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Chapter 163 This is Basic Mathematics
Everyone will get sick. In Qiao Yu's opinion, it's okay to have some minor physical problems occasionally, but the most frightening thing is a sudden illness in the brain.

For example, there are always people who suddenly feel that they are capable, come up with some unrealistic ideas, and begin to give up rationality and are determined to execute them.

For example, they think that they don’t need to study, and they can make a name for themselves in the future just by playing games, using fists, or relying on many unconventional things…

Or maybe they are overwhelmed by hormones and always feel that someone of the opposite or same sex will be the happiness of their life.

For most people, this disease occurs more frequently in the early stages of life, especially in the teens, and the solution is to beat, beat hard!

The classic saying that a good son is born under the stick has its own reason. It is generally the superpower of education experts to influence a rebellious teenager with love.

Qiao Yu did not experience corporal punishment.

Because Qiao Xi had never noticed that Qiao Yu was irrational. Even for a teenager, Qiao Yu's rationality was too scary.

As we all know, it is difficult for people to achieve happiness if they are too rational and completely abandon their emotions.

This is also the reason why Qiao Xi has always been worried about Qiao Yu and doesn't even mind her child falling in love early.

After all, what teenager can be so rational? When answering any choice, they can subconsciously maximize their interests...

This is not cute.

But coincidentally, this kind of rationality is very important to science. After all, science does not believe in sensibility. In fact, any metaphysics in the laboratory may hide laws that humans have not yet mastered.

The reason why many laboratories exist is to find and discover those laws that are hidden deep inside and cannot be seen under normal circumstances.

Qiao Yu felt that he had found a method that could help many laboratories find those rules as quickly as possible.

When Chen Zhuoyang told him that he had sent the results of the supercomputing analysis to his email, Qiao Yu immediately downloaded all the results to his computer.

The analysis results were five pages long, but Qiao Yu did not read the data reports carefully. His attention was attracted by the final summary chart.

On the left is a two-dimensional heat map, representing the modal density. On the right is a path map, where the blue line represents the modal path after dimensionality reduction.

If his method is correct, then it means that based on the existing data, it can be roughly judged that there is a performance jump near α=30min and β=23.5 kJ/mol, pointing to the key molecular interaction turning point area.

The area with the highest modal density is near α=35min, β=25 kJ/mol. In other words, according to the data provided by the current laboratory, the fracture strength recovery of materials produced in this area is the best.

When it comes to the specific laboratory, we must first find the specific ratio of monomer to cross-linker when the β value is around 25 kJ/mol.

The other picture is the trend chart of fracture strength recovery and dynamic stress change:

Although the results are somewhat troublesome, they at least show superimposed periodic oscillations.

After reaching a peak value at the beginning, the dynamic stress decayed rapidly and tended to be stable. The strength recovery process showed an exponential growth characteristic and reached the critical repair point around 20 and 40 minutes.

The next step is to send it to the laboratory for testing. If the results of repeated tests become stable, new parameters can be introduced.

After a rough analysis, Qiao Yu called Liu Hao directly.

"Hello, Brother Liu, are you in the lab?"

"Yes! What? Any results?"

"Well, we have preliminary analysis results. We need to test them. Do you have ready-made experimental materials in your laboratory? Or do we have to wait for you to prepare the materials first?"

"Yes, yes, yes. We have plenty of materials. The project is tight right now. Would you like to come directly or should I pick you up?"

"I'll just go right over there. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes."

"Okay, I'll wait for you downstairs."

……

In the Chemistry Building, Liu Hao answered the phone and hurried out of the laboratory.

Sometimes the pressure does not come from within ourselves, but from the unknown.

Last week, Liu Hao met with his supervisor, Professor Zhang Zuolin, again and talked about the progress of the current project.

The boss told me that although the Huairou office was slower than them in the early stages, they may have caught up now.

Different from the dynamic covalent bond technology they use, the other party uses block copolymer phase separation and nanoparticle filling to achieve the same function, and most of the difficulty is concentrated in the first half.

The flexible block can provide flexibility and stretchability, improving the mechanical properties of the material; the rigid block provides mechanical strength and durability, ensuring that the material is not easily damaged.

Photothermal nanoparticles are added to the material to achieve temperature response control of the material. At the same time, these nanoparticles can also be used to regulate the thermal conductivity of the material, so that the material remains stable in high or low temperature environments.

This results in the other party's technology being very difficult in the early stages, mainly concentrated in the synthesis technology and structural characterization stages.

