As fireworks exploded in the sky at this moment of 12 o'clock.
It also announces the arrival of the new year.
I had New Year's Eve dinner with my family, and then watched the Spring Festival Gala until after twelve o'clock. Xiao Yi stood in front of the balcony of his room, looking at the night sky outside the window.
The house he lives in now is the villa he bought for nearly 20 million.
However, because he did not show up in person when he bought the house, and because he usually drove in and out of the car, his identity was always kept secret, so people here probably never thought that the most famous genius scientist in the country now lives in the same community with them.
Looking at the rising light in the sky and the exploding fireworks, Xiao Yi rarely lost the rational and scientific discussion in his heart, and some were left with only the sigh of this beautiful scenery.
However, there are still relatively few people setting off firecrackers. Although fireworks are prohibited in the city, there are always some brave ones.
As 12 o'clock passed, the sound of fireworks became less and less.
"Okay, it's time to go to bed."
Returning to bed, he closed his eyes.
Before falling asleep, he briefly thought about what he would do after the New Year.
The first thing is about officially becoming a Plasma Institute researcher.
Although he has decided to join Plasma Institute, since it is already the end of the year and there is no time to go through some relevant procedures, he will postpone this matter until after the year.
Of course, this does not mean that he will quit other units. Generally, capable scholars will hold positions in multiple units.
For example, in addition to being the director of Science Island Laboratory and the professor of USTC, he is still a researcher at Physics Research Institute and Mathematics Research Institute, and he can still get a salary.
When he proved NS equation before, Physics Research Institute and Mathematics Research Institute also celebrated it. I heard that banners and other things were hung up, as well as promotional posters.
Some time ago, I invited him to give a report there.
Of course, when we talk about the report meeting, we have to mention the report in March.
Originally, he thought that this report meeting would not be too troublesome, but now he learned that more than 1,000 people had signed up to participate in this report meeting, including many foreigners.
So when the time comes, this report will no longer be simple even if it wants to be simple.
I heard that the government is planning to expand the scale of his lecture and organize it into a two-day academic exchange. The first day will be his academic report, and the second day will be an exchange meeting.
After all, there are many highly skilled talents among those who came to attend this report, so the government also hopes to retain such talents.
He didn't have any objections to this. Anyway, he was responsible for making his own report. How many people could be retained at that time depended on the efforts of the government.
No matter what, this is a rare opportunity. After all, there are not many foreign talents willing to come to China. Now his report will provide such an opportunity. It would be best if the government can seize the opportunity.
All in all, these are the two short-term tasks now.
Join Plasma Institute and complete the certification report of NS equation.
As for long-term tasks...
The complex trajectory of plasma flow in Tokamak device resurfaced in his mind.
Achieve controllable nuclear fusion.
Before, he felt that this research was far away from him.
But now, he suddenly felt a certain anxiety about what human technology could achieve.
Therefore, he now wants to give himself an answer to the question of whether controllable nuclear fusion can be realized.
The thoughts in his mind gradually turned into chaos as he became sleepy, and finally, he fell into sleep.
Probably because he was thinking about it day by day and dreaming about it at night, in his dream tonight, he dreamed of a future human world with extremely advanced technology, even reaching a level 2.0 civilization.
Not only can Dyson Sphere be built around the sun, it can even achieve space navigation across stars.
As for controllable nuclear fusion, not only has it been realized a long time ago, it has even been realized to the third generation of nuclear fusion, Helium-3 fusion. Since such a fusion reaction hardly produces neutrons, the radiation damage to the first wall material is lower than that of deuterium-tritium fusion. It is much lower, and the lifespan of the nuclear fusion reactor has also been greatly improved. After a spacecraft is equipped with the Helium-3 fusion reactor, it can sail in the universe for at least fifty years without landing. If it is replenished with fuel, it is not a problem to even sail for a hundred years.
Productivity has been greatly improved, and everything has reached a level unimaginable by humans in the 21st century.
As for himself, because of his various huge breakthroughs in the field of nuclear fusion, he has become the chief scientist of human civilization and has received countless admirations.
But suddenly, he suddenly realized that he was awake, and it turned out that he had just been in a dream.
After waking up, he found that he was actually in the 25th century. Not to mention how he lived to the 25th century, but in the 25th century, although science has been quite developed, especially in network technology, it has reached an unprecedented height, including the metaverse. The metaverse has been completely built. Almost most young people have invested their time in the metaverse, and there are very few young people who want to be scientists.
At this time, Scientific Community has almost no way forward in the future. Although humans have been able to immigrate to the moon and Mars and establish human bases, quantum communication technology has also undergone tremendous development and has been fully applied to network technology, allowing humans on the three planets of the Earth, Moon, and Mars to achieve communication without delay.
However, the most critical energy technology has completely stagnated.
Although controllable nuclear fusion has been achieved, even Q value can reach 10.
