From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 84 Reverse Thinking! Looking in the Mirror? Finding the Key Factor!
The initial experiments conducted at Donggang University are different from the current ones.

The electromagnetic interference fluidity experiment, also known as the Zhang phenomenon, has undergone many modifications from the initial experiment during the research process.

One is the material.

The nickel/alumina cermet used in the experiment was manufactured by Professor Han Xiaoxu of the Heterogeneous Materials Physics Laboratory.

The materials manufactured by Han Xiaoxu have a more uniform and solid mixture of nickel and aluminum oxide, resulting in a much better material texture and significantly improved physical properties and stability.

The second major change was the temperature; they conducted the experiments in a cryogenic environment created by liquid nitrogen.

When the quality of the material increases and its properties become more stable, coupled with a stable temperature environment, the electromagnetic interference flow phenomenon becomes more explicit and stable. In a single experiment, the air flow fluctuation signal that changes over time can be detected.

However, the problem with stability is that it is impossible to generate a strong flow signal like that observed in the Donggang University experiment.

Zhang Minghao's idea was to go back to the beginning and replicate the initial experiment to see if any discoveries could be made.

Xue Kun didn't quite understand, but he still went to the lab with Zhang Minghao.

He entered the lab and began preparing materials, asking, "This experiment has been done several times at Donggang University."

“We conducted research before coming here and determined that the signal was unstable.”

"What's the point?"

Zhang Minghao said earnestly, "I just want to recreate the scene of the experiment, to watch it again, and to do it again."

"Then let's try again!"

Xue Kun didn't ask any more questions. He knew that Zhang Minghao was very insightful, and he trusted Zhang Minghao completely.

The two people are teacher and student.

But Xue Kun felt that Zhang Minghao was a much better student than himself, the teacher.

After arriving at Jiangzhou University, Zhang Minghao conducted one research project after another, which led to major breakthroughs in laboratory projects. He even developed a room-temperature superconducting material called SNT-01.

He also benefited from his students' support, which propelled his research career to a new level and earned him considerable monetary rewards.

Of the 100 million yuan technology transfer fee, four million of it belonged to him!

Thinking about it still fills me with excitement.

Xue Kun carefully prepared the materials, hoping that the experiment would yield some discoveries.

Material preparation takes time.

Zhang Minghao didn't just stand by and watch; he went up and helped out with a few small tasks. He also had some practical skills, but they were definitely far from matching Xue Kun's professionalism.

The two worked on it for the entire morning, and by noon the material had sintered and taken shape. The next step was to prepare for the experiment.

Preparations are still needed for the experiment, but the preparations were already completed during the process of waiting for the materials to sinter and solidify.

"Don't get your hopes up too high."

Before the experiment officially began, Xue Kun gave a reminder.

"I'm prepared, there shouldn't be any results," Zhang Minghao said nonchalantly.

The current experiment is the same as before.

The experiment still used a high-precision flow meter.

This fluidity measuring instrument was newly purchased by the laboratory, and it was also part of the preparation for applying for follow-up research on the Zhang phenomenon.

The measuring instruments they originally used were from the mechanics laboratory, and they couldn't always use equipment from other laboratories.

Apart from the measuring instruments used for testing, nothing else in the experiment changed.

Since nothing else has changed, the experimental results are naturally the same as before, and there is no possibility of any new discoveries.

He hoped that by reviewing the experiment again, he might be able to find that 'key factor'.

This is the most important question.

Xue Kun placed the manufactured metal-ceramic material between the capacitor plates, then connected the power supply and turned on the flowability measuring instrument, and the experiment officially began.

The experiment begins by observing the readings of the flowability meter.

Once airflow occurs, the reading on the flow meter screen will change.

But clearly, the experiment failed.

They waited together for five minutes, but saw no change in the readings on the flow meter.

Zhang Minghao kept staring at the experimental equipment, deep in thought.

The situation is the same as before, except that it can use "Associative Perception" to judge certain situations.

For example, temperature, air density, material shape, etc.

These are all irrelevant to the experimental results.

If you further apply this to "Correct Perception," your judgment will be even more accurate.

He considered many factors, even voltage and current.

The results showed no correlation.

Xue Kun turned to look at Zhang Minghao and found that he was staring intently at the experimental equipment. He patted him on the shoulder and comforted him, "Don't worry about it."

