The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 411 Boring
The more the Americans buy, the better. They not only make money off you, but they can also cripple your basic industries. Making money is secondary; crippling your industries is the real goal.

Liu Hua even has the idea of ​​assembling an online army now to vigorously promote the financialization of the US dollar on American networks, so that the US will recklessly use its financial hegemony to reap the benefits of the world.

This is actually a double-edged sword. The more ruthlessly it is exploited, the greater the damage to itself. When all the cash flows to Kowloon, then basic industries will not receive investment, and the consequences are predictable.

Of the hundred or so researchers who were transferred in earlier, Liu Hua kept more than thirty behind. The institute was quite annoyed. "I kindly lent you people, but they never came back."

Sun Guangming mediated the situation, using all the kind words he could to appease the other party.

To this end, Liu Hua treated Sun Guangming to a big drinking session, getting the guy quite drunk, and that was how the matter was finally settled. They learned something and were likely to achieve results. For these young people full of original aspirations, there was nothing more perfect than this.

Those who stayed were overjoyed, while those who left were extremely unwilling.

It's so great to do scientific research with Liu Hua. No matter what problems you have, Liu Hua can explain them to you.

Liu Hua gathered these thirty-odd people together and assigned them a new task: researching aero-engines. A new aero-engine couldn't be developed with just these thirty people. He instructed the factory director to continue recruiting.

He even asked Sun Guangming to poach talent from Russia, to see if he could get people from major design bureaus like Mikoyan or Sukhoi.

Of course, Liu Hua didn't forget one thing: he asked Sun Guangming to poach Er Mao Xiong's men. Since Motor Sich had turned out to be such a mess, it was a waste anyway, so he might as well poach them and keep them for his own use.

As expected, Sun Guangming sent Liu Hua a lot of talented people. Of course, Liu Hua also knew that the best researchers eventually went to state-owned research institutes, and those who ended up in his hands were basically either young or second-rate.

However, Liu Hua didn't mind. At least it enriched his talent pool. If he had only relied on recruiting fresh graduates every year, he didn't know when he would have accumulated such wealth.

With the addition of these Russian researchers, the engine development speed was greatly improved.

At the end of the year, Liu Hua reviewed the new energy company's research and development summary for the year. Overall, both lithium batteries and sodium batteries had made progress, but they were still far from sufficient for use in electric donkeys or electric vehicles.

Suddenly, Liu Hua remembered something: there was another material that was also a good material for batteries, but it had not yet been discovered.

In my previous life, up until 2004, there were two very bored people at the University of Manchester in the United States who stuck tape on graphite and then just tore it off.

Ultimately, they obtained a new two-dimensional material called graphene, which is a hot topic in materials science in the 21st century.

So, in the Taiyi New Materials Laboratory, all the researchers saw Liu Hua holding a piece of tape and idly playing with graphite.

Stick it on, then peel it off; stick it on, then peel it off.

Someone mustered up the courage to ask, "Teacher, what are you doing?"

"Playing with tape," Liu Hua said with a laugh. "Isn't that boring?"

Everyone shook their heads; they absolutely did not believe that Liu Hua would be so bored as to play with graphite with tape in the laboratory.

Liu Hua smiled and said, "You really can't hide it from me. I'm preparing a new material."

In an instant, everyone swarmed around.

"Teacher, what new material?"

"Teacher, please teach me, I'll help you with it."

“Do I even need to teach you this? Just stick the tape on the graphite and then peel it off.” Another mocked, “Such a simple process, do you really need a teacher to teach you?” Liu Hua handed the tape with a thin layer of graphite stuck to it to the researchers: “Use all your methods to test the graphite on this tape.”

"Teacher, could the graphite on this tape be a new material?"

"Isn't it better to wait until you've verified it and let the data speak for itself?"

The researchers were completely baffled. Liu Hua had asked them to conduct tests, but he hadn't specified which aspect to test, which was a bit of a headache. So they simply used every available tool in the lab.

Two days later, Liu Hua saw many people in the laboratory using tape to stick graphite.

"So, any good news about the test results?"

"There's so much good news," the lab director said, holding the report. "So far, we haven't completed all the testing, but we've already detected ultra-high strength, high elasticity, high electrical conductivity, high current carrying capacity, high thermal conductivity, and excellent chemical stability."

Liu Hua nodded: "That's good, but it's not comprehensive enough. Our lab's equipment isn't advanced enough. We need to find a more authoritative lab to do a full range of tests."

Among these students were students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beihang University, and Beijing Institute of Technology. They all grabbed tape and ran back to their respective schools.

Liu Hua then brought the new materials to the national-level laboratory.

"Hey, Lao Liu, what brings you here today? What brings you here?"

The speaker was an old acquaintance of Liu Hua and a leading authority in materials science in China.

"I've discovered a new material and would like you to conduct a comprehensive test on it."

After saying that, Liu Hua handed over the tape and the document.

"This is a preliminary test we conducted in our own laboratory."

The old scientist didn't take the tape, but instead took the document and examined it carefully. He exclaimed incredulously, "What kind of new material is this? This is simply a super material!"

After saying that, he stretched out his hand: "Give me the materials, I'll test them myself."

Liu Hua placed the tape in the old man's hand, and the old man said angrily, "You've gone too far with this joke. We're very busy and don't have time to play your nonsense. Is this transparent tape a new material?"

Liu Hua said with a smile, "This new material also has another characteristic: high transparency. Who would dare to mess with you? The material is on the tape."

The old man held the tape up to his eyes and examined it carefully. He noticed that there was a highly transparent layer on the tape, but when light was refracted, it also had a faint blackish-gray tint.

The old man smiled and asked, "What material is this? How did you make it? How did it end up on the tape?"

Liu Hua said with a smile, "Give me a piece of graphite and a roll of tape."

Soon after the material arrived, Liu Hua followed the same method, attaching another layer of graphene to the tape.

The old man smiled and said, "You didn't find this by chance while your daughter was playing with it, did you?"

"No, it wasn't. I found it by chance while I was playing."

(End of this chapter)