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发帖数: 141 | 1 The Little Match Girl
by Farmer
Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and
evening - the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there
sat in front of the SEM a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked
feet. When she went out of the lab, she had a coat on, it is true; but
what was the good of that? It was a huge coat, which she could not even
told us when did it come, so large was it. How could she spare valuable
time to go shopping? Back to the working time, a white coat on her body,
she was scoffed "why bothering lab coat? Your worn coat is as dirty as a
wash rag."
Samples accumulated one by one, people gone one after another, she had
to conduct nano-experiments all by herself in a silent and lonely lab.
Her hands were full of graphene and graphite, looks like an old woman.
God gave her white hands, however, obviously not a merit. The only thing
in front of her is the sample stage. For each of them, several samples
were tagged on it. What a dark day it was, without any sleep, no image,
not to mention eating something.
What a poor girl! She scanned a bundle of samples, cold and hungry. A
beam of light scattered on her dry hair; but of that, of course, she
never once now thought. No one care about the curled and furcated hair,
nor did herself. Her desk were always full of the reference and raw data
which need to be read and process. All kinds of nanoparticles were
floating on the air, nanocrystal, quantum dots&wires, graphene et al.
Under the shine of UV light, bright spot were able to detect anywhere.
It is toxic though few paper disagree. Her could not care that much
because seminar would be held tomorrow. Professor urged to see the
result. For you know it was Friday’s night; yes, of that she thought.
She stopped after testing one of the sample by this ice cold machine.
she cowered over the desk. She grew colder and colder, and to talk with
professor she did not venture, for she had not found any nanowire,
nanoflower and nanoplate, nor did the quantum dots or nanocomponent.
From her professor she would certainly get blows. It is really
challenging for her. Only paper and SCI matter. Although thousands of
paper say something almost the same, she could not repeat the result.
"No paper, no leaving." Professor's words amplified.
She was desperate. Even a little success may make a difference for her.
She was out of her mind, facing to the SEM, 400RMB per hour. "How I wish
I could find the magic spot!" A nano structure might afford her world of
comfort. At this time, she found a position, hit it by electron beam,
saw a shining crystal on the screen! She held her hands over it: it was
a wonderful diamond. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she
were sitting before a brand new HRTEM screen. The crystal lattice is
quite clear, 100 face, 311 face, 622 face, 711 face, nanoparticles with
high-index planes. What a great crystal it is! Then, what's going on?
She stretched her head, willing to see more clearly; but- the screen
turned out to be fuzzy, showing flaky substrate, black impurities, not
the crystal she wanted.
She changed to another stage, using 20kV and 5kV. The beam emitted to
the sample, and where the signal transported to the screen, where the
screen became white like a paper, so that she could see the words on it,
the JACS logo, abstract and introduction. Under the title was printed
the author's name which she was the first author. The paper was tore
out, flying around, till it came up to the poor little girl; when- the
screen showed messy picture. Nothing, but the cold, hard desk was left.
She changed to another stage. Now there she was sitting under the newly
decorated conference room. Several words "graduation viva voce" hung on
the wall. They were bigger, and more decorated than the one she had seen
in the deluxe top conference last year. The little maiden stretched out
her hands towards them. The powerpoint slides rose higher and higher,
she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long
trail of fire.“Someone is just dead!” said the little girl; for her
senior friend, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to
God.
She dashed changing another sample. This time, she tune the contrast. In
the laboratory stood her senior friend, so bright and benign, so mild
and with a long cut on her arm, vein and bleeding. "Senior!", the girl
cried. "Oh, take me with you! you go away when the scan finished; You
vanish like the beautiful SEM figure, elegant paper publishing, deluxe
conference room!"
And she zoomed in, under the bright electron beam, for she wanted to be
quite sure of keeping her senior friend near her. And the beam gave such
a brilliant light that it brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had
the senior been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on
her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high,
and then above was neither JACS, nor CNS, nor Graduation - they were
with God.
But on the chair, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy
cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning over the desk--frozen to death
on the last friday in the lab. Stiff and stark sat the child there with
her mouse, which the controlled SEM screen were still on.
“She wanted to create a nanocrystal,” people said. No one had the
slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even
dreamed of the splendor in which, with her senior friend she had entered
on the joys of a new week. |
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