the Dongchuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, as well as Jiangzhou University, had all submitted their findings.

The problem lies in the time difference.

The Dongchuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology released the research results one day after submitting the information.

Provincial-level science and technology departments are directly under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, and the Dongchuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology certainly has the right to release provincial scientific and technological achievements.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has too much work to do in processing research results and information.

Teacher Xu only went to other places for inspection and a meeting, so he missed the opportunity to get the information in the first place, but of course it didn't have any impact.

He immediately received the information about the results and decided to organize experts to go to Jiangzhou University and the Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory to see the materials and preparation technology.

Professor Xu is decisive and efficient. After a brief greeting upon arriving at the laboratory, he went straight to the back laboratory.

Zhu Bingkun introduced the STN-01 preparation process to the experts and scholars present.

In this regard, those who are not professionals can only listen.

Teacher Xu kept talking to Zhang Minghao, asking, "How stable is this material?"

"If physical protection is done well, that is, if it does not collide with other hard objects, the high conductivity of the material will not be a problem for several years."

Zhang Minghao said, "However, we still need to do the testing, as our laboratory does not have the necessary testing facilities."

Teacher Xu nodded and continued, "Is the production cost high? I heard it's quite difficult, requiring multiple experiments to produce even a small piece."

"It's really not easy right now."

Zhang Minghao said, "After we developed the material, we conducted three large-scale preparations, investing more than one million yuan, but we only produced two pieces of material the size of a finger. There were a few other pieces, but they were all less than one centimeter in size, very small."

"You can take a look when we get back to the lab building."

"However, the advantage of this material is that it can be infinitely divided. A thin slice the size of a finger can be divided into a hundred or even more pieces, and the material division will not affect its conductivity."

Mr. Xu was not a professional, and this was the first time he had heard such a statement. He immediately asked curiously, "Doesn't that mean that a piece of material the size of a finger can be made into a one-meter-long wire?"

"Correct."

Zhang Minghao answered confidently, "As long as the material structure is not damaged, any way of dividing it is acceptable; it all depends on the precision of the technology and process."

In theory, materials can be divided infinitely, but in practice, due to limitations in technical precision, being able to divide them into dozens of parts is already quite remarkable.

If it is further divided, the cost of division will be higher than the cost of manufacturing the materials.

That would be meaningless.

The group visited the laboratory and learned about the manufacturing process of STN-01 material.

When they returned to the laboratory building, they saw the material samples. A large group of experts were carefully examining the samples, while others looked at the test reports next to them.

The report comes from the Dongchuan Provincial Institute of Testing Technology, so the data is quite authoritative.

"The test results came from Zhao Xu's team..."

"I know Zhao Xu. He's a bit cunning, but he's capable. He won't cause any problems with the testing work."

"It seems to be room temperature superconductivity, and the current carrying capacity is not low. This small piece is one-tenth the size of copper. If it is cut into ten pieces, it will be as big as copper."

"It can be used in many high-tech fields..."

An expert suddenly said, "I wonder if we could take a small piece back and test it."

A large group of people immediately realized what was happening.

Two-dimensional atomic stacked room-temperature superconducting materials with topological insulating state and Ising superconducting properties are extremely attractive to researchers in the field of materials science.

Every expert's eyes gleamed with excitement; even those who weren't experts in the same field wanted to take a piece back with them.

This is a treasure!

Many people asked Zhu Bingkun, Xue Kun, or other people in the lab, but none of them received a clear answer.

In the end, they discovered that the person who could make the decision was Zhang Minghao, who had always been by Teacher Xu's side.

They then realized that Zhang Minghao was the one in charge of the research.

A group of people shared their ideas with Teacher Xu.

Teacher Xu was also in a bit of a dilemma.

The preparation of STN-01 is very difficult; it took more than a million dollars to produce just a few small pieces.

Cost is one aspect, and manpower is another.

If it's for the Ministry of Science and Technology, taking a small piece for testing is fine. But if other unrelated people want to take a small piece for testing or research, that's a bit unreasonable.

Teacher Xu still mentioned it briefly.

Zhang Minghao paused for a moment, then looked at the experts who were glancing over from time to time. A look of distress crossed his face, and he sighed deeply. "Of course, we also hope that more researchers will participate in the testing of STN-01."

"However, the preparation of STN-01 is really difficult, very difficult, and requires a lot of funding."

"Professor Xu, you may not know this, but our research isn't part of any project; it's entirely funded by lab grants. Take a look at our lab..."

"Don't even mention comparing it with any large institutions, it can't even compare with provincially supported laboratories, including the environment, equipment, and personnel. The laboratory funding is all saved up little by little from school subsidies or project surpluses."

"This research project has basically exhausted all our resources..."

Not far away, Song Kaifeng quickly gave a wink. The Provincial Department of Science and Technology had provided funding; they couldn't just leave without even discussing it, could they?
Upon receiving the signal, Zhang Minghao added, "Later, the material preparation was funded by the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, but the initial research investment was indeed substantial..."

He spoke with a bitter expression.

The experts around them, including Song Kaifeng and Teacher Xu, all believed it.

Normally, the investment in materials research and development is usually very high.

STN-01 is a high-tech olefin multilayer material. It must have been developed through countless experiments and a great deal of effort.

The applied electromagnetics laboratory where they worked was clearly a very ordinary research institution, with a laboratory budget of only a few million.

A few million is definitely not enough for materials research and development.

There's a high probability that someone will have to put their own money into it, right?
Teacher Xu was deeply moved. He patted Zhang Minghao on the shoulder, then looked at Zhu Bingkun, Xue Kun, and the others, and said loudly with full affirmation, "You are all excellent!"

"You are truly great workers who have devoted yourself to scientific research, made silent contributions, disregarded personal interests, and dared to give!"

“You deserve a better research environment, better treatment, and you shouldn’t have to worry about funding!”

"Rest assured, the Ministry of Science and Technology will provide sufficient funding to support your research and your laboratory!"

After Teacher Xu finished speaking, everyone around her burst into enthusiastic applause.

Zhang Minghao, Zhu Bingkun, Xue Kun, and others, along with other laboratory staff, also applauded excitedly.

Tan Yanming stood at a distance and clapped a few times as well, but his expression was somewhat strange.

Quietly dedicating oneself?

Don't you care about personal interests?
Are you willing to give?

Are you referring to Zhang Minghao, Zhu Bingkun, and a few other guys who "bring their own shares to do R&D"?

That's a seriously inappropriate use of language!

　Sorry for the late update, there will be more tonight~~~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)