New York International Airport.

In an inconspicuous corner of the departure room, two inconspicuous elderly people sat with a large and a small suitcase in their hands.

If someone from the physics community passes by here, they will be surprised to recognize the identities of the two people, and even take out a textbook on quantum mechanics and ask for a signature.

Unfortunately, however, knowledge and opportunity are always in the hands of a few. On the same flight, the probability of meeting a colleague who can recognize the identities of two people can be said to be less than 1 in 10,000.

Even if the first Asian High Energy Physics Research Summit is to be held at the IMCRC headquarters in Shanghai in a few days, this probability will not increase much.

But then again, it's thanks to this that Witten can steal half of the peace that is hard to enjoy in Princeton in this noisy departure hall, and watch something quietly without worrying about being interrupted by people who come to discuss issues.

Frank Wilzek, who was also sitting next to Professor Witten and also went to Shanghai for a meeting, glanced at the journal in his hand, and his eyes subconsciously narrowed into a slit.

《3.7Ghz Integrated Circuit Based on Carbon Nanotube Thin Film》

What's that?

"When did you first become interested in integrated circuits?"

Although he didn't really want to interrupt Yaxing, who was reading extracurricular reading, he couldn't resist the curiosity in his heart, and Verzek couldn't help but ask the confusion in his heart.

"It's hard to understand, but it looks interesting."

Flipping through the journal in his hand with interest, Witten said as if talking to himself, "A new chip based on graphene material is expected to redefine the concept of semiconductors and lead the industrial revolution of the electronics industry. Life...... Tsk, no wonder the IEEE is in such a hurry to take down this paper. ”

Although he is in the physics world, it does not mean that he does not know anything about other industries.

In fact, because he has traveled to various countries and come into contact with all kinds of people, he knows a lot more about certain things than the average person.

Although the IEEE is nominally a non-profit professional and technical society, mainly composed of engineers in the fields of electrical, electronics, computer engineering, etc., this does not mean that they can completely exclude influence from industry and even politics.

In particular, when the value of research can only be reflected in industrial practice, the boundary between industry and academia becomes very delicate.

What's more, this is an academic organization registered in the United States.

There is no doubt that this small carbon-based chip has shaken up North American ...... and even the global semiconductor industry has been stable for decades. Neither Intel nor the United States, which occupies a strong position in the semiconductor industry, will never allow such a thing to happen.

In fact, if such a technology were to be made by companies such as Intel or AMD, there would probably be slightly less resistance to its implementation.

But now the company that has come up with this technology is not only a company in the middle of the industrial chain, but also from countries outside the United States......

Don't say it's Huaguo.

Even if it is its own ally, the White House is categorically unlikely to be merciful.

The retraction from IEEE should be only the first step, the purpose is to control the discourse from the source, and what will happen next, Witten can basically already imagine.

Once this battle starts, a coalition of semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD will definitely use all their means and influence in the industry to release top-down pressure on the industry chain through all means, including but not limited to smearing and exclusive agreements, and finally exclude this technology...... Until they figure it out for themselves.

This time, though, the IEEE clearly miscalculated.

Probably including those who instructed them to retract the manuscript, they didn't expect that this Professor Lu would be so rigid that he turned around and got the journal out by himself, and hung up the paper word for word.

Now the entire academic community is stunned by his maneuvering.

However, having said that, Witten himself is not at all surprised.

After all, this is a man who can stand for the truth without compromise even in the face of Faltins' rejection.

Ask yourself, he doesn't necessarily have the courage to quarrel with that stubborn old Germanic man.

Staring thoughtfully at the journal in his hand, Professor Wilzek, who was sitting next to him, suddenly spoke.

"Do you think that's a good thing?"

As if knowing what he was asking, Witten said with a smile.

"It's a good thing in the long run."

