Chapter 895: Chapter 893: Memory Palace
To understand the Uranium Element, and Uranium 235 are not the same thing.
As a chemical element, Uranium belongs to the actinide series in the periodic table, with the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92. Due to its weak radioactivity, all its isotopes are unstable, causing it to exist naturally in three forms: Uranium 238, Uranium 235, and Uranium 234.
Among these three forms, only Uranium 235 can undergo spontaneous fission, in other words, only Uranium 235 can truly become the raw material for nuclear weapons.
And what is the content of Uranium 235?
Compared to Uranium 238’s 99.2739% to 99.2752%, the content of Uranium 235 is only about 0.7198% to 0.7202%.
In other words, less than 0.1%, less than one-thousandth.
This is also the most challenging aspect of nuclear weapon research and manufacturing plans — how to separate Uranium 235 from Uranium 238 and extract it specifically?
The current purification is the real purification in the true sense, the real operation of Uranium 235 nuclear material, rather than its sibling — Uranium 238.
It’s important to know that as isotopes, Uranium 235 and Uranium 238 have almost identical physical and chemical properties, the only difference being one has 143 neutrons in the nucleus and the other has 146 neutrons.
How to use this micro-scale difference to separate and purify Uranium 235 is the real difficulty to be handled in the fourth stage of nuclear weapon research and manufacturing plans.
So, how to do it?
Richard stands in the uranium purification sector thinking, his eyebrows gradually furrowing, as if trying hard to recall memories stored in his brain.
After recalling for a while, his eyebrows slowly relax, somewhat relieved, and he says: "Um, seems like I forgot."
Indeed, he forgot.
At the crucial stage of the plan, he forgot how to do it.
After all, his brain isn’t a computer; it can’t remember everything, such as knowledge of nuclear weapon manufacturing, which is almost impossible to use and easy to forget.
However, after forgetting, he wasn’t anxious or angry at all.
On the one hand, even though he can’t clearly recall the fourth stage’s knowledge, he has a comprehensive knowledge system, hence can deduce it through calculation, it just takes a little time.
On the other hand, he doesn’t even need to deduce. Because now when he says "forgot," it doesn’t mean he genuinely forgot, it’s just that the shallower brain activities detect it temporarily — after all, this knowledge isn’t really useful in daily life, to ensure maximum brain efficiency, he typically hides these relatively lower-usage rate pieces of knowledge deep in the brain, placing higher-usage rate knowledge in the shallow layers for the quickest retrieval.
So...
"Breathe——Inhale——"
Richard takes a deep breath and says aloud: "Looks like it’s time to go to that place."
"Well, let’s go then," Richard says as he steps out of the uranium processing sector and heads toward the main laboratory.
At Eden’s center, there is an independent rest room in the cylindrical main laboratory.
This rest room is very small, about four square meters, with extremely simple decor, there is almost nothing besides a bed.
Since the main laboratory was built, this rest room has been rarely used, but today Richard walks in.
...
"Tap tap tap..."
Walking with steps, Richard enters the rest room without doing anything special, just quietly lying on the bed.
"Breathe——Inhale——"
"Breathe————Inhale————"
Richard keeps breathing, his frequency getting lower, intervals growing longer. Heart rate slows, the whole person entering a state of dormancy.
This state is more immersed than meditation, allowing Richard to access the deepest parts of his brain, mobilizing all his memories.
...
"Rumblings..."
From an unknown source, a rumble occurs, and Richard’s consciousness awakens in a starry sky.
Surveying around, Richard finds himself surrounded by stars, varying sizes and colors.
And the place he’s at is a void space, like desolate outer space.
There is no air here, nor is there pressure, an absolute vacuum.
For fragile creatures like humans, this is extremely dangerous.
According to Earth’s certain major powers’ manned spacecraft center’s N-letter head case of a vacuum chamber spacesuit leak, collected information shows serious harm won’t occur initially.
For instance, the human body won’t explode because the skin has a certain elasticity.
The blood won’t boil either.
Because human blood vessels have some elasticity as well, able to exert some pressure on blood, causing blood pressure generally to be higher than the external environment by 75 torr (1 torr equals 1 millimeter of mercury) or more. When outer space pressure is zero, human blood pressure can still maintain about 75 torr, that is 75 millimeters of mercury, 0.099 standard atmospheric pressure (760 millimeters of mercury).
At this time, water’s boiling point is 46°C, and the human body temperature of 37°C is insufficient to make blood boil.
One won’t freeze to death either.
Because space isn’t a cold place, actually since molecules are scarce, space lacks the attribute of "temperature". In other words, it’s neither cold nor hot, it’s an excellent thermal insulator. Exposed within, body surface moisture will evaporate, bringing some cold feeling, but will not freeze.
Overall, a few seconds of exposure in a vacuum isn’t very bad.
But after ten seconds, problems start to arise.
For example, due to excessive star radiation, not taking necessary protection can lead to sunburn.
Though skin has elasticity, the pressure difference between inside and outside will cause decompression sickness, creating mild, reversible, painless swelling to the skin and subcutaneous tissues.
At this time, conscious awareness can last a short few seconds more, and then paralysis, convulsions, and unconsciousness occur.
In the process, water vapor forms in soft tissues and veins, causing the body to swell almost to twice its original size. Subsequently, heart rate initially increases, then quickly drops, accompanied by arterial blood pressure decrease. Due to gas expansion, venous blood pressure increases, surpassing arterial blood pressure within seconds, interrupting the body’s internal blood circulation.
After a minute, one is highly likely to die from myocardial fibrillation, with heart-lung resuscitation being unable to save them.
By two minutes, survival becomes unlikely.
However, at this time being in outer space, Richard has been observing the surrounding environment for a long period, maintaining a natural expression without any injuries appearing.
Because this is not a real, tangible world, rather not the material world outside.
Here is a virtual world, an imaginative world, a world of thoughts, a world deep within Richard’s brain and the bottom of his soul.
This place can be considered Richard’s biggest secret, the reason he left the Blue Lion Kingdom step by step to now. It’s the confidence to ignore various dangers, the source of endless trump cards, the reliance to try and solve ultimate puzzles.
This place is... Richard’s Memory Palace.