Chapter 518 Closing the Net

Chapter 518 Closing the Net

Chapter 518 Closing the Net
"So, you finally succeeded in capturing the first ball lightning in the history of human scientific research? How did you do it?"

In the interrogation room, the white agent held his ears and received information from scientists at the headquarters thousands of miles away through a Bluetooth headset, and then conveyed it to Chen Ang in front of him.

Faced with this question, Chen Ang smiled slightly and said to the white agent:
“It’s been so many years, if you ask me to give you the specific data now, I really can’t remember it clearly.

But I see that you have a high-power shipborne radar on board that can emit high-power high-frequency oscillation pulses and electromagnetic wave beams. If you modify the parameters and conduct a sweep in the air, it may be possible to stimulate ball lightning."

The white agent frowned after hearing this.

Looking at the smiling yellow-skinned Chinese man in front of him and meeting his confident gaze, for some reason, he suddenly felt disgusted and wanted to reject the other party's proposal. However, the voice in the headset stopped him:

"Let him operate it, we need to collect data!"

The white agent had to suppress his disgust and annoyance, nodded, put handcuffs and shackles on Chen Ang again, took him out of the interrogation room and came to the bridge outside.

At this time, the warship was sailing on the sea, surrounded by the endless dark blue sea, the sky was clear and cloudless, and the sun was scorching.

Under the supervision of the white agent, Chen Ang came to the control console of the airborne radar. While adjusting the parameters on it, he continued to tell the past story.

When they discovered the ball lightning, it was also a clear afternoon like this. There was no wind in the Gobi Desert and it was also extremely hot.

Because more than ten previous tests had been successfully completed, proving the excellent effectiveness of the lightning protection coating, this time Chen Ang, Ding Yi and Lin Yun all boarded the plane and followed the crew, ready to observe the experimental process up close.

Chen Ang and Lin Yun were sitting in one plane, while Ding Yi was in a helicopter at the other end.

The two helicopters slowly approached each other as usual. When they were at a certain distance, accompanied by a crisp popping sound, a blue electric arc was successfully ignited, which looked quite scary.

Fortunately, all the people on board were wearing goggles, and the helicopter began to distance itself. As the distance gradually increased, the electric arc also became longer, eventually settling at around 100 meters, and swept through the air as the helicopter moved forward.

Everyone remained silent, the only sounds in the air were the roar of the spinning propellers and the hum of electricity.

However, as the brightness of the arc gradually weakened and the power supply was almost exhausted, they still gained nothing.

Everyone had already gotten used to this. Lin Yun began to call the helicopter to extinguish the arc and return to the base. Chen Ang looked out the window and couldn't help but sighed softly, saying:

"That shouldn't be the case. According to my intuition, it should have appeared today. Let's fly again after we go back to recharge."

Lin Yun shook his head to refuse.

"If we fly again, it might be night time. It's not safe to fly at night. Let's wait until tomorrow."

Chen Ang muttered to himself: "Strange, the theoretical calculations are all fine, it should..."

"Scientific research cannot rely on intuition." Lin Yun advised him with a smile.

Chen Ang subconsciously retorted: "No, intuition is reliable! Many great theories and studies in the scientific community come from the intuition of researchers."

Just as the two of them were talking, the pilot in charge of flying the helicopter suddenly shouted, his voice full of surprise.

"Attention, attention! The target appears at the 6 o'clock position of the aircraft."

Chen Ang and Lin Yun were shocked and immediately went to the window to look to the side of the helicopter.

Just like that, they finally saw the "elf" they had been searching for with so much energy and effort.

The thing was light blue, floating along a changing curve in the sky. It was not conspicuous, but visible to the naked eye.

"Quick! Turn off the trigger device and keep your distance! Be careful to avoid it!"

Lin Yun was the first to react. He shouted to shut down the lightning generator and calmly urged the pilot to keep a distance from this beautiful yet dangerous thing.

As the arc of electricity between the two helicopters extinguished, the blue ball of light became a little more conspicuous, but after floating in the air for about half a minute, it disappeared.

