Great Country Academician

The lecture ended, and the next day, outside the office of Xu Chuan of NTU, Professor David Gross and Edward Witten, who had come specially from Europe, knocked on the door and walked in.

Most of the other physicists went back, but the two of them still had some other things to communicate with Xu Chuan, so they stayed for a while.

"Mentor, Professor Gross."

Seeing the visitor, Xu Chuan stood up with a smile and said hello: "Would you like some coffee or tea?"

"coffee."

"Tea."

Gross and Witten ordered different drinks respectively. Xu Chuan nodded and asked his assistant to brew them with a smile.

"Speaking of which, how is CERN doing now?"

After the assistant served coffee and tea, Xu Chuan sat on the sofa and chatted with the two professors.

Of course, for today's purpose, this is not actually idle talk.

After all, the main purpose of Witten and Gross coming here today is to conduct preliminary cooperation and exchanges with China on the construction of a large strong particle collider.

Originally, this kind of exchange should have been a formal meeting, but Xu Chuan found it troublesome, so he did not hold such a meeting.

On the one hand, he is the general manager of China's Large Strong Particle Collider project, and on the other hand, this is only a preliminary exchange.

If the intention can be confirmed, there will definitely be dedicated personnel to communicate in various details in the follow-up.

So without calling anyone else, he had this exchange with Chief David Gross in his office that could be said to determine the future fate of high-energy physics.

Taking a sip of coffee, Gross shook his head slightly and said: "It's not that good. There is still debate over whether to upgrade the LHC. All EU countries are thinking about reducing investment."

To be honest, the director of CERN is more of a scholar.

His opening directly exposed the situation at CERN and his concerns about the future of the high-energy physics community.

If it were another politician, no matter whether he had it or not, he would brag about it first, try his best to expand his advantages, and get more benefits from this transaction.

Of course, it's also possible that CERN has already negotiated the deal, and this time it's just a formality.

However, this kind of exchange is also more to Xu Chuan's appetite.

Smiling, he said: "Normally, the United States and the European Union are now in a cycle of economic decline. Rather than investing in basic scientific research equipment such as the Large Hadron Collider, they are more willing to invest money in controllable nuclear fusion. research."

Xu Chuan was not surprised by this result.

Although the emergence of an epoch-making new technology often requires a lot of time to settle and develop.

But it is undeniable that since he led the team to successfully realize controllable nuclear fusion technology, the situation in the entire world has begun to change drastically.

We are still in an era of economic recession, and we have to squeeze out a large amount of funds to invest in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, which will inevitably severely squeeze the living space of other scientific research projects.

In particular, basic scientific research equipment such as the Large Strong Particle Collider is difficult to generate revenue in a short period of time and cannot even maintain a balance of payments.

Under this circumstance, it is normal for the LC-LHC high-luminosity collider to be canceled or even the current upgrade.

Speaking of controllable nuclear fusion, Gross raised his head and glanced at the young man in front of him.

He really didn't know what kind of wisdom this scholar, who seemed to him extremely young, relied on to solve various problems in controllable nuclear fusion.

After all, this is a technology that is considered to be 'forever fifty years', and many researchers even believe that it is impossible to realize this technology in the 21st century.

Although he really wanted to ask, he also knew that it was impossible for the other party to answer technical questions in this area.

After thinking for a while, he said: "Let's talk about the collider. If China needs CERN's support and help, what are you going to do?"

Hearing Gross's words, Xu Chuan smiled. When the exchange officially began, the old professor was undoubtedly on CERN's side.

The implication of "What are you going to do?" is what China can give, in exchange for CERN's technical reserves, excellent materials, equipment, talents, etc. from CERN.

But in this regard, he has a completely different view.

Smiling, Xu Chuan said easily: "Compared to what you said, what I want to say more is what CERN can pay for the collider in exchange for the member states of the collider built in China. seats.”

"Just like China's current position at CERN, it provides corresponding scientific research funds every year and obtains corresponding jobs, research tasks, technological achievements and other things."

"Instead of saying, we have to pay something more to obtain technology from CERN."

After a slight pause, he continued: "To be honest, we have already prepared the technology to build a large strong particle collider."

“The reason why we are willing to communicate and share with CERN and other countries is that, on the one hand, CERN is indeed superior in some collider technologies.”

"On the other hand, I would rather see all physicists around the world and even all countries unite to explore the development of basic science and the more distant future."

"If this is not the case, I believe that we are fully capable of conducting research independently behind closed doors. Perhaps doing so will make our progress slower, but I think we are capable of doing it."

Now that communication has officially begun, he will naturally stand more from the standpoint of the country and himself.

The technology and some response equipment at CERN are indeed very important, but for China to build a large strong particle collider, it is not indispensable.