The main difficulties of our own technology are concentrated in the chemical design and optimization stages, but the synthesis and characterization processes are already very mature, and early experiments can be quickly advanced.

It's like they were having a great time but are now stuck in the optimization phase.

However, if the other party can conquer the synthesis of block copolymers and quantify the contribution of nanoparticle filling to performance, the later stages will be relatively simple.

So after learning that Huairou Institute had overcome several technical difficulties, the boss said that one should just do the best one can and leave the rest to fate.

If we can't win the competition, we will just keep the project and the data. Anyway, there are two different technical solutions, and there are other advantages and disadvantages.

Even if we cannot compete with the other party this time, these researches are still valuable. There may be opportunities to restart them in the future, so it cannot be considered a waste of resources.

To be honest, this project has little impact on the mentors. The big guys are all well-informed, and there are many cases where they fail to win important projects with different ideas.

The initial investment is all provided by Party A, and it is common that we cannot compete with the other party. We can just take on other projects.

But for the members of the research team, it meant that all their efforts for so long had been in vain, and they were somewhat unwilling to accept it.

Although the boss was a nice guy, there was no reward if the research group didn't achieve any results. You can imagine how much of a blow this was to everyone's morale.

So even though his tutor didn't put much pressure on him, Liu Hao felt even more stressed.

But the situation in these laboratories is that they cannot be done well just by having pressure. Without a clear direction to guide them, they can only run around like headless flies.

In the first few days, he would often ask Qiao Yu and Chen Zhuoyang on WeChat, but he asked less frequently during this period.

After all, mathematicians are not omnipotent.

Maybe Qiao Yu’s performance was amazing last time, but that was because there was directional data to support it.

When reviewing the process afterwards, almost all members of the research team exclaimed, “It was so simple, why didn’t I think of it at the time?” This is clear proof.

The situation this time is obviously different.

So after there was no news from Qiao Yu and Chen Zhuoyang, Liu Hao did not continue to inquire, but instead placed his hopes on the so-called "metaphysics".

Well, this is obviously not a good habit for scientists. But many achievements are really a wonderful combination of science and luck.

There is no shortage of examples of this in the lab.

And to be honest, many times placing hope on "metaphysics" is even more useful than placing hope on data analysis.

Really, as an experimentalist, before getting the results, you can never guess what wonderful results the data analysis software R, Python and the like can produce.

The results of the data output are often so bad that people can't bear to look at them. So Liu Hao once thought that Qiao Yu's method probably wouldn't be very useful.

After all, the codes they used to run the data had all produced results before. As for Qiao Yu's new method, although they didn't know it, since it was new, it must have not been tested in practice.

But who would have thought that just when he had given up the idea of ​​getting effective help from Qiao Yu, Qiao Yu called him again, and from what Qiao Yu said, it seemed that he had found a solution?

No matter what, a glimmer of hope rose in Liu Hao's heart. He rushed downstairs and began pacing at the door of the chemistry building.

Fortunately, Qiao Yu was really punctual. He said fifteen minutes, and he arrived at the Chemistry Building almost on time on a shared bike.

Liu Hao immediately rushed over, reached out to help Qiao Yu hold the front of the car, and then asked, "Um... is there really a result?"

"Well, but I can't guarantee its accuracy for now. Take a look at these two pictures first." Qiao Yu took out two printed charts from his bag and handed them to Liu Hao.

The color printing machine that Chen Zhuoyang prepared for Qiao Yu was indeed very useful.

Liu Hao took a quick look and was a little confused.

"What kind of analysis software produced this result? And what does this bright spot mean?"

"Hey, this needs to be kept secret. I mentioned before that I used a very interesting new method. As for the first two-dimensional graph, the brighter the color, the denser the effective points are in that area."

"Forehead……"

"It's okay, Brother Liu. You don't need to fully understand what these pictures mean. If you trust me, just do what I say in the lab today, and then we'll talk about it after we look at the results."

"Then I can definitely trust you. Don't worry, I've just asked everyone to stop and wait for you to come."

In one sentence, the trust level is maxed out. But there is no other way. The current situation is very clear. Their luck is not that good.

There has been no breakthrough in recent times. At least they haven't found a stable optimization direction.

Of course, if you are not so impatient, the current situation is actually not bad.

For more than half a month, they tried many wrong methods. Then they would find the right way by elimination.

It’s just that we don’t know how long it will take. Research on new materials is often like this, constantly trying and failing, waiting for a miracle to appear, and then finding a way to make this miracle reproducible stably.

