Chapter 14 - Superconductor
Chapter 14 - Superconductor
Jonathan Reed had arrived at the lab since the morning.
It was earlier than usual, but he was frantic.
Coffee was going cold on his desk, and Jonathan kept staring at a photo displayed on his monitor.
The photo showed the whiteboard that Yoon Siwoo had sent.
At first, he thought it was just a simple structural memo, but as he followed the equations, Jonathan's expression stiffened little by little.
This wasn't a math problem.
Electron flow, arrangement, loss values, and one line written at the end.
[Resistance = 0]
Jonathan took off his glasses and sank into thought.
He had felt a similar sensation back during the Hodge Conjecture.
The child's memos always seemed too brief, but that brevity was the problem.
Once his thoughts settled, he immediately picked up the phone.
He called the professors from the Physics, Materials Science, and Electrical Engineering departments, and the calls didn't last long.
Because there was no need for explanation, Jonathan just repeated the same thing.
"Yoon Siwoo sent something."
That one sentence was enough.
It was a little past 8 AM when Siwoo entered the conference room, and four professors were already sitting inside.
Jonathan was there, as was Bradley Hunt from Materials Science.
Siwoo paused at the door.
Unlike usual, the atmosphere in the room was heavy.
It was similar to the time of the Hodge Conjecture verification, but not exactly the same.
Jonathan spoke first.
"Siwoo."
"Yes?"
"Explain the structure you sent yesterday."
Siwoo looked at the whiteboard for a moment; the structure he had written was copied onto it exactly.
"I first saw it in a game."
The gazes of a few professors shifted simultaneously, and Bradley asked in a low voice.
"A game?"
"Yes. I noticed the paths people move along are more fixed than you'd think."
"Even if there seem to be many choices, if the structure narrows, they eventually flock to similar places."
Siwoo walked to the front of the whiteboard and pointed to the part where the electron flow was drawn.
"Looking at that, I wondered if electrons might be similar."
"It's not about trying to change the electrons, but changing the path the electrons travel through."
"If the path is twisted, they collide and detour, causing loss, but if the path is right, there's no reason to detour, right?"
The conference room went quiet.
He expected someone to refute it immediately, but no one opened their mouth easily.
Siwoo found the silence a bit strange.
It was hard to judge if it was strange because what he said was too simple, or if it was because the professors had already seen something.
Bradley said slowly.
"So, you didn't change the existing material, but rearranged the internal structure?"
"Yes. I didn't find a new material."
"I created a structure first where electrons can pass through without loss."
The physics professor pushed up his glasses.
"If that's true, the approach itself is the opposite."
"You didn't find the phenomenon; you created the path for the phenomenon to emerge."
Jonathan looked at Siwoo without a word, and Siwoo didn't avoid his gaze.
He wasn't unaware of how big a result this was, but it was still just a formula.
A formula without an experiment is just a possibility.
The review didn't last long.
The professors each checked only the parts they needed to see, and while there was no discussion spanning dozens of pages, everyone already knew.
This wasn't a problem to drag out with words, but a problem that needed to be verified directly.
Bradley stood up from his seat.
"Let's make a sample."
Everyone nodded at those words, and Jonathan immediately ordered the opening of the research facility's restricted lab.
The professors' steps quickened as they headed out of the conference room.
Siwoo followed behind them, thinking. It's proceeding faster than I thought.
He thought there would be more questions, but the professors chose to make a sample and verify it rather than ask questions.
That could be a good sign, or it could mean it was just that dangerous.
The restricted lab was quieter than usual.
The researchers took out only the necessary equipment, and Siwoo produced a sample based on the structure he had seen.
The whole process flowed quickly, and the created sample was smaller than expected.
It was a piece of metal a little larger than a fingernail, and it looked nothing special on the outside.
But Siwoo was picturing the structure inside it.
Atomic arrangement, electron flow, a path that closes without loss.
He remembered the moment he first saw the game screen.
If the road is bad, people detour; if the road is blocked, cars stop.
And if the structure is wrong, electrons lose energy.
Then, there had to be a path inside this small piece of metal.
The measurement time was short.
