As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 14 After publishing in Nature
Li Miaomiao is well aware of the significance of Nature and the difficulty of publishing in Nature. Even in today's world where academic qualifications are rapidly depreciating, with this article in Nature, Zheng Li can at least be an associate professor at the school.

Interesting fact: Under Pengcheng’s Peacock Project, the first author or corresponding author of a Nature article can receive a direct subsidy of 300 million yuan.

As an author on Nature, it was easy for Zheng Li to get a doctorate degree from a prestigious international university.

In addition to being happy for the other party, Li Miaomiao was more unwilling. They were both freshmen, and the other party was so far ahead of her.

"Congratulations. You published a paper in Nature in your freshman year. What are your plans for the future?"

"I guess if you continue to stay in the Medical Polymer Laboratory, they will let you lead a group, and some of the old professor's students will be assigned to you."

“They just want a credit.”

“You get free labor and more results.”

This is the path most people would choose. If you have talent, you can pursue academic excellence.

Li Miaomiao continued, "When you come back, you will be one of the Thousand Young Scholars, or even a Yangtze River Scholar."

Zheng Li said directly: "I have my own ideas. Starting this year, I will no longer go to the Medical Polymer Laboratory. I have more important things to do."

After proving that will can directly interfere with reality and the mage's spellcasting foundation exists, all plans will revolve around restoring spellcasting ability.

He needed to create an artificial magic brain that was more complex and more adaptable than the experimental one.

This goal cannot be achieved in the laboratory of Jiangcheng University. He needs a biological laboratory that is completely his own.

Scientific research is just a means.

Li Miaomiao was very curious about his plan: "Aren't you going to stay in the laboratory of the School of Biology?"

"Then what's your plan?"

Zheng Li replied: "You will know when the time comes, so I won't tell you now."

After Zheng Li hung up the phone, he found that his two roommates were looking at him in horror:
"Zheng Shen, what did you just say?"

"If I heard correctly, you just said that you published an article in Nature?"

“Is this the nature we understand?”

"Or is there a new journal in China named Nature?"

The two of them talked back and forth, and then looked at Zheng Li with anticipation.

Zheng Li: "It's the Nature you understand. I'm the first author. The school should report it later. It has been published in the latest journal."

"See for yourselves."

After that, Zheng Li gestured for them to look at the computer screen. The email contained the following sentence:

Your paper, 'xxxxxxxxx', has been scheduled for publication in Nature on 28 February 2019 at 16:00 (London time), 28 February 2019 at 11:00 (US Eastern Time).
"Fuck!"

"God Zheng is beyond our comprehension and is no longer a normal human being."

"Worship"

"Will you transfer to the School of Biology in the future?"

Because he was in a good mood, Zheng Li answered patiently: "No."

My roommate asked, "Why? If you go to the College of Biology, they will let you graduate in two years."

Zheng Li: "I also published ARMA. If I want, I can graduate in two years in the School of Mathematics."

The two roommates didn’t know what ARMA was, and when the temperature reached 1,000 degrees, they were already numb: “I’ll lie down first to show my respect.”

"I lay down too. I'm actually the same kind as Zheng Shen."

Both of them lay in bed. Their grades in their freshman year were actually very good, and they planned to continue working hard in the second semester.

I was so hit that I didn't want to work hard at all.

“What do you think of a freshman from the School of Mathematics at Jiangcheng University publishing an article as the first author in the main journal Nature?”

This question quickly became the number one hot search on Zhihu, with many followers.

"Thanks for the invitation. I just got off the plane in the United States. I can only say that the difference between people is greater than that between people and dogs."

"The School of Mathematics published in Nature as a freshman, but I am about to graduate with a PhD in the School of Biology and have not even published in the first zone."

“It feels like the internet celebrity university is creating a god.”

"The specific situation will be explained in detail by the boss. I am skeptical for the time being."

“Is this another case of academic fraud or is it that the achievements of many people are attributed to one person?”

Short answers are mostly dominated by emotions and doubts.

“Thanks for the invitation. When I first saw this answer, I was skeptical. Not only because it is difficult to publish in Nature, but more importantly, it is unreasonable for a freshman from the School of Mathematics to publish in Nature.

You should know that publishing in Nature requires collaboration, which requires not only direction support, data analysis, and article language polishing, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to publish in Nature alone.

It is hard to believe that there are only two authors in Zheng Shen’s paper, him and xulin.li.

But after reading the special reports by Jiangcheng University and Changjiang Metropolis Daily, and then glancing through the paper, I felt that it was true.

Let me talk about Zheng Shen first. As a young adult student, his achievements are far beyond mine, which makes me feel ashamed. I still have to work harder in the future. I have to publish at least one paper in a Cell journal before I graduate with a Ph.D.

Zheng Li got full marks in all his subjects in the School of Mathematics, and according to reports, he hardly ever attended classes, relying entirely on self-study and only going to class for exams.

The School of Mathematics claimed that he had completed all professional courses in four years of university, and he also published articles in the top mathematics journal ARMA, but ARMA is not as famous as Nature.

From this point of view, he is undoubtedly a genius. Sometimes the more outrageous the truth is, the more it is true. This is because the cost of falsification is too high. He is only 18 years old and has a long way to go in his academic career. If he falsifies now, he will be exposed as soon as he attends various academic conferences.

Judging from interviews with people from the School of Mathematics and the School of Life Sciences, he is a genius among geniuses, and it is understandable that a genius can achieve such results.

Also, back to the paper, after reading it carefully, I found that the paper is more about designing a method to artificially synthesize endorphins.

What is needed is a flash of inspiration, not daily accumulation. From this perspective, it is reasonable. At the end of the paper, the editor also said that the experiment can be reproduced. I can only say that it is amazing that I published it in Nature in my freshman year.

Finally, let’s talk about the significance of artificially synthesizing endorphins. First of all, there is still a long way to go from artificially synthesizing endorphins in the laboratory to large-scale industrial production.

Endorphins are substances naturally secreted by the human body that can relieve pain. They may replace morphine on a large scale in the future, or become a new type of analgesic that is more friendly to the human body.”

In addition to this answer, there is also an answer from a doctor from the School of Biology of Jiangcheng University:

“As a classmate who has worked with Zheng Shen, I can only say that Zheng Shen is the most talented person I have ever met. Whether in experiments or theories, he is not inferior to anyone in the laboratory.

In particular, he has a nose for scientific research. Whenever other experimental groups have experiments that they cannot perform, they always find solutions when they ask him. Several times we wanted to add him as one of the authors of the paper, but Zheng Shen refused.

Later, after he published in Nature, we realized that Mr. Zheng looked down on the journal we published in.

All I can say is that some people’s realm is too high, beyond the imagination of normal people.”

(End of this chapter)