"The fact that there are no results now does not mean there will be none in the future. The lab will apply for this project soon."

He chuckled as he said, "If we discover something now and replicate your experiment, what's the point of waiting until the project is approved?"

Zhang Minghao immediately asked curiously, "What would happen if the experiment were replicated ahead of schedule?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a voice came from the doorway: "If we replicate the experiment ahead of time, we won't have to do anything once the project is approved."

"Live a carefree, relaxed life, for years to come..."

The one speaking was Chen Shuai.

Chen Shuai and Zhu Bingkun walked in together.

Zhu Bingkun chimed in, "That makes sense. Life would be so comfortable if we didn't have to do anything or think about anything every day."

"When the time comes, I'll also find a hobby, exercise, and work out to improve my health."

As he spoke, he patted Chen Shuai's stomach hard, and seeing the belly jiggling, he immediately laughed and said, "You're in worse shape than all of us, you should go lose weight!"

Everyone in the lab laughed.

Xue Kun said, "Those kinds of days probably get boring after a while. I really want to just lie down and relax, but I can do that now."

"That's right."

Zhu Bingkun nodded in agreement. They were all ambitious; otherwise, having achieved such great results, they could have simply given up.

Now I don't have to do anything, I can just drift through life. Because of the "Zhang phenomenon" and the research on STN-01, I might have a chance to be elected as an academician in a few years.

Xue Kun suddenly realized what was happening and asked in confusion, "Why are you all here?"

"Let's take a look."

"I heard you're in the lab, let's see what you're doing..." Zhu Bingkun and Chen Shuai responded.

Actually, it was Chen Shuai who brought Zhu Bingkun along.

Chen Shuai heard that Xue Kun and Zhang Minghao had gone to the lab and stayed there for the whole morning, and he felt something was wrong.

If it were just Xue Kun alone, it wouldn't matter if he stayed for a whole day, and it would be normal for Zhang Minghao to go to the lab, but it's not normal for him to stay for an entire morning.

Chen Shuai was afraid that some research would leave him behind.

Zhang Minghao could do his own research without any problem, but bringing Xue Kun and Zhu Bingkun along only made him feel extremely frustrated.

They are a team of three researchers; I can't always be excluded.

Twice!
So he came to check it out. The good news was that Zhu Bingkun didn't know either; Zhang Minghao was just doing research with Xue Kun, which made him feel much better.

After all, Xue Kun and Zhang Minghao were teacher and student.

Of course, it doesn’t matter.

"So, you want to replicate the experiment? And get the same result as before?" Chen Shuai asked curiously.

"Correct."

Zhu Bingkun said, "We can wait until the project is finalized before making any decisions. The application has already been submitted."

……

Zhang Minghao returned to his workroom, his mind still preoccupied with the experimental questions.

The entire process of the experiment was right in front of us, but we just couldn't replicate the high mobility phenomenon at Donggang University.

What is the reason?
I feel uncomfortable all over when I can't figure out this problem.

Now that we have "Associative Perception," we're still seeing no progress even after reviewing the experiment again. Could it be that the key point we haven't discovered is truly beyond our comprehension?

Even if the 'key points' are beyond our comprehension, we can always find related factors because of the specific experimental results.

He simply analyzed it from the principles, returning to the inherent properties of the material itself.

Currently, only nickel/alumina cermets have been found to possess electromagnetic interference flow properties; nickel/alumina cermets themselves are a special type of material.

This material is a random microstructure electromagnetic field material.

The nickel particles in the material are randomly distributed in aluminum oxide as a conductive phase. A conductive phase refers to a physical phenomenon in which the conductivity changes abruptly, which is a type of phase transition.

For example, the transformation between semiconductor and metallic phases of materials under specific conditions.

Nickel/alumina cermets are typically insulators, and insulators possess a physical property called 'dielectric constant'.

Dielectric constant can be simply understood as the ability to store electrical energy.

The dielectric constant of a vacuum is 1, and the dielectric constants of water vapor and various elemental gases also tend to be close to 1.
The dielectric constant of nickel/alumina cermet is determined by aluminum oxide, and the value is approximately between 9 and 9.5.

What makes this material special is that when the nickel content exceeds a certain penetration threshold, a conductive three-dimensional metallic network forms inside the material, exhibiting negative dielectric behavior and a negative dielectric constant.

