The top student must be diligent.

Chapter 219 BE and GE in Human Sciences
As the fireworks exploded in the sky at 12 o'clock.

It also heralds the arrival of the new year.

After having the New Year’s Eve dinner with his family and watching the Spring Festival Gala until after twelve o’clock, Xiao Yi stood on the balcony of his room, looking at the night sky outside the window.

The house he lives in now is the villa that he bought for nearly 2000 million yuan.

However, because he did not show up in person when the house was bought, and he usually drove in and out, his identity was always kept secret, so the people here probably never imagined that the most famous genius scientist in the country now lives in the same community as them.

Looking at the rising lights in the sky and the fireworks that followed, Xiao Yi's mind rarely lost the discussion of rationality and science, and all that was left was the admiration for the beautiful scenery.

However, there are relatively few people setting off firecrackers. Although fireworks are prohibited in the city, there are always some brave people who set off firecrackers.

As 12 o'clock passed, the sound of fireworks became less and less.

"Okay, it's time to go to bed."

Returning to the bed, he closed his eyes.

Before falling asleep, he briefly thought about what he would do after the New Year.

The first thing is about officially becoming a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics.

Although he has decided to join the Plasma Institute, it is already the end of the year and he has no time to go through the relevant procedures, so he has put this matter off until after the New Year.

Of course, this does not mean that he will quit other units. Generally, capable scholars will hold positions in multiple units.

For example, in addition to being the director of the Science Island Laboratory and a professor at the University of Science and Technology, he also still holds the titles of researcher at the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Mathematics, and is still able to receive a salary.

When he proved the NS equation, the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Mathematics celebrated it. I heard that they hung banners and had promotional posters.

He was invited to give a lecture there some time ago.

Of course, when talking about the report meeting, we have to mention the report in March.

He originally thought that this lecture would not be too troublesome, but now he learned that more than 1000 people have signed up for this lecture, including quite a few foreigners.

Therefore, this report will definitely not be simple even if it wants to be simple.

I heard that the government is planning to expand the scale of his lecture and turn it into a two-day academic exchange. The first day will be his academic report, and the second day will be an exchange meeting.

After all, there are many high-end talents among the people attending this conference, so the government also hopes to retain some of those talents.

He had no objection to this. Anyway, he was responsible for making his own report. How many people could be retained depended on the efforts of the government.

No matter what, this is a rare opportunity. After all, there are not many foreign talents willing to come to China. Now his report will provide such an opportunity. It would be best if the government could seize it.

All in all, these are the two short-term tasks now.

Joined the Institute of Plasma Physics and completed the proof report of the NS equation.

As for long-term tasks...

The complex trajectory of the plasma flow moving in the tokamak device reappeared in his mind.

Achieve controlled nuclear fusion.

Before, he felt that this research was far away from him.

And now, he suddenly felt anxious about the extent to which human technology could reach.

Therefore, he now wants to give himself an answer to the question of whether controlled nuclear fusion can be achieved.

The thoughts in his mind gradually turned into chaos as he became sleepy, and finally, he fell asleep.

Perhaps because he thought about something during the day, he dreamed about it at night. In his dream tonight, he saw the future human world with extremely advanced technology, even reaching the 2.0 level of civilization.

Not only can we build a Dyson sphere around the sun, but we can even achieve space travel between stars.

As for controlled nuclear fusion, not only has it been realized a long time ago, but we have even achieved the third generation of nuclear fusion, helium-triple fusion. Because this kind of fusion reaction produces almost no neutrons, the radiation damage to the first wall material is much lower than that of deuterium-tritium fusion. The life of the nuclear fusion reactor is also greatly improved. When a spacecraft is equipped with a helium-triple fusion reactor, it can travel in the universe for at least fifty years without landing. If it refuels, it can even travel for a hundred years.

Productivity has increased dramatically, and everything has reached a level that is unimaginable to humans in the 21st century.

He himself has become the chief scientist of human civilization and has received countless respects because of his various great breakthroughs in the field of nuclear fusion.

But suddenly, he found himself awake and realized he was just dreaming.

After waking up, he found that he was actually in the 25th century. Not to mention how he survived to the 25th century, but in the 25th century, although the science of human beings was quite advanced, especially in network technology, it had reached an unprecedented height, including the metaverse, which had been fully built. Almost the vast majority of young people devoted their time to the metaverse, and there were very few young people who wanted to be scientists.

At this time, the scientific community was almost completely unable to find the way forward for the future. Although humans had been able to migrate to the moon and Mars and establish human bases, quantum communication technology had also made great progress and had been fully applied to network technology, allowing humans on the three planets of Earth, the Moon, and Mars to achieve delay-free communication.

However, the most critical energy technology has come to a complete standstill.

Although controlled nuclear fusion has been achieved, even the Q value can reach 10.

