I failed a course, and the system became my study supervisor.

Chapter 96 Killian Smith and the First Project

Unlike the imagined image of an American scientist, Professor Smith is tall and well-proportioned, with obvious signs of fitness.

His hairstyle is much more normal, a typical Mediterranean style, but he looks very energetic.

If you can't imagine it, try to imagine a low-profile version of Jason Statham.

As for his academic achievements, there is no need to say more. It was Professor Smith's team that discovered the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.

It is no exaggeration to say that he is at least five years ahead of Zhang Zhongyao and a number of domestic professors in this field.

"Hello, Professor Smith!"

Xu Ling was the first to extend his hand to express his respect.

"Welcome to my laboratory."

Smith also extended his hand.

Naturally, he had a good impression of Zhang Zhongyao's favorite student.

A handshake marked Xu Ling's official entry into the laboratory.

……

For Xu Ling, the first thing he did when entering the laboratory was to read a large amount of paper materials, find out what the laboratory was currently doing, and find his own position.

Smith didn't ignore Xu Ling, and he gave him more than a dozen papers in one go, many of which were produced by Smith's laboratory itself.

As for these papers, Xu Ling naturally accepted them all.

In addition, the people in the laboratory have not arrived yet, and there is not much work, so I have a lot of free time.

For several days, Xu Ling was immersed in a sea of ​​papers.

Higgs boson width and coupling in a high-energy muon collider with forward muon detection

The Superfluidity Problem of Neutrino Clusters

and many more.

From these papers and Professor Smith's introduction, Xu Ling learned the tip of the iceberg of the laboratory's research problems.

The laboratory has always had a long-term research direction, which is to study muon neutrinos and non-standard models.

There are also two flexible directions that have not yet been determined. They may be a new research requirement of the school or a sudden idea of ​​a student.

As time passed, on the seventh day after Xu Ling entered the laboratory, the calm was finally broken.

There is a new person in the laboratory, and he will be the last one.

This is a woman with white skin, reddish-brown hair, an oval face, a rosy complexion and some tiny freckles.

At first glance, he doesn't look like an American.

“Hi everyone, I’m Elaine from the Sorbonne.

......"

She introduced herself naturally.

As expected, the girl was from France.

Sorbonne University is a famous school in France and the alma mater of Marie Curie, and it excels in mathematics.

Not only in college, Xu Ling could easily tell that she was Chinese because of her English pronunciation.

The custom in the French language is that the "h" is silent and the "r" is pronounced with a uvular sound.

Many people say that French is the most romantic language in the world.

However, in Xu Ling's opinion, this is not the case.

It is certainly romantic to see a soft and tender French girl with a trembling throat and making a soft uvula sound.

But if it is an old man, the situation is completely different. The uvular sound will become a sound like phlegm, which is endless.

If you think about it this way, do you still feel romantic?
Elaine also came to the laboratory with a cooperative project with the California Climate Research Center.

Exploring Atmospheric Muons and Their Changes with Temperature

Since the project was not complicated, Xu Ling and Yi Lian, who were newcomers to the laboratory, were also able to participate.

It's not complex, but that doesn't mean it's meaningless.

On the one hand, atmospheric muons are mainly produced by the interaction between cosmic rays and the Earth. Therefore, studying atmospheric muons will help reveal the origin, acceleration mechanism and propagation process of cosmic rays.

On the other hand, by studying the state of muons, we can infer relevant atmospheric characteristics and their changes, and thus study climate change. This is why we are collaborating with the Climate Research Center.

But the focus of the project is still the behavior of muons, which is what Smith's laboratory is concerned about. The Climate Center will ultimately just take a copy of the analysis data and do further research on its own.

Xu Ling is very interested in cosmic rays. Studying cosmic rays is an important means to find magnetic monopoles, and he has never forgotten this.

But what surprised Xu Ling was that perhaps the problem was too simple. Professor Smith was not going to take charge of the project himself and gave the position of project leader to a senior student.

……

On September 3rd, the project officially began.

Several experts from the Climate Center came and held an opening meeting with the Caltech team.

The meeting was simple, with a group of people sitting in a conference room with only a cup of coffee in front of each person.

"Dr. Dolson, do you have a research direction for this problem?"

The head of the Climate Center spoke first.

And Dr. Dolson is the senior who is in charge of the project.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "We already have the relevant detectors.

And what we want to do, first of all, is to find the relationship between the muon rate at the detector and the energy spectrum of muon production as a function of atmospheric depth.

The second is to relate the muon production spectrum to the effective temperature calculated by weighting the temperature profile at each depth."

"Okay, as long as you have a goal, you are the main force after all!"

Said a little old man from the Climate Center.

Afterwards, the group had an in-depth discussion on the research direction just mentioned.

Xu Ling can express his own opinions from time to time, and others will not ignore his views because of his age.

Even Elaine, who had just entered the laboratory, was able to speak.

This made Xu Ling feel a sense of identity.

Two hours later, the meeting ended. Walking back to the laboratory, Xu Ling felt a little emotional.

How do you usually propose a research project in China? Especially when it's a moderately large project involving multiple parties?

The answer is, start with "wine".

Some researchers organize a drinking party to make the big guys in the group and the investment bosses happy.

Because this type of project is not difficult, the results are visible, and if you make others happy, your own paper will be guaranteed.

It is precisely because of this that many people have taken a different approach and become figures like "Academic Daji".

Unless it is a truly important project or someone is really serious about studying, few people can get away with this.

But what Xu Ling saw here was quite different. A cup of coffee per person was all that was needed, refreshing and clean.

During the two or three hours, most of the time was spent discussing academic issues, and there was no seniority-based discussion.

As for whether the entire academic circle in the United States has those problems, Xu Ling doesn’t know, but at least the current project he is currently working on makes Xu Ling very favorable.

(End of this chapter)