"Hurry back to the base and recharge, let's do it again!" Chen Ang urged loudly, with excitement flashing in his eyes.

But Lin Yun remained very calm.

"Today's operation is over. Dr. Chen, please export the data from this experiment. We will have a meeting tonight to summarize it and continue tomorrow."

That night, the conference room at the base was brightly lit, and the camera equipment on the helicopter clearly recorded the entire process of the ball lightning being triggered.

Ding Yi even forgot to smoke his pipe. He focused all his attention on the relevant data, trying to find the key to successfully trigger ball lightning.

The next day, they repeated the experiment.
This time, within half an hour of takeoff, the second ball lightning was successfully ignited, followed by the third day, the fourth day... More and more ball lightning were successfully ignited. They collected more data and information, and also summed up certain rules and experiences on how to ignite ball lightning.

On one occasion, they even triggered two ball lightning strikes at the same time.

The team members were very happy with the phased success, but for their goal, this was only the first step towards success. After all, they wanted to weaponize ball lightning.

After achieving a breakthrough in the first stage, subsequent problems were placed before them.

It's not enough to simply stimulate ball lightning; it also has to be studied.

To this end, Chen Ang and others used various long-distance detection instruments, such as radars of various wavelengths, sonars, infrared detectors, spectrometers, etc.

But that’s all. Due to the danger of ball lightning itself, close contact detection is simply impossible, and they have to try to “tame” this dangerous guy.

Fortunately, they still have Ding Yi, a master of basic physics. After half a month of long-distance detection, he finally succeeded in coming up with a mathematical model for ball lightning and theoretically deduced some of the characteristics of this natural phenomenon.

For example, how to capture it, or how to store it, and what constraints to use.

Supported by Ding Yi's theoretical data, they developed a battery-type "cage" capable of storing ball lightning, and used another probe system developed by the military to successfully capture unexcited ball flashes (cavitations) in the laboratory.

"So the key to this weapon is that Dr. Ding Yiding?"

The white agent looked at Chen Ang who was operating the ship-borne radar to scan the sky and suddenly asked.

"of course not!"

There was a hint of dissatisfaction in Chen Ang's words, which made the white agent feel a little happier.

"Come, help me watch this. Every time it turns, adjust the value up a little bit." Chen Ang directed a radar soldier in fluent English to help him control the equipment. He then turned around and came to the operating table of another reconnaissance radar and performed operations that the white agent could not understand at all.

"Successfully catching the ball flash (cavitation) is only the second step in weaponizing it. I admit that Ding Yi did contribute a lot in this process, but that is by no means the key.

There are many soldiers on this ship. You should be able to find out if you ask them. What is the most important point of a weapon?
Controllability!
If a weapon is uncontrollable, no matter how powerful it is, it will only hurt itself before hurting others."

As Chen Ang spoke, time went back again on the big screen.

After successfully capturing the ball flash (cavitation bubble) at the "Morning Light" base, their research progress began to advance by leaps and bounds.

After reporting the interim results to their superiors, they received more support. With the support of three electrical engineers from the Institute of High Energy Physics and special materials, the magnetic field confinement device used to demonstrate ball flashes (cavitation) was successfully developed.

The cylindrical high-energy battery was placed in the slot below the magnetic field confinement device. Ding Yi pressed the instrument switch, the green light came on, and several coils above flashed with electricity, and then...

The staff around the instrument looked at each other in confusion, thinking nothing had happened.

The audience in the screening room were also surprised. They also saw nothing. The equipment was empty.

Could it be the “Emperor’s New Clothes”?
There was a dead silence, except for the humming sound of the magnetic field restraint device.

Then Chen Ang took out a square Go board from behind him and hung it above the magnetic field confinement device.

His action attracted everyone's attention, and as Chen Ang slowly lowered the chessboard, the audience was puzzled at first, then their eyes widened, their mouths opened unconsciously, and they made an "oh" sound.

