Chapter 40 This is not a census! (Seeking for further reading)
1200 New York Avenue, Northwest District, Washington, the capital of the United States, is the address of the editorial office of Science magazine.
The young editor silently looked at the pile of manuscripts in front of him and felt a little headache.
This editor is not responsible for reviewing manuscripts. His job responsibility is to eliminate manuscripts. He will first review the submission letter to see if the submitted content is in line with the scope of articles included in Science.
Only manuscripts that meet the inclusion criteria will be sent to the next-level editor.
But even this simple job requires a master's degree in science and engineering from a prestigious school to be competent.
The editor picked up the next manuscript and looked at the address. It turned out to be from China. This surprised the editor a little.
At that time, 70% of the manuscripts received by Science magazine came from the United States, and the rest came from Europe. Occasionally, a few manuscripts were received from Japan and China. At least this is the first time this editor has seen it.
The level of scientific research has always been linked to the degree of economic development. Although it is possible for countries with underdeveloped economies to cultivate world-class scholars, it is difficult for them to produce world-class scientific research results.
The appearance of scientists such as Newton, Darwin and Joule in Britain is not accidental. That is because Britain is the most developed country in modern times.
And when Germany began to rise, Einstein and Planck appeared.
Today, the United States is the most powerful country in the world, and world-class scientific research results are also flowing to the United States.
In the editor's impression, China is still a poor and backward country, just like what is shown in movies and TV series. There are old-fashioned bicycles all over the streets, and all men, women and children are gray or dark blue. Mao suits, and some may even have braids from the Qing Dynasty.
“Let me see what kind of scientific research results Chinese scientists can bring!”
The editor opened the envelope with curiosity and took out the submission letter inside , the first thing you see is the author’s name, mailing address, phone number, email address and other information.
"ZhangWei? Never heard of it! Chinese names are always a bit difficult to pronounce. Who is the recommender? Didn't write it down? What the hell!
An unknown person, who doesn't even have a recommender, dares to submit a recommendation to "Science" "Submit, this guy is here to cause trouble!"
In the editor's mind, he has already marked this submission as rejected. However, he still patiently took a look at the title of the paper.
“The electric field effect of atomically thin carbon films! Atomically thin carbon films, aren’t they just graphene? This thing hasn’t been successfully extracted yet, has it? Why is there so much research on electric field effects?”
This editor happens to have a master's degree in physics, and his mentor's main research direction in the past ten years is exactly how to extract graphene from graphite.
This editor still remembers the joy he felt after trying to use a polishing machine to polish graphite flakes of a few microns in the laboratory.
But those graphite flakes of a few microns are still thousands of times thicker than graphene!
“Did this Chinese scientist successfully create graphene?”
The editor immediately looked at the brief introduction in the submission letter.
Sure enough, it said that graphene has been successfully made!
...
This level of discovery is beyond the scope of the editor's work. It didn't take long for Zhang Wei's paper to be handed over to the full-time editor.
The full-time editor of the journal "Science" has the authority to forward the paper to reviewers, but when he saw the description of "atomically thin carbon film", he was stunned.
A full-time editor may not have very strong academic abilities or high scientific research standards, but he is definitely rich in knowledge. He certainly knows the value of graphene.
A full-time editor would not dare to send a discovery of this level to reviewers easily, so this paper went to the editor-in-chief's desk again.
In 2004, the editor-in-chief of Science was named Donald Kennedy, a combination of two American presidents.
He was a biologist who was the eighth president of Stanford University. He served as the editor-in-chief of Science magazine since 2000. He died of COVID-19 in 2020.
Although Donald Kennedy has not won a Nobel Prize, his status in the academic world is still quite high. In terms of reputation, he even surpasses many Nobel Prize winners.
When the world's top scholar saw Zhang Wei's paper, he was also shocked.
“Has graphene really been made?” Graphene has been a touted new material since the mid-1980s, and the ears of those who listen to it almost feel calloused.
After twenty years of research, no scientist has been able to successfully make graphene.
Now that this thing has actually been made, it feels a bit abrupt.
Donald Kennedy immediately read the contents of the paper carefully.
The paper only has more than 4,000 words in total, and for a scholar of Donald Kennedy's level, those proper nouns are not a problem, so it can be read very quickly.
"It was stained with tape? This is ridiculous!"
Donald Kennedy thought about it carefully again, and theoretically this possibility really existed.
In addition to the paper, photos of graphene under an electron microscope and related experimental data were also sent to the magazine.
Donald Kennedy had no equipment around him and could not verify the authenticity of the experimental data, but the photos could still be viewed. So he picked up the magnifying glass and looked at the graphene photo carefully.
“Is this graphene? It turns out to be like this! From the structure point of view, it is consistent with the characteristics of carbon atoms.”
Putting down the photo in his hand, Donald Kennedy fell into deep thought.
This scientific research result is so amazing that once it is true, it will inevitably trigger a revolution in materials science. It may even become the greatest discovery in the first decade of the 21st century.
Scientific research results of this level have been delivered to your door. If they are not published, then "Science" magazine will not need to be involved in the journal field.
What if it’s fake?
Although the bigger the wind and waves, the more expensive the fish.
But the stronger the wind and waves, the easier it is for the boat to capsize!
If the content of this paper is false, then Science will be discredited.
If the person who sent this paper was a well-known scientist, Donald Kennedy would not have to worry about it at all and just follow the normal procedures.
It just so happens that the author of this paper is an unknown person!
Nothing more than an unknown person, he is still Chinese! With China’s scientific research level, can it be trusted?
Even if the author is a Chinese scientist, it is not completely untrustworthy, but at least you can find a few recommenders to endorse it for you!
How can I trust you if you don’t have a single recommender?
Believe it or not, you have photos and experimental data, and it looks perfect on the surface!
After thinking for a moment, Donald Kennedy picked up the phone and told his editor: "Go and check Zhang Wei's information to see if he has published any papers before. He is Chinese, so not only If you want to check the English paper index, you also need to check the Chinese paper index! "
"Professor, I have checked it just now. After rough statistics, we found a total of 2845 people named Zhang Wei. People!" the other party replied immediately.
"I'm not asking you to do a census, I'm asking you to find people who can publish SCI papers!"
"Professor, I'm sorry, my data includes EI papers."
"I Let’s just say, how can there be 2845 Zhang Weis?” Donald Kennedy then asked: “How many of them have published SCI papers?”
“911”
For For Americans, this is an unlucky number.
Thank you for your support! I have to shamelessly ask you Andy Lau to read it again. If you feel that you are not satisfied with it, you can read Guan's previous books, "Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon" and "All-Around Athlete", both of which are pre-ordered.
(End of this chapter)