Wang Haifeng was right about one thing. There was room for improvement in HCS-1.
However, he was wrong about one thing.
The reason why Lu Zhou released in-progress results wasn't because his research was at a bottleneck, it was because he didn't care.
Even though his theory played an important role in the application field, he was still a theoretical scholar. Only by spreading and communicating theories could they display their full value.
Many people who received the journal thought that the HCS-1 thesis was the main focus, and the theoretical calculation thesis was just a foil.
However, for Lu Zhou, this relationship was the other way around. The latter was the main focus.
The two were like the chicken and the egg.
If someone could understand the mathematical theory he established for computational materials and make innovations based on it, he wouldn't feel anything wrong. Instead, he would feel honored.
This was why he gave the Collatz conjecture to his student while he only provided the method, direction, and thought guide.
If he had to solve this problem himself, it wouldn't be difficult.
His mathematics level was now at level 6, which was completely different from when he was level 5. Even though the forefathers of the Collatz conjecture didn't do as much groundwork as Goldbach's conjecture, in terms of the difficulty of the conjecture itself, it wasn't any more difficult than Goldbach's conjecture, which had troubled the mathematics community for two and a half centuries.
As long as he put all his effort into it, he was at least 90% sure that he would be able to solve this problem. It would take at least a year, or at least half a year.
…
One morning at the end of March, Lu Zhou showed up at his office at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
However, this time, he came to the office with two test papers in his hand.
Lu Zhou gave the test papers to Wei Wen and Jerick and spoke concisely.
"There are only ten questions on the test paper, you two go and do them. Hand them in in two hours. It doesn't matter if you use your phone or not, I lose if I can find the answers online. "
Just like Qin Yue and the others, Lu Zhou gave Wei Wen and Jerick a list of books to read and assigned tasks to them.
It had been more than a month since the start of school, and he felt like it was time to see how the two of them were doing.
After the test papers were handed out, the two of them immediately picked up their pens and began to write on the draft paper.
Lu Zhou's test papers weren't difficult, but they weren't easy either.
Wei Wen frowned and thought for a long time before he wrote the first question.
He glanced at Jerick from the corner of his eye and saw that Jerick was in the same situation as him. He heaved a sigh of relief.
Time quickly passed by, and when it was almost ten o 'clock, Lu Zhou announced the end of the exam. He put away the test papers and roughly looked at the answers.
The two of them were surprisingly consistent. They both answered seven questions correctly, but their mistakes were different.
Lu Zhou put down the test paper and looked at the two people standing in front of his desk.
"Wei Wen, your understanding of the Hilbert space is very good. As for your future direction of development, I suggest you consider the direction of mathematical physics."
Wei Wen asked, "Does mathematical physics count as an application?"
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "It depends on how you look at the concept of application. For physics, it's a theory. For mathematics, it's an application. Of course, this is just my suggestion. You are free to choose your own field of interest. "
After hearing his supervisor's words, Wei Wen went into deep thought.
Lu Zhou put him aside and looked at his other student. "Jerick, your field of expertise should be Fourier inversion. This is a very promising field, and it has a wide range of theoretical and industrial applications. If you're interested in this field, I suggest you pay more attention to this topic and choose a point that you're interested in to research. "
Jerick immediately said, "Professor, can I study computational materials with you?"
Lu Zhou said in a joking tone, "Of course, but if you want to understand my theory, you'll have to read at least ten more books."
With the corrected test paper in hand, the two returned to their seats.
Lu Zhou stretched his back and was about to get up to make a cup of coffee.
But at this moment, the office door was pushed open. Connie, who was as strong as a gorilla, strode in with a journal in his hand and shouted excitedly.
"Professor!"
Vera, Qin Yue, and Hardy, who were studying the documents, raised their heads and looked at the source of the noise with dissatisfaction.
Lu Zhou looked at Connie's excited expression and guessed what was going on.
However, he had received a reply from the Science editorial department a long time ago, so he wasn't surprised by the official publication of the paper.
Lu Zhou looked at him and said, "I remember telling you to keep quiet here and remember to knock before you come in."
"Please forgive me for being rude, I definitely didn't do it on purpose. I'm sure you won't be any calmer than I am." Connie lowered his voice, but he couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. He said, "Guess what happened? The highlight of our paper was quoted on the front page of Nature! "
Connie looked at Lu Zhou proudly, waiting for Lu Zhou's reaction.
However …
This guy didn't get a reaction.
It was obvious that Lu Zhou was much calmer than him.
The office went silent for a second.
The atmosphere was a little awkward, and Connie's expression gradually became awkward.
Lu Zhou was worried that Connie would be embarrassed, so he coughed and said, "It's just a quote, there's no need to be so excited."
Vera, who was researching the Collatz conjecture, couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle. Hardy, on the other hand, was more carefree. He banged his head on the table and laughed until his shoulders twitched.
The office was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Even Wei Wen, who had a cold expression on his face, twitched the corners of his mouth. However, he managed to hold back his laughter.
Connie's face turned red, and he awkwardly scratched his head as he said, "Aren't you excited at all? This is one of the highlights of Nature! "
Lu Zhou sighed and said, "I know it's a Nature highlight, but half a year ago, I received both Nature and Science highlights. I'm sure if you're like me, you're used to these trivial things. "
Many top journals "highlighted" outstanding scientific research results, which was the so-called "highlight citation". Generally speaking, in addition to using concise language to summarize the thesis content, there would also be comments from scholars in the same field.
When Lu Zhou was first highlighted by the two top journals, he was quite excited.
However, now, he wasn't as excited as before.
Not long ago, his modified PDMS film was named one of the top ten outstanding scientific research results in 2016 by Science.
It was just a highlight, so there was really nothing to make a fuss about.
Connie's eyes widened, and he couldn't say a word.
God, someone actually called the highlights of "Nature" a "trivial" glory?!
Normal PhD students would have to spend a year or even several years just to publish a thesis in a second-tier journal. If they could publish a thesis in Nature, many people would be willing to work for free for two years, even if they had to pay to do it.
As for being highlighted as the most outstanding research result, that was something that most people didn't even dare to think about.
If this wasn't worth being excited about, then what would be considered a real honor?
A Nobel Prize?
Lu Zhou didn't care about what Connie was thinking. He took the latest issue of Nature from Connie's hands and roughly scanned through it.
Unsurprisingly, the highlighted thesis was the HCS-1 material thesis.
As for its companion thesis, the computational materials science thesis, other than a line at the end about the effect of specific surface area and pore size on the diffusion rate of polysulfide compounds, there was no mention of it.
Lu Zhou smiled, but he shook his head in his heart.
It seemed like no one realized what a real treasure was.
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