Universe dominance

The space city where the Imperial Institute of Materials Science is located is bustling with activity. Because of the emergence of magnetic energy technology, Imperial scientists have opened a new door, and atomic materials science has officially entered the field of vision of Imperial scientists.

Countless scientists studying materials science began to research in the field of atomic materials science as if they had found a treasure. Countless new materials began to emerge continuously. Materials science, which had previously reached a bottleneck, began to shine with infinite brilliance. The hardness and durability of materials Data on various aspects such as high temperature began to be refreshed continuously.

Hardness 1000, hardness 2000, 3000, various new materials made of atomic materials constantly refresh the original material hardness data with unprecedented data; high temperature resistance 10000 degrees, 200 million degrees, 30000 degrees, high temperature resistant materials field There are also countless powerful materials emerging that will refresh the record over and over again.

Just like a flood bursting from a dam, or like being enlightened by someone's enlightenment, the development of the field of material science in the Empire has been at an unprecedented speed and has continuously achieved surprising results one after another.

Xu Xingsi Laboratory, with his outstanding contributions in the field of materials science, Xu Xingsi has now become a giant in the field of materials science in the Empire and a pioneer in the field of atomic materials science.

At this time, Xu Xingsi's eyes were fixed on a monitor, and he looked towards the middle of the laboratory from time to time. A strange machine was constantly working. On the monitor, things with the same atomic structure were being continuously combined to form one by one. three-dimensional structure.

Atomic materials science uses powerful magnetic field constraint devices. Of course, this power must have been carefully calculated by scientists. It will not happen again like last time. The power of the magnetic energy cannon has amazed countless people. It is used to create atomic materials. It only requires a small amount of power.

The machine is constantly running. If it is not through the display, it is impossible to know the changes in the materials in the laboratory at this time, because to the naked eye, there is nothing in the middle of the laboratory except the machine that is constantly running. It seems to be empty.

However, Xu Xingsi knew that not long ago, there were several tons of steel inside, but now all this steel has disappeared.

Of course, this kind of disappearance is not really disappearing, but it is no longer visible with the naked eye. Because it is rearranged from a very small atomic perspective, the unit density has increased by an unknown number of times, just like a huge mass. The cotton looks like a lot, but if squeezed together it will become a very small ball.

Or it's like air. The volume of compressed air is less than one ten thousandth or one hundred thousandth of the original volume of air. If it is compressed and arranged from an atomic perspective, the volume will be even smaller by an unknown number of times. , a few tons of steel disappeared like this.

It's not that they really disappeared, but that these steels were rearranged and built from an atomic perspective by atomic material machines, so now they are invisible to the naked eye. Only an electron microscope can see that they have become very small. A very small piece of new material.

"Didi, we don't have enough raw materials!"

The sound of the siren interrupted Xu Xingsi's contemplation. Several tons of steel were sent in. He watched the steel slowly disappear, but until now, not even a shadow was seen.

"Send another ten tons of steel in."

Xu Xingsi gave the order very decisively, as if he had become accustomed to all this. Degenerate materials are very powerful, but the same degenerate materials are also very difficult to create.

Several tons of steel are reshaped by atoms, and the new material created is invisible to the naked eye. You can imagine how much steel is consumed if you want to get a usable piece of material.

Soon, the machine once again sent the material in, and the atomic material machine began to work again. On the display, under the guidance of a powerful magnetic field beam, countless iron atoms were superimposed very obediently according to the set positions. These Atoms are constantly combined into a three-dimensional geometric pattern. If you look carefully, you will find that these atoms form a regular hexagonal three-dimensional geometric pattern.

Imperial scientists have studied graphite, coke and diamond and know that their atoms are essentially the same. They are all composed of carbon atoms. However, the continuous arrangement and distribution of carbon atoms creates the difference in quality between graphite, coke and diamond. The performance of these three things, coke and diamond, is tens of millions of times different, and their own values ​​cannot be compared at all.

Therefore, once the science of atomic materials was born, scientists in the empire were very keen to change the distribution of different atomic materials, thus obtaining countless new materials that had never been obtained before.

The same is true for Xu Xingsi at this time. He is trying to use iron atoms to form a three-dimensional collection structure similar to diamond, hoping to obtain an atomic material powerful enough to support the warp engine.