However, the nuclear fusion reactor built by humans can only maintain the operation of the reactor for one year. After one year, it must be shut down for maintenance. This is mainly because the most important first wall material has never made a key breakthrough. Moreover, scientists no longer know what kind of molecular structure can withstand the erosion of high-energy neutrons and make good use of the energy generated by the reaction. The development of materials has reached its limit.

The reactor, which is shut down once a year for maintenance, has been used by them for four centuries, and a key raw material needed for it is almost used up, with only a hundred years' supply left. This raw material has been mined out on Earth, Mars and the Moon.

Once this critical raw material is used up, all of the world's nuclear fusion reactors will have to be shut down.

By then, mankind will fall from its current prosperity to the level of four centuries ago when there was no controlled nuclear fusion.

You have to know that in today's society, because the metaverse has become the main way of life for human beings, 80% of the world's industries are related to the metaverse, and these metaverse technologies are basically maintained by quantum communication technology. The power consumption of the entire society has increased by hundreds of times compared with before.

Once nuclear fusion is no longer maintained, it is hard to imagine what will become of the people who have lost the metaverse.

And those people alone are nothing.

Governments around the world have also become aware of this problem.

Since this problem cannot be solved scientifically, the only solution left is to reduce overall electricity consumption, or simply reduce the population.

Because of the prosperity brought by nuclear fusion over the centuries, the human population has once again experienced several centuries of expansion. Up to now, the total population living on the three planets has reached 200 billion, especially on Earth, where there are more than 150 billion people living.

Therefore, if the population is reduced by half, the raw materials can be used for at least another 200 years, and if it is reduced by three quarters, it can be used for another 400 years!
Therefore, those weak countries were once again ravaged by war.

It is even possible that such things will happen in human bases on the moon and Mars.

After all, the casualties caused by destroying human bases on Mars and the Moon would certainly be far greater than those caused on Earth.

Once a human base is destroyed, the humans living inside will not be able to escape.

So until one day.

In this dream, Xiao Yi was also the world's most important scientist and went to the Mars base for an investigation.

Just as he was going out of the cabin to investigate, he suddenly saw a flash of fire in the distant sky. He could clearly recognize that it was a missile. Finally, the missile landed on the base behind him.

With a loud bang, the base was completely blown apart, with broken torsos and limbs flying everywhere. Even those who survived were directly exposed to the Martian air without wearing protective clothing, and they immediately died of suffocation.

He and his team were so close to the explosion point that they were blown away by the powerful shock wave.

When he fell to the ground, he realized that there was a hole in his mask and a leak had occurred, and his eyes gradually revealed sadness.

……

On the bed, Xiao Yi suddenly sat up and gasped violently.

It was not until a moment later that he calmed down, looked at his surroundings, and suddenly realized.

"It turned out to be a dream."

And there is also a layer of dream within a dream.

Recall the details.

The dream within the dream is that humans have found the direction of technological development, and the prospects for material technology are endless. Materials that only existed in fantasy in the past can really be realized in the real world. In the dream, technological development has reached its limit, and material technology has finally reached its limit, which has left humans with only one way to go: eating up the mountain. When the mountain is completely eaten up, there will only be destruction.

Of course, in the dream, Xiao Yi still remembered some details. Scientists in the field of metaverse were respected by the vast majority of people. If young people wanted to become scientists, most of them would choose to become metaverse scientists rather than fields such as materials science and nuclear physics.

Scientists like him who developed nuclear fusion were respected by all mankind a few centuries ago, but a few centuries later, because there was no future for material technology, he and his team had not produced any results for quite a long time. So in the last century, people lost respect for him. Moreover, because a lot of money was spent but no success was achieved, the top government officials also lost patience, which led to a significant reduction in their funding.

"So, this is another fate for humans when technology cannot advance?"

Xiao Yi felt anxious again.

Come back to your senses.

Fortunately, it is still the 21st century.

At least, there is the GOOD END scene in the dream within a dream.

It is said that the scenes in dreams are the opposite of reality, so the scenes in dreams and reality should be the same, right?
At this time, Xiao Yi couldn't help but start to believe such things.

……

Time passed quickly.

Nothing else happened during the New Year.

But there were some unexpected things. His mother became familiar with an old lady who lived next door. Then one day, the old lady came to pay New Year's greetings and saw Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi didn't intend to let others know that his family lived in this community, otherwise, just thinking about it would make him realize how troublesome it would be.

Fortunately, the old lady did not recognize Xiao Yi. Which is normal when you think about it. After all, elderly people like her generally don’t pay attention to the Internet. Basically, only young people can recognize Xiao Yi when they see him.

However, the old lady's eyes lit up when she saw Xiao Yi. She asked him how old he was. When she learned that he was only 21, she shook her head regretfully and said that she had a daughter in her thirties who was not married yet and was now a teacher at the University of Science and Technology. At Xiao Yi's age, he was still just a student.

Xiao Yi was speechless.

