Chapter 163 This is Basic Mathematics
Everyone will get sick. In Qiao Yu's opinion, it's okay to have a slight physical problem occasionally. The most feared thing is a sudden brain disease.
For example, there are always people who suddenly feel that they can do it, have some unrealistic ideas, and begin to give up their reason and firmly want to implement them.
For example, if you feel that you don’t need to study, you can have a world in the future by playing games, fists, and many unorthodox things...
Or maybe you are overwhelmed by hormones, and always I feel that someone of the opposite sex or the same sex will be the happiness of my life.
For most people, this disease will appear more frequently in the early stages of life, especially in their teens, and the solution is to beat them, hard!
The ancient saying that a filial son emerges from under the stick has its own truth. Using love to influence a teenage child who is in the rebellious period is generally the superpower of educational experts.
Qiao Yu has never experienced stick education.
Because Qiao Xi never noticed that Qiao Yu was irrational. Even for a teenager, Qiao Yu's rationality was too terrifying.
As we all know, it is difficult for people to achieve happiness if they are too rational and completely abandon their sensibility.
This is why Qiao Xi has always been worried about Qiao Yu, and doesn't even mind her child's puppy love at all.
After all, whose teenage children can be so rational? When doing any multiple-choice question, you can subconsciously maximize your interests...
This seems very unlovable.
But coincidentally, for science, this kind of reason happens to be very important. 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 search for and discover those laws that are hidden in the depths and cannot be seen under normal circumstances.
Qiao Yu felt that he had found a method that could help many laboratories find those patterns as soon as possible.
When Chen Zhuoyang informed him that the results of the supercomputer analysis had been sent to his mailbox, Qiao Yu immediately downloaded all the results to his computer.
The results of the analysis lasted for five pages, 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, which represents modal density. On the right is the path diagram, and the blue line represents the modal path after dimensionality reduction.
If his method is correct, it means that based on the existing data, it can be roughly judged that there is a performance jump near α=30min and β=23.5kJ/mol, pointing to key molecules. Functional transition area.
The area with the highest modal density is around α=35min and β=25kJ/mol. In other words, according to current laboratory data, materials produced in this area have the best recovery in fracture strength.
When it comes to the specific laboratory, we must first find the specific ratio of monomer to cross-linking agent when the β value is around 25kJ/mol.
The other picture is the fracture strength recovery and dynamic stress change trend chart:
Although the results are a bit troublesome, they at least show superimposed periodic oscillations.
After the initial peak value of dynamic stress, it rapidly decays and levels off. The process of strength recovery shows exponential growth characteristics and reaches critical repair points near 20 and 40 minutes.
The next step is to send it to the laboratory for testing. If the results repeated multiple times can be stable, new parameters can be introduced.
After roughly analyzing it, Qiao Yu called Liu Hao directly.
"Hey, Senior Brother Liu, are you in the laboratory?"
"Yes! What? Are there results?"
"Well, there are preliminary analysis results. I need to test it. Do you have ready-made experimental materials in your laboratory? Or do I need to wait for you to prepare the materials first? ”
"Yes, yes, yes, we have enough materials. We are working hard on the project now. Do you want to come directly or should I pick you up?"
"I'll just go directly. 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 really does not come from oneself, but from the unknown.
Last week, Liu Hao met with his supervisor, Professor Zhang Zuolin, to talk about the progress of the current project.
I learned from the boss that although the Huairou Institute was slower than them in the early stage, the progress 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 control the temperature response 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 makes the other party’s early stage of technology very difficult, mainly focusing on 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 process are already very mature, and preliminary experiments can be quickly advanced.
It's like they had everything going well before, but are now stuck in the optimization stage.
But if the other party once overcomes the synthesis of block copolymers and the quantification of 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 we should just do our best and let fate dictate.
If we really can’t compete with each other, we will seal the project and data first. Anyway, two different technical solutions have other advantages and disadvantages.
Even if we cannot compete with each other this time, these studies are still valuable. There may be opportunities to restart in the future, and it cannot be regarded as a waste of resources.
