Ultimate Scholar

USA, State University of New York.

Next to a piece of green plants with the fragrance of birds and flowers, there is an office building next to it.

The perspective penetrated through the window, and the office door was knocked frequently.

After a while, an old man's voice sounded in the office: "Please come in."

"Professor Stanley! Did you see it? It was the paper on arxiv recently!"

The door was opened, and Professor Northenton rushed in, and said excitedly to the old man in the office.

The old man's name was Stanley Whittingham.

And his name can be said to be known to everyone in the chemical world.

Because at the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry award ceremony last year, he, John Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino jointly won the Chemistry Award in recognition of their outstanding contributions to lithium-ion batteries.

The lithium-ion battery they developed is one of the most important necessities in today's human society.

Because of this, they are also known as the father of lithium batteries.

Stanley is already very old this year. He was born in 1940 and is now eighty years old.

But even so, he still looks strong and wise.

Seeing Professor Northenton look so excited, Stanley put down the coffee cup in his hand and asked with a smile, "What kind of paper can make you look like this."

"It's the paper that was recently published on arxiv." Northenton said, "It's called "Electronic Dynamic Mechanism and Two Types of Conductor Interface Reaction Mechanism"."

"I don't pay much attention to arxiv." Stanley shook his head: "Now I can't look at the screen for a long time, and usually read the paper version."

But then he became interested: "Of course, the title you mentioned made me very interesting, electron dynamics mechanism? And conductor interface reaction mechanism? It sounds like a connection between the study of physics on electrons and electrochemistry. stand up?"

Northenton was taken aback for a moment, and then exclaimed: "As expected of Professor Stanley, it is indeed the case. This paper connects these two parts, and the method used can be said to be very wonderful."

"Let me take a look."

Stanley said immediately.

Turn on the computer and enter the arxiv website.

arxiv is a well-known preprint website in academia, and its biggest role is to occupy pits.

Because it often takes several months for a paper to be submitted to a journal and published, and during these months, other papers with the same results and conclusions may be published first.

After all, the review speed of different journals is different, and this situation is not uncommon under the review time difference.

In this way, the papers submitted first will be rejected.

At this time, the role of the arxiv website can be reflected.

When the thesis is completed but not yet published, the preprint of the thesis can be published on this website in advance to "occupy pits".

When major journals review manuscripts, they will also refer to the papers on this website to check the manuscripts for plagiarism.

Of course, in addition to this role, arxiv can also be used to discuss issues in your papers with peers and ask peers for their opinions.

Finally, it is the kind of people who want to share their research results as soon as possible, and do not want to wait a few months before the paper passes the review and is published.

The four papers written by Li Mu fall into this last category.

In Stanley's office, he quickly searched for the paper with the help of Northenton.

"I just submitted it the day before yesterday... Well, download the pdf."

After a while, Stanley opened the article.

He put on his glasses and looked carefully.

This paper is not long, only a dozen pages, which is already very short compared to other papers.

However, the information and content inside are very solid, and the content on almost every page is the essence.

Looking at it like this, the surprise in Stanley's eyes became more and more serious.

"This mathematical analysis... is really wonderful!"

Although his mathematics is not strong, and even relatively weak, it is enough for the content of this paper.

And the use of mathematical tools in this paper alone is enough to be called one of the best papers he has seen in so many years.

You know, as an 80-year-old Nobel laureate, he has read countless articles, and being able to receive such an award from him is enough to prove the value of this article.

Finally, about an hour later, he finished the paper.

Professor Northenton next to him never left, and followed Stanley to read the article again, and after reading it the second time, he was even more amazed.

marvelous!

Then he turned to look at Stanley and asked, "What do you think?"

Stanley didn't speak, but just returned to the arxiv interface and searched for the other three papers mentioned in this article.

"Analysis of Electrochemical Ion Dynamic Mechanism"

"Computational Chemistry Models of Interfacial Reactions of Two Types of Conductors"

"Electrokinetic Analysis of Electronic Behavior at the Interface of Two Types of Conductors"

It took him a little more effort to read all three papers. Except for the one "Analysis of Electrochemical Ion Dynamic Mechanism", he couldn't even understand the other two papers, because for him, the other two papers This article already belongs to another field.

But this does not prevent him from being able to see the close connection between these four papers.

Finally, he took off his glasses.

In the eyes that have become a little cloudy due to age, the excitement of seeing the truth is revealed at this moment.

"Wonderful, so wonderful!"

"I really didn't expect that after so many years, I could see such a major achievement in the field of theoretical chemistry!"

"These papers are completely innovative for theoretical chemistry!"

He stood up excitedly from his seat.

After a while, he suddenly turned his head and looked at Northenton: "Who is the author of this paper? I want to meet him!"

Northen was taken aback for a moment, and then a helpless expression appeared on his face: "It may be difficult to meet this author...because he is a native of China."

"Hua people?" Stanley was taken aback, "Who is it?"

"You may not believe it when you say it. This Huaguo man is only 20 years old this year, and he is still studying for an undergraduate degree, and he himself studies mathematics."

"You may have heard his name before, because he is the MuLi who proved the hail conjecture in mathematics this year."

Hearing Northenton's words, Stanley was shocked and speechless at his age.

It wasn't until quite a while later that he came back to his senses and said, "Professor Northenton, I would like to trouble you to send an invitation letter to this MuLi and ask him if he would like to be my student."

"ah?"

Northenton was shocked, Stanley actually planned to accept Li Mu as a student?

Without waiting for him to ask more questions, Stanley walked aside again, picked up his mobile phone and made a call.

"Gudinough, guess what I just discovered..."

Hearing this "Gudinough", Northenton knew who it was.

It is another father of lithium batteries who won the award with Stanley.

Obviously, Stanley was excited and shared this incident with his old friend.

Northenton was slightly moved in his heart.

Stanley's performance probably foreshadowed that the chemistry world would be shaken for a while.