285: Chapter 285 What? Professor Yuan is coming to our lab?

Looking at Professor Xue's back.

Zhao Yang sighed; without realizing it, he seemed to have become very busy.

After returning to his apartment, Zhao Yang opened his computer; Xue Qikun's email had already arrived. The attachment contained the research group's experimental data from the past three months, including resistance-temperature curves of copper-based superconducting materials under several different doping ratios, magnetic susceptibility test results, and X-ray diffraction patterns. The volume of data was not small, with the raw files alone exceeding ten gigabytes.

Zhao Yang spent about two hours going through the data as a whole. He noticed that the resistance drop curves of several cerium-doped samples in the low-temperature region showed an abnormal inflection point, which had not been systematically discussed in previous literature.

He pulled up his superconductivity model, input the lattice parameters of the cerium-doped samples, and ran a simulation for about forty minutes. The simulation results showed that this inflection point likely corresponded to a previously unidentified charge density wave phase transition.

[Remember this site's domain name, Taiwan Novel Network, for relaxation and anytime reading]

Zhao Yang organized this discovery into a short report, attached the simulation data and theoretical explanation, and sent it back to Xue Qikun. Xue Qikun replied to the email that same night.

"Your analysis is very valuable. Someone in the group noticed this inflection point before, but everyone thought it was a measurement error; no one thought of it in terms of charge density waves. This weekend, I'll have the group design a new set of control experiments specifically for this direction and send the results to you as soon as they're available."

"Alright."

After replying to Xue Qikun, Zhao Yang went to sleep.

The next day, Zhao Yang returned to the Biology lab.

Over the next month or so, Zhao Yang was very busy.

Besides spending a lot of time doing experiments in the Biology lab, helping Professor Gu Ming hold group meetings, and analyzing data every day, he also followed Professor Xue's side, helping with the subtle adjustments of the superconducting material model and the processing of new data. The two of them would communicate every so often, at least once a week.

Compared to a millennium-level problem like the P vs NP problem, the Biology and superconducting material projects were significantly less difficult, at least in the early stages. Although there was a lot of work, Zhao Yang handled it with ease. During this period, he also gained a lot of experience in Biology and Physics.

After two months, the Biology side was the first to yield results.

The saline-alkali tolerant rice project, a collaboration between Professor Gu Ming's research group and the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, initially had a large range of candidate genes. After several months of functional verification and expression level analysis, the range was narrowed down to three key transcription factors.

Zhao Yang's main contribution was data processing and differential expression analysis. He re-cleaned the raw transcriptome sequencing data and ran several rounds of clustering analysis using an algorithm he wrote, finally pinpointing a transcription factor belonging to the NAC family. This transcription factor showed the largest up-regulation in expression under salt stress, and its recovery speed after rewatering was much faster than the other candidate genes.

Subsequent functional verification experiments confirmed Zhao Yang's analysis results. The phenotypic data of several sets of transgenic rice produced by Li Xin under salt stress were excellent; whether it was plant height, root length, or chlorophyll content, the transgenic lines were significantly better than the wild-type control group.

At the group meeting, Professor Gu Ming projected several sets of comparison photos onto the screen.

"Take a look, everyone. These are comparison photos after two weeks of salt stress treatment. On the left is the wild type, which has basically turned yellow. On the right are three transgenic lines, among which the T3 line has the best phenotype, with a plant height only about ten percent shorter than under normal conditions."

The lab was quiet for a few seconds, and then Li Xin was the first to start clapping. Several people nearby followed suit. While clapping, Li Xin turned to glance at Zhao Yang, his expression clearly excited.

"God Zhao, your clustering analysis was crucial. We had been screening for so long, and if we had relied solely on verifying them one by one with quantitative PCR, I really don't know how long it would have taken."

Zhao Yang waved his hand.

"It wasn't just my credit; we did this together. Li Xin ran the data and did the functional verification; I was only responsible for processing the data."

"Alright, don't be so modest."

Professor Gu Ming, standing nearby, smiled and looked at Zhao Yang.

"While the credit belongs to everyone, your work was clearly more important. Without your core work, we couldn't have hoped to finish this project in such a short time!"

Hearing Professor Gu Ming's words, Zhao Yang smiled slightly and said nothing more.

"Based on our current results, I announce that this project can be concluded. I will serve as the corresponding author for the paper. The Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences will provide the gene editing data, Yanlin University will provide the expression analysis and functional verification, and Zhao Yang will be responsible for the data analysis and modeling part, listed as a co-first author."

"I'll draft the framework for the paper this weekend. Zhao Yang, write your part of the data analysis method in more detail; it will be a very useful reference for subsequent research."

As he spoke, Professor Gu Ming's gaze turned toward Zhao Yang.

Zhao Yang nodded.

"Okay."

It took about a week or so from drafting to revising the paper.

The paper was eventually submitted to a top domestic Biology journal. The review cycle took less than a month to return with revision comments, which were very positive, only involving some layout issues and details about supplementary experimental data.

Less than two weeks after the revisions were submitted, the acceptance letter arrived.

On the day the paper was officially published, the system settled thirty thousand Biology experience points for Zhao Yang. Combined with the daily experimental experience accumulated in the lab over the past two months, Zhao Yang's Biology experience bar had increased significantly.

However, there was still a long way to go before a subject level breakthrough; after all, upgrading from LV4 to LV5 required a full 200,000 experience points.

This paper was decent, but its actual substance was only at a level of about thirty thousand experience points.

To level up, he would have to publish a few more papers of this caliber, or publish higher-level ones!

Thinking of this, Zhao Yang sighed.

On the afternoon of the day after the paper was published, while Zhao Yang was processing a new batch of samples at the lab bench, Professor Gu Ming walked out of his office, phone still in hand, with a much faster pace than usual.

"I just received a phone call."

Professor Gu Ming stood in the middle of the lab, his voice a bit higher than usual, and his eyes held uncontrollable excitement.

"It was from Elder Yuan."

The lab was quiet for about three seconds, then everyone's eyes snapped toward Professor Gu Ming, expressions of disbelief on their faces.

Even Zhao Yang's eyes were filled with surprise as he looked at Professor Gu Ming.

It couldn't be helped; the news was simply too astonishing.

"Professor, which Elder Yuan are you talking about?"

Li Xin was the first to ask, turning to Professor Gu with eyes full of shock and asking impatiently.

"The one who researches hybrid rice. Which other Elder Yuan could it be?"

Professor Gu Ming spoke to Li Xin with a smile. As he spoke, he scanned the people in the lab with a grin, his tone brimming with excitement.

"Elder Yuan read our paper and said that NAC transcription factor is quite interesting. It just so happens he's in Yanjing for a conference these few days, and he'll stop by tomorrow to look at our experimental data."

After hearing this, Li Xin almost dropped the pipette in his hand onto the lab bench. He hurriedly put the pipette back on the rack, and when he stood up, his knee bumped against the cabinet door of the bench.

"Holy crap, coming tomorrow? Elder Yuan is coming here? I haven't tidied up my incubator yet, and I haven't had time to clip yesterday's withered leaves—"