This trial-and-error nature of experimentation is particularly evident when developing functional materials in complex systems.

Of course, even if a miracle happens, it is very difficult to reproduce it stably. As long as the nonlinear relationship between variables is not fully understood, occasional beautiful data can even make the experimental dogs more painful.

But for Qiao Yu, these are not problems. Now it is not just a problem of this topic.

If this method really works, then the next thing Qiao Yu would think about is how to make money... Oh, no, it should be the question of how to benefit the major research groups in China!
So Qiao Yu is not only the mathematical consultant of this research group, but in a sense, Liu Hao's research group is also his experimental group. In this sense, the two parties have already established a cooperative relationship.

"Okay, let's go to the lab first." Qiao Yu smiled. His confident look made Liu Hao feel much more relaxed.

They soon arrived at the laboratory, and Liu Hao had not lied to him about one thing. As expected, everyone in the research group stopped their work and were waiting in the conference room for him to give instructions.

Qiao Yu didn't greet anyone. After saying hello, he entered the commander's state.

"Well, from the data you provided earlier, I think you have already figured out the relationship between the molecular binding energy and the ratio of monomer to cross-linker, right?"

"Well, we are still confident about this, so it won't be a big problem."

"Okay, now I need to make the molecular interaction strength between 20-30 kJ/mol. I need to prepare five portions of each monomer and cross-linking agent for every 2 kJ/mol. Is that a problem?"

"Ah? Such a small distance..." Zhang Haoyuan was about to question when Liu Hao glared at him.

"Don't talk nonsense, just do what you are told! Qin Zhongliang, help Xiao Zhang mix the solvents, and remember to be careful. Five portions of each are marked."

"Oh, by the way, I don't know the minimum amount of solvent needed for each test. You know this, but it's best to have two-thirds more than the minimum amount for each portion. A total of thirty portions are needed, so make sure you don't make a mistake."

Qiao Yu emphasized again. "Don't worry, this is basic operation, they won't make mistakes. It's just that the interval is too small, and the ratio of monomer to cross-linking agent may be controlled to two decimal places, which is more troublesome."

"Well, go slow. There's no rush anyway."

"By the way, with all this preparation, are you going to do five experiments today?"

"No, this is the first time. I told you before that I need some data. The second step is..."

……

Well, with Liu Hao's support, the subsequent laboratory operations were actually very smooth. Everyone should hold back any doubts.

For Qiao Yu, he was actually not familiar with the entire operation process, he was only responsible for the data results.

As for the people in the laboratory, their responsibility is to implement Qiao Yu's opinions in a way that they are familiar with.

Fortunately, Qiao Yu did not make excessive demands. At most, he wanted to make too many samples at one time, which seemed wasteful.

And this time is different from last time.

The materials are sufficient and the required solvents can be prepared on the spot. After preparation, they are left to stand in the solution and wait for the cross-linking reaction to occur.

The key to influencing material properties is the process of temperature-responsive monomers and cross-linking agents forming gel through free radical polymerization.

The proportion of different materials, temperature, synthesis time, and other factors may affect the performance of the final material.

After two hours of hard work, all thirty samples were placed on the laboratory table in the constant temperature reaction box.

Each sample was labeled with a number at Qiao Yu's request and quietly arranged under different constant temperature conditions, waiting for the free radical polymerization reaction to be completed.

The atmosphere in the laboratory was exceptionally quiet, with only the faint humming sound from the temperature control equipment in the reaction box.

Liu Hao finally had time to discuss with Qiao Yu those charts that seemed to have a certain pattern.

“Are these all analyzed using our data?”

"Yes, if it succeeds, we have to thank Brother Chen. He has worked hard during this period. Your data is very messy and it is very troublesome to sort it out."

Qiao Yu nodded and answered.

He doesn't intend to reveal how he did it specifically for the time being, but it is still necessary to help Chen Zhuoyang take credit for it.

After all, Senior Brother Chen is so useful. It's just that there are not enough people.

Qiao Yu even felt that Senior Brother Chen should quickly accept a few students and train them to have his personality.

"Of course. But how did you come up with this result? Didn't Professor Lu say that our data has no statistical significance?"

Although Qiao Yu said to keep it a secret, he was just sitting around doing nothing... Liu Hao was still very curious about these pictures.

Even though he didn't understand how the analysis results of these pictures came from, and he didn't even quite understand how to interpret them correctly, at least he could see that these pictures followed certain patterns.

This also gave him confidence suddenly. After all, the requirements given by Qiao Yu were very targeted.