The sample was put into the equipment, current flowed, and the numbers on the monitor moved.
Everyone stared at the screen, and a researcher checked it first.
After checking the numbers, he looked at the equipment again and said very quietly.
"I'll measure it again."
A second measurement followed, and the result was the same.
This time, the electrical engineering professor walked up to the monitor himself, and even after checking the numbers, he couldn't speak immediately.
Bradley asked.
"The result?"
"It's almost the same as the predicted value."
With that one sentence, the air in the lab changed.
Someone gasped, and someone leaned back in their chair and closed their eyes.
There was no cheering; rather, it was too quiet.
Siwoo felt that silence was strange.
If it was a success, they should be happy, but the professors' expressions weren't like that.
It was closer to a sense of responsibility than joy. It was like people who had opened a door, but the space behind it was so vast that they couldn't bring themselves to step inside.
Bradley took the report.
Various figures were written on the paper, and everyone's gaze was fixed on one line.
Resistance value, effectively 0.
Jonathan said in a low voice.
"Let's report this to the President."
The MIT President arrived at the lab 20 minutes later.
He didn't even spare time to greet the researchers; he took the report immediately, and his expression changed before he had even turned a few pages.
The President stared at the figures without a word for a while.
Then he looked around at the professors.
"Are you sure?"
"Based on the current primary verification criteria, yes."
"What about the possibility of equipment error?"
"The same result came out with other equipment as well."
"What about the possibility of structural reproduction?"
"Small-scale samples are possible."
"Mass production requires a separate process."
The President closed the report.
Everyone was waiting for the President to speak, and after a moment, the President said.
"This is something we cannot handle on our own."
"...Contact the government."
No one was surprised by that; rather, they had faces that suggested they already knew.
Siwoo wasn't very surprised either.
He also knew that a superconductor could change the world.
If power loss disappears, power grids change, semiconductors change, and cooling systems change too.
There are so many industries related to electricity that it would be harder to find one that isn't affected.
It didn't even take a day for the formula to become a sample, the sample to become a report, and the report to lead to government contact.
Math took time to verify, but industry is different. The moment a possibility is seen, it moves immediately.
The President looked at Siwoo.
"Siwoo."
"Yes."
"This is an event we cannot handle, so..."
"From now on, this data will be managed under restricted access even within MIT."
"I think that's right."
"The sample is still small and the process is unstable, so if it gets out, there's a high possibility it will spread strangely before it can be properly explained."
The President paused for a moment.
It was too accurate for a ten-year-old to say, and it was fitting for the current situation.
"You know that."
"I know what a superconductor is, too."
"I don't know yet how far the structure I made can go, but at least it doesn't seem like something to just throw away as a paper."
"Knowing that much is enough."
That afternoon, the secure line in the MIT President's office opened, and the first place it connected to was the Science and Technology Policy line in Washington, and the call ended shortly.
"This is a request for top-level technology verification from MIT."
The person on the other end seemed to think it was a routine administrative contact at first, but one subsequent word changed the atmosphere.
"It's a superconductor."
A moment of silence passed, and the voice on the other end of the receiver lowered.
"Please repeat that."
"It's a superconductor."
"A sample based on a structure designed by Yoon Siwoo has passed primary verification."
At that moment, Washington's day began to change.
In a government building near the White House in Washington D.C., it wasn't time to leave work yet, but several offices were already becoming chaotic, and the aide in charge of science and technology policy stopped in their tracks while reading the summary report that had come over from MIT.
The report wasn't long; rather, it was too short, which made it even more unsettling.
-Yoon Siwoo
-Structure-based superconducting sample
-Primary verification success
-Resistance value, effectively 0
-Commercialization feasibility review required
The aide read the report again.
And couldn't take their eyes off the third line.
The name Yoon Siwoo was the problem.
That name had already turned the world upside down once before.
The Hodge Conjecture, Humanity's Intellect; back then it was math, but this time it was matter.
He immediately called his superior, and though his voice was low, his words were fast.
"An emergency report has come in from MIT."
"What is it about?"
"It's about Yoon Siwoo."
The other side of the receiver went quiet.
"What is it this time?"
"...It's a superconductor."