Ye Wenjie, watch my moves closely.

Chapter 66 The particle collider is broken?

"I'm leaving the things to you, Teacher Zhang."

Li Youyu left the cavitation in Nandu and asked Zhang Bin to study it.

We originally wanted to hire a few more physics superhumans for him, but the Deep Space Research Department is short-staffed right now. Moreover, no physics superhuman on Earth can compare to Zhang Bin's wife, Zheng Min, in their research on ball lightning.

For the cooperating military, the natural desire is to capture more macro-electrons, as these substances, which are unhindered by matter and have differential lethality, are perfect for manufacturing weapons.

Therefore, without Li Youyu's push, the military region has already gathered a large number of engineers and experts to study a safer way to position macro electronics.

After all, skilled pilots like Lieutenant Colonel Nan Batian of the Combat Brigade are invaluable assets to the entire army, and it's impossible to keep them risking their lives to chase ball lightning in its activated state.

There must be a better way.

It is worth mentioning that Li Youyu received an invitation from the military region to attend the ceremony and to award merit to the entire ball lightning capture team. The lieutenant colonel pilot who suffered frostbite in many parts of his body was awarded a first-class merit.

His recovery is progressing well; he has not been left with any injuries or hidden illnesses and is the first soldier in the entire army to be awarded the First-Class Merit without any injuries or hidden illnesses.

To others, he is a living legend, but to him, it's a different story.

I feel ashamed.

After the ceremony, the lieutenant colonel chatted with Li Youyu. The difference in skin color on his face was very obvious; it was new skin that the doctor had peeled off from his back and transplanted.

"Compared to the situation of my comrades on the border, I am incredibly lucky."

Those who survived to receive the First-Class Merit Award were basically half-dead. In comparison, the lieutenant colonel did not feel that receiving this award was an honor, but rather a burning sensation.

"You're mistaken, Lieutenant Colonel. The First-Class Merit Award is never the end result. If you take it as compensation for a life, then you are insulting those heroes."

He was praising the motivation.

In this respect, you are just like them; you are a hero.

Moreover, what I hope for even more is that there will be more and more living, healthy recipients of the First-Class Merit Award.

"Thank you." The lieutenant colonel saluted Li Youyu.

After his words of comfort, I felt better.

Otherwise, this feeling of inadequacy might have led him to retire early.

With the matter at Southern Metropolis Daily settled, Li Youyu prepared to return to the Deep Space Research Department's headquarters.

He received a message from Shi Qiang the day before he was to leave.

"You've come to Southern Metropolis too?"

"Yes, we followed the ball lightning all the way to Nandu."

Last time, after interrogating the holder of the second letter, Li Youyu and Shi Qiang split up. One group traced the people in China who might have been turned into quantum ghosts by ball lightning, while the other group prepared methods to deal with the quantum ghosts.

"How's it going? Any progress?"

Li Youyu asked.

Shi Qiang said, "There's a university professor in Nandu who was obsessed with the study of ball lightning in his early years. More than ten years ago, his wife was also struck by ball lightning. According to intelligence, he has never stopped his research on ball lightning over the years..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Youyu interjected, "This person is Zhang Bin, a meteorology professor at Nanjing University. I forgot to tell you, he is not a suspect. He is the one who was with me catching ball lightning."

"Damn it! Why didn't you say so sooner!"

Da Shi blurted out a Cantonese phrase he had just learned: "If he's not a suspect, he's gone in China. I've already checked."

Da Shi spoke casually, but judging from the fatigue in his tone, this matter was by no means easy.

The task of sifting through a large number of eyewitness accounts and causes of death to identify targets, and then visiting and investigating them one by one, is quite extensive.

"How's things going on your end?"

The Grand Historian asked.

"Things went fairly smoothly; we caught ball lightning. Do you want to go take a look?"

"No, no, I'm afraid of ghosts."

Da Shi wasn't particularly interested in the spectacle; he simply asked, "Is Hong Electronics really as big as a basketball?"

"They come in all sizes, but the overall average is about the same as a basketball."

"Although I failed physics, I remember this thing should be very small, smaller than bacteria? If something this small is visible to the naked eye, then how big must the things made of it be?"

"Maybe," Li Youyu said. "Matter is composed of elementary particles, and macro-electrons exist, so there must be macromatter and macro-world."

"If cigarettes existed in that world, the cigarette butts would probably be bigger than the sun. How long would it take to smoke them all?"

