Orion Crest, Series_1

Chapter 195: Wonderful

　　In June, one big thing happened in chemistry.

　　Or you could say two.

　　In the latest issue of JACS, two heavyweight papers were published.

　　In particular, "A Caged Carbon Molecule and Sulfur Monomer Composite Anode Material," written by Professor Haley's research team, caused an earthquake not only in the materials science community, but in the entire new energy field.

　　Although there are doubts about whether Professor Haley has really solved the technology of lithium-sulfur batteries, the academic community is generally optimistic. After all, Professor Haley himself is a great expert in the field of lithium batteries, coupled with the support of ExxonMobil, the credibility of the paper is still quite high.

　　Many research institutions have begun to repeat the experimental results.

　　Maybe it won't take long, lithium-sulfur batteries will be out of the laboratory, completely change people's lives ......

　　As for the other paper, it is the controversial "Theoretical Modelling of Electrochemical Interface Structures".

　　Until now, the theoretical chemistry community has not had a satisfactory theoretical model that can thoroughly elucidate the microscopic nature of the various electrochemical processes occurring at "interfaces".

　　If this theoretical model proves to be valid, it will help to advance the study of electrochemical interface structure in the entire theoretical chemistry community.

　　However, this theory is simply too novel and can even be said to be quite ahead of its time.

　　It is precisely for this reason that the publication of this paper has caused widespread controversy in the theoretical chemistry community.

　　It is no exaggeration to say that if it were not for the weight of the Crafoord Prize in Mathematics and the Adams Award in Chemistry, JACS would never have passed the manuscript so easily, and the reviewers and academic editors indeed could not make up their minds for a while.

　　Although propositions in mathematics can be judged to be true or false by logical self-consistency, research outside the field of mathematics, especially when it comes to applications, cannot simply take "logical self-consistency" as the main reason for judging the truth of a proposition.

　　It would be difficult to find a mathematician of the Crafoord Prize level in chemistry. Furthermore, as for testing by factual evidence, it sounds like a good idea, but it's still difficult. After all, supercomputing was something that not every lab could afford. Especially supercomputers that specialise in molecular dynamics simulations, even the rent is not cheap.

　　However, considering Orion's influence in the world of mathematics and materials science, there are already many people who have begun to test whether this theory is reliable. These include scholars in the direction of theoretical chemistry, as well as scholars in applied mathematics.

　　Rumour has it that the Max Planck Institute for the Advancement of Science (MPG) in Germany has set up an interdisciplinary group, gathering several scholars in the fields of mathematics, chemistry and condensed matter physics to test the theoretical model proposed by Orion.

　　Perhaps it won't be long before it all comes out. But now it looks like the controversy will continue for a while longer.

　　Orion himself, however, at the centre of the maelstrom, is much more calm, and is even unhurriedly working on his next experiment.