Into Unscientific

".Titanic, right?"

I heard this sentence from my friend's mouth.

A smile finally appeared on Gabriel Veniziano's decadent face.

"That's right, the Titanic, this is an eternal classic, enough to enshrine the gods."

"Pedro, do you remember who was my favorite movie?"

Angie Pedro nodded, and announced a name without much hesitation:

"Wallace Hartley."

Gabriel Veniziano took a deep breath when he heard the words, and there was a trace of emotion in his eyes:

"Yeah, Wallace Hartley"

The movie Titanic was released in 1997. After the movie was broadcast, it has set off unprecedented popularity both at home and abroad.

Many viewers were moved by the romance of the hero and heroine, or conquered by Xiao Lizi's appearance.

But Gabriel Veniziano's favorite character is not the protagonist, but Wallace Hartley.

That is, the leader of the band on the Titanic.

When the Titanic just happened.

The band played hymns on deck under the command of the captain.

The purpose is to try to appease the emotions of passengers and avoid excessive panic.

Seeing that the ship's hull was tilting more and more seriously, Wallace Hartley, the bandleader, had to disband the band and let them flee for their lives.

But he himself chose to stay in place and continue to play the famous song "Closer to My Lord".

When other people are like ants on a hot pot, scrambling to escape.

Wallace Hartley sang leisurely on deck till his death.

The rest of the band, hearing the captain's voice, turned back and rejoined the playing—which, by the way, is exactly what Wallace Hartley did during the actual shipwreck in 1912.

There are Titanic musicians monuments in Southampton and Broken Hill, Australia.

That finale by Wallace Hartley is Gabriel Veniziano's favorite scene.

But at this moment, he suddenly found out.

In fact, the Liner Laboratory, or all the institutions participating in the conference, are currently on the Titanic of high-energy physics.

Facing the iceberg and the ocean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The research on dark matter by many institutions is infinitely close to the countdown to sinking.

Think here.

Gabriel Veniziano suddenly looked at Angie Pedro and asked:

"Gabriel, would you do me a favor?"

Angie Pedro frowned and asked Gabriel Veniziano:

"What's busy?"

"Come with me. Play this last song before the ship sinks."

".speak English."

"I want Liner Laboratory to be the first institution to get the final retest results."

Angie Pedro looked at his friend for two seconds, and offered to extend his hand:

"my pleasure."

This moment.

On this invisible 'Titanic', there is also a scene of sentient beings slowly unfolding.

Facing the last round of retest data given by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Some organizations struggle with it.

For example the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics.

Some institutions want to stop losses in time.

Examples include the Kamioka laboratory and the two Gallic laboratories.

Others face it calmly.

For example Liner Labs.

But no matter what these people think in their hearts, they can't change the established fact that the ship is sinking.

ten minutes later.

Angie Pedro's assistant Nelson came to Gabriel Veniziano with a document and said:

"Mr. Gabriel, the equipment is ready. Director Pedro asked me to inform you that you will be responsible for the injection of the water-based fluid."

Follow normal conditions.

At this time, Gabriel Veniziano should nod his head, sign his name on the executive authorization letter, and then ask Nelson to make a result as soon as possible.

But to Nelson's surprise

Gabriel Veniziano just glanced at him and said:

"Very good, Nelson, take me to the F4 library, and take the C door."

Nelson was slightly taken aback:

"F4 library?"

F4 library.

This is a huge liquid reservoir for water-based fluids in Liner's laboratory, which can hold 16,000 tons of heavy water.

Even in Europe, the F4 library can be firmly in the forefront in terms of specifications.

only

What is Gabriel Veniziano going to do in the F4 library at this time?

With this question.

Nelson and Gabriel Veniziano passed through two closed doors, and soon came to the entrance of a secret room in a mountain.

The entrance is a semicircle with a diameter of about two meters, with a large letter written on it:

c.

mentioned earlier.

In order to avoid external interference as much as possible, most dark matter research institutions are located in the hollow area of ​​the mountain, and the top is usually covered with rock layers of hundreds or even one or two kilometers.

Liner is also a laboratory with a similar layout, but the area where the water-based fluid is placed, that is, the F4 library, is not located under the main control room like the Jinping Deep Ground Laboratory, but next to the main control room.

