Tech Hammer

After a brief exchange of greetings, everyone followed Ning Wei to pick up Jiang classmate from the plane, and then set off to the hotel. Probably because the time and place were not very good, the entire reception process was not too redundant.

Basically, everyone just said hello and became familiar with each other.

There were also gentlemen who praised Ning Wei's talent and classmate Jiang's beauty, both male and female.

Thanks to this simple reception process, Ning Wei was able to pat his chest and say seriously that he knew what the streets of Geneva were like at around four in the morning.

It's very quiet, there are no cars or people on the road, and the street looks quite clean. Of course, it may be that the street lights are not very bright...

The hotel arranged by CERN is the ibis Saint-Genipouille Geneva Hotel, located in the Merlin area of ​​Geneva. The straight-line distance from the CERN headquarters is only about 1 kilometer. Of course, if you drive, it will be about 2.2 kilometers, but in Edwin George's words He said that if you take a car from the hotel entrance to the CERN headquarters, you can usually arrive within ten minutes. If there is no traffic jam, this time can even be reduced to three minutes.

How should I put it, this is probably the best arrangement. Basically, this is the closest high-end hotel to the CERN headquarters, and the hotels that are even closer will go downhill. Obviously, as the director of CERN, although he showed a very friendly attitude towards Ning Wei's arrival, he obviously did not intend to let Ning Wei live in the CERN headquarters.

Probably because Ning Wei gave enough this time, or to express respect or apology, CERN reserved an entire floor of the hotel to receive the security personnel accompanying Ning Wei and Jiang.

Yes, I came to CERN this time without any supporting researchers, so there was no need.

If nothing else, at least half of the world's particle and high-energy physicists are resident here. Among these more than 12,000 physicists, there are also many Chinese physicists. They are definitely more familiar with the operations here than domestic scholars. According to the rules, the assistant has already been contacted early.

When they arrived at the hotel, everyone else left politely. Only Edwin George sent Ning Wei to the room.

Ning Wei doesn't know if the luxurious three-room suite is a presidential suite. Anyway, the interior is a standard European decoration. If I have to say the feeling, it is probably better than the hotels he has stayed in abroad in his life. There is even a special study room. You can also talk and work.

After the waiter took the tip and left, Edwin George did not leave with him. Instead, after classmate Jiang politely said that she would go to the bedroom to pack her luggage first, she glanced at Liu Wei, and then politely pointed in the direction of the study. , said: "Dr. Ning, if you still have energy, why don't we go to the study room to chat first?"

"Of course, no problem, please." Ning Wei made a gesture of invitation.

Following Edwin George into the study, Ning Wei looked at the display cabinets in the study, pointed at the drinks inside and asked, "Do you want a drink?"

"No, this time is not suitable for a drink. I have to prepare for a simple chat." Edwin George quickly refused.

"Okay." Ning Wei shrugged and took the master's seat behind the desk. He stretched out his hands and held the edge of the desk. It seemed to feel good.

Edwin George first asked politely: "How is it? Dr. Ning, are you satisfied with the room?"

Ning Wei nodded and replied: "It's quite good, you have good intentions. But we are friends, and our Chinese tradition is that there is no need to be polite between friends, Mr. George. So if you have any questions, just ask them directly." Well, as long as it doesn’t affect my experiment, I can discuss any issues.”

Edwin George smiled and nodded, then sat up straight, hesitated for a moment, probably after sorting out his words, and then spoke slowly: "That's it, Dr. Ning, because your experimental plan requires When using the LHC, generally speaking, it will last six to seven months after the LHC starts operating. We will determine this time based on the operating status of the LHC. The time for the before and after experiments is about one year, and then there is the maintenance period."

"Especially since the year before last, we have been preparing for higher energy. The LHC has also entered the overhaul stage, and there are still some final finishing tasks that have not been completed. And you also know that the cost of shutting down or restarting the LHC is very high. So in order to ensure nothing goes wrong, the feedback given to me by the engineering department is that it will take at least half a month before the trial start can be carried out."