In the close-up shot, some of the square squares on the chessboard actually underwent regular deformation.

Although there was clearly nothing there, the deformed area vaguely outlined a circle, as if there was a completely transparent crystal ball in front of the chessboard.

Amazing!

All the audience couldn't help but marvel at the sight. This was not a special effects scene like Marvel's Avengers, Gravity or Avatar.

It may seem insignificant, but it profoundly demonstrates the unique charm of physics.

It turns out that science fiction sometimes does not require any cosmic wonders. Just trivial physical phenomena can make people marvel.

Of course, what the audience didn’t know was that just to make such a unique physical phenomenon appear realistic, the Starlight Fantasy team responsible for the special effects of "Ball Lightning" spent nearly half a month on it.

It cannot have any distortion and must conform to the real optical laws while displaying strange physical phenomena.

The head of the special effects team even called for external assistance and invited a professor of optics from his alma mater, Tsinghua University, to provide help.

Maybe it's just a few seconds of footage in the movie, but the effort behind it is no less than the special effects scenes in those blockbusters.

Only with such a huge investment in special effects, when Chen Ang removed the chessboard in the movie, the magical bubble naturally disappeared into the air and disappeared into nature.

At this moment, the audience didn't even feel like they were watching a movie, it was so real.

It's like a documentary. In fact, our country really had such a project team at that time, researching advanced weapons related to ball lightning.

Everyone was invested in such a story, and because of this investment, they empathized with the "Morning Light" team members on the big screen and were happy for their success after long-term persistence.

"After successfully capturing the ball flash (cavitation bubble), we have a better understanding of ball lightning."

In front of the equipment operating table on the bridge, middle-aged Chen Ang was adjusting various parameters while talking. From time to time, he had to direct the radar soldiers around him to give up their equipment, ordering these soldiers to cooperate with him in controlling various shipborne equipment.

The white agent stood aside. With his shallow knowledge, he naturally couldn't understand what Chen Ang was doing. He even felt that compared to himself or the captain of the ship, Chen Ang was more like the owner of this place.

However, through surveillance cameras, scientists who were urgently transferred from the intelligence headquarters thousands of miles away were amazed at Chen Ang's operation.

"It's actually possible! Oh my God, how did he think of it!"

The gray-haired old professor watched Chen Ang's every move through the monitoring equipment, as well as the various data and parameters fed back. He couldn't help but exclaimed repeatedly, feeling that the other party's movements in operating the instrument had a unique beauty.

The more profound research a person has in related fields, the more fascinated they are by this, and they feel like they are enjoying a grand "scientific research symphony".

At the end of the "symphony", a lavender ball of lightning floated nearly ten meters above the warship.

He succeeded!

With the help of the military equipment on this warship, he actually reproduced the results of the original "Morning Light" plan and activated a ball lightning.

"Unfortunately, the ship is not well equipped, otherwise we should be able to try to capture it."

Chen Ang sighed in disappointment as he watched the ball lightning gradually moving away overhead. However, thousands of miles away at the intelligence department headquarters, the scientists were dancing with joy. One of them was even shaking all over as he held a storage device that recorded all the parameters of the experiment.

"That's it! That's it! It's great!

Now our weather weapon finally has the last piece of the puzzle. Quick, let him continue to operate, we need more data!"

The scientists invited by the intelligence department urged repeatedly, even disregarding the management regulations, and directly connected to the on-site communicator, bypassing the white agent and communicating directly with Chen Ang on the spot.

"Dr. Chen, what exactly is this ball lightning?"

"It's just an electron."

"What? Electrons? That's impossible! How can an electron be like that?"

"Nothing is impossible."

Chen Ang operated the equipment to scan more ball lightning in the air while answering the scientists' questions.

“Physics has never had boundaries; even an electron as big as a soccer ball can exist in theory.

You are all seniors in the academic world, so why haven’t you opened your minds? Isn’t the existence of this world just mathematics?

There is no such thing as physics, the universe is nothing but geometric space!"

(End of this chapter)