Didi--

Nelson opened the door of the C library of the F4 library.

Gabriel Veniziano walks into the liquid store in a jumpsuit.

The predecessor of the Liner laboratory was an arsenic mine, which is simply the place where arsenic was produced, but it was abandoned more than 60 years ago because of the exhaustion of mining.

Later, under the coordination of the Spanish Academy of Sciences, it was processed as the placement of Liner's laboratory.

The F4 warehouse is a relatively large pit in the early days. After the expansion, the diameter is 34 meters and the height. Or the depth is 31 meters.

Today's F4 library is a high-standard clean room. The walls of the library are covered with helmet-sized photomultiplier tubes, from top to bottom, including the bottom of the pit. all over.

The cost of this liquid storage alone is as high as 20 million euros.

Of course.

In order to prevent operators from falling into the bottom of the pit without liquid, the F4 warehouse has a corridor with a width of nearly three meters and a guardrail with a height of more than two meters on the upper edge of the entrance.

throughout the liquid reservoir.

Only a few areas can open a small opening through the equipment lock for employees to go down to the pit to debug equipment or clean photomultiplier tubes.

This moment.

In this 'big pit' more than 30 meters deep.

All the photomultiplier tubes have been powered on, and the entire liquid reservoir is filled with dazzling light.

Gabriel Veniziano went to the railing and stared at the bottom of the pit for a while through the gap in the railing.

Then he turned his head and said to Nelson:

"Nelson, take me to the manual valve."

Nelson had vaguely guessed what Gabriel Veniziano was thinking at this time, and without asking any further questions, he led Gabriel Veniziano along the aisle and walked in another direction.

Generally speaking.

In today's highly intelligent process, it is actually very simple to turn on the water-based fluid injection.

In most cases, as long as the supervisor signs, the main console can directly perform related operations.

But smart is smart.

Considering some special circumstances, some manual operation links will be retained as a back-up reserve in case of emergency.

Just like today's bullet trains or subways.

Passengers must use the electronic door to enter and exit normally, but the train will also have some fire hammers near the glass of the window to prevent the failure of electronic equipment from affecting passengers' escape.

The same is true for the manual valve of the F4 library.

Its default function is to manually fill and discharge the water-based fluid in the event of a console failure, so as to ensure that there will be no uncontrollable accidents.

After half a minute.

Gabriel Veniziano and Nelson came to the manual valve.

The manual valve is a metal circle with a diameter of more than 30 centimeters, similar to a steering wheel. The outside is covered with a layer of specialized glass, which requires an electronic lock to open.

Nelson entered the password a little jerky.

A few seconds passed.

Click——

The specialized glass opened in response.

Gabriel Veniziano touched the manual valve with his hand, and looked around aimlessly:

"Nelson, if I remember correctly, this manual valve has never been opened since the laboratory was built, right?"

Nelson nodded lightly, and said in a familiar way:

"That's right, there have never been any problems with non-scientific equipment hardware such as pipelines, air pressure valves, and adapters, so manual valves will naturally not be used."

"That's really amazing. By the way, who is the supplier of these hardware? It must be the world's top heavy industry company that can produce such solid equipment?"

"The supplier. It's China's Hanhua Heavy Industry. The quotation at that time was 40% lower than that of European manufacturers."

"."

Gabriel Veniziano's face froze immediately, and he was silent for a while before he said to Nelson:

"Nelson, help me, let's unscrew the valve together."

Nelson obediently complied.

Then the two worked together to open the valve.

clatter——

The prepared water-based fluid is quickly filled from the bottom of the pit.

Different from ordinary water, what is poured into the channel at this time is purified liquid xenon.

The Liner laboratory is at the forefront of the world in the preparation of liquid xenon. As early as 33 years ago, they made a breakthrough in the nature of a scientific node:

They successfully purified krypton from xenon gas.

Krypton is the most abundant impurity in xenon, and almost all institutions around the world were stuck at this step.

In the end, Liner came up with a method called gas phase charcoal chromatography, which successfully solved the influence of krypton in the purification of liquid xenon.

Without Liner's breakthrough, many studies on neutrinos would have been postponed for many days.

