Chapter 415 Word Game (This chapter is half of the popular science NIF controllable core
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In the conference room.
Looking at Hou Xingyuan with a subtle expression on his face.
The faces of Xu Yun and others finally showed expressions of realization.
I see
No wonder the entire project was filled with an inexplicable sense of urgency from beginning to end.
The co-author means that there are several more waves of attacks from the outside world coming.
after awhile.
Xu Yun suddenly thought of something, a trace of curiosity appeared on his face, and asked Hou Xingyuan:
"Dean Hou, it's easy to talk about CERN and Kamiokane Laboratory, but why is it still related to NIF?"
"If I remember correctly, they are not working on elementary particles, right?"
Hear this.
Lu Chaoyang and others also nodded slightly.
This is also their concern.
The CERN that Hou Xingyuan refers to refers to the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.
The discovery of W and Z bosons is a classic achievement of CERN.
In addition, it is the birthplace of the world's first website, first web server, first browser, and first erotic live streaming platform.
As for the right-handed neutrino, it involves the chiral characteristics of the neutrino.
Although today's neutrinos have been excluded from the standard cold dark matter, they have been classified into hot dark matter.
But just like the example given before.
Although the orangutan is not a human ape, it is indeed the creature closest to the concept of ape at present.
Therefore, many people now hold such a speculation:
Ordinary neutrinos may be hot dark matter, so as its chiral particle, will the right-handed neutrino be cold dark matter?
It’s just that the research on the right hand, or sterile neutrinos, has been fruitless, so in the final analysis, this thing is an idealized model.
With the relevant accumulation of CERN, it is not surprising that there are breakthroughs.
Not to mention the Kamiokande Laboratory.
Neon people have been crazy about dark matter in recent years, and they have also come up with the definition of warm dark matter between cold dark matter and hot dark matter.
That is to say, it is a particle that moves at a speed sufficient to produce relativistic effects, but is still far from the speed of light in a vacuum. In the standard model, it only participates in gravitational interactions.
The abbreviation of this thing is WDM, cold dark matter is called CDM, and hot dark matter is called HDM.
Although Kamiokande Laboratory does not belong to the scientific research geometry of a continent like CERN, its early results are there, and it is reasonable to see some breakthrough developments.
only
Be it CERN or Kamiokane Laboratory.
They all study microscopic particles.
But what NIF is doing is a nuclear fusion device. What is the purpose of getting involved at this time?
Looking at Xu Yun with a curious look on his face, Hou Xingyuan hesitated for a moment and finally said:
"Xiao Xu, actually we don't want to either. The key is that there are too many readers asking in the group. Ahem, in short, your thinking is still too limited."
Xu Yun was slightly startled:
"Limitations?"
Hou Xingyuan nodded and did not rush to explain, but asked:
"Xiao Xu, let me ask you first, what do you think of NIF?"
Xu Yun touched his chin and four words came out of his mouth:
"Word games."
"Word games?"
A smile flashed in Hou Xingyuan's eyes, and he couldn't help but stretched out his finger and pointed at him:
"You really dare to say this, aren't you afraid that if it gets spread out and people criticize you, you can't afford to lose?"
Xu Yun shook his head seriously when he heard this and said calmly:
"If NIF can really come true, it means that this direction is feasible."
"Although magnetic constraint and inertial constraint are two different things in a strict sense, this will only strengthen our determination to cross the river by feeling the stones. What is there to lose?"
"But the problem is, this news is full of word games."
When saying this.
Xu Yun's tone was not joking at all.
Because that's what he really thought.
It's undeniable.
There are many areas where we and Haidian are lagging behind or even trapped in a disadvantageous situation, but this does not mean that all Haidian’s news can be blown to the sky.
When he first arrived in Chengdu yesterday, he saw some reports related to NIF from the Internet.
It's just that he didn't understand it as deeply as Hou Xingyuan did.
Actually.
Starting from 2010.
NIF releases some news almost every few years, and this is far from the first time it engages in word games.
Notice.
It's a word play, not NIF's fraud.
For example, in fact, as early as 2013, NIF reported that Q was greater than 1. At that time, "light energy absorbed by the fuel ball" was used.
"Science" made a special effort to refute this rumor at the beginning, /content/article/fusion-breakthrough-nif-uh-not-really, add 3W in front to read it directly.
This year is indeed a little different from 2013, but I still played a word game.
Where is this text point?
Let’s take a look at its contents first:
[NIF’s laser fusion equipment used 2.1 megajoules of laser energy to trigger a fusion reaction that released 2.5 megajoules of energy on December 5, 2022 local time, and the Q index reached 1.2]
Then there were a bunch of people tearing it apart.
Supporters say this is humanity's first step and an epoch-making breakthrough.
Opponents say that Q1.2 is useless and needs to reach 20 before it can be commercialized. It is still 50 years away from commercial use.
But unfortunately, the pros and cons above are actually wrong.
Because NIF plays a word game on the definition of energy gain.
Actually.
This 1.2 times refers to the ratio of the energy of neutrons produced by fusion divided by the energy of the input laser, not the ratio of output electrical energy to input electrical energy.
This is not to be deliberately rhetorical or forceful, but because there is actually an unspoken rule in the fusion industry that has always exaggerated results:
Defining energy gain in this way can make the energy gain appear to be larger, and much larger - this is also done in China.
The conversion efficiency of neutrons to electrical energy can be very high, but the conversion efficiency from electrical energy to laser at the input end is actually very low.
And according to its physical principles, this energy conversion efficiency will always be very low.
Normally.
A laser with 10% efficiency can be regarded as Zenith star technology.
Here’s another numerical example:
The difference between these two definitions can cause the energy gain to differ by as much as 125 times.
If you start counting from electrical energy instead of laser energy, then the energy gain achieved by NIF is only 0.008.