However, the nuclear fusion reactors built by humans can only maintain the operation of the reactor for one year, and must be shut down for maintenance after one year. This is mainly because the most important first wall material has never achieved a critical breakthrough, and scientists no longer know what kind of molecular structure can withstand the erosion of high-energy neutrons and can make good use of the energy generated by the reaction. The development of materials has reached its limit.
The reactor, which is shut down for maintenance once a year, has been used by them for four centuries. A key raw material required for it has almost been used up by them. Only a hundred years' share is left. This raw material has been mined on the earth, Mars and the moon.
When all this critical raw material is used up, fusion reactors around the world will have to be shut down.
At that time, mankind will fall from today's prosperity to the level without controllable nuclear fusion four centuries ago.
You know, in today's society, because the Metaverse has become the main way of life for humans, 80% of the world's industries are related to the Metaverse, and these Metaverse technologies are basically maintained by quantum communication technology. The power consumption of the entire society has increased hundreds of times compared to before.
Once there is no maintenance of nuclear fusion, what will become of the people who have lost the metaverse is simply unimaginable.
And just the people are nothing.
Governments around the world have also become aware of this problem.
If this problem cannot be solved scientifically, then there is only one way left, which is to reduce the overall electricity consumption, or simply to directly reduce the population.
Because of the prosperity brought about by nuclear fusion for centuries, the human population has once again experienced several centuries of expansion. Until now, the total population living on the three planets has reached 20 billion people, especially on Earth, where more than 15 billion people live.
Therefore, if the population is reduced by half, then those raw materials can be used for at least another 200 years, and if the population is reduced by three-quarters, then those raw materials can be used for another 400 years!
Therefore, those weak countries were once again ravaged by war.
It is not even ruled out that such things will happen in human bases on the moon and Mars.
After all, the casualties caused by destroying human bases on Mars and the moon will definitely be far higher than those caused on earth.
Once a human base is destroyed, no humans living inside can escape.
So until one day.
Xiao Yi is also the most important scientist in the world in this dream, and went to the Mars base for an investigation.
And just as he was out of the cabin for inspection, he suddenly saw a flash of fire in the distant sky, and he could clearly recognize that flash of fire as a missile. In the end, the missile landed on the head of the base behind him.
With a bang, the base exploded completely, with broken torsos and limbs flying everywhere. Even those who survived were suffocated and died because they were directly exposed to the Martian air because they were not wearing protective clothing.
And he and the team around him were all blown away by the powerful shock wave because they were very close to the explosion point.
When he fell to the ground, he realized that his mask had a hole and leaked, and his eyes gradually showed sadness.
On the bed, Xiao Yi suddenly sat up and took a few deep breaths.
It wasn't until a moment later that he calmed down, looked at his surroundings, and suddenly realized.
"It turned out to be a dream."
And there is also a layer of dreams within dreams.
Recall the details.
The dream within the dream is that mankind has found the development direction of science and technology. The prospects of material technology are endless. In the past, materials that only existed in fantasy can really be realized in the real world.
In the dream, the development of science and technology has reached its end, and material technology has finally reached its limit, which has left mankind with the only option of sitting on the mountain and eating the mountain. When the mountain is completely eaten, all that is left is destruction.
Of course, in the dream, Xiao Yi still remembered some details. Scientists in the field of the metaverse are respected by the vast majority of people. If teenagers want to become scientists, the vast majority of them will choose to become metaverse scientists instead of Materials Science, nuclear physics and other fields.
Scientists like him who studied nuclear fusion were respected by all mankind centuries ago. However, centuries later, because materials technology has no future, he and his team have not produced results for a long time. Therefore, in the last century, people have lost respect for him, and because they have spent a lot of money, they have never succeeded. High-level government officials have also lost patience, resulting in a huge reduction in their funding.
"So, is this the other end of mankind if technology fails to advance?"
Xiao Yi felt anxious again.
Come to your senses.
Fortunately, we are still in the 21st century.
At least, there is the GOOD END scene of a dream within a dream.
It is said that the scenes in dreams and reality are opposite, so the scenes in dreams and reality should be the same, right?
At this time, Xiao Yi couldn't help but begin to believe such a thing.
Time passed quickly.
Not much else happened during the New Year.
But there are accidents. His mother became familiar with an old lady who lived next door, and then the old lady came up to pay New Year's greetings one day, and she also saw Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi doesn't intend to let others know that his family lives in this community, otherwise, just thinking about it, he knows how troublesome it will be.
Fortunately, the old lady did not recognize Xiao Yi, which is normal when you think about it. After all, elderly people like her generally do not pay attention to the Internet. Basically, only young people can recognize Xiao Yi when they see him.
However, the old lady's eyes lit up when she saw Xiao Yi. She asked him how old he was. When she learned that he was only 21 years old, she shook her head regretfully and said that she had a daughter in her thirties who was not married yet and was now a teacher at USTC. At Xiao Yi's age, she was still just a student.
