As everyone knows.

Whether it's cryo-electron microscopy 3D reconstruction or XRD—specifically X-ray crystallography—they're both discussed in terms of Angstroms.

That is, 10 to the power of -10 meters, or 0.1 nanometers, reaching the atomic scale where covalent bonds between atoms can be observed.

Although these two technologies are physicochemical methods, they've been widely applied to biological detection in modern life sciences.

In modern life sciences, physics, chemistry, and biology are inseparable.

These two techniques are standard crystal detection methods, especially X-ray crystallography, which has matured to the point where even a thesis can't embellish it anymore.

Still, it's common knowledge.

Crystals have lattice structures, and the periodicity of lattice structures is on the same order of magnitude as the wavelength of X-ray, making X-ray diffraction an interference phenomenon based on the principle of wave superposition.

X-ray intensifies in the diffraction direction after passing through the crystal, while in other directions, the intensity weakens or even disappears.

By placing a photosensitive plate behind the crystal, an X-ray diffraction pattern can be obtained.

Currently, X-ray crystallography is a widely relied-upon characterization method.

To synthesis experts, obtaining a crystal is like a seasoned driver knowing the code—the structure can be identified immediately.

However, according to Wang Qiang, X-ray crystallography could not parse the structure of the Mythical Beast Crystal.

So, this poses a huge problem.....

Students who have studied chemistry seriously should