To be honest, this project has not had much impact on the tutors. The big guys are all well-informed, and there are many cases where people choose important projects with different ideas and fail to compete with others.
The initial investment is all given by Party A, so it is common for the company to be unable to compete with the other company. Just take on other projects.
But for the members of the research team, it means that their efforts for such a long time have been in vain, and they are still somewhat unconvinced.
Although the boss is quite nice, there is definitely no reward if the research team fails to produce results. You can imagine the blow to everyone's morale.
So although the instructor did not put any pressure on him, Liu Hao felt more pressure.
However, the situation in these laboratories cannot be done well under pressure. Without an exact direction guide, you can only bump around like a headless fly.
In the first few days, he would often ask Qiao Yu and Chen Zhuoyang on WeChat, but during this time he asked less and less.
After all, mathematicians are not omnipotent.
Maybe Qiao Yu performed amazingly last time, but that was because of the directional data support.
When reviewing the review afterwards, almost all members of the research team expressed emotion, "It was so simple, why didn't I think of it at the time?" This is 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 placed his hope on the so-called "metaphysics".
Well, this is obviously not a good habit for a scientific person. But many of the results are really just a wonderful intertwining of science and luck.
There is no shortage of such examples in the laboratory.
And to be honest, pinning your hopes on "metaphysics" is often more useful than pinning your hopes on data analysis.
Really, as an experimental dog, before getting the results, you can never guess what wonderful results the data analysis software R, python and the like can produce.
The results produced by data are often so bad that people cannot bear to look at them. Therefore, Liu Hao once thought that Qiao Yu's method would probably not be useful anywhere.
After all, the codes they use to run data have produced results before. As for Qiao Yu's new method, although they didn't know about 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 on getting effective help from Qiao Yu, Qiao Yu called again, and from what Qiao Yu said, it seemed that he had found a solution?
No matter what, Liu Hao still had a glimmer of hope in his heart. He hurried downstairs and started pacing at the door of the Chemistry Building.
Fortunately, Qiao Yu was really punctual. He said it would take fifteen minutes and almost missed the time by riding a small yellow car to the chemistry building.
Liu Hao rushed up to him immediately, stretched out his hand to help Qiao Yu hold the front of the car, and then asked: "Um...is there really any result?"
"Well, we can't guarantee the accuracy for the time being. Please 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 scanned it briefly, feeling a little confused.
“What analysis software is this? And what does this highlight mean?”
“Hey, this needs to be kept confidential. As I said before, I used a very An interesting new method. As for the first two-dimensional map, the brighter the color, the denser the effective points are in that area. ”
"Uh..."
"It's okay, Senior Brother Liu, you don't need to fully understand the meaning of these pictures. If you trust me, you will do what I say in the laboratory today, and then we will talk after reading the results. . ”
“Then I definitely trust you. Don’t worry, I just asked everyone to stop and I’m just waiting for you to come.”
That’s it. . But there is actually no way. The current situation is obvious that their luck is not that good.
There have been no breakthroughs in recent times. At least they haven't been able to find a stable optimization direction yet.
Of course, if the mentality was not so impatient, the current situation would actually be good.
For more than half a month, they tried many wrong methods. If you slowly use the elimination method like this, you will definitely be able to find a correct path.
It’s just that we don’t know how long it will take. Research on new materials is often like this: constant trial and error, then waiting for a miracle to appear, and then finding ways to make this miracle reproducible stably.
Especially when developing functional materials in complex systems, this trial-and-error experimental nature is even more significant.
Of course, even if a miracle occurs, it is very difficult to reproduce the miracle stably. As long as the non-linear relationship between variables is not fully understood, occasionally beautiful data can even make the experimental dogs more miserable. .
But for Qiao Yu, these are not problems. Now it is no longer just a question of this subject.
If this method really works, then what Qiao Yu thinks about next is how to make money... Ah, no, it should be about how to benefit the major research groups in China!
So Qiao Yu is now 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 are already in a cooperative relationship.
"Okay, let's go to the laboratory first." Qiao Yu smiled, and his confident look made Liu Hao feel much more comfortable.
