"My study experience is different from yours, I was admitted to Yichun Normal College, which is not a very good school for physics majors, and I had a senior brother at that time, who can be said to have had a great impact on my academic career."

In the office, Academician Chen Xianhui was sitting on the sofa and slowly narrating his story to Wu Bin.

"At that time, he had experienced a lot of majors, such as laser, condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, and surface physics, and he could say that he had learned everything from pushing formulas, compiling software, drawing drawings by himself, and processing machinery."

"But why do you think he tosses so many majors?" Academician Chen Xianhui suddenly asked Wu Bin with a smile.

"Curiosity? Or...... Like to experiment? Wu Bin thought for a while and replied.

Chen Xianhui shook his head after hearing this, "It's because many people's motivation for reading at that time was not so simple, including my senior brother." ”

Looking at Wu Bin, whose expression was a little inexplicable, Chen Xianhui smiled and continued: "We were college students in the early 80s, and life at that time was different from now. You can't expect a starving student to have lofty ideals. So he wanted to go abroad when he was an undergraduate, because he could eat enough to go abroad. ”

"As for why I suddenly told you this, in addition to letting you understand that the current superior scientific research environment is not easy to come by, I also want to share with you why this senior brother's later experience will have a huge impact on my academic path."

Hearing this, Wu Bin couldn't help but feel a little flattered, a big bull academician not only has no shelf, but also shares his experience on the road of scientific research with himself, which simply can't be more close to the people.

"I have met a lot of students of all kinds during my years at HKUST, but I have never seen such a special person as you, which not only refers to your academic excellence, but also refers to the confusion that you do not have as many undergraduates."

After taking a sip of hot tea, Academician Chen Xianhui continued: "Just like your speech at your own graduation ceremony, the independent search for knowledge is a concept that many first-year students cannot adapt to for a while, but from your resume, I don't see any discomfort when you first entered the university, but you are still a little comfortable in water. ”

"Later, Academician Pan told me that you plan to study in China, which made me feel your specialness, and this special feeling even made me feel very pressured as your mentor."

Wu Bin hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Professor, you are serious." ”

"Not heavy, not heavy." Chen Xianhui shook his head: "What is the purpose of the teacher?" It's to teach students to be talented, but you're already a very good talent, so how to make students like you go to the next level really stresses me out, to be honest, this is the first time that a student can bring me this kind of trouble, and it's also a rare novel experience for me. ”

Wu Bin: "Professor, what you said made me feel a lot of pressure, really, my calves are shaking now." ”

"Hahaha." Academician Chen Xianhui laughed twice, "That's what you want, let me see how you plan to turn this pressure into tenfold motivation." ”

After laughing, Academician Chen Xianhui said seriously: "At that time, when my senior brother was studying condensed matter physics, the whole university had an X-ray machine, which was still an instrument of the Department of Earth and Space Science, so it can be said that the conditions for doing condensed matter at that time were really poor. ”

"At that time, he felt that the condensed matter physics conditions were so poor that it would definitely not work, so he quickly tried to transfer to a doctorate in theoretical physics, but before he got his doctorate in theoretical physics, he had another opportunity to go to Germany to study for a doctorate in experimental physics.

"After that, we also had a lot of correspondence, and he told me that his mentor had four STMs (scanning tunneling microscopes) in his laboratory at that time, but the STMs at that time were actually very rough, and after a week, if you were lucky, you might not be able to scan two pictures."

"But at that time, my senior brother didn't know, his mentor gave him four experimental directions, and asked him to consider choosing one. But he didn't understand the four experimental directions, after all, the experimental conditions in China were too poor before, and he had never done any of them. ”

So he had to ask one of his German brothers. The German brother said that there is a very old surface analysis instrument, which is photoelectron spectroscopy plus some plasma plus mass spectrometry, and the previous brother has been tinkering with it for six or seven years and has not graduated, as long as you don't choose it, everything else is fine. ”

So the next day, he went straight to my mentor and told me that the other three would be fine, as long as they didn't choose the old surface analysis instrument."

"Poof......

Hearing this, Wu Bin couldn't help laughing, this is too straight, right......

Hearing Wu Bin's laughter, Academician Chen Xianhui also shook his head and said: "Yes, until now, every time we talk about this matter, he will laugh at himself for being too stupid at that time. ”

"You can imagine how speechless his mentor was when he heard this, so he just said to him, 'Then you can choose this old one.'" ”

"He was so depressed that he wrote three letters in a week to express how painful he was, but then he suddenly stopped writing for a while, until three months later, when I wondered if he would be forced to drop out of school, I received another letter from him."

"In the letter, he told me how much the old equipment had an impact on him, because we had hardly played with instruments in China, so he still used the same way as studying theoretical physics, first went to find relevant textbooks, and moved a set of nine volumes of German "Electrical Engineering and Electronics" back to the dormitory in one go."

"As a result, there is a sentence in the preface of that book that has had a great impact on him and me, and I will teach you this sentence today."

"All electrical and electronic instruments are just some way outputting current and voltage."

After hearing this, Wu Bin suddenly fell into deep thought.

"Do you understand?" Academician Chen Xianhui asked Wu Bin.

"I guess I understand a little." Wu Bin nodded.

"Okay, then you can explain."

"It's almost like when you encounter an electrical and electronic instrument, you don't care about its name, what STM, AFM, photoelectron spectroscopy or something, anyway, they just output current and voltage in some way."

"Good understanding!" Academician Chen Xianhui clapped his hands, "That's right, in fact, the map we got in the laboratory is just the current and voltage output by a certain instrument, so you know...... What does this mean? ”