Old lady, look at how old my mother is and how old you are. Is there any need to explain the age gap between these children?

I actually want to go on a blind date.

Excessive!

But anyway, the old lady thought he was still a student, so that wasn't a big problem.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about his identity becoming known in this community anymore.

But the only problem is that the old lady said that although her daughter is a teacher, she is a homebody in her thirties. She usually stays in the game room playing games when she comes home.

Xiao's mother smiled and said that he was already qualified to be a teacher at HKUST, and that he might be playing games just to relax.

However, Xiao Yi, who was standing beside him, had a stranger expression the more he listened. According to the old lady's description, the image of this female teacher from the University of Science and Technology became more and more concrete in his mind.

……

This little episode passed quickly, and the few days of the Spring Festival also passed.

People started to go back to work.

Xiao Yi was no exception and returned to his post.

Similarly, the Plasma Institute also reworked the work.

So on the third day after the Lantern Festival, Xiao Yi came to the Plasma Institute and attended a welcome ceremony specially prepared for him.

"Welcome Professor Xiao Yi to officially join our Plasma Research Institute!"

In a conference room, Zhao Zhanyou, as the director, handed the letter of appointment to Xiao Yi.

Xiao Yi accepted the appointment letter. He joined the Institute of Plasma Physics as a specially appointed researcher. A specially appointed researcher is a senior scientific and technological expert specially hired due to the needs of the unit's discipline construction, and his personnel relationship will be retained in the original unit.

He came to the Institute of Plasma Physics for the purpose of building controlled nuclear fusion.

Amid the applause of the crowd, Xiao Yi bowed to the leaders and researchers of the institute present, and then said: "First of all, I am honored to be a distinguished researcher of the Institute of Plasma Physics. I would also like to thank Director Zhao and Academician Li for the invitation."

"To be honest, I didn't join the Institute of Plasma Physics on a whim. Before, when I was studying the Greenwald limit, I had already developed a strong interest in nuclear fusion. Until a few years ago, I participated in an ignition experiment in our institute, which doubled my interest..."

Listening to Xiao Yi's speech, Li Jiangan said to Zhao Zhanyou with a smile: "See, I knew that letting Xiao Yi be in charge of lighting the fire would definitely arouse his interest."

Zhao Zhanyou said: "You are right, but I think the key thing is that I asked him to study the Greenwald limit in the first place."

Li Jiangan curled the corners of his mouth, but after thinking about it, it seemed to make sense, so he was too lazy to argue with him.

But then, what Xiao Yi said made them all stunned.

"But to be honest, the more I understand, the more I feel suffocated."

"How can we achieve the most critical first-wall material technology required for nuclear fusion? Is there such a structure that can help materials under electromagnetic interaction to resist the impact of high-energy neutrons or withstand the high temperature of plasma?"

"As you can imagine, this places very high demands on the material."

"So, I have to wonder, is there any chance of achieving controlled nuclear fusion? We are all very clear about the logic that if nuclear fusion cannot be achieved and no energy technology can be found to replace it, then human beings will always be trapped in this small space and time on Earth, born in the morning and dying in the evening, and unaware of the dawn and dusk of the universe.

But even if this is achieved, how can we ensure that the reactor can operate for a long time?"

“What if the reactor cannot be operated for a long time, and the first wall material continues to be consumed? As this material is used up, will nuclear fusion become an unviable technology?”

"I know I'm overthinking this. After all, that's hundreds of years away. What does it have to do with me? It's enough to achieve controlled nuclear fusion."

"But this is a matter of science for all mankind. We may not need to consider it, but we are obliged to consider it."

"So, in the next period of time, I will devote my main energy and time to the research of the first wall material. No matter what the final answer will be, I also hope to see the future route."

Hearing what Xiao Yi said, Zhao Zhanyou was stunned.

Li Jiangan also fell silent.

They thought that Xiao Yi joined the Plasma Institute just because he was interested in nuclear fusion, but they didn't expect that he thought so far ahead.

Or rather, a little sentimental.

But on second thought, Xiao Yi is a young man.

It seemed normal for him to have such thoughts.

But they themselves would never consider such a problem.

For them, being able to achieve nuclear fusion is already a dream, so why would they care about how many years it will take for the materials to be consumed?
Whether they can survive until then is a question. All they need to do is -

Believe in the wisdom of future generations.

As Xiao Yi finished his speech, Li Jiangan stood up and clapped his hands.

"Professor Xiao, I have nothing to say, but all I can do is to support you all the time."

Zhao Zhanyou also stood up and applauded: "Me too."

Until the end, everyone in the conference room stood up and applauded Xiao Yi.

No matter what the final result is, now, Xiao Yi's words have also aroused the passion they once had in their hearts.

After all, they are studying nuclear fusion!
If there had never been a dream and passion, who would be willing to devote themselves to such research?

Now, their enthusiasm is back!

(End of this chapter)