Although Li Youyu couldn't see Shi Qiang's expression, he felt that Shi Qiang must have had a smirk on his face when he said that.

"Okay," Shi Qiang breathed a sigh of relief on the phone, "then I'll go back with you. I have to go abroad again next week."

"Going abroad to investigate a case? Also related to ball lightning?"

"It might be related, but I'm not sure. Don't think that just because things aren't peaceful here, things are even more chaotic abroad. The synchrotron at CERN was bombed two weeks ago... a suicide attack. The attacker was a scientist at CERN named Afif. He had no record of contact with terrorist organizations. In short, he had no motive."

I suspect it might be related to the quantum ghost, so I applied to go to the crime scene to take a look.

"Hmm...it might not be without motive. You could check in the past to see if he has any anti-scientific tendencies."

What Shi Qiang said reminded Li Youyu of the villainous organization Eden from Ball Lightning.

This organization is even more destructive and anti-technology than the ETO.

"A scientist who opposes science?" Da Shi said, "Would anyone risk their own livelihood?"

"Of course," Li Youyu said. "People who have nothing better to do will."

"I agree, these people are just wasting their time."

After hanging up the phone, the two men, who had nothing to do in the south, met up at a hot pot restaurant, ate all night, and then boarded a plane heading north the next day.

Once they were seated, their eyes seemed glued shut, and they fell into a deep sleep. The flight attendant serving meals called them several times but couldn't wake them up, and even thought they had been drugged.

Upon landing, Shi Qiang opened his sleepy eyes. When he realized he had slept through three and a half hours of the flight without even realizing it, he jumped up in shock and shoved Li Youyu's shoulder hard, "Brother, we're doomed, we're doomed!"

"what?"

Li Youyu squinted and mumbled a reply, "What's gone?"

"One of us is going to die."

Li Youyu stretched thoroughly, yawning, and said, "Who said that?"

"I told you! Every time I sleep this soundly, something bad happens. The first time was when I fell asleep on guard duty in the army, and I was awarded a medal by the division commander. The next day, I was quickly promoted to officer by the company commander. The second time was when I fell asleep in the vehicle while on duty, and when I woke up, the vehicle had overturned! Our driver had a 30-year accident-free record, but that day he was overturned by a small stone! And there was a third time, a fourth time..."

Da Shi talked non-stop, from the moment he got off the plane until he reached the airport exit, for a full half hour.

Li Youyu finally snapped out of his long sleep and was about to ask Da Shi why he was so convinced of these coincidences.

Suddenly, my mobile communication device rang.

"What? Okay... I'm back."

After hanging up the phone, Da Shi stared nervously at Li Youyu.

Li Youyu sighed helplessly:

"The particle collider has stopped working."

"What did I say? What did I say?"

Da Shi slapped his head in frustration.

"I'm not that superstitious. Particle colliders work every day, and it's normal for some components to break down. Don't believe me? Come with me to take a look."

"No, no, I'm not going."

Da Shi waved his hand frantically as if he had seen a ghost, flagged down a taxi, and plopped down in. "I need to go to the temple to get a talisman. I'm not going with you."

The Liangxiang particle collider is a vital national instrument, and there can be no mistakes. He was afraid that if he went along, he would bring all the bad luck with him.

Li Youyu watched him walk away, then hailed a taxi and headed straight for the Liangxiang Particle Collider.

When the local maintenance team arrived, the engineers had already compiled a list of the damage to the particle collider.

The main damage was to the electromagnetic coils; 90% of the coils in the entire acceleration chamber were broken and need to be replaced. The repair is expected to take about a month.

"If a large number of parts break down at the same time, it's definitely not due to a quality issue with the components. Is there any way to determine what caused the damage?"

"Judging from the characteristics, it appears to have been affected by an energy outflow. To find out the specifics, we'll have to ask the team that conducted the experiment today."

During the period when the particle collider burned out, the experiment was conducted by a group from the Institute of High Energy Physics.

During this period, in order to find a better way to deal with sophons, the Institute of High Energy Physics has been constantly colliding protons and antiprotons to see if there is any structure beneath the protons.

In the 60s, foreign countries had already observed that protons were composed of smaller particles called quarks through high-energy particle stream bombardment.

However, as the experiments progressed, they discovered that quarks have many different charges and masses. By 77, the academic community had discovered five types of quarks, but these five types of quarks could not complete the model of fundamental particles.

