Natural Law

After their conversation, Shen Qi was quite satisfied with Dr. Qu and hoped that Dr. Qu could come to the center to develop his career and engage in research on fundamental Theoretical Physics.

Dr. Qu currently works at the Central South Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He promised Shen Qi that he would come to Yenching University to report for duty as soon as he finished the formalities there.

After finishing his work on mathematics and physics, Shen Qi then turned his attention to chemistry.

Regarding the Benzodiazepine compound codenamed C01B, Old Yan has completed a paper and submitted it to Shen Qi.

The abstract of this paper is as follows:

"The synthesis process of Benzodiazepine was studied. Using Benzodiazepine and Nitrotrifluoromethanesulfonic acid as starting materials, a new compound, 4-oxo-5-phenyl-1,3,4,6-tetrahydro-6,10-methylene-2H-1,4- Benzodiazepine, was prepared through condensation, hydrolysis, nitration, and substitution reactions."

The target compound, 4-oxy-5-phenyl-1,3,4,6-tetrahydro-6,10-methylene-2H-1,4- Benzodiazepine, was synthesized through a 10-step reaction. Its structure was confirmed by 1H NMR (1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and MS (mass spectrometry), with an overall yield of 26.2%.

The main body of the paper consists of two parts: the first part is the "synthesis route" and the second part is the "experimental section".

The synthetic route mainly discusses the strategic design of the synthesis of the target product CO1B, and cites some literature as support to illustrate that the design of this strategic route is reasonable.

The experimental section is divided into ten subsections, from 2.1 to 2.10, which elaborate on the specific experimental procedures for the ten-step reaction in great detail.

"2.6. 0.27 mol of 2-dicyclohexyl-diphenylphosphine was reacted in 1,2-dimethoxyethane at 60°C for 2 hours. Under palladium catalysis, an stoichiometric amount of sodium tert-butoxide was added..."

It has been refined to this extent that any professional chemist who follows the steps in the "Experimental Section" can obtain the target product CO1B.

Shen Qi noticed that the paper had two authors: Shen Qi first, followed by Yan Jun.

Shen Qi revised the paper, placing Yan Jun's name first and his own name last.

The abstract and main text were written quite rigorously by Old Yan, so Shen Qi didn't need to make any changes.

This is a standard Organic Chemistry synthesis paper, which only describes the synthetic route design, laboratory operation of each reaction step, yield of each step and overall yield, and does not involve pharmacological content.

Specialized topics such as toxicology and pharmacokinetics require extensive data support from animal experiments and clinical trials, while large-scale industrial production requires validation by process chemistry teams.

Once all of the above steps are completed, a drug can meet the basic conditions for commercialization and have the potential to be marketed.

Shen Qi defines CO1B as "a chemical test sample in the initial stage of laboratory testing." As for the practical uses and scientific value of CO1B, we will discuss that in the next paper.

Shen Qi and Old Yan synthesized CO1B in the laboratory through a 10-step reaction. This novel experimental product, chemically named 4-oxy-5-phenyl-1,3,4,6-tetrahydro-6,10-methylene-2H-1,4- Benzodiazepine, is believed by Shen Qi to have a smoking cessation effect, although this requires further verification.

The overall yield of 26.2% is worthy of further research. The paper is finished and should be published as soon as possible.

The international chemistry community also has what are known as the Top Four Journals: Nature, Science, Angewandte Chemie (ANGEWC), and the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

Nature and Science are very practical journals; they only provide synthetic routes and do not provide an assessment of their application value, making it difficult for such chemistry articles to be included.

Many of the chemistry articles published in Nature and Science are no longer purely chemistry; they are more like articles on pharmaceutical engineering or biochemistry.

This is similar to the selection process for the Nobel Chemistry Prize in recent years, with many laureates coming from various interdisciplinary fields such as physical chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and biochemistry.

ANGEWC and JACS maintain relatively pure chemical properties, which can be seen from their IF values.

The impact factors (IF) of Nature and Science journals are consistently above 30, while those of AngelwC and JACS hover between 10 and 15, rarely exceeding 15.

After careful consideration, Shen Qi instructed Old Yan to submit the paper to JACS in the United States.

"Wow, that's impressive. Your first chemistry paper was submitted to one of the Big Four accounting firms?" Old Yan has published over a dozen articles in his career, the most impressive of which was published in the British journal <Chemical Outlook>.

According to Shen Qi's grading system, if the four major chemistry journals belong to the T0 level, then the level of <Chemical Outlook> should be between T2 and T1.

"It's not me, it's us," Shen Qi said. "Submit your work, hurry up, publish it as soon as possible, and own original intellectual property rights as soon as possible."

Old Yan wrote down the synthesis steps of C01B in such detail that it's almost like he was teaching others how to do the experiment step by step.

If someone simply copies this paper, they can obtain the same target product with a comparable yield.

