Even though some of these things were public information, after all, they were organized by others.
Lu Zhou wanted to see Lyman Spitzer's original idea for the stellarator.
At the same time, it was also a theoretical model from the perspective of a pure physicist.
"Lyman Spitzer's manuscript?" Edward Witten rubbed his chin and thought for a second. He said, "I haven't really paid attention to this area of research, but I remember that he donated the manuscript to the Institute for Advanced Study. These things were transferred to the Firestone Library at the beginning of the millennium. If you're interested, you should be able to find it in the Firestone Library's collection room. "
Lu Zhou: "In the Firestone Library? Thank you. "
"You're welcome." Witten smiled and said, "Actually, if you're interested in the stellarator, why don't you consider visiting relevant research institutions? No one in Princeton is researching this thing anymore. Instead, Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Caltech are doing more research on this thing. "
Lu Zhou: "I'll consider it if it's necessary, but before that, I have to determine my research direction."
The concept of controllable nuclear fusion was too big. Even though the general description was only a few words, the research projects involved were more than five pages long.
In a sense, one of the reasons why Lu Zhou wanted to borrow Lyman Spitzer's manuscript was that he wanted to gain some inspiration from it.
After Witten heard Lu Zhou's words, he took a sip of his coffee and said, "I hope you can find what you're looking for."
"Thanks for your kind words."
Lu Zhou smiled and said goodbye to Witten. He then walked out of the Institute for Advanced Study.
…
There was a type of scholar in the academic world. While they were doing rigorous research, they still maintained a wild imagination.
When it came to something that ordinary people thought was unbelievable, their first thought was not to prove that it was impossible from a professional point of view. Instead, they would try to give the fantasy a realistic meaning from a scientific point of view.
Lyman Spitzer was one of these people.
In addition to him, Freeman Dyson, who proposed the concept of the Dyson sphere, and Tsiolkovsky, who proposed the concept of the space elevator, could be included in this list.
Compared to the latter two, Lyman Spitzer was obviously not famous, but no one could ignore his influence in physics, especially astrophysics.
Because he was the first to propose putting telescopes into space to eliminate the obscuring effect of the Earth's atmosphere, which later led to the birth of the Hubble Space Telescope.
In his honor, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), the last space telescope of the Large Orbiting Observatory Program, was named after him.
After saying goodbye to Witten, Lu Zhou went to the Firestone Library and found the librarian.
The person in charge of the library collection was a somewhat rigid and eccentric old man.
Even though there were all kinds of weird people in Princeton, it was rare to see a mystic wearing a nightgown in the library.
His cloudy eyes, in particular, made people wonder if he was suffering from Alzheimer's, and if he could still hear what others were saying.
However, to Lu Zhou's surprise, after the old man heard Lu Zhou's intentions, not only did he not show any signs of dementia, but he even quickly walked to a bookshelf that was as tall as two people. He used a ladder to take down a thick notebook with a leather cover.
The old man returned to the wooden counter and handed the notebook to Lu Zhou.
"This is what you want."
"Thank you."
Lu Zhou thanked him and reached out to take the manuscript.
However, the old man didn't let him do what he wanted. It was like he was fishing; his outstretched hand instantly retracted at an exaggerated speed.
Lu Zhou:???
With an indifferent face, the old man's withered hand reached out again.
"This is the wealth of civilization, please take good care of it."
It seemed like he just wanted to give Lu Zhou a piece of advice.
However, Lu Zhou noticed that the old man's hand that was holding the notebook had been shaking, as if he was waiting for an opportunity.
"I know … Can you give it to me now?" Lu Zhou looked at the old man in front of him with a strange look. He didn't reach out to take the notebook.
It felt like the old man was deliberately teasing him.
Seeing that Lu Zhou didn't fall for the trick, the old man's eyes flashed with disappointment. He coughed lightly and continued to speak with a straight face.
"Of course you can … But before that, you have to swear that it will be the same as it was when you borrowed it, and the way it was when you returned it."
Lu Zhou raised three fingers.
"I swear …"
"Not to me." The old man took out a Bible from the side and looked at Lu Zhou seriously. "You must swear to it."
Lu Zhou looked at the Bible and felt helpless.
What's the point of asking an atheist to swear to this thing?
It would be better to give him a copy of Newton's Principia Naturalis Philosophiae or Einstein's Unified Field Theory.
However, in order to save time, Lu Zhou didn't talk nonsense. He put his hand on the cross of the Bible and spoke in an honest tone.
"I promise that it will be the same as when I borrowed it."
Although the old man was a little dissatisfied with Lu Zhou's lack of solemnity, after Lu Zhou completed this strange ceremony, he reluctantly nodded and handed the manuscript to Lu Zhou.
"I hope you remember your promise."
"I will."
After taking the manuscript, Lu Zhou immediately walked to the reading room next to him …
…
Because time had given it the attribute of a cultural relic, even if Lu Zhou borrowed this book from the Firestone Library, he couldn't really take the manuscript out of the library. He could only read it in the reading room in the library area.
If it was a document with a history of hundreds of years, he would have to pass the relevant qualification test and wear special gloves before he could borrow it.
However, this notebook was relatively "new", with only a little more than 60 years of history.
Lu Zhou spread it out on the table and began to carefully study it from the first page.
It wasn't easy to fully understand the contents. Lyman Spitzer's notes were like his unrestrained imagination. His handwriting was sloppy, and there were also some sketches of unknown meaning mixed in.
Lu Zhou didn't know why he wrote that will and donated all of his manuscripts to the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
Lu Zhou felt that if he were in Lyman Spitzer's shoes, he definitely wouldn't allow this "unclear" thing to remain in the world …
Lu Zhou spent the entire afternoon reading it from top to bottom.
Even though there were many parts that were difficult to understand, he still felt like he learned a lot after reading it.
Especially for the prerequisites for completing the stellarator, Lyman Spitzer's judgment was basically the same as his own conclusions.
"… It's hard to imagine that this is something from sixty years ago." Lu Zhou closed this old manuscript and couldn't help but sigh emotionally. He then gave his own evaluation.
Even now, the ideas in this notebook and the design concept of the stellarator could be refined into a thesis with high academic value.
Of course, it had already been sixty years, so someone else must have done this before.
Lu Zhou put the manuscript aside and looked at the contents in the notebook. He then began to think.
Controllable nuclear fusion was a huge project. Whether it was the significance or the broad prospects behind it, it was enough to pique his interest.
However, the problem was that he needed to choose a suitable entry point.
A superconducting material that was closer to room temperature?
Or, from a mathematical point of view, try to study the "laws of plasma motion in the stellarator"?
The first two were on the application level, while the latter was on the theoretical level. Both were quite difficult.
Especially the latter, it involved the study of the complex plasma turbulence phenomenon. It could be said that this was the most difficult and complicated part of the Navier-Stokes equations research.
Because up until now, the measures people had taken for plasma energy were only "diagnostics" and not "measurements".
However, once this problem was effectively solved, not only would it promote the progress of the nuclear fusion project, but it would also be a great inspiration for the Navier-Stokes equations research …
Lu Zhou remained silent for around ten minutes.
He suddenly smirked and raised his pen. He then drew a circle on the "laws of plasma motion in the stellarator".
He closed the notebook in his hand, took the manuscript and his things, and stood up from the chair.
As expected, a more challenging problem was more suitable for him.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