Soon after arriving at the laboratory, Liu Hao did not lie to him about one thing. Sure enough, everyone in the research team stopped what they were doing and were waiting in the conference room for him to issue instructions.
Qiao Yu didn't greet anyone. After saying hello, he entered the commander's state.
“Well, I looked at the data you provided before. I should have already grasped the relationship between the molecular binding energy and the ratio of monomers to cross-linking agents, right?”
“Yes? , we are still confident about this, it’s not a big problem.”
“Okay, I will. Now we need to make the molecular interaction intensity between 20-30kJ/mol, and prepare five parts of each monomer and cross-linking agent ratio corresponding to 2kJ/mol. Isn’t it a big problem?”
“Ah? ? Such a small gap..." Just as Zhang Haoyuan was about to question, Liu Hao glared at him.
"Stop talking nonsense, just do what I ask you to do! Qin Zhongliang, help Xiao Zhang prepare the solvent, remember to be careful. Five parts of each type are marked."
"By the way, I don't know. You know the minimum amount of solvent required for each test, but each portion is best to be two-thirds more than the minimum amount. Make sure you don’t get it wrong.”
Qiao Yu emphasized again. Finished sentence. "Don't worry, this is a basic operation, they won't make a mistake. 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, slow down, there’s no rush anyway.”
"By the way, you have prepared so much to do five experiments today?"
"No, this is the first time. I told you before, I need some data. Next step... …”
…
Well, with Liu Hao’s support, the next laboratory operation actually went smoothly. Everyone suppressed any questions they had.
For Qiao Yu, he is actually not familiar with the entire operation process. He is only responsible for the data results.
As for those people in the laboratory, they are responsible for implementing Qiao Yu's opinions in a way they are familiar with.
Fortunately, Qiao Yu didn't make any excessive demands. At most, he would just make a lot of samples at once, which seemed wasteful.
And this time is different from last time.
The preparations are sufficient, and all the required solvents can be prepared immediately. After preparation, the solution is left to wait for the cross-linking reaction.
The key to affecting material performance is the process of temperature-responsive monomers and cross-linking agents forming gels 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 busy work, thirty samples have been placed on the experimental table of the constant temperature reaction box.
Each sample was marked with a number at Qiao Yu's request, and was quietly arranged under different constant temperature conditions, waiting for the completion of the free radical polymerization reaction.
The atmosphere in the laboratory seemed extremely quiet, except for the faint hum of the temperature-controlled instrument in the reaction box.
Liu Hao finally had time to discuss with Qiao Yu those charts that seemed to be very regular.
"These are all analyzed using our data?"
"Yes, if it can be successful, I have to thank Senior Brother Chen. He has worked hard during this time. Your data is very messy and you need to It’s still very troublesome to figure it out clearly.”
Qiao Yu nodded and replied.
He is not going to reveal how he did it specifically, but it is still necessary to help Chen Zhuoyang show his merit.
After all, Senior Brother Chen is so easy to use. There are just a few people.
Qiao Yu even felt that Senior Brother Chen should quickly recruit a few students and cultivate them into his temperament.
"Of course, how was this result analyzed? Didn't Professor Lu say that our data has no statistical significance?"
Although Qiao Yu said that it should be kept confidential, this Isn't it just idle? Liu Hao is still very curious about these pictures.
Even if he doesn't understand how the analysis results of these pictures come from, or even doesn't quite understand how to interpret them correctly, at least he can see that there are certain patterns in these pictures.
This also gave him sudden confidence. After all, the requirements given by Qiao Yu were very targeted.
"It depends on the situation. To put it simply, I have made some transformations of some commonly used mathematical methods. You can understand it as first eliminating the impurities in complex data through some high-dimensional means.
However, Let me tell you first, don’t have too high hopes. I’ve told you before, this is a test of a new method, and I don’t necessarily guarantee it will work.”
Qiao Yu gave it again seriously. Liu Hao came to get a vaccination.
The voices of the two were not quiet, and naturally they fell into the ears of other people in the laboratory. But no one said anything...