Therefore, it's important to publish it early to secure original intellectual property rights. In the future, others can cite it, but they cannot copy it verbatim; otherwise, it would be considered academic plagiarism.

After finishing his work on mathematics, physics, and chemistry, Shen Qi had completed a day.

Ou Ye is staying home to prepare for childbirth and hasn't been coming to work at Yenching University recently.

Shen Qi didn't need to go to the math department to pick up his wife at five o'clock. He changed into sportswear and sneakers and went to the sports field to exercise.

Having gone eight or nine months without intimacy with his wife, having no mistress, and not engaging in any brothels, how did Shen Qi manage to get through this period of abstinence?

Exercise, work, distraction—these activities elevate inner desires, transforming physical cravings into spiritual satisfaction.

But this is very difficult to do; humans have emotions and desires, and scientists are human too.

Shen Qi even considered using chemical drugs. There is a type of drug that can effectively suppress sexual desire, and some countries use this type of drug to chemically castrate sex offenders.

Fortunately, Shen Qi pulled through. As a scientist with emotions and desires, his willpower was strong enough.

Ou Ye's due date was August 3rd, and it was already late July. Shen Qi stopped going anywhere and stayed at home, working in the academician's villa.

Ou Ye's parents also came to the capital and stayed at Academician Shen's villa.

The villa is large enough to comfortably house Shen Qi and his wife, Ou Ye's father, Cuiping— a total of five people.

The villa was specially designed for Shen Qi by the government. During this time, Shen Qi lived with Ou Ye's family, with four people taking care of a pregnant woman.

Ou Ye's family originally lived in a villa, so they were quite used to living in Academician Shen's villa.

Shen Qi wasn't used to it; he felt it was much more comfortable for the young couple to live in their own apartment.

Old Ou's job isn't very busy; he goes out to work when there's work to be done, and rests when there isn't.

My mother-in-law, Old Ye, is a very busy person. She lives in the capital and remotely directs the important business of her real estate company every day.

"Honey, can you stop calling? Your daughter is about to give birth," Old Ou said to Old Ye, clearly annoyed.

"Stop fighting, stop fighting, mute." Old Ye was the head of the family, and Old Ou usually obeyed her orders, but today she obeyed Old Ou's arrangements.

"Dad, Mom, let's have Little Yezi stay in the hospital in a few days," Shen Qi said.

"Sure." Old Ye had given birth before; she was experienced.

Just then, Old Ye's phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and said, "I have to answer this call. It's from the deputy mayor's secretary."

"Go outside to answer the phone; cell phones emit radiation." Old Ou knew his wife had more than one cell phone, and he was very unhappy.

"Okay, okay, it'll be done soon." Old Ye went outside the villa to answer the phone.

The division of labor in Ou Ye's family is exactly the opposite of that in Shen Qi's family. Ou Old Ye runs a business and her father works in a public institution.

"Damn, the company is so big, it's normal for it to have business," Shen Qi reassured Old Ou.

"That woman's obsessed with money. All she knows is making money. Does she want to be the richest woman in China or something?" Old Ou quit smoking and drinking after arriving in the capital, setting a good example, but his wife still did whatever she wanted.

"Old Ou, you're something else. Wait till my mother-in-law finishes her call and comes in, you can say that too if you dare..." Shen Qi poured Old Ou a cup of tea to calm his father-in-law down.

"Money is something you can never earn enough of. Your mother-in-law works very hard, day and night, busy with work and business for this family, and I understand that. The business is so big, but one day she will have to retire and quietly be an old lady. We only have one daughter, Little Yezi. Is our daughter more important or the business? Of course, I understand your mother-in-law's feelings. She wants to accumulate as much wealth as possible while she still can so that Little Yezi can live a worry-free life in her later years." Old Ou both loved and hated his wife, feeling both heartache and a strong urge to scold her.

Shen Qi said, "Dad, I'm here. I promise you, I can make sure Little Yezi will be well-fed and clothed for the rest of her life. You two have worked hard all your lives, you should enjoy yourselves."

"It's only natural for fathers to pass their wealth to sons and mothers to pass it to daughters. If we don't pass it on to Little Yezi, who else can we give it to?" Old Ou said matter-of-factly.

The Ou Ye family's situation is very similar to Shen Qi's: they are only children, passionate about science, and lack business acumen, yet they cannot escape the fate of inheriting the family fortune.

"That makes sense, but can Little Yezi manage such a large-scale real estate company?" Shen Qi countered.

Old Ou: "Isn't this all there? What use is a son-in-law like you if you don't help Little Yezi?"

"I..." Shen Qi had a headache. The scale of Ou Ye's Mom's company was not even in the same league as Shen Qi's father's company. Shen Qi hadn't even figured out his own family's "father-to-son" business yet, and now he was facing the new challenge of his wife's family's "mother-to-daughter" business.