At 7:58 the next morning, Pan Jingyuan was already sitting upright in front of the computer, using the invitation link sent by Professor Dennis in the email to enter Zoom. Since the team mbers were distributed across different regions, even spanning three continents, he was already accustod to using Zoom for etings and communication.
As one of the platforms officially cooperating with Harvard, Pan Jingyuan had beco accustod to using this eting system during his PhD studies at Harvard.
He was the sixth to enter the eting room, and through the video, it was evident that everyone wasn’t in high spirits.
In fact, Pan Jingyuan felt the sa way.
Although he had accepted this fact, he couldn’t quite cheer up.
However, the eting organizer—his ntor Dennis looked quite calm.
About a minute later, Professor Sam entered the room right on ti, and everyone was present.
"Alright, everyone should be aware of the situation now. Pan, you’ve had face-to-face discussions with Qiao Yu at Huaqing, why don’t you start by sharing your thoughts." As soon as everyone was present, Dennis didn’t exchange pleasantries but directly started calling nas.
Of course, in this sort of small eting similar to group etings, everyone was familiar, and there indeed was no need for pleasantries.
Pan Jingyuan quickly outlined what was discussed in last night’s eting.
Most of it was other professors’ opinions, as for himself... to be honest, he didn’t have many ideas.
Unless he could solve this problem imdiately, saying too much was aningless. But clearly, he didn’t have any clues now.
He couldn’t just tell everyone that he had been tutoring Qiao Yu and answering his various questions all this ti, right? Although his ntor wouldn’t bla him, others might want to tear him apart.
Just by looking at a few people’s expressions, it can be seen that not everyone could calmly accept such sudden complications in tis like these.
"Alright, thank you Pan, I believe everyone has also seen Qiao Yu’s proof process. Frankly, I think it’s very impressive, clearly, we underestimated the complexity of this problem. But I hope everyone can muster up the energy to tackle and solve problems as they co.
Complaining about anything else won’t help, so I hope everyone focuses on completely solving this problem. Sam, where do you think we should start to tackle this problem? Of course, others can also speak up if they have ideas..."
...
The video conference lasted over two hours.
Although everyone wasn’t in high spirits at first, Dennis is soone very good at motivating people’s enthusiasm.
For instance, in etings, he never lets people choose whether to speak, but calls on them one by one. Those who are nad, whether or not they have an idea, will say a few words.
At least Pan Jingyuan feels this way of eting is more efficient and more useful.
Human thinking naturally tends to be lazy; during free discussions, many tis people hope for others to think, while they themselves are too lazy to think, but in this way, calling on everyone by na forces each person to think and say sothing.
During this process, there might be inspiration, or even so perfunctory remarks might inspire others.
It’s just that today’s effect wasn’t too good.
Although many thods were proposed in the last hour, Pan Jingyuan knew very well that these thods all required a lot of ti to validate.
Of course, it is normal to have a brief period of confusion when faced with a new problem when everyone had initially intended to pop champagne. At least Pan Jingyuan believes that in one to two months at the minimum or one to two years at the maximum, under Dennis’ leadership, they will definitely eventually solve the problem proposed by Qiao Yu.
The ti span is a bit large, but mathematics is sotis quite similar to those beside it involved in chemistry or materials science, very much reliant on luck. Or rather, scientific research also has so elents of mysticism in it.
Many scientific breakthroughs that impact world developnt stem from either accidents or sudden flashes of inspiration.
The forr often appears in applications, while the latter applies to mathematics.
The most famous is probably the discovery of penicillin. Alexander Fleming originally only wanted to culture so bacteria, who knew improper operation would lead to mold contamination of the petri dish, then he observed and found that the bacteria around the mold were all killed, and so the first antibiotic in human history was discovered, and the dical world entered the antibiotic era.
When penicillin was first discovered, it was really like the magical elixir described in fantasy novels. Previously, the mortality rate of bacterial pneumonia and wound infections was extrely high; only after such antibiotics beca available did the mortality rate reduce.
Mathematics is actually the sa, maybe just a flash of inspiration after waking from a nap, could solve a difficult problem. Of course, there might not be any instances to point to because this sort of thing is very idealistic, mostly derived from the accounts of those genius mathematicians themselves, and it’s hard for outsiders to discern whether it’s really happening or just blowing bullshit.
For instance, Pan Jingyuan has temporarily never experienced a sudden flash of inspiration leading to enlightennt, as every ti his breakthroughs co from solid learning and then naturally coming to discovery. But he believes in it because he has witnessed it with his own eyes.
Especially right beside him, when so young guy suddenly shouted "got it," and was then invited to the podium to elaborate with great fluency, he was convinced that this kind of mathematical epiphany inevitably exists.
...
As the eting was about to end, Pan Jingyuan suddenly received a private chat ssage.
Yes, Zoom also supports private chat functions in video conferences, depending on the chat permissions set by the eting host. However, as the eting organizer, Dennis never restricted the team’s private chat functions. It was convenient for private communication between team mbers.
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