Everything has been done according to Qiao Yu's request. To complain at this time is just a flaw.
"Haha, Qiao Yu, you don't have to keep stressing this. In fact, if you stay in the chemistry laboratory for a long time, you will know that failure in the project is the norm in many cases, and success is occasional.
Last time and this time The situation is different. First, the topics are more important, and there is competition this time. Second, it has been the same before. There are successful cases. So we have high hopes...
In fact, when we conduct experiments, there are many times when there are no results, but some of them are not very numb. If you don't achieve any results on an important project, just give it up."
Liu Hao said calmly.
In fact, it is really easy to become numb in the research group. It's nothing more than being eliminated. I can't accept that a lot of work is useless, and I have been eliminated at the master's level.
At the doctoral stage, everyone's mentality can be said to be better, but there is still the frustration of no results in the laboratory.
It’s just that once you get busy, you don’t have time to feel this kind of frustration. After all, even though Party A invested the initial investment, they are the ones who stay in the laboratory every day.
But what can be done? Party A has chosen two different directions from the beginning. In fact, it is destined to a certain extent that one side's methods and ideas will be eliminated.
Of course it is possible for both sides to produce results, but it is difficult for everyone to be happy.
After all, funds are limited. From a cost perspective, with a mature solution, there is no need to continue investing in another immature solution.
Unless it can be proven that another set of solutions is more useful, or has shown extremely high value in another field, it will be possible to continue to take it out of the sealed files and continue research.
After listening to Liu Hao's words, Qiao Yu just smiled. He didn't quite believe that Liu Hao was really so free and easy.
Otherwise, he 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 through and not tell him.
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, I heard you last time that another chemical laboratory also took over the task from Party A. The methods used are different. Do you know where they are?"
Liu Hao shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "We are competitors. How could we know so clearly? But last week. I heard from the boss that the other side solved two key problems
One is a breakthrough in polymerization technology. It is said that their different blocks have obtained good phase separation structures. One is nanoparticle interface optimization.
Of course, this does not mean that they are ahead. Their technology needs to deal with the synergy problem of two complex material systems, involving the optimization of multiple chemical and physical processes, which is actually very troublesome.
So the boss also said that there might be smoke bombs on the other side, just to make us give up early. So it’s really hard to say what their situation is. Not to mention that in our industry, sometimes it depends on luck. ”
To be honest, he didn’t really understand the chemical terminology that Senior Brother Liu said.
But he had already obtained the key information. Because as long as it involves the optimization of various chemical and physical processes, It definitely requires massive data analysis
Chemical processes are complex, as are physical phenomena such as phase separation, heat conduction, and stress distribution. Such complex processes are certainly accompanied by nonlinearities and dynamic changes.
The parameters involved are also similar, such as ratio, 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 with Senior Brother Liu, The other side should be able to succeed as well.
Even if both sides use different technologies.
So Qiao Yu asked directly: "Oh, then if their technology also requires the optimization of various chemical and physical processes, and it must be inseparable from mathematical analysis, they should also look for foreign help, right?"
Senior Brother Liu nodded and said: "I will definitely ask for help when it comes to this. But Huairou Institute is a research unit directly under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, you know. They have no shortage of partners."
"Yes, that's right, many math people will cooperate with them on projects, Qingji, Qingke, and many other similar ones. 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 something.
Qiao Yu nodded, probably understanding the situation at Huairou Institute. But this made him want to contact the other party even more.
If he could know the progress of the other party, he could probably judge the attractiveness of his analysis technology to the laboratory.
As long as his method is effective and the efficiency is high enough, at least higher than the opponent's foreign aid, there will definitely be many research groups who want to ask him for help and contribute to some results.
As for trying to connect with the opponent, it shouldn't be a big problem. Both his own tutor and his master's grandfather are leaders in the Chinese mathematics community, so it should be easy to inquire about this kind of thing.
If his method can be successful in Senior Brother Liu’s research group, it shouldn’t be a big problem to go back and ask Director Tian to prepare a lecture for him, and then invite the person in charge of the opposite project to participate.