"That depends on the situation. To put it simply, I have transformed some commonly used mathematical methods. You can think of it as eliminating impurities from complex data through some high-dimensional means.

But I'm telling you, don't get your hopes up. I've told you before that this is just a test of a new method, and I can't guarantee it will work."

Qiao Yu seriously gave Liu Hao another shot of vaccination.

The two people's voices were not small, so naturally they were heard by other people in the laboratory. But no one said anything...

Everything has been done according to Qiao Yu's request. If you are still complaining at this time, you are simply stupid.

"Haha, Qiao Yu, you don't have to keep emphasizing this. In fact, if you stay in the chemistry lab for a while longer, you will know that failure is the norm and success is only occasional.

The situation last time was different from this time. First, the topics were relatively important, and there was competition this time. Second, there were successful cases before. So we had high hopes. Oh…

In fact, to be honest, we have done experiments without any results so many times that we have become numb to it. It’s just that some unimportant topics were simply abandoned when there were no results. ”

Liu Hao said this in a casual manner.

In fact, it is not easy to become numb in a research group. It is nothing more than being eliminated all the time. I cannot accept that a lot of work is useless, and I was eliminated during the master's degree stage.

By the time we reached the doctoral level, everyone’s mentality could be said to be better, but there was still a sense of frustration when the lab had no results.

It’s just that once they get busy, they don’t have time to feel this kind of frustration. After all, even though it’s the client who makes the initial investment, it’s them who stay in the lab every day.

But what can we do? Since Party A chose two different directions from the beginning, it was destined that one of the methods and ideas would be eliminated to a certain extent.

Of course, the possibility of both sides achieving results exists, but it is difficult for such a situation to happen that everyone is happy.

After all, funds are limited. From a cost perspective, if you already have a mature solution, there is no need to continue investing in another immature solution.

Unless it can be proven that another solution is more useful or has demonstrated extremely high value in another field, it may be possible to take it out from the sealed archives and continue research.

After hearing what Liu Hao said, Qiao Yu just smiled. He didn't quite believe that Liu Hao was really so carefree.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have run downstairs to pick him up as soon as he called and said he was coming. However, it is basic courtesy to see the truth but not say it out loud.

While there was still some time, Qiao Yu began to think about how to find the next partner, so he took the initiative to ask: "By the way, last time I heard you say that another chemical laboratory also took on Party A's task. The method they used is a little different. Do you know where they are at?"

Liu Hao shook his head and said with a wry smile: "The other side is a competitor, how can we know so much. But I heard from the boss last week that the other side has solved two key problems.

One is a breakthrough in polymerization technology, and it is said that they have achieved a good phase separation structure in different blocks. The other is the optimization of nanoparticle interface.

Of course, this does not mean that they are leading. Their technology needs to deal with the synergy of two complex material systems, which involves the optimization of multiple chemical and physical processes, which is actually very troublesome.

So the boss also said that the other side might be throwing smoke bombs, just to make us give up early. So it’s really hard to say what their situation is. Not to mention that sometimes our business depends on luck. ”

To be honest, he didn't quite understand the chemical terms that Senior Brother Liu spoke.

But he had already obtained the key information, because as long as it involves the optimization of multiple chemical and physical processes, it will definitely require massive data analysis.

Chemical processes are complex, as are physical phenomena such as phase separation, heat conduction, and stress distribution. Such complex processes are bound to be accompanied by nonlinear and dynamic changes.

The parameters involved are also similar, proportion, temperature, reaction time, solvent concentration, polymerization rate... The more complex it is, the more variables there are, which also means that if he can succeed on Senior Brother Liu's side, he should be able to succeed on the other side as well.

Even if the two sides use different technologies.

So Qiao Yu asked directly: "Oh, if their technology also requires the optimization of multiple chemical and physical processes, it must also be inseparable from mathematical analysis. They should also seek external assistance, right?"

Senior Brother Liu nodded and said, "We will definitely ask for help when it comes to this. But Huairou Institute is a research unit directly under the Huake Institute, you know. They have no shortage of partners."

"Yes, that's right. Many mathematicians will also cooperate with them on projects, such as the Youth Foundation, the Youth Science Foundation, and many other general projects. In short, they usually don't lack projects. And their equipment is also very good!"

Zhang Haoyuan next to him couldn't help but add a sentence.

Qiao Yu nodded, and he could probably understand the situation of Huairou Office. But this made him want to contact the other side even more.

If he knew the other party's progress, he would probably be able to judge the attractiveness of his own analytical technology to the laboratory.

