State University of New York.

Next to a green plant with the fragrance of birds and flowers, an office building snuggles up.

The perspective penetrates through the window, and the office door is knocked on by a flurry of knocks.

A moment later, an old man's voice sounded in the office: "Please come in." ”

"Professor Stanley! Did you see that? It was recently the paper on arxiv! ”

The door opened, and Professor Northton rushed in, speaking excitedly to the old man in the office.

The old man's name was Stanley Whittingham.

And his name is well known in the chemical world.

Because at the Nobel Prize in Chemistry ceremony last year, in 2019, he and John Goodenough, as well as Akira Yoshino, jointly won the Chemistry Prize for their outstanding contributions to lithium-ion batteries.

The lithium-ion battery they developed is one of the most important necessities in human society today.

Because of this, they are also known as the father of lithium batteries.

Stanley is very old this year, he was born in 1940, and he is now 80 years old.

But despite this, he still seems to be old and strong, and his wisdom is still the same as it was back then.

Seeing Professor Northton's excited appearance, Stanley put down the coffee cup in his hand and asked with a smile, "What paper can make you look like this?" ”

"It's the paper that was recently published on arxiv." Norththorn said: "It's called 'Electrodynamic Mechanism and the Mechanism of Interaction between Two Types of Conductors.'" ”

"Arxiv, I didn't pay much attention to it." Stanley shook his head: "Now I can't look at the screen for a long time, I usually look at the paper version. ”

But then he became interested: "Of course, the title you said makes me very interesting, electro-dynamics? And the conductor interface reaction mechanism? Sounds like a link between the study of electrons in physics and electrochemistry? ”

Northton was stunned for a moment, and then exclaimed: "It's really Professor Stanley, it's true, this paper connects the two parts, and the method used can be said to be very brilliant." ”

"I'll take a look."

Stanley said immediately.

Turn on your computer and go to the arxiv website.

ARXIV is a well-known preprint website in the academic community, and one of its biggest functions is to occupy the pit.

Because it often takes several months for a paper to be submitted to the journal and published, and in these months, other papers with the same results and conclusions may be published first.

After all, the review speed of different journals is different, and this situation is not uncommon under the difference in review time.

In this way, the paper submitted first will be killed because of this.

And at this time, the role of the ARXIV website can be reflected.

When the paper is completed but has not yet been published, the preprint of the paper can be published on this website in advance to "occupy the pit".

When major journals review manuscripts, they will also refer to the papers on this website to check for plagiarism.

Of course, in addition to this role, arxiv can also be used to discuss issues in his own paper with his peers and ask for their opinions.

Finally, there is the kind of person who wants to share their research results as soon as possible, and does not want to wait for a few months before the paper is reviewed and published.

And Li Mu's four papers belong to this last case.

In Stanley's office, he quickly searched for the paper with Northheart's help.

"I submitted it the day before yesterday...... Hmm, download the pdf. ”

It didn't take long for Stanley to open the article.

He put on his glasses and looked closely.

This paper is not very long, only a dozen pages, which is quite short compared to other papers.

However, the information and content in it are very condensed, and almost every page is the essence.

Looking at it like this, the surprise in Stanley's eyes grew even worse.

"This mathematical analysis...... It's so wonderful! ”

Although his mathematics is not very good, and even relatively weak, it is enough for the content of this paper.

And the use of mathematical tools alone in this paper is enough to be called one of the best articles he has seen in years.

You must know that as an 80-year-old Nobel laureate, he has read countless articles, and being able to receive such a commendation from him is enough to prove the value of this article.

Finally, about an hour later, he finished the paper.

Professor Northendon, who was next to him, never walked away, and followed Stanley to re-read the article, and after reading it for the second time, he was a little more amazed in his heart.

That's great!

Then he turned to look at Stanley and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Stanley didn't speak, but just went back to the Arxiv interface and searched for the other three papers mentioned in the article.

Analysis of electrochemical ion dynamics

Computational Chemical Models for Interface Reactions of Two Types of Conductors

Electrodynamic Analysis of Electronic Behavior at the Interface of Two Types of Conductors

He spent a little more effort to read all three articles, and except for the one "Analysis of the Electrochemical Ion Dynamic Mechanism", he couldn't even understand the other two papers, because for him, the other two already belonged to another field.

But this does not prevent him from being able to see the close connection between the four papers.

Finally, he took off his glasses.

In his eyes, which had become a little cloudy with age, he was excited to see the truth at this time.

"Wonderful, wonderful!"

"I really didn't expect that after so many years, I could see such significant achievements in the field of theoretical chemistry!"

"These papers are completely innovative for theoretical chemistry!"

He got up from his seat excitedly.

After a moment, he suddenly turned his head to look at Northton: "Who is the author of this paper?" I want to meet him! ”

Northton was stunned for a moment, and then a helpless expression appeared on his face: "It may be a little difficult to meet this author...... Because this is a Chinese. ”

"Chinese?" Stanley was stunned: "Who is it?" ”

"You may not believe it when you say it, this Chinese is even 20 years old this year, he is still studying undergraduate, and he himself is a student of mathematics."

"You've probably heard his name before, because he's the same MuLi who proved the hail conjecture in mathematics this year."

Hearing Northonton's words, Stanley, at such an age, was speechless in shock.

It wasn't until a long time later that he came back to his senses and said, "Professor Northton, I'm sorry for you, go and send this MuLi an invitation letter and ask him if he would like to be my student." ”

"Huh?"

Northton was shocked, Stanley actually planned to accept Li Mu as a student?

Without waiting for him to ask more, Stanley stepped aside and picked up his phone to make a call.

"Goodenough, guess what I just found......"

Hearing this "Goodenough", Northcenton knew who it was.

It is another father of lithium batteries who won the award with Stanley.

Obviously, Stanley was in a state of excitement and shared the incident with his old friend.

Northton sighed slightly.

Stanley's performance is probably a sign that their chemical community is about to fall into a period of turmoil.

(End of chapter)