A negative dielectric constant is clearly not a normal situation, and only 'electromagnetic metamaterials' can possess this special property that defies conventional physics.

Therefore, after the publication of the 'Zhang phenomenon', the international physics community generally believes that the Zhang phenomenon is directly related to the negative permittivity state of nickel/aluminum oxide metal.

Zhang Minghao was also able to confirm that the two were directly related.

But what about the underlying logic?
why?
This necessitates further research into the microscopic physical principles of the electromagnetic field.

"It seems I still need to study more, learn more knowledge, and read more theoretical literature. Maybe then I can understand the principles."

Zhang Minghao thought to himself.

The study of the microscopic aspects of electromagnetism is extremely complex; the movement of electrons alone offers a wealth of research opportunities.

Over the next few days, he spent his time studying various documents, including theoretical mechanisms related to superconductivity.

In the microscopic realm of electromagnetism, most of the theoretical achievements are still macroscopic, and microscopic theories can only be used as a reference.

For example, the phenomenon of superconductivity.

Even now, no scholar has been able to fully explain the phenomenon of superconductivity from a microscopic perspective. There are still many mechanisms that we do not understand and require careful exploration and research.

Even published findings cannot be definitively proven correct.

However, he found the analysis of many studies quite interesting, and he actually enjoyed reading through the large amount of complicated content.

Everyone was busy in the workshop.

Chen Lanjun has been revising the paper for several days now. She needs to write her first SCI paper well, otherwise it might not pass the review process.

After publishing an SCI paper, the next step is to prepare the graduation thesis.

Liao Zhenyu and Xu Chaoze are both preparing their graduation theses; doctoral dissertations in physics are quite complex.

It's not just about having a core concept; it also requires other tedious work.

Xu Chao was stumped by the difficulty of translating the documents.

One of the requirements for graduation theses is to translate foreign literature that is directly related to the graduation topic.

Xu Chao's English is not very good, and when it comes to professional English, especially the translation of complex documents, he keeps scratching his head.

For physics-related academic literature, AI software translations can only serve as a reference.

He had completed half of the translation, but felt it wasn't quite right, so he simply sent it to Zhang Minghao for a look.

Xu Chao was still a little embarrassed. "Zhang Minghao, you're very skilled, can you take a look and see how it goes? Do you think this translation is acceptable?"

Zhang Minghao received the document, glanced at it briefly, and said, "Brother Chao, try thinking about it from the opposite perspective."

Xu Chao looked puzzled.

"What I mean is, if you were a teacher reviewing this translation, would you pass it?"

Xu Chao forced a smile.

Chen Lanjun curiously leaned over to take a look, read a few sentences of the translation, and felt that it didn't make sense at all.

She joked, "Brother Chao, think about it from another angle. If you were the document itself, this translation would be you looking in a mirror..."

You might not even recognize yourself!

"Puch!"

All three of them laughed at what he said.

Xu Chao certainly couldn't laugh. He glared at Chen Lanjun and said dejectedly, "You didn't have to be so sarcastic when you asked me to help you take a look."

"I'll revise it! I'll keep revising it!"

After laughing, Zhang Minghao pondered Chen Lanjun's words carefully, and the more he thought about them, the more meaningful they seemed.

Thinking from the perspective of literature...

"What if we think about it from an experimental perspective, or from the perspective of materials?"

"What was the original experiment like? What is the current experiment like? Is it the same whether you look in a mirror or not..."

"What's different?"

"From the perspective of the material itself..."

Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind.

He wanted to conduct the initial experiments.

The materials used in the initial experiments were different, and later, when Xue Kun and he conducted experiments together, the materials used were also different.

The difference remains the quality of the materials.

As I recall, during my doctoral studies at Donggang University, most of the materials used in my experiments were manufactured by Xue Kun, with a small portion being manufactured by his predecessor.

Later, all the materials used were manufactured by Xue Kun.

The materials he manufactures are definitely inferior to those manufactured by Xue Kun.

Is the material quality worse? Is the nickel and aluminum oxide mixed unevenly? Is the nickel element, which acts as a conductive phase, unevenly distributed throughout the material?

"What's related to the high fluidity phenomenon is the distribution of nickel in the material? It's not uniform, but non-uniform!"

Feedback on "Associative Perception"

The association exists!

(End of this chapter)