USA, State University of New York.
Next to a green plant surrounded by birds and flowers, an office building stands next to it.
The perspective passes through the window, and there is a frequent knock on the door of the office.
After a while, an old man's voice sounded in the office: "Please come in."
"Professor Stanley! Have you seen it? It was the paper on arxiv recently!"
When the door was opened, Professor Northenton rushed in and said excitedly to the old man in the office.
The old man's name was Stanley Whittingham.
And his name is known to everyone in the chemical community.
Because at the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry ceremony last year, he, John Goodenough, and Akira Yoshino jointly received the Chemistry Prize in recognition of their outstanding contributions to lithium-ion batteries.
The lithium-ion battery they developed is one of the most important necessities in today's human society.
Because of this, they are also called the fathers of lithium batteries.
Stanley is very old this year. He was born in 1940 and is now eighty years old.
But despite this, he still seems to be as strong as ever and as wise as ever.
Seeing Professor Northenton looking so excited, Stanley put down the coffee cup in his hand and asked with a smile: "What paper can make you look like this?"
"It's the paper recently published on arxiv." Northenton said, "It's called "Electron Dynamic Mechanism and Reaction Mechanism of Two Types of Conductor Interfaces."
"As for arxiv, I don't pay much attention to it." Stanley shook his head: "I can't look at the screen for a long time now. I usually read the paper version."
But then he became interested: "Of course, the title you mentioned makes me very interesting. Electron power mechanism? And conductor interface reaction mechanism? It sounds like it connects the study of electrons in physics with electrochemistry. stand up?"
Northenton was stunned for a moment, and then exclaimed: "As expected of Professor Stanley, it is indeed the case. This paper connects the two parts, and the method used can be said to be very wonderful."
"Let me take a look."
Stanley said immediately.
Turn on your computer and go to the arxiv website.
arxiv is a well-known preprint website in academia. One of its biggest functions is to take advantage of it.
Because it often takes several months for a paper to be submitted to a journal and published, and during these months, other papers with the same results and conclusions may be published first.
After all, the review speed of different journals is different. When the review time is different, this situation is not uncommon.
In this case, the paper submitted first will be rejected.
At this time, the role of the arxiv website can be reflected.
When the paper is completed but has not yet been published, you can publish the preprint of the paper on this website in advance to "take advantage of it."
When reviewing manuscripts, major journals will also refer to the papers on this website to check for duplication of manuscripts.
Of course, in addition to this function, arxiv can also be used to discuss issues in your own papers with peers and ask for their opinions.
Finally, they are the ones who want to share their research results as soon as possible, and don't want to wait a few months for the paper to be reviewed and published.
Li Mu’s four papers fall into this last category.
In Stanley's office, he quickly searched for the paper with Northenton's help.
"Submitted it just the day before yesterday... Well, download the pdf."
After a while, Stanley opened the article.
He put on his glasses and looked carefully.
This paper is not long, only a dozen pages, which is very short compared to other papers.
However, the information and content inside are very solid, and the content on almost every page is the essence.
As he watched like this, the surprise in Stanley's eyes became more and more serious.
"This mathematical analysis... is really wonderful!"
Although his mathematics is not very good and is even relatively weak, it is enough for the content of this paper.
The use of mathematical tools in this paper alone is enough to be regarded as one of the best articles he has seen in so many years.
You know, as an 80-year-old Nobel Prize winner, he has read countless articles. To be awarded such an award by him is enough to prove the value of this article.
Finally, about an hour later, he finished turning over the paper.
Professor Northenton next to him never walked away. He read the article again with Stanley. After reading it for the second time, he was even more amazed.
marvelous!
Then he turned to look at Stanley and asked, "What do you think?"
Stanley did not speak, but returned to the arxiv interface and searched for the other three papers mentioned in this article.
"Analysis of Electrochemical Ion Dynamic Mechanism"
"Computational chemistry model of interface reactions between two types of conductors"
"Electrodynamic Analysis of Electronic Behavior at the Interface between Two Types of Conductors"
He spent a little more effort and read all three articles. Except for the "Analysis of Electrochemical Ion Dynamic Mechanism", he couldn't even understand the other two papers, because for him, the other two papers The article already belongs to another field.
But this did not prevent him from being able to see the close connections between these four papers.
Finally, he took off his glasses.
The excitement of seeing the truth was revealed in his eyes, which had become somewhat cloudy due to age.
"Wonderful, so wonderful!"
"I really didn't expect that after so many years, I would be able to see such significant results in the field of theoretical chemistry!"
"These papers can be regarded as an innovation for theoretical chemistry!"
He stood up from his seat excitedly.
After a moment, he suddenly turned his head and looked at Northenton: "Who is the author of this paper? I want to meet him!"
Northenton was stunned for a moment, and then a helpless expression appeared on his face: "It may be a little difficult to meet this author...because he is a Chinese."
"Chinese?" Stanley was stunned: "Who is it?"
"You may not believe it when you tell me that this Chinese guy is only 20 years old this year and is still studying for an undergraduate degree. Moreover, he is studying mathematics."
"You may have heard his name before, because he is the MuLi who proved the hail conjecture in mathematics this year."
Hearing Northenton's words, Stanley at such an old age was immediately shocked and speechless.
It wasn't until a long time later that he came back to his senses and said, "Professor Northenton, I'd like to ask you a favor. Send an invitation letter to this MuLi and ask him if he is willing to be my student."
"ah?"
Northenton was shocked. Stanley actually planned to accept Li Mu as a student?
Before he could ask any more questions, Stanley walked aside and picked up his cell phone to make a call.
"Goodenough, guess what I just discovered..."
Hearing this "Goodenough", Northenton knew who it was.
It was the other father of lithium batteries who won the award together with Stanley.
Obviously, Stanley was excited and shared this matter with his old friend.
Northenton sighed slightly in his heart.
Stanley's performance probably indicates that their chemical world will be in shock for a while.
(End of chapter)
