Orion Crest, Series_1

Chapter 52: Witnessing Great Moments

　　"Any more questions?" Professor Deligne looked to the staff member.

　　"No. ......" That staff member smiled embarrassedly and retreated to the side. Just kidding, this big wig gave the word, how would he dare to have an objection.

　　Mathematicians who could win both the Fields Medal and the Wolf Prize, as of now, there were only thirteen in the world, and mathematicians who had won the Crayford Prize on top of that at the same time, there were only two people in the world one of them was Deligne, and the other one was Yau Shing-Tung.

　　If he had noticed what was happening behind him, Orion would have politely said thank you, but at this moment, his attention was not at all behind him, and he didn't even hear that reminder from the staff.

　　Looking at the four whiteboards filled with writing, he stopped his pen.

　　The results of these four days had almost come to an end.

　　The remaining part would require him to solve it all on the spot.

　　Inspiration time, half an hour left.

　　He had forgotten all about where he was.

　　Forgetting all about the audience there.

　　Forgetting the eyes staring at his back.

　　On the theatre, where everyone could speak freely, regardless of nationality, colour or status, Orion looked at the rows and rows of equations on the whiteboard.

　　Him.

　　Pick up the pen.

　　[S(α) = Σane(nα); M, N ∈ ζ ......]

　　Sharp eyes staring at the whiteboard, Professor Deligne, who had been thinking, suddenly opened his mouth and asked his old friend next to him, "Do you think he can succeed?"

　　Keeping his eyes on the arithmetic on the whiteboard, Professor Zelberg smiled, "It's hard to say, but I think that we can fully expect it. Mathematics itself is the field of genius, seventy percent of outstanding results are created in young talents under the age of forty-five."

　　"Is that why you turned to 'string theory'?" Deligne stared at the arithmetic on the whiteboard, the tip of his pen stopping on the notepad as if glued there.

　　"Huh," Professor Zelberg laughed, and after a moment, said, "Maybe?"

　　The other side of the lecture theatre.

　　Boris stared motionless at the whiteboard, watching his beloved competitor, standing there, challenging world-class puzzles. And that line of steps had gone further and further beyond what he could understand, to the point that by now, he was struggling to even keep up with this one's train of thought.

　　Finally, he whispered.

　　"Professor."

　　"Do you think ...... he can succeed?"

　　After seriously thinking about this question for a while, Professor Stanley shook his head, "It's not easy to say, this field of number theory, more than any other branch of mathematics, relies on talents, and if he succeeds, it can be considered as a good story indeed."

　　Boris immediately asked, "What if he fails?"

　　"...... If he fails, he could be, for all the maths people at Princeton, the entire laughing stock of the year."

　　And then there's all the media sarcasm and vilification that's imaginable. For example, a arrogant fool who changes his manuscript on the spot, tries to challenge a world-class mathematical conjecture at an academic conference, and ends up getting blown off the stage ......" While scientific research needs exactly this kind of courageous spirit, media people should never be expected to have much sense of social responsibility.