Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 115 - 116: The Discovery of the Graviton

Chapter 115: Chapter 116: The Discovery of the Graviton

Zhang Yuan encountered an old acquaintance in the office, Mr. John Wilson, who was the pessimistic scientist among the nuclear fusion engine researchers.

John had awakened two months earlier than him and seemed to be crushed by the bleak reality. He merely greeted Zhang Yuan and then sat at his desk all day long, staring blankly into space, with no one knowing what he was thinking about.

Zhang Yuan sighed deeply, nearly everyone here was like this.

With the current social environment, it was hardly possible to engage in complex work. At least half of the population was demoralized, and it was already quite rare to be able to do a simple job, let alone create substantial social value.

Fortunately, the decision-makers had anticipated this situation and made certain arrangements when establishing hibernation policies.

Currently, there were a total of six hundred awake individuals, with over a hundred responsible for maintaining the electricity system, and the rest scattered across communication, medical care, botanic gardens, and material management, among other sectors.

There were also a few military and administrative personnel tasked with maintaining public order.

In this self-sufficient micro-society, the workload of each person was very small.

The engines of the Earth Era’s ship were extinguished, and it was traveling through the universe by inertia. Moreover, since most functions had been shut down, it was unlikely that catastrophic accidents would accumulate over a hundred years, so a bit of slack on everyone’s part wasn’t really a problem.

…

In this uncomfortable atmosphere, days passed by one after the other. Zhang Yuan had put all his emotions aside and started to learn new knowledge normally.

There were plenty of fresh things that had happened on Earth, whether in academics, history, or the humanities, all worth taking seriously and learning.

Due to the qualitative changes triggered by the quantitative changes, Zhang Yuan found that he couldn’t even understand the most cutting-edge scientific papers. He could only read relevant news articles from popular science websites to grasp the overall scientific trends.

He muttered to himself, “It’s quite good, actually. Not understanding is a good sign. If an ancient person like me could understand, then humanity would certainly be doomed.”

“What’s wrong with ancient people? I could still be a university professor!” John said, “It’s the 25th century, and students in the university are still learning calculus? How boring.”

Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but chuckle. That statement was true; before the technology to enhance Intelligence emerged, students from any era should be learning calculus. Civilization still had to rely on geniuses to advance.

“John, what does this super-Alpha state mean?”

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“I don’t know, it could be a new academic term in condensed matter physics… I’ll help you look up some related papers.”

The two people in the office had many things they did not understand about modern knowledge. However, studying together was actually quite enjoyable and a bit faster than studying alone.

Once, there was a question online: If Einstein were to travel to the modern era, could he still become a top scientist?

The top was not a certainty, but to become an excellent scientist once more would be quite easy. Under the influence of good habits, learning new knowledge was actually quite a pleasant thing for Einstein. A few years’ effort would probably be enough to catch up with cutting-edge subjects.

Even the presence of new knowledge without the willingness to learn could induce a sense of decadence and unease.

“…Frontier science is brimming with good news! Through an experiment with a superfluid condensate, it seems that evidence for the existence of gravitons has been found!”

All of a sudden, Zhang Yuan discovered some major news and exclaimed aloud.

“It’s really not easy at all!”

After reading through one of the papers, he sighed deeply.

At this moment, the only word that could describe his mood was: exhilarating!

According to the description in this paper, scientists surrounded a finite area with a superfluid and found that within this region, there was an extremely small change in gravity.

This change in gravity was unexpected.

In some theories, gravitons are spin-2 bosons that produce a superfluid mechanism analogous to Helium-4. That is, this part of the superfluid may have short-circuited some of the gravitons passing through the area, thereby achieving local shielding.

The evidence for the existence of gravitons could be the greatest scientific discovery in the past two centuries!

It meant that some fundamental theories seemed to be further developed.

Various related papers emerged in an endless stream, and so far, no ultimate winners had been decided.

Seeing this, Zhang Yuan’s heartbeat sped up slightly, knowing deeply how important the discovery of gravitons was to frontier science!

“The physical phenomenon involved with gravitons is gravity, and if gravity could be unified with quantum theory, then the ‘Grand Unified Theory’ would no longer be a dream!”

“If under the guidance of theoretical foundations, technologies related to anti-gravity and Artificial Gravity could indeed emerge, mankind would once again achieve a qualitative leap in technology!”

Zhang Yuan was still very willing to engage in this area of research.

Of course, for him at present, he could only be a distant spectator, finding some enjoyment in these news stories.

Any bit of progress in human civilization was a very secure and gratifying thing for him.

“I’m already two hundred years old, my descendants, keep it up.” Since he was in a good mood, Zhang Yuan joked.

“Cough cough, if you want to understand Earth Civilization, you should look at Deep Space Foundation’s annual reports each year instead of searching for information randomly here. The news coming in is overwhelmingly numerous, and some are even fabricated by self-media,”

John said leisurely.

Over these months, he too had slowly returned to normal. Moreover, the zealous learning spirit of Zhang Yuan directly influenced him, compelling him to study as well.

The guy still sighed now and then, but at least he was able to communicate.

It has to be said, time can dilute everything, and humans are a species with a strong capacity for acceptance. Choosing to keep oneself busy can gradually put all the heaviness behind…

People always have to live for themselves.

“So, seeing these scientific achievements, are you no longer pessimistic about the future of Earth Civilization?” Zhang Yuan asked with a smile, “Seeing scientific progress is very refreshing. Once Earth Civilization’s technology undergoes a qualitative change, we will also benefit from it.”

John spoke excitedly, “Indeed, it’s a remarkable discovery! I was happy for a long time the other day, which diluted that pessimistic expectation. By the way, what do you think about the gravity loss phenomenon caused by superfluidity? How can we industrialize anti-gravity?”

“Gravitons interact with fermions, and aside from Yukawa coupling similar to that of electrons and photons, there might be other terms in the Lagrangian. I think as long as we clarify these terms, the effects of gravitational shielding can continue to be enhanced!”

“The essence of the world is indeed somewhat beyond imagination!”

“Aren’t the Four Basic Forces the ultimate essence?”

“Don’t be too optimistic; as of now, the entire theory hasn’t been completely figured out.”

The two talked more and more excitedly, wildly speculating as if Anti-gravity Technology could really be achieved…