"But I have already coordinated. Before the LHC starts, other equipment can be opened to you first. The only problem is that at this stage, everyone still has doubts about directly accessing the March data analysis system, because we have previously cooperated with NASA. The AMS project is now in a critical period. As you should know about the AMS project, they are only one step away from being able to prove that there is dark matter in the world. The data is now being processed in our Atela control room... "

Hearing this, Ning Wei frowned, looked at Edwin George and said: "Mr. George, I can accept that the LHC will start up in half a month. This is a long experimental process, and I can understand it. But the pre-experiment If we can't use our own data collection system, it means nothing to me. This is what we said before, are you going to go back on it?"

Edwin George hurriedly said: "No, no, no, Dr. Ning, you misunderstood. In fact, it's just the opposite. In fact, we hope to eliminate doubts through full communication, and then use the processing power of the March Intelligent Data Platform to try Analyze the data collected by the AMS project. As you know, this project plans to rely on the magnetic spectrometer on the International Space Station to collect various information, but now the International Space Station is about to enter the countdown to retirement. Of course, these data can be archived and slowly Do the analysis, but what if...after all, a lot has been invested.”

Listening to Edwin George's narration, Ning Wei's expression became more and more strange, and then he asked in a self-doubting tone: "Well, let me tell you, Mr. George, do you mean that this AMS project wants to use us?" The March data processing system is used for data processing, hoping to find evidence of the existence of dark matter through our system, but only if I need to prove to them that our March data processing system will not cause any harm to their data security. Influence?"

Ning Wei's tone obviously made Edwin George a little embarrassed, and he replied with a wry smile: "Dr. Ning, please understand that this project has been planned since the last century, and it has included too many people until now. It’s a lot of hard work and there’s a lot of historical data, so it’s normal to be worried, right?”

Ning Wei shrugged and said in an indifferent tone: "Of course I can understand this. In fact, I have no problem. But we also have confidentiality requirements for March's database and computing mechanism, so if we really want to connect the AMS project to us We can only use the system to perform calculations, and I can only guarantee that the data will never be leaked from us. We can sign a contract, but if we are required to disclose the calculation mechanism or open the database, that is absolutely impossible."

Edwin George continued to smile bitterly. In fact, he could have imagined this result.

How would you evaluate the young man opposite?

People are very generous, and they have no scruples about spending huge sums of money. But in fact, looking at Ning Wei's clothes, compared with him spending a billion dollars just to do an experiment, he can only be described as living a simple life.

Yes, although Edwin George is the director of a scientific research institution, in addition to dealing with scientists, he also has many opportunities to sit and have lunch with those rich people. His eyes are naturally vicious. He is even sure that he would rather wear this suit. Bundle, most likely it will not exceed 200 francs.

What is the concept of 200 francs? Probably Ning Wei's whole body is worth only one-tenth of the value of a bow tie for those rich people. But Edwin George knew that it was absolutely impossible to imagine wealthy people spending a billion dollars to fund a project that was still theoretical.

It is normal for such people to be difficult to deal with. There is no way to figure out the thoughts of people like Ning Wei using ideas that ordinary people can understand.

Edwin George also knows such people, but most of them are academic leaders. They are not willing to pay more money for such a young person.

"Okay, I will inform them of your thoughts. Well, it's getting late today. You should have a good rest first. You can go shopping in Merlin today. At nine o'clock tomorrow morning, I will pick you up on time to go to CERN for formal How about honoring our contract?"

"Wait, not today?"

"Uh... Dr. Ning, do you really don't need to rest? After all, it's more than 10,000 kilometers."

"I actually slept well on the plane and I feel very energetic now."

"Dr. Ning, let's start tomorrow. As we have communicated before, we still have some predetermined plans to deal with before officially starting the experiment. Of course, if you have time at noon, I think Mr. Peter from ASML will definitely spare the time." It’s time to have lunch with you. Of course, I’ll come over in the evening after I’ve sorted everything out.”