It's undeniable.
There is definitely progress, but there is no need to whine about people cheating or diss in China because they only think about obscenity - last year we also developed carbon dioxide synthetic starch.
What's more, inertial restraint is more oriented towards weapons and nuclear testing, and it is unlikely to be used for nuclear fusion power generation.
That is to say, there is almost no such thing as a so-called Q greater than 20 that can be commercialized - those directly oriented to nuclear fusion power generation are tokamak and stellarator.
If one day it is possible to achieve a long-term energy output greater than the input on a magnetic restraint device, and the energy can also be collected, that would be big news.
Compared to NIF, what we should pay more attention to is Neon’s JT-60SA.
alright.
The sight returns to reality.
Looking at Xu Yun with a calm face, Hou Xingyuan couldn't help but smile.
Then he thought about it and explained:
"Xiao Xu, what you said is correct, but do you know why I said your thinking is still too limited?"
Xu Yun shook his head.
Hou Xingyuan turned his head to look at Academician Pan again. Academician Pan blinked in understanding and said to Xu Yun:
"Xiao Xu, you can't just look at this from a scientific research perspective, you can also think about it from other perspectives."
"For example, do you remember what happened across the sea before and after NIF published that article in 2013? - You are engaged in biology, so you should have an impression of that incident, right?"
"13 years?"
Xu Yun was startled again, but this time he quickly reacted:
"You're talking about funding issues."
Academician Pan smiled and nodded.
Xu Yun thought carefully for a few seconds and then understood what Academician Pan meant.
I see
In 2013.
The main reason why NIF dared to publish that article at the risk of being officially slapped in the face by "Science" was because in early October 2013, the federal government and parliament across the sea had a quarrel over debt issues and the annual budget.
Eventually, most of the U.S. federal government agencies closed down, and funding for various U.S. scientific research institutions was slashed.
For example, NIH, the National Institutes of Health across the sea, has seen significant cuts in funding.
At that time, this incident triggered many biological scientists to march on Capitol Hill to protest, so Academician Pan said that Xu Yun should have been impressed.
And if you push this year forward a little, you will find out.
On December 8, discussions began again across the sea on the annual budget for scientific research funding in 2023.
In the previous years of 2015 and 2017, almost all of them achieved "huge breakthroughs" at similar nodes.
This is also the reason why Q, which is clearly 1.008, insists on being called 1.2 - if it is really a breakthrough in scientific research concepts, 1.008 will be more topical.
Also just a week ago.
The Rabbits have just signed a 34-item cooperation agreement with the Camels, and the person who came forward is an extremely big shot.
Although the results are not as exaggerated as the reports on the Internet about using Chinese currency to settle oil, it is still a big business of more than 30 billion US dollars.
This is an issue involving energy.
Think of this.
Xu Yun couldn't help but rub his temples.
No wonder Hou Xingyuan said that his thinking was too limited.
I can only say the funniest thing in the new century: scientific research has nothing to do with politics.
after awhile.
After Xu Yun and others had digested the situation, Hou Xingyuan picked up the tea cup again, took a sip of water, and continued:
"Okay, that's it for the topic of NIF. That's about it for everyone to have a rough idea of the situation."
"Now let's turn our attention back and talk about the release of the lone point particle report."
Hear this.
Academician Pan and others' expressions suddenly became serious.
Then Academician Pan and Zhao Zhengguo looked at each other, and Academician Pan asked:
"Dean, what are the Academy's next plans?"
Hou Xingyuan tapped his index finger on the table a few times, remained silent for a few seconds, and said thoughtfully:
"To tell you the truth, before coming to Jinping, the Academy of Sciences actually made two preparations."
"First, the lone point particle is thermal dark matter or baryonic dark matter, so we should be relatively stable and focus on conservation."
"That is to say, we can hedge the popularity with Kamiokande and CERN to preserve the results of our public opinion war."
"But now that lone point particles are standard cold dark matter, our plan is completely different."
Xu Yun and others had no expression on their faces when they heard this, but they all nodded in their hearts.
Mentioned before.
The definitions of cold, warm, and hot dark matter are models defined within the framework of non-baryonic dark matter.
Since there is non-baryonic dark matter, then naturally there is also baryonic dark matter.
Baryonic dark matter participates in electromagnetic interactions, so it is generally considered to be the real "matter" on a macroscopic scale.
For example, very thin interstellar molecular clouds, nearby interstellar planets and brown dwarfs that lack light sources, distant halo group massive dense objects, etc.
That is to classify based on value.
Baryonic dark matter is the lowest, even lower than thermal dark matter, and is something that is too far away to be discovered.
Therefore, if the isolated point particle has such a property, then it should obviously be stable.
After all, the previous public opinion incident was already a great victory, and many of the results have not yet been fully digested, so there is no need to cause another incident.
But now that the lone point particles are confirmed to be standard cold dark matter, then everything is a different story.
Talk about this.
Academician Pan couldn't sit still, swallowed his saliva, and couldn't help asking Hou Xingyuan:
"Dean Hou, in that case, when will we hold a press conference? In the past few days...?"
Unexpectedly, Hou Xingyuan waved his hand towards him and shook his head slightly:
"Xiao Pan, please don't be impatient. I don't know if you have heard a word."
"What words?"
"I will let you run thirty-nine meters first. If you fail, I will lose."
In fact, I only arranged for Kamiokande and CERN to have technological breakthroughs at the beginning. NIF has almost nothing to do with this plot, but many readers are asking, and at the same time many groups are discussing and even quarreling (and all the key points are wrong), so I
I just temporarily inserted this section of popular science.
Except for NIF, there is no need to benchmark against reality.
In addition, the nucleic acid results came out and I didn’t win the bid, but I caught a cold.