Scientists have had to re-examine the microscopic world. The fleet's research on microscopic particles is still at the level of hundreds of years ago. Since solving the communication problem at the microscopic level, research on the microscopic world has been put on hold. The fleet has focused all its efforts on space, resulting in a serious lag in microscopic research, which has remained at the level of Stellar-Level Civilization.
What if we want to control atoms on a large scale over long distances, or more specifically, how do we attack a human-sized target from 15 light-years away? At that distance, no precision guidance is effective, let alone in Nebula Region. We can only use area-of-effect weapons, such as electric fields, magnetic fields, gravitational fields, etc., or at the very least, particle streams or various types of rays.
These fields or energies are all quite destructive, but within fifteen light-years of the Nebula Region, anything of high energy would be weakened to a negligible level, let alone kill a powerful biological organism specially developed by Academician Xiao. Scientists must find a specific way to influence a certain atom.
In order to play this atomic symphony well, scientists split into two factions after a long discussion. One faction, led by Academician Zhang Xinheng, advocated continuing to use high energy to influence the state of atoms and to find ways to create high-energy rays and high-energy fields in the Nebula Region. The other faction, led by Academician Li Youwei, advocated continuing to conduct microscopic analysis of atoms and find the energy frequency that can cause atomic resonance.
The high-energy group has left the Science City and entered the Nebula Region in search of methods to obtain or transfer high energy. These scientists, traveling in Wind Master, split up and meticulously marked the position, size, composition, density, and motion of every celestial body. In their vision, they wanted to become the butterfly of the South American rainforest, flapping its tiny wings to cause hurricanes in North America. Therefore, they needed to create the most detailed star map of the Nebula Region, marking even large gas clouds. All the data would then be used to simulate the butterfly's flapping wings, pinpointing the key locations where the butterfly's wings would flutter.
The Nebula Region countless celestial bodies of all sizes. They may be remnants of exploding stars, stars formed from re-aggregated nebula matter destined to become planets or stars, or wanderers that stumbled into the nebula at some point. The trajectories of these celestial bodies are simultaneously influenced by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, star clusters near the nebula, the interactions between stars within the nebula, and the dispersed matter within the nebula. The complexity of this influence is unimaginable. Nevertheless, scientists still need to accurately calculate the operational status and evolutionary progress of each celestial body; otherwise, no matter how large or numerous the butterflies are, it will be of no use.
The microscopic school is still working on improving the magnetic field magnifier. The magnification of an optical microscope has its limits, which are restricted by the wavelength of light. Although the magnetic field microscope cannot see the microscopic world, it can touch it in detail. Or, it is like a sandbox. The microscopic particle is like a large apple. If you put the apple in the sandbox, the sandbox will be squeezed to create a round indentation exactly like the apple. The magnetic field microscope uses this principle to observe the microscopic world and, through magnification, to show the particle model as the macroscopic world.
However, the source of magnetic fields and magnetic field lines is ultimately the activity of electrons. Now, to observe the secrets within atoms, any fluctuation in current will cause fluctuations in magnetic field lines. From the perspective of the macroscopic world, this fluctuation is completely negligible, but now the object of observation is the microscopic world, on the order of 10^-30 or less. It is necessary to stabilize the current that generates the magnetic field, making the current stable at the microscopic level.
Magnetic field lines not only act as eyes, but also as scalpels and robotic arms. After a series of improvements, the magnetic field line microscope "saw" the hadrons in the atomic nucleus, namely protons and neutrons. Using the Magnetic Field Line Scalpel, scientists continued to dissect the atomic nucleus. Soon, a proton was taken out for dissection. The six quarks were neatly arranged at a microscopic angle. These quarks could not have existed alone; the strong interaction held them tightly together. However, this time, for the first time, the shape of these fermions was finally seen.
Scientists continued to magnify quarks, by 10^30, 10^45, 10^53, and all the way up to 10^60. This has already exceeded the minimum limit of the Planck length and is now in a meaningless stage. Of course, this length is meaningless for Planetary-Level Civilization, but that does not mean it is meaningless for Star System-Level Civilization.
At this limit, quarks still showed no signs of being divisible. Could quarks be the origin of everything? Scientists didn't believe it. However, at this point, the magnetic field lines fluctuated significantly again, making further observation impossible. To amplify the data further, they needed to find a new way to stabilize the current, or in other words, stabilize the electrons.
Some scientists continued to improve the equipment, while others studied the existing observations (omitting tens of thousands of words here, including particle charge, color charge, spin, mass, forces, and even the names of quarks, etc. This is not a popular science article, but rather wild science fiction). The scientists discovered that although the details displayed by quarks were not very obvious, it was clear that even two quarks of the same type had different surfaces, indicating that quarks are definitely not the most basic structure of everything.
If quarks are not the most basic structural element, it means that quarks of the same type are different. However, according to the proven quantum theory, identical particles are indistinguishable. Simply put, two atoms of the same element are exactly the same. If we have two atoms, A and B, in front of us, close our eyes, swap their positions, and then observe them again, we will not be able to detect that they have been swapped, because the two atoms, A and B, are exactly the same.
To elaborate further, if you swap the electrons in atom A with the protons in atom B, the two atoms A and B remain exactly the same as before, without any change. However, if the quarks that make up a proton are different, then the two identical atoms are distinguishable; they must have some kind of difference.
Although quarks are very small, they are still large relative to atoms. Scientists can only speculate that perhaps the difference is too small to affect the properties of proton atoms.
Both groups of scientists were working intensely, aiming to complete their mission within a century. They were secretly competing, striving to prove that their ideas were feasible. However, they also maintained constant communication. Despite their rivalry, these scientists possessed a broad perspective and would share any discoveries or ideas with each other immediately.
150 years have passed since the agreement with the Nebula Main Consciousness. Unlike scientists who are still busy researching how to attack small individuals from a distance, Academician Liu Bo has been outside the nebula for a full 130 years. For the last 100 years, his spaceship has hardly moved an inch, quietly staying two hundred light-years away from the Nebula Region. Why the spatial density of the Nebula Region has increased by two times as a whole has puzzled him for over a hundred years. Now he has ruled out almost all possibilities, but still has no answer.
That day, Academician Liu stood by the thick porthole of the spaceship, looking at the nebula as usual. Academician Liu turned around and looked towards the more distant center of the Milky Way, where there was a supermassive black hole. Its powerful gravity carried more Milky Way 300 billion stars, as well as an equal number of planets and other celestial bodies, around the Virgo Supercluster.
What is at the center of a black hole? Some say it's a spacetime tunnel, others say it's a singularity. Thinking of the singularity, Academician Liu suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "So that's how it is! So that's how it is! Why didn't I think of that sooner? Hahahaha! "Academician Liu shouted hysterically while pounding on the spaceship's porthole.