After listening to Xu Chuan's words, Gross shook his head and said: "I'm afraid it will be difficult for the CERN board of directors to agree to this kind of cooperation. In the field of basic science research, to be honest, China still has a long way to go."

For CERN, I am afraid that few countries will agree to using technology in exchange for China's current membership status in CERN.

Even if they have declined, it is only relatively speaking.

In the field of basic science research, it is not that CERN looks down upon others, but that China is indeed far behind.

Even with a scholar like this in front of him, he couldn't smooth out all the gaps.

Xu Chuan smiled and asked: "What about CERN's thoughts?"

Regarding the gap in basic scientific research, he must be aware of this.

Due to some historical reasons, China lags behind mainstream countries in the development of science and technology.

Although they have gradually caught up with Western countries in applied and engineering fields, in the field of basic science, they are indeed lagging behind by more than a little bit.

Not to mention other things, it is almost difficult to find the names of Chinese scholars from the scholars and pictures remembered by history in textbooks and walls of fame.

It has to be said that China indeed needs to work harder in this regard.

This is the purpose of building a large strong particle collider and introducing scholars from other countries.

Control basic scientific research equipment like the collider, attract scientists and researchers from other countries, and form an international scientific research center on this basis, and then cultivate our own talents.

Although this is a very long time line, if you want to develop, this is the only way to go in this era.

On the opposite side, David Gross said: "The council's request is to trade high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material technology, open laboratories and knowledge transfer policies."

Hearing this, Xu Chuan shook his head without thinking: "The requirements for open laboratories and knowledge transfer policies are OK, but trading high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material technology is impossible."

The two requirements of open laboratories and knowledge transfer policies are normal, and this is what CERN currently does.

If this kind of basic science field is not open to member states, it will be difficult to develop.

But high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material technology is something that is impossible to talk about without even thinking about it.

Superconducting materials are one of the cores of controllable nuclear fusion technology. The purpose of CERN's exchange is nothing more than controllable nuclear fusion.

But in this regard, China already has the advantage. How can it give up its core technology in an insignificant part?

It's impossible for him to agree, and it's even less likely that the senior management will agree.

If it were to be replaced by a low-nanometer photolithography machine or a high-precision industrial machine, he might consider it.

But as far as CERN controls those things, they are far from important.

Opposite, Professor David Gross sighed and said with a wry smile: "If this is the case, I'm afraid it will be difficult for the Council to agree to cooperation."

Xu Chuan: "To be honest, I don't think you have figured out the situation now,"

"This will be the world's first large collider with an energy level of 100 billion or even 100 billion electron volts."

"Although China does need technical support from CERN to optimize collider technology, it is not necessarily completely needed."

"With our current capabilities, we are completely able to build a complete collider independently, although it may be weaker in some functions."

"The current situation is that I give you the opportunity to participate in this matter together. It is not that we beg CERN to join in, let alone that I need to pay for the high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material technology."

"This is impossible."

Although he very much hopes that the large-scale strong ion collider built in China can replace CERN and become the new world's physics mecca, he cannot agree to some bottom-line issues.

If CERN refuses, there is a high probability that a new PK and competition will begin in this regard.

To be honest, in the competition in the field of basic science, China really does not have any advantages.

Once vicious competition forms, top foreign universities will completely reject Chinese students, which will undoubtedly be a disaster for them now.

So Xu Chuan chose to try his best to bring both parties together in the middle.

Boil the frog in warm water and slowly transfer the center of basic science from Western countries to China bit by bit.

Hearing this, Chief David Gross was silent for a moment.

On the side, Edward Witten, who had been silent, shrugged and interjected: "I have long said that this kind of deal is impractical. It is a waste of time for those idiots on the council to insist on you coming up with it."

Xu Chuan glanced at his mentor, thought for a moment, looked at Gross and said, "I know what the member states behind CERN are thinking, but this is obviously no longer within the scope of fair trade."

"I welcome all like-minded people to join the Large Strong Particle Collider project and work together to promote the development and advancement of basic science."

"The progress of civilization and science can never be supported by a single individual. It requires the efforts of countless people."

"But if you want to use this to get something extra, I can only advise you to give up this unrealistic idea."

"If you insist on being rigid on this point, I can only regret to tell you that this cooperation will not be achieved."

After a pause, he continued: "Of course, even if we are unable to cooperate with CERN and other countries, we still welcome physicists from all over the world to come here to do research."

"Including the use of collider and experimental projects, as long as the submitted experimental project is feasible and has research value, it can definitely obtain project support through review."

"But you should also be very clear that if this is the case, the opportunities available to others will be relatively smaller."

"The basis for why I'm still negotiating with you now is that CERN does have technology that can help us build and optimize the collider. This is what we need."

"What CERN can gain is membership seats, more jobs, research tasks, technological achievements and other things. Just like China is in CERN now."

PS: There will be another chapter later, please vote for me.