"You think that's a good thing?" Wilzek glanced at the corners of his mouth, "We used a century to unify academia, and now they change it back." In any case, at least now we can use the same language to communicate academic issues, rather than either reading a layman's Chinese translation into English or learning another language, as is the case now. ”

Although Future is bilingual, the reality is that for those who are really working in the field, their choice is the latter – that is, to learn another language.

After all, academic works are not the same as literary works.

The latter has been polished by the translation, and it is possible that the translation may look better than the original.

But for the former, the most taboo for those who seek truth is to eat something that someone else has chewed and then spit out. Whether it is an expert or a layman, there is no translation that wants to fully embody 100% of the original author's point of view.

Moreover, this is not just a matter of a few papers, once the influence of "Future" really reaches the level of "Science" and "Nature", it is difficult to say that this trend of linguistic fragmentation will not be further expanded on a macro level.

And that's where Wierzek gets the most anxious.

In fact, he wasn't alone.

This anxiety has been quietly permeating the physics community since the IMCRC was first inaugurated.

Glancing at his old friend, it was clear to Witten what he was really worried about, but he just smiled disapprovingly.

Turning the page of "Future" in his hand, he said casually.

"Language has never been an obstacle to academic flourishing, in fact the most prosperous period of European scholarship was the time when Europe was most divided...... But at the same time, it was also the time when the sparks of culture and ideas burst out at their brightest. ”

"What's the bad of learning more than one language? It took me a month to learn French when I was at CERN, and although it is not as good as when I was younger, it probably won't take me long to learn another language...... I advise you to also try to learn a little Chinese, even if you don't consider that the first-hand information of the Moon Palace is released in Chinese, and now the weight of IMCRC in the international physics community is getting heavier and heavier. By the time the Lunar Hadron Collider is completed, we will probably spend more time in Shanghai than we do in Switzerland and France combined. ”

Wilzek shook his head and said, "I tried to learn...... But those symbols are too hard. ”

"It's not the language itself that's difficult, it's the resistance and prejudice in your subconscious," Witten said in a light-hearted tone, "and many times, it's this gratuitous prejudice that prevents us from seeking the truth." Just as centuries ago we stubbornly believed that the earth is square, the sea is the boundary of the world, and the sun revolves around us. ”

"Even now, I still recall what my father once said to me, that science is an idea and a tool, and that is often used to solve all the problems that our civilization has encountered, that we are facing, and that we may encounter in the future."

"Standing at the height of human civilization, they are obviously also a part of human civilization that cannot be ignored. The arrogance that has been ingrained in our hearts for so long makes us ignore their problems for too long, and arrogance breeds many problems and even contradictions. Many of the problems we are facing, which are a manifestation of this contradiction......"

Closing the journal in his hand, Witten glanced at the watch in his hand, then looked at Professor Wilzek who was lost in thought, and said with a smile.

"Anyway, it's almost time, it's time for us to board."

……

It's clear that it's not just the IMCRC that's meeting in Shanghai recently.

Just as Witten and his party boarded the flight to Shanghai, Swann and Mayberry, two executives from Intel, had already landed at Shanghai International Airport.

Mayberry, who had passed through customs and had not yet reversed the jet lag, couldn't help but yawn several times on the way to the waiting area.

Walking next to him, Swan frowned, glanced at him and asked.

"There's still two hours left for their product launch...... Are you okay? ”

"No problem, I'm just a little ...... There was no jet lag reversed. Shaking his somewhat groggy brain, Mayberry reached out and rubbed his temples and continued, "Actually, I think it's enough for me to come alone, it's obvious that they just want to give us a horse, we don't need to pay attention to them at all, just follow our plan here." ”

"That's right," Swann looked blankly ahead from Mayberry's face, "but only by understanding your opponent can you defeat your opponent." Since they are arrogant enough to give us this opportunity, it would be a shame to miss it. ”

"No matter what products they plan to come up with at the press conference, at least we have to figure out where their carbon-based chips have been researched."