Obviously Liu Hao misunderstood what Qiao Yu meant and said with great emotion: "Really, Qiao Yu, you don't need to be nervous about our project. We won't blame you if we can't handle it.
In our business, seventy percent depends on hard work, and the remaining ninety-three percent is determined by God. . If everything can be done, then I will think about something to say at the dinner party for Sweden to win the Nobel Prize."
This sentence made the atmosphere in the laboratory more relaxed. They all made jokes one after another, which were probably words to remind their eldest brother to be rich and noble in the future and not to forget each other.
Liu Hao also smiled and joked with the team members. Qiao Yu was also listening to everyone's banter, which felt pretty good.
At least everyone can still have fun in the midst of hardship, which shows that the mentality of the team members is very stable. Qiao Yu likes partners who can maintain a stable mentality in adversity.
After laughing for a while, Liu Hao suddenly put up the score again...
"That's it. Stop joking around. The time is almost up. Let's all look at the samples we are responsible for. . Take it for testing when the time comes. Qiao Yu is still waiting for the results.
Each set of samples requires different reaction times. Don’t confuse the important things with your time. Be careful with the skewers! ”
It can be seen that Liu Hao is still very authoritative. With one sentence or two, he took the initiative to return to the laboratory next door from the office.
But then again, the polymerization time of the first batch of samples has indeed almost arrived.
While everyone else was busy serving samples, Liu Hao stayed with Qiao Yu and chatted with each other.
Let’s not talk about experiments, just talk about the messy things in life. I'm embarrassed to let Qiao Yu wait here...
"By the way, have you heard about it? Yesterday, there was a guy from the technical school next door who was said to be standing up for his girlfriend, so he went to another university to talk to that guy Counselor Bian had a fight.”
"Ah? Is there such a thing? Which major in the technical school?" Qiao Yu just got interested and planned to listen to the gossip. Suddenly, there was an exclamation from the laboratory...
Before Liu Hao stood up, Chen Jiang had already rushed into the office, his eyes first looking at Qiao Yu He stayed for a few seconds and said: "Qiao Shen, are you too awesome?"
After saying that, he looked at Liu Hao and said: "All the basic parameters of the first batch of samples have been met. The benchmark values we measured before, the tensile strength of No. 1-3 and No. 1-4 It is significantly improved compared to the previous test.
The response temperature, phase transition temperature and response speed of No. 1-3 and No. 1-5 are also better than those tested before. Now we have to wait for the self-repair efficiency. Memory retention ability and fracture strength recovery rate still have to wait. It will take some time for the results to be available.
But from the current situation, the average basic data of the first batch of six samples are much better than what we have done before! The main performance data of the visual inspection are definitely better! Not bad!”
After listening to Chen Jiang's report, Liu Hao glanced at Qiao Yu subconsciously... Is this thing really useful?
After all, six samples in a batch can all have this kind of performance, so it is obviously impossible to fool them.
Qiao Yu also smiled happily. He didn't need to look at the data. As long as he saw Chen Jiang's excitement at this time, he knew that the data analyzed this time must be useful.
It shows that his method is correct. As expected, mathematics can dominate many things.
“No hurry, there are still five batches of samples, we will test them all. According to the chart we calculated, theoretically it should be the third or fourth batch...
Well, specifically, the current optimal values will appear in samples No. 3-3, 3-4 and 3-5, as well as the fourth batch of these samples. Of course, it may not be able to 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 couldn't say anything for a long time...
Qiao Yu Feeling embarrassed, he added: "Um, Senior Brother Liu, don't look at me like that, it's just a piece of shit. You will know after you learn mathematics.
After learning too much mathematics, analysis becomes instinctive. Well, how about you go to the laboratory and take a look first? It's okay for me to be here alone, and I can just read the literature. ”
Liu Hao nodded quickly and said: "Okay, um, Qiao Yu, you rest here for a while, and I'll go over to check the situation first, uh... I'll treat you to dinner tonight, let's go out to eat! Remember, Qian Don’t leave!”
(End of this chapter)