The First Official Meeting of the Mathematical Grand Unification Project Team
During the Spring Festival holiday, Shen Qi's NMG paper, for which he was listed as an author, was published in Today's Physics, and his academic achievements reached 55,474,088 points.
After a brief business trip, Shen Qi went to Israel to receive the Wolf Prize in Mathematics.
Ou Ye finally made her comeback; she returned to her post at the School of the Big Mathematics Department.
The first formal meeting of the Mathematical Grand Unification Project Team was held in the School of Mathematical Sciences. This is an interdepartmental collaborative project.
The group leader is Shen Qi. To show respect for the School of Mathematical Sciences, Shen Qi appointed Ou Ye as the executive Deputy Leader and Li Zhenqiang Deputy Leader.
Ou Ye's best friend and apprentice, Xiao Lian, listened in and took meeting notes.
"We may be familiar with each other, but let's still go through the formal procedures," Shen Qi said. His partners on this project are his wife and his classmate from the dorm next door in college.
"Please give your instructions, Professor Shen." Ou Ye was very cooperative with Professor Shen's work.
Li Zhenqiang chuckled to himself, "You two are interesting. Husband and wife working together like a team, but outside the home, who's giving orders to whom?"
"First, we need to determine what exactly this 'Mathematical Grand Unification' project aims to achieve and what its target outputs are," Shen Qi asked, engaging in a discussion with everyone.
Li Zhenqiang said, "My understanding is that the Mathematical Grand Unification will reveal profound and fundamental connections between different fields of mathematics. For example, number theory and Harmonic Analysis are very different, but under the new framework, they will be linked together."
"A hodgepodge with an extremely high tolerance for error," Ou Ye explained her idea.
"Zhen Qiang's explanation is very professional, and Ou Ye's analogy is very vivid." Shen Qi nodded and said, "My understanding is that the final product of the Mathematical Grand Unification project should be a product similar to the Xinhua Dictionary. According to the standards set by the Xinhua Dictionary, regardless of whether a character has one or thirty strokes, or what its pronunciation is, readers can quickly find the target character based on these standards."
"Note that I said similar, not exactly the same. In our envisioned 'mathematical dictionary,' in addition to having a fast lookup function, it will also have a new paradigm structure."
"For example, number theory might be a 'character system' with the grass radical, Harmonic Analysis is a 'character system' with the water radical, Algebraic Geometry is a 'character system' with the roof radical, topology is a 'character system' with the dog radical... There are dozens of 'character systems' in total, which are dozens of major branches of mathematics."
"Under the new paradigm and new framework, we will uniformly define one 'mathematical dictionary,' with a maximum of two 'word systems.' This is our target product and the core design concept of the product." Shen Qi had already drawn up a large framework in his mind, but he only officially launched the Mathematical Grand Unification today because he believed that the time was basically ripe and it was time to take action.
"This is an epic battle," Li Zhenqiang said.
"Let's review: what was the order in which Qin Shi Huang unified the six kingdoms? What was his core design strategy? The strategy was to conquer the nearest and strongest states first. Our Mathematical Grand Unification follows a similar approach; we first connect the more closely related branches, such as number theory and Algebraic Geometry."
"At the same time, we'll tackle the tougher problems first, such as Harmonic Analysis, topology, and Complex Analysis. Once we've finished these, we should be able to invent a new 'word system,' and the rest of the work will be about fitting it into the new template." Shen Qi meant that Ou Ye would work on number theory, and Li Zhenqiang on Algebraic Geometry, and the two of them would first establish a connection between number theory and Algebraic Geometry. Shen Qi would handle the rest of the work.
The work of Ou Ye and Li Zhenqiang was actually an in-depth study of the Langlands Program.
Shen Qi hoped that the two could find new inspiration and breakthroughs from the Langlands Program.
Shen Qi was in charge of a completely new field with a high degree of innovation, and there was no existing data to draw upon.
The only reference point is the SLW system that Shen Qi created when he solved the Hodge conjecture.
After the meeting, Xiao Lian spoke with Shen Qi alone.
Xiao Lian is a graduate student from the School of Mathematical Sciences, majoring in number theory.
She only did routine math projects. In the Mathematical Grand Unification project, Xiao Lian couldn't even handle the specialized tasks. Xiao Lian followed Ou Ye, taking meeting minutes, photocopying materials, and running errands between the School of Mathematics and Shen Qi Mathematical and Physical Research Center. That was all the work she could do.
Xiao Lian asked, "Professor Shen, tell me, does Yan Jun dislike me?"
Yan Jun was introduced to Xiao Lian by Shen Qi, who acted as the matchmaker. Shen Qi said, "No way! Aren't you two deeply in love? I remember around New Year's Day, you two went on a trip together and stayed in the same room, didn't you?"
Xiao Lian nodded and said, "Mm."
Shen Qi: "You two are sharing a room now, isn't that just making things more intimate?"
"But he... he's so cold to me..." Xiao Lian bit her lip, looking quite frustrated.
"Oh, I see." Shen Qi roughly understood.
Girls who study math tend to be naive, and Xiao Lian spoke her mind. Shen Qi asked, "Xiao Lian, what do you think of Yan Jun? I introduced him to you. Is he your type?"
"Him? He's a chemistry geek. His character is alright, but he's a heavy smoker."
"I understand. I'll look into it for you." Shen Qi left the Mathematics Department building and went to the Chemistry Department laboratory.
Old Yan and Cheng Haonan are both graduates of the Chemistry Department; they are currently purifying the CO1B sample.
The purification work can also be done at the center. Since the C01B sample was entrusted to the Chemistry Department for optimization, Old Yan and Cheng Haonan conveniently carried out the final purification at the Chemistry Department.
Shen Qi changed into his lab coat and entered the laboratory. Without saying a word, he quietly watched Old Yan and Cheng Haonan, the two chemistry lab dogs, perform purification.
Purification, or the refining of chemicals, is a fundamental skill that every chemistry student must master.
Shen Qi has an advantage in designing synthetic routes, after all, his chemistry level has been raised to 12.
In terms of experimental procedures, Old Yan and Cheng Haonan were quite skilled, especially Cheng Haonan, who had worked at an organic outsourcing company for five years, where his daily work consisted of conducting experiments.
There are several types of scientists. Nobel was a businessman-type scientist; he formulated strategies and delegated the actual work to laboratory dogs.
Einstein was a purely academic scientist; he was responsible for providing inspiration, while the practical work was delegated to his subordinates.
Heisenberg's thinking ability was comparable to Einstein's; he didn't need subordinates; and he had a close friend named Bohr.
Shen Qi's focus is still academic, but he's starting to work on applications, so he needs capable assistants.
After dissolving the C01B sample in benzene, Old Yan and Cheng Haonan diluted it with an equal volume of hexane, and then purified it by column chromatography. The main band was eluted with acetone/EtOH (3:1).
This is a basic operation, and it's not difficult for the two skilled chemistry students.
"Thank you for your hard work." Shen Qi acknowledged the two chemistry assistants' experimental skills. He said to Old Yan, "The experiments need to be done, and you also need to maintain enthusiasm in your interactions with the girls."