When the purification technology of krypton made a breakthrough.

Gabriel Veniziano is just a fresh graduate who just graduated from a Ph.D., following behind his beautiful mentor, like a follower.

Thirty-three years have passed now.

He already has two sons and a daughter with his mentor, it's really sad that time goes by (this is true)

clatter——

The eight water outlets were filled with water-based liquid very quickly, and within ten minutes, the height line of the water-based liquid was close to 20 meters.

Simultaneously because liquid xenon is extremely cold reason.

At this time, the temperature in the entire F4 library also dropped a lot.

Gabriel Veniziano looked at the water-based liquid that was slowly rising from below, his eyes were a little misty for a while.

As the water-based fluid surged up, images of the cargo hold of the Titanic being filled with sea water kept flickering in his mind.

At this time, he seemed to be on the deck of the Titanic, and what surged below was not liquid xenon, but

Icy sea water.

He thought of the nickname of the Liner Laboratory, the ocean liner of the Iberian Peninsula.

This moment.

This giant ship is also slowly sinking.

This is a coincidence?

Or is there really a destiny in the dark?

after awhile.

Gabriel Veniziano suddenly thought of something and lifted off his jumpsuit.

See this move.

Nelson next to him couldn't help blinking, and subconsciously said:

"Mr. Gabriel, this is a clean room, no onesies are allowed."

As a result, the words were not finished.

Gabriel Veniziano waved his hand and interrupted his persuasion:

"Nelson, this may be the last time."

Nelson was stunned for a few seconds, and stopped talking after recovering.

yes

According to the current situation.

The probability of Chinese people discovering dark matter is infinitely close to 100%, what is missing is only a final proof.

And once dark matter is identified.

Other equipment in the laboratory may be transferred and sealed, but there is one and only one ending for the F4 library:

permanently filled.

Yes, directly filled - this is not a joke, but a norm.

For example, the original neutrino oscillation.

After the neutrino oscillation phenomenon was discovered.

Almost all the project teams for measuring the initial mass of neutrinos around the world were cut in half within a week, and equipment and experimental sites worth millions of dollars were filled and abandoned.

no way.

Front-end scientific research is so cruel.

When the mission of an equipment or venue is unique, its fate is already doomed at the beginning of its operation.

Either be brilliant and become a god, or fall sadly.

Then a few more months.

There will be a new project team, new equipment, and a new site, which will start a new research for this new substance.

Think here.

Gabriel Veniziano involuntarily reached into his open pocket and took out a harmonica.

This is a gift from his mother when he came of age. It has 28 holes, and it has been more than forty years ago.

After a while.

A melodious harmonica sounded slowly from the F4 library.

Its tone is impressive.

"my heart will go on".

Nelson also stopped admonishing Gabriel Veniziano, but slowly became an audience on the sidelines.

Gabriel Veniziano's harmonica technique is very skilled, and the tune is melodious with a touch of sentimentality.

The water-based fluid at the bottom of the pit is constantly surging, and it seems to be applauding for this song.

Although the injection of water-based liquid is done manually, the specific injection volume is still controlled by the background, so there is no need to worry about the water injection line overflowing or endangering their personal safety.

At the same time, the purpose of the water-based liquid is to isolate the external background radiation. There is no radiation risk in the position where they stand. The only disadvantage is that it is a bit cold.

After blowing a song.

Gabriel Veniziano glanced at Nelson beside him, and said with concern:

"Nelson, the temperature here is too low. If you feel cold, you can go back to the main control room to get warm. There's no need to accompany me, a bad old man, to suffer here."

Unexpectedly, Nelson shook his head, pinching the onesie on his chest with his index finger and thumb and shaking a few times:

"Group leader, don't worry about me, I'm wearing a down jacket."

Although the atmosphere was a bit sad at this time, Gabriel Veniziano still couldn't help but glance at him, rubbed his shoulders that were a little cold, and asked:

"Down jacket? Which brand can keep you so warm? I'm also wearing a down jacket, and my shoulders are so cold right now."

Nelson thought for a while:

"Bosideng, a Chinese brand."

"."

Gabriel Veniziano was silent for a few seconds, and slapped his forehead speechlessly:

"God, why are there Chinese things everywhere?"