The red signal light flashes constantly.

Under the busyness of the engineers, the faulty program was forcibly terminated, and the temperature of the processor finally cooled down.

However, with the termination of the calculation process, the blue light that marked "hope" also dimmed.

"Thirty-first experiment."

Staring at the chassis sitting in the anti-radiation isolation room, the tip of his nose almost poked into the floor-to-ceiling glass, David's eyes were heavy and could not be dispersed.

Experiment 31.

There is no doubt that it still failed.

The atmosphere in the laboratory was solemn, except for the parallel computing engineer in charge of operating the supercomputer, who was whispering technical questions, everyone was quite listless. I don't want to say a word.

It's not just the supercomputer that's tired, it's all the researchers who work the project.

Over the course of a month, for the sake of this mathematical model, . The Sha Institute has burned at least $10 million.

During this period, . The SHA Institute is constantly improving the calculation process, and Lu Zhou is constantly using the collected calculation data to modify the details of the theoretical model.

However, apart from a few blackboards filled and mountains of waste paper, no gratifying results were obtained.

"Sure enough, it still doesn't work......" David sighed softly as he looked at the several engineers who entered the isolation room.

"Otherwise, I'll pay for it." Lu Zhou said with some reluctance.

"It's okay, it's nothing. Research was like gambling, so I thought I was going to Las Vegas. Compared to the dignified-faced engineers and the depressed-looking doctors of computational chemistry, David's tone was quite relaxed, although his face was full of bitterness.

I don't know if it's really because he has a lot of money and has nowhere to spend it, or if his scientific intuition tells him that this idea must have the value of digging deeper.

So, he was willing to spend the money.

However, after saying this, he couldn't help but add later, "Although I have never lost so much when I went to Las Vegas." ”

At the end of the experiment, there was a regular wrap-up meeting.

At the meeting, everyone was silent.

After Lu Zhou briefly said a few words of his opinion, the rest of the time was basically the heads of the two experimental groups speaking.

As for David, he remained silent until the end of the meeting.

"Perform maintenance work on Anton, and start the 32nd experiment in three days," Without saying anything more, David looked at the engineer closest to him and simply ordered, "I hope you can make sure Anton is running at its best before the next experiment begins." ”

The engineer nodded, "Yes, boss!" ”

"It's not just supercomputing, I also need to rest, and I'm sure you are the same." Taking off the glasses on the bridge of his nose, David rubbed his eyebrows, "That's it, end the meeting." ”

……

A small setback is nothing for scientific research.

Even after thirty-one failures, no one has ever mentioned the word renunciation.

After all, everyone knows very well that there is no truth that can be drawn in smooth sailing.

In order to perfect his theoretical model, Lu Zhou was ready to fail a hundred times.

However, if there were still no results in the 50th experiment, he said that he would not let David bear the cost of research alone.

Even though the money may not really be a big deal to David, it still makes him feel a little uncomfortable.

After the meeting, Lu Zhou, who came out of the institute, did not immediately return to his dormitory, but walked around the campus of Columbia University.

It's not just Anton who needs to rest, he also needs time to relax his overheated brain after an intense mental workout.

At the very least, during the three-day break, he planned to take a day off and think about those difficult questions for a while.

Walking through the square in front of the library, Lu Zhou, who was walking aimlessly, subconsciously avoided all academic-related places.

I don't know how long I walked.

By the time he came to his senses, he was already standing under the philosophy building of Columbia University.

Looking at the information marked on the map on his phone, Lu Zhou couldn't help but smile and shook his head.

"Should I say it's fate?"

is so close to philosophy, it can't make him happy at all.

On the lawn in front of the Philosophy Building, a bronze statue sits quietly.

Its right fist was half-clenched, against its jaw. The muscles of the whole body tensed, and the tightly locked eyebrows became one, like a living person, immersed in bitter thoughts.

It is said that this statue is one of the four most realistic "thinkers" in the world today.

But compared to the other three brothers, the thinker was much more indifferent. Except for Lu Zhou standing in front of it, all he faced was a lawn that no one cared about.

Stretching out his hand and pressing on the bronze statue, feeling the coldness of his fingertips, Lu Zhou sighed and said.

"From you, I see myself."

Thinking is a painful thing.

Especially when the mind can't find a way out.

Somehow, Lu Zhou suddenly had an unrealistic idea.

It would be nice if someone could suddenly stand up and give themselves a little inspiration.

Even if it's just a little bit......

But soon, Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.

If inspiration is so easy to come by, it will be too cheap.

It's a theory that's about to change chemistry, and it's not something cheap.

However, just as he was thinking this, an accident suddenly happened.

Without the slightest warning, without even a greeting.

The pale blue dialog box popped out of his field of vision so abruptly......

[Congratulations to the host for completing the reward mission.] 】

Lu Zhou: ......?

What the heck?!

……

. The gloom in the Sha Institute is different, and in the Materials Research Institute at Binghamton University, there is cheering at this moment.

"Now is not the time to celebrate, the experiment has been successful, don't overturn at the last minute," Stanley instructed his assistant to restrain the surging joy, "apply for a patent now, we need to get the patent number in the shortest possible time!" ”

"Yes, Professor!" The assistant nodded excitedly and walked out of the laboratory quickly.

Returning to the SEM and looking at the images captured on the screen, Professor Stanley's face finally could no longer restrain himself and showed a bright smile.

Preliminary analyses have shown that this cage-like carbon molecule has been established to inhibit the diffusion of polysulfide compounds to a certain extent, and that the cost of industrial production is barely acceptable.

However, further experiments are needed on how to apply it to specific lithium-sulfur batteries.

For example, they needed to find a suitable mixing ratio and a mechanical dispersion method to mix the sulfur element with the caged carbon molecules. At the same time, they have to quantitatively test the extent to which this inhibition can be achieved.

However, this does not affect the application of patents and does not affect the publication of papers.

The moment they succeeded in preparing this cage-shaped carbon molecule, they were already successful.

There is no doubt that they won!

Ahead of that man, he took the lead in the lithium-sulfur battery project!