At a little past six that evening, the system's voice suddenly rang out in Jiang Fan's mind!
[System]: "Congratulations, host, on successfully completing the mission and obtaining the Stay-Up-Late Capsule. Would you like to use it?"
"Use it!"
As Jiang Fan finished speaking, a wash of silver light spilled through his mind, and a dialog box appeared!
He opened it with his consciousness. It showed that it could offset 10,000 hours of staying up late and the bodily harm caused by it.
Jiang Fan chuckled. With this miraculous tool for staying up late, he would never have to worry about late nights damaging his health again!
With the mission completed, there was no need for him to stay with Qiao Yifei any longer. So he found an excuse and said,
"Thank you, Qiao Yifei, for showing me around Huaqing University today. I have something else to do, so I'll be going!"
Qiao Yifei froze. Just moments ago, Jiang Fan had explained so much about nanotechnology to her, all of it knowledge she had never encountered before. Why was he suddenly leaving?
More importantly, Jiang Fan seemed to understand nanomaterials even better than her eldest uncle did!
Although she could not confirm whether those nanotechnology principles were correct, her woman's sixth sense told her there seemed to be nothing wrong with them!
Just as Qiao Yifei was puzzling over how Jiang Fan knew so much, her phone rang!
Qiao Yifei: "Uncle!"
Qiao Shan: "Yifei, have you won Jiang Fan over?"
Qiao Yifei: "Uncle, let's put that aside for now. Have you heard of nanoscale optical interferometry?"
Qiao Shan: "Optical interferometry?"
Qiao Yifei gave Qiao Shan a rough account of the nanoscale optical interferometry Jiang Fan had explained.
After she finished, Qiao Shan immediately sank into thought. This was the first time he had heard of this technique, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with it in theory.
If this optical interferometry technique held up, it would be more than one level above the atomic force microscopy measurement technique he was currently researching!
At this thought, Qiao Shan grew somewhat excited.
In fact, finding out whether this technique was correct would only require an experiment to verify it!
Qiao Shan: "Yifei, come to the nanotechnology laboratory right now! I think what you described has a very high chance of being feasible!"
Qiao Yifei hung up, her face full of shock. Could what Jiang Fan had said be correct? But he was only a high school student. How could he understand such profound nanotechnology?
But she had no time to think about that question. She had to hurry to the nanotechnology laboratory now.
Her eldest uncle probably wanted to run an experiment to verify this technique!
Jiang Fan returned to the Level One Research Institute and went to see Zhou Huaide first.
He knocked on Zhou Huaide's door. When it opened, a roomful of smoke hit him in the face, nearly choking him unconscious.
Zhou Huaide was sitting on the sofa, smoking the cigarette in his hand!
Seeing his worried expression, Jiang Fan asked,
"Cough, cough... Uncle Zhou, did something happen?"
"Oh, Xiao Fan. Come, have a seat."
Only then did Zhou Huaide react, opening the window to let the smell of smoke disperse.
Once Jiang Fan sat down, Zhou Huaide poured a glass of water and set it in front of him!
Only then did he slowly speak!
"Our research funding application wasn't approved. And the chief has decided to suspend the controlled nuclear fusion project!"
"Suspend it?"
Jiang Fan was startled. He clearly had not anticipated this situation!
He had assumed the worst would merely be that the country would not provide research funding. He had never expected that not only would the funding application fail, but the controlled nuclear fusion project would also be suspended!
If that happened, he would be unable to bring the controlled nuclear fusion technology the system had rewarded him with to fruition!
"Uncle Zhou, did you show the chief those documents?" Jiang Fan asked!
"I did. They even had the signatures of the experts and professors from yesterday's meeting. But the chief said his hands were tied too. This was a decision reached jointly by several leaders in charge of national research funding!"
Without money, they certainly could not develop controlled nuclear fusion.
"Then is there really no other way?" Jiang Fan asked, unwilling to give up.
"Ah! There isn't!"
Zhou Huaide sighed helplessly as he spoke!
Jiang Fan lowered his head without speaking, still unwilling to give up. Only by developing controlled nuclear fusion now could future technology make a qualitative leap!
Controlled nuclear fusion was a new form of energy. Even a very small power unit could continuously produce a tremendous amount of energy!
For example, conventional fuel for current aircraft carriers was oil. Propelling an enormous aircraft carrier consumed a vast amount of oil, and the kinetic energy it could be converted into was limited!
But using controlled nuclear fusion would be different. Its power output was extremely strong and could rapidly bring a 70,000-ton aircraft carrier up to speed in an instant.
Of course, this was only one application of controlled nuclear fusion. Once the technology truly matured, it would be used in every aspect of human life!
Seeing the dejection on Jiang Fan's face, Zhou Huaide felt even worse.
"However, the chief did mention one condition. If we fulfill it, he can consider my application! But this condition is simply impossible to meet!"
Hearing that there was still a chance to turn things around, Jiang Fan immediately seemed to see hope. He hurriedly asked,
"What condition?"
"Ah, the chief said we have to keep nuclear fusion stable for 100 seconds within a month!"
"Keep nuclear fusion stable for 100 seconds?"
Jiang Fan repeated it silently to himself.
"Yes! One hundred seconds. There's no way we can achieve that. So far, our base hasn't managed to keep nuclear fusion stable for even one second!"
"Uncle Zhou, I can do it," Jiang Fan said firmly, looking at Zhou Huaide!
"Really?"
Zhou Huaide suddenly grew excited, but then calmed down again.
How could that be possible! The reason nuclear fusion could become an energy source for people to use was that the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei had to remain stable at a critical point, continuously producing energy.
For example, the plasma temperature reached 440 million degrees, and the pulsed fusion output exceeded 16 megawatts. Controlled nuclear fusion technology involved keeping that temperature and power output constant.
If even a slight temperature change occurred during the process, it would upset this balance, and nuclear fusion would fail!
Although Jiang Fan's controlled nuclear fusion formulas, principles, and data offered a very strong chance of success, that depended on having 10 billion in funding.
But now the leaders above wanted to see results in controlled nuclear fusion without providing a single cent. That was simply harder than ascending to heaven!
No matter what the scientific achievement was, it was built on money!
"Xiao Fan! I believe your theory is correct, and that you can develop controlled nuclear fusion within a year, but our project doesn't have any funding left right now!"
"Uncle Zhou, I understand the situation. If we only need to keep nuclear fusion going for 100 seconds within a month, I feel we should be able to do it with the existing equipment and materials!" Jiang Fan said calmly!
Zhou Huaide thought it over. This was indeed an option. After all, they had already invested more than 30 billion, so they still had a full complement of the necessary materials and equipment!
At this thought, Zhou Huaide grew excited again. He grabbed Jiang Fan's hand and said,
"Xiao Fan, success or failure hinges on this one attempt. I'll take you to the northern base tomorrow!"