Chapter 1145: The Last Piece of the Desert Transformation Puzzle

Take a break in the middle to verify the sudden inspiration.

Listen, does this sound like something a human would say?

The last person who used this sentence structure and became widely circulated was probably Guan Yu during the time when the eighteen princes led the army to fight against Dong Zhuo.

"Pour the wine, I will be back soon."

Fortunately, for this kind of internal closed-door meeting, there is actually no such thing as adjournment.

Let's go our separate ways today. We can meet again another day.

Considering that the person who said this was Chang Haonan after all, everyone finally accepted his request.

After leaving the Industrial and Construction Committee, Chang Haonan contacted Zhuang Bingchang almost immediately.

Fortunately, the latter was not in the uninhabited experimental fields in Mongolia Province at that time, but was cultivating the latest batch of sand-fixing crops at the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Therefore, he was able to fly to Beijing overnight with the research results so far...

When Zhuang Bingchang arrived at the Torch Laboratory, Chang Haonan had just finished working all night and returned to the office.

Although the degree of polymerization and group ratio of the polymer have not been fully determined, after a night of calculations, he has at least confirmed the feasibility of the idea of ​​hydrophobic main chain + hydrophilic group itself.

I even got some unexpected surprises during this process...

……

As soon as the two met, Zhuang Bingchang took two steps forward enthusiastically:

"Academician Chang, I finally have the opportunity to personally congratulate you on your successful election..."

"..."

In recent years, Chang Haonan has been basically active in Beijing and Gaojing, while Zhuang Bingchang works in Mongolia and Jilin provinces.

The two of them usually communicate through emails and phone calls, and they only meet once a year during the end-of-year reporting period.

But because Chang Haonan was in a hurry to go to Gaojing to handle a project at the end of 03, we actually hadn't seen each other for two years.

During the conversation, Zhuang Bingchang inadvertently revealed that his hometown had hoped to bring him back to Changyang Agricultural College as a talent a few years ago, but considering that there were many half-conducted research projects still in Jilin Province, and the cooperation with Chang Haonan was also under the name of Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, it was too troublesome to change places in the middle, so he finally refused.

Chang Haonan responded cheerfully, but in his heart he thought, "Luckily you didn't go back, otherwise if something unexpected happened, all my hard work over the years would have been in vain..."

After some pleasantries, the two finally got down to business:

"Professor Zhuang, how far have you progressed in crop breeding?"

Zhuang Bingchang is well-known in the industry as a soybean breeding expert, but in fact, his team is no longer focused on just a single crop.

In particular, no matter how few resources Chang Haonan provided, they were still richer than when he was at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences. So he actually led several teams from different institutions to select multiple types of soil-fixing and plants at the same time.

When talking about business, Zhuang Bingchang quickly got into the state.

"It went much more smoothly than expected..."

As he spoke, he pulled out a notebook that showed obvious signs of use, and a USB flash drive from his briefcase.

After entering the 21st century, floppy disks have finally gradually faded out of history.

Chang Haonan plugged the USB drive into the computer, which contained dozens of densely packed test record files.

"We have optimized several crop varieties with outstanding root strength, including Elymus dahliae, naked oats, and Artemisia sphaerocephala... The roots of this type of plant can produce friction reinforcement and grid wrapping effects on the soil, providing additional cohesion while reducing the lateral shear force on the soil."

Zhuang Bingchang skillfully turned the notebook to the page he wanted and showed Chang Haonan the data recorded on it:

"In addition, the hydraulic effect of the plants themselves can also regulate the movement and exchange of soil moisture between the atmosphere, plants and soil, and change the shear strength of the soil... In other words, it can directly enhance the universal joint constraint force you mentioned earlier..."

“After two or three rounds of soil condition improvement, we can start restoring the soil fertility by using the drought- and salinity-tolerant alfalfa and soybean varieties that we are developing…”

Hearing this, Chang Haonan immediately interrupted the other party:

"You mean, the previous three rounds of space breeding... were fruitful?"

The effectiveness of space breeding is largely a matter of luck

Although it is not difficult to find a few variant traits that are beneficial to human agriculture if the base number is large enough, if two requirements are specifically selected, the probability of matching them is actually not very high.

Therefore, before this, the breeding of these two types of legumes was another difficult problem besides the screening of curing agents.

"That's right..."

Zhuang Bingchang nodded hesitantly:

"We were lucky. Among the seeds in the second batch, we found several typical traits that we had been looking for. We also happened to find wild soybeans that met the requirements during that period. What's even better is that they did not contain the marker genes that Monsanto had applied for a patent for..."

"It's just that the varieties that have been cultivated so far have strong survival capabilities, but they have almost no yield..."

Obviously, as a crop breeder, he still hopes to find products that have both economic and ecological benefits.

But for Chang Haonan, who was in urgent need of results, this was already a pleasant surprise.

"That's enough...that's enough."

Chang Haonan raised his hand slightly, indicating that this was not a problem.

Then he continued to ask:

"Have you conducted a full-process test of the entire improvement plan?"

"Did it."

Zhuang Bingchang replied:

"Since the year before last, we have conducted modification tests in 14 areas in western Meng Province, and we are now in the third round... The main problem we have found is that this process can only be used to save existing farmland or grassland that has not yet completely degraded into desert, but it is powerless for sandy land that has already been completely degraded."

"We have tried to use several typical materials such as polyacrylate, vinyl acetate, and polyacrylamide for chemical sand fixation. However, the first two materials will lose water quickly after absorbing enough water, resulting in a reversible sand fixation effect... Although polyacrylamide and polylactic acid can be used after absorbing water, they can only provide a one-time restraining torque. Once they lose water during the solidification process, all previous efforts will be wasted..."

"..."

Normally, as the person in charge of the project, it is impossible for him to show too much pressure in front of his colleagues.

Even if something goes wrong during the experiment, he still has to take the initiative to relieve everyone's stress.

But in front of Chang Haonan, there was no such concern at all.

Therefore, this complaint can be said to be very satisfying.

Listening to the difficulties mentioned by Zhuang Bingchang, Chang Haonan remained expressionless at first.

But at some point later on, he couldn't hold it back and smiled.

This scene scared Zhuang Bingchang, who was finishing his report:

"Academician Chang, you..."

"nothing……"

Chang Haonan waved his hand:

"It's just that I can help you put together the last piece of the puzzle that you were missing before..."

"Ok?"

The worry in Zhuang Bingchang's eyes instantly turned into surprise.

You know, he had already prepared himself mentally to stay in Meng Province for more than ten years.

"Come and see this."

Chang Haonan said as he opened another file on the computer.

That was the result of his hard work in the computer room last night:

"According to my calculations, after sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and polyacrylamide are used as the main materials and configured in a certain proportion, they can undergo a cross-linking reaction with other water-soluble polymers in a water system through physical cross-linking, which can provide higher bonding strength and better hydrophilicity, thereby strengthening the universal binding force between loose sand particles."

"At the same time, because the long-chain structures of the two main ingredients are composed of hydrophobic groups, they can also ensure a certain degree of aging resistance, and will not become a one-time sand fixation agent like polyacrylamide."