"Well, there is a saying in China that guests do as they please."

"Thanks!"

…

Edwin George said goodbye politely and left the hotel.

Then Ning Wei and Jiang, under Liu Wei's arrangement, moved to the opposite room that had undergone strict security checks, and finally settled down.

Ning Wei felt that this level of caution was a little too much, but Liu Wei revealed the safety guidelines designated by March, leaving him speechless.

Fortunately, the new room is actually not bad, it just lacks one room. It has a living room, master bedroom, and study room.

The time was a little awkward. It was already five o'clock when Edwin George left, and it took another half an hour to change rooms and settle in. Ning Wei was in good spirits, but Jiang was obviously not used to resting on the plane, so because he accompanied Jiang The classmate was tender for a moment, until he heard the woman starting to breathe evenly beside him, then he climbed up gently from the bed, left the bedroom, went to the study room and turned on the computer.

It was not for my own experimental project, but for the AMS project mentioned by Edwin George.

The full name of the AMS project is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Project. Simply put, it uses a magnetic spectrometer to search for various materials and rays in the universe, measure various elemental components in the universe, and use it to analyze the origin and development of the universe...

It has been nearly twenty years since the project was launched, and there have naturally been many achievements. For example, the data collected have proven that the proton flux intensity cannot be simply described as a single power law spectrum, and that the proton energy spectrum index changes with energy. This The discovery also changed mankind's general understanding of cosmic rays for decades.

About ten years ago, it was rumored that there are six characteristics of excessive positrons produced by dark matter collisions. Five of them, including starting point, rising rate, and highest point, have been measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, but the last piece of the puzzle is still missing. It can confirm the existence of dark matter from the side, and even make a theoretical model about dark matter.

But as Edwin George just stated, ten years have passed, and the academic community has still not been able to fully prove whether dark matter actually exists. It is still only observational evidence on paper.

To put it bluntly, the theory of the existence of dark matter is based on the inability of existing theories to explain people's observations of the universe. Initially, astronomers observed that the stars at the edge of the galaxy travel at an abnormal speed, exceeding expectations. Neither Newtonian mechanics F=ma nor Einstein's general theory of relativity can theoretically explain this situation because the mass can be predicted.

Unless there is a substance that humans have not discovered through various observation methods, it is possible to explain this situation. And after verification, if this kind of substance actually exists in the galaxy, this speed can be consistent with the observation. Hence the theory of dark matter.

But a theory is just a theory after all. From a physical point of view, if you want to determine the real existence of dark matter, you need to find dark matter particles. The current mainstream idea is that dark matter is a subatomic particle that does not interact through electromagnetism and does not have strong or weak nuclear forces.

Unfortunately, neither the AMS project nor the LHC collider has collected evidence of the existence of new particles with this characteristic. Therefore, we can only rely on confirming the existence of dark matter from the side, which is also the most important mission of the AMS project.

This kind of anxiety may be difficult for ordinary people to understand, but as a colleague, I would rather empathize with this kind of anxiety.

After all, human lifespan is limited. How many people have spent their youth on this project just to understand the operating logic of the universe. If this cannot be proven until death, the regret will definitely be worse than if a person runs out of money. It’s even more painful to spend it.

It happened to be the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The computing power displayed in March once again shocked the world, and even the entire academic world. Naturally, more people were interested.

Of course, what attracted Ning Wei was the nearly 100 billion cosmic ray data collected by the AMS experiment, which captured tens of millions of electrons and positrons. These data can be said to be the precipitation of time...

How to describe it? Some people call the ancient company code the "ancestral shit mountain". If it is moved even slightly, the shit may collapse. Therefore, there is a saying that if the ancestral code can run away, it must not be moved.

The AMS data also seems like such an "ancestral shit mountain". At first glance, it is all shit, but upon closer inspection, it is still shit. But what is certain is that there must be gold in this pile of shit. The only question is, how Can separate gold from mountains of shit...

Fittingly…that’s March’s forte!