Xiao Yi was speechless.
Old lady, do you need to tell me how old my mother is, how old you are, and the age gap between these children?
He actually wanted to go on a blind date.
Too much!
But no matter what, the old lady thought that since he was still a student, it wouldn't be a big problem.
At least there is no need to worry about his identity being spread in this community in the future.
But the only problem is that the old lady said that although her daughter is a teacher, she is very homely at ordinary times. She is in her thirties. She usually stays in the game room and plays games when she comes home.
Mother Xiao said with a smile that he was already able to work as a teacher at USTC. Maybe he was just relaxing by playing games.
However, the expression of Xiao Yi next to him became weirder and weirder the more he listened to it. According to the old lady's description, why did the image of this female teacher USTC become more and more concrete in his mind?
This little episode passed quickly, and the few days of the Spring Festival also passed by.
People started to go back to work.
Xiao Yi was no exception and returned to his post.
Similarly, Plasma Institute has also been reworked.
So on the third day after the Lantern Festival, Xiao Yi came to Plasma Institute and participated in a welcome ceremony specially prepared for him.
"Welcome Professor Xiao Yi to officially join our Plasma Institute!"
In a conference room, Zhao Zhanyou, as the director, handed the letter of appointment to Xiao Yi.
Xiao Yi accepted the appointment letter. He joined Plasma Institute as Special Appointed Researcher. Special Appointed Researcher is a senior scientific and technological expert specially hired for the needs of the unit's discipline construction, and the personnel relationship remains with the original unit.
He came to Plasma Institute for the construction of controllable nuclear fusion.
Amid the applause of the crowd, Xiao Yi bowed to the leaders and researchers of the research institute present, and then said, "First of all, I am honored to be Special Appointed Researcher of Plasma Institute. I would also like to thank Director Zhao and Academician Li for the invitation."
"To be honest, joining Plasma Institute was not something I did on the spur of the moment. When I was studying Greenwald limit, I had already started to have a very strong interest in nuclear fusion. Until a few years ago, I participated in an ignition experiment of our institute, which doubled my interest..."
Listening to Xiao Yi's speech, Li Jiangan said to Zhao Zhanyou with a smile, "Look, I knew that letting Xiao Yi be responsible for ignition would definitely make him interested."
Zhao Zhanyou said, "You are right, but I think the key is that I asked him to study Greenwald limit in the first place."
Li Jiangan twitched his lips, but after thinking about it, it seemed to make sense, so he didn't bother to argue with him.
But then, what Xiao Yi said made them all stunned.
"But to be honest, the more I learn about it, the more I feel suffocated."
"How can the most critical first wall material technology required for nuclear fusion be realized? Is there such a structure that can help materials under electromagnetic interaction force to resist the impact of high-energy neutrons, or to withstand the high temperature of plasma?"
"As you can imagine, the requirements for materials are too high."
"So, I have to think about it, is there any chance of realizing controllable nuclear fusion? We all know the logic. If nuclear fusion cannot be realized, and no energy technology can be found to replace nuclear fusion, then human beings will always be trapped in the small space and time of the earth, living and dying, unaware of the obscurity of the universe.
But even if this is achieved, how to ensure that the reactor can operate for a long time? "
"What if the reactor cannot operate for a long time and the first wall material is continuously consumed. As this material is used up, will nuclear fusion become an unfeasible technology?"
"I know I think this way too much. After all, it will be hundreds of years later. What does it have to do with me? It just needs to be able to achieve controllable nuclear fusion."
"But this is a matter that belongs to all human sciences. We may not need to consider it, but we have an obligation to consider it."
"So, in the next time, I will devote most of my energy and time to the research of first wall materials. No matter what the final answer is, I also hope to be able to see the future route."
Listening to Xiao Yi's words, Zhao Zhanyou was stunned.
Li Jiangan also fell silent.
They thought that Xiao Yi joined Plasma Institute just because he was interested in nuclear fusion, but what they didn't expect was that he thought so far.
In other words, it's a bit emotional.
But then I thought about it, Xiao Yi is a young man.
It seems normal for him to have such thoughts.
But they themselves would never consider such a problem.
For them, being able to achieve nuclear fusion is already a dream. Who cares what materials will be exhausted in how many years?
Whether they can survive until then is a question. All they need to do is——
Believe in the wisdom of future generations.
As Xiao Yi's induction speech ended, Li Jiangan stood up and clapped his hands.
"Professor Xiao, I have nothing to say, but all I can do is support you all the time."
Zhao Zhanyou also stood up and applauded. "Me too."
Until the end, everyone in the conference room stood up and applauded Xiao Yi.
No matter what the final result is, now, Xiao Yi's words have also aroused the same enthusiasm in their hearts.
After all, they are studying nuclear fusion!
If there had been no dreams and enthusiasm, who would be willing to invest in such research?
Now, their enthusiasm is back!