As long as his method is useful and efficient enough, at least higher than the foreign aid on the other side, there will definitely be many research groups that want to ask him for help to contribute to some results.

As for wanting to get in touch with the other party, it shouldn't be a big problem. Both my own tutor and my master are leaders in the Chinese mathematics community, so it should be easy to find out about this kind of thing.

If his method can be successful in Senior Brother Liu's research group, it should not be a problem for him to ask Director Tian to prepare a lecture for him and then invite the project leader from the other side to attend.

Apparently Liu Hao misunderstood Qiao Yu's meaning, and said with great emotion: "Really, Qiao Yu, you don't have to worry about our project. We will definitely not blame you if you can't handle it.

In our business, 70% depends on hard work, and the remaining 93% is determined by fate. If I could succeed in everything, I would have to think about what to say at the Nobel Prize dinner in Sweden. "

This sentence actually made the atmosphere in the laboratory more relaxed, and everyone started joking, probably telling their senior brother not to forget him when he becomes rich and powerful in the future.

Liu Hao also smiled and joked with the team members. Qiao Yu also listened to everyone's jokes and felt it was pretty good.

At least everyone can still have fun in the midst of adversity, which shows that the mentality of team members is very stable. Qiao Yu likes partners who can maintain a stable mentality in adversity.

After laughing and joking for a while, Liu Hao suddenly started to play music again...

"That's enough. Stop joking around. Time is almost up. Go check your samples. Take them for testing when the time is up. Qiao Yu is still waiting for the results.

Each set of samples requires a different amount of time to react. Don’t be so busy having fun that you confuse the important things. Be careful not to get caught in the act! "

It can be seen that Liu Hao is still very prestigious. With just one or two sentences, he made people return from the office to the laboratory next door.

But then again, the time for the first batch of samples to polymerize has indeed almost arrived.

While everyone else was busy serving samples, Liu Hao stayed with Qiao Yu and chatted with him.

Let's not talk about the experiment anymore, let's just talk about the messy things in life. I feel embarrassed to let Qiao Yu wait here...

"By the way, have you heard about this? Yesterday, a guy from the technical school next door went to the Air Force University to stand up for his girlfriend and had a fight with the counselor there."

"Ah? There's such a thing? What major was that in technical school?" Qiao Yu was just getting interested and planning to listen to some gossip when suddenly there was a cry of surprise from the laboratory...

Before Liu Hao could stand up, Chen Jiang had already rushed into the office. He fixed his eyes on Qiao Yu for several seconds and said, "Qiao God, you are too awesome, aren't you?"

After that, he looked at Liu Hao and said, "The basic parameters of the first batch of samples have all reached the benchmark values ​​we measured before. The tensile strength of No. 1-3 and No. 1-4 has been significantly improved compared with the previous test.

In addition, the response temperature, phase change temperature and response speed of No. 1-3 and No. 1-5 are also better than those in previous tests. Now we have to wait for some time before the results of the self-repair efficiency, memory retention ability and fracture strength recovery rate are available.

However, judging from the current situation, the average values ​​of the basic data of the first batch of six samples are much better than what we did before! Judging from the main performance data, it is sure that they will not be bad either!"

After listening to Chen Jiang’s report, Liu Hao subconsciously glanced at Qiao Yu... This thing is actually useful?
After all, six samples in a batch all showed such performance, which obviously could not have been obtained by guessing.

Qiao Yu also smiled happily. He didn't need to look at the data. Just by looking at Chen Jiang's excited expression at this time, he knew that the data analyzed this time would definitely be useful.

This shows that his method is correct, and mathematics can indeed dominate many things.

"No rush. We still have five batches of samples. Let's test them all first. According to the chart we calculated, theoretically it should be the third or fourth batch...

Well, specifically, the best values ​​will appear in samples 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, and the fourth batch. Of course, they may not meet the parameter standards you require, but the data in these batches are definitely the best. "

Qiao Yu explained.

Liu Hao opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but for a long time he couldn't say anything...

Qiao Yu felt embarrassed by being looked at, and added: "Well, Senior Brother Liu, don't look at me like that. It's just basic exercises. You will understand it after you learn mathematics.

The more you learn mathematics, the more you analyze. Well, why don’t you go to the lab first? I can stay here alone, and I can also read some literature.”

Liu Hao nodded quickly and said, "Okay, Qiao Yu, you rest here for a while, and I'll go over to check out the situation. I'll treat you to dinner tonight. Let's go out to eat! Remember, don't leave!"

(End of this chapter)