The content on the monitor remains unchanged, but the ten tons of steel sent into the laboratory continue to disappear at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if they are missing for no reason. As long as the atomic material machine passes by these steels, the steel will It will lose some quickly.

Ten tons of steel, one hundred tons of steel, one thousand tons of steel...

As more and more steel is sent into the laboratory, in the middle of the laboratory, materials that were previously invisible to the naked eye can finally be seen with the naked eye. Thousands of tons of steel, after being made of atomic materials, become a piece of steel. Just a piece of material the size of a fingernail.

This material is a rectangular piece, very thin, completely black, and faintly emitting light. Although it is small, this piece of material is made of thousands of tons of steel, and its weight is also thousands of tons, so that here in the laboratory They had to shut down the gravity production device, otherwise, such a small volume and such a heavy weight would be enough to deform the steel in the laboratory.

"Haha, I finally succeeded. I only got such a small piece of more than 6,000 tons of steel. Wow, this degenerate material is really expensive."

Xu Xingsi was very happy on one side, but also sighed on the other side, with more than 6,000 tons of steel, even though interstellar mining is very popular in the empire now, and there are a lot of asteroids mined, there are still many places where steel is needed in the interstellar era.

The steel consumed by each spaceship and space battleship is calculated in tens of thousands of tons or billions of tons. Therefore, the price of this steel has always remained high in the empire, and the interstellar mining industry has also made huge profits because of this. It is really The market demand is so hot that there are many places where steel is needed.

A meal of steel costs almost 1,000 yuan in the empire. These 6,000 tons of steel add up to more than 6 million yuan. It doesn’t seem very expensive, but you must know that this is the empire’s currency, a constant-value energy currency, and the most important thing is The material made from more than 6 million worth of steel is only the size of a fingernail.

Such a small size is of no use at all. You must know that if such materials are used to build a spaceship or a space battleship, even if the empire is now wealthy, it will still go bankrupt. The cost is astronomical, even if the empire is wealthy. To be unbearable.

Even if it is only used to build the engine of a space battleship, that is, to make a warp engine, given the size of the spacecraft, the degenerate materials consumed will be very terrifying, because the warp speed of the spacecraft and space battleship The speed engine is also very large.

"The degenerate material has been created, but to create a warp engine, the cost is 12,345..."

Xu Xingsi looked at the computer. The computer was constantly calculating how much money it would cost to build a warp engine with degenerate materials. Counting them down one by one, the series of numbers were astronomical.

"100 trillion!"

At the end of the count, Xu Xingsi couldn't help but widen his eyes. Based on the size of the anti-gravity engines on the existing Imperial space battleships, it would take a lot of time to use degenerate materials to create a warp engine of the same size. will reach an astonishing 100 trillion yuan.

100 trillion yuan, what is this concept? The empire has developed to the present and has more than 30 galaxies and nearly 40 living planets. However, the empire’s annual fiscal revenue is only less than 1000 trillion yuan. In other words, the empire’s annual fiscal revenue It's just barely enough to build 10 warp engines.

From here we can know how expensive these degenerate materials are. If the national power is weak, even if the technology for manufacturing degenerate materials can be developed, the lack of strong national power is fundamental to truly apply degenerate materials. It can't be done.

Of course, this is only based on the current situation of the empire. The technology of mining asteroids has been continuously developing, the price of steel within the empire has also been slowly declining, and the empire’s economic development speed is also very rapid. In a few decades, The empire will be able to do so with ease.

But now, for the empire, faced with such an astronomical price, even if the empire has the strength to create a warp engine, the imperial cabinet prime minister Tu Xuelia can't help but shakes his hands when signing the signature, the imperial cabinet finance minister His whole face turned dark.

Because in order to build a warp engine, the Empire's already abundant finances will suddenly become stretched thin. As the Minister of Finance, he will have a very difficult life in the future. There are holes to fill everywhere. It is not easy to save money. If you order some belongings, you will consume them all in no time.

But the money that should be spent still has to be spent, especially when it comes to scientific research funding, which is also related to the empire's national security and the improvement of its military strength. The empire's consistent principle is to do whatever it takes, and this money will definitely not be spent in vain.