There must be a sixth type of quark.

After the Liangxiang particle collider was built, China also began the search for the sixth quark.

They used the acceleration ring of a particle collider to continuously accelerate two streams of particles, which were then collided head-on.

Finally, the effectiveness of the impact is determined based on the observation data.

"That shouldn't be the case."

Yang Weining is in charge of the experiment in the control room today.

He was the one who told Li Youyu that the particle collider was out of commission.

Upon seeing Li Youyu arrive, Yang Weining pointed to a long string of data and said, "It shouldn't burn out the coils. We're still far from accelerating the particle stream to that energy level."

"At what speed of light are you planning to accelerate the particle stream?"

"Due to the limitations of superconducting materials, the machine's upper limit is 65% of the speed of light, but Professor Li predicts that 65% of the speed of light is not enough to create new things. He wants to try to break through the limit and reach 75% of the speed of light."

Even if accelerated to 75% of the speed of light, it is impossible for a large number of coils to burn out simultaneously. Moreover, according to the data fed back by the instrument, Li Youyu only reached 60% of the speed of light.

Excluding the possibility of sabotage and test damage, could it really be as Da Shi said, just bad luck, or is fate against us?

"It's alright, let's switch it first. Microscopic experiments always have many inexplicable and unclear influencing factors."

As Li Youyu was speaking, Ning Shi ran in, panting.

"Quick, go see Li Bai, he's discovered something new."

Previously, in order to maximize the use of the particle collider, Li Youyu had Ning Shi connect Li Bai to the Liangxiang base's system.

The massive data stream is continuously transmitted via cables to its core located in the Deep Space Research Department.

Here, it's a visual display screen.

"Good afternoon, Sister Shishi, good afternoon, Engineer Yang."

On the screen, Li Bai greeted the two of them.

But Li Youyu, who was at the very front, was the only one missing.

Don't you recognize me?

Li Youyu asked.

Li Bai replied with a smiling emoji:

"I don't recognize you. May I ask who you are?"

Li Youyu pointed to the screen and asked Ning Shi, "What's going on here?"

Ning Shi smiled guiltily, "There might be a small problem with the memory, but that's not important. The discovery of it today is the most important thing."

Li Youyu thought for a moment and nodded, "That's true."

Ning Shi wiped her sweat, stepped forward and said to Li Bai, "Let's show everyone what you've compiled."

"Okay, Sister Shishi."

The screen displayed all the data from the Liangxiang Collider that Li Bai could monitor.

It highlighted the key points that everyone needs to pay attention to:

"One second before the particle collider was damaged, the particle stream had accelerated to 99% of the speed of light. At the moment of collision, I detected a signal event: the opposing particle streams collided and created something far exceeding their own mass. That thing existed for only one quadrillionth of a second before annihilating. Subsequently, the energy released by the mass annihilation destroyed the acceleration coils."

"99% of the speed of light? That's impossible!"

Yang Weining almost jumped up.

The upper limit of a particle collider is 65%, and the speed of a car can never exceed the speedometer.

"and,"

He showed the data from the instrument and said, "The highest velocity of the particle stream recorded here is only 60%."

"I could be wrong."

Li Bai said, "But it's unlikely I'm wrong."

"..."

The three remained silent.

Ning Shi stepped forward and slapped Li Bai's display screen, saying, "Speak like a human being."

In layman's terms: After the particle stream reaches 60% of the speed of light, some accelerating components exposed at room temperature become zero-resistance, power loss disappears, and the particle stream breaks through the instrument's upper limit. Although it is very brief, it does exist.

What is zero resistance at room temperature?

Ning Shi noticed that Yang Weining froze when he heard that word.

She turned to ask Li Youyu, but before he could answer, Li Bai interrupted in a personal, mechanical tone:

"Based on your question, the super AI Li Bai has matched a relevant answer for you in the database."

Zero resistance at room temperature, also known as room temperature superconductivity, is the holy grail of physics. Floating cities, deflection shields, and AT fields in science fiction are all inextricably linked to it.

"Is that so, sir?"

Ning Shi looked at Li Youyu.

He nodded. "Pretty much the same."

His shock was no less than Yang Weining's.

The particle collider's breakdown was caused by two things that had never been seen before in the physics community.

Who says it's just bad luck?

He couldn't wait to call Da Shi right now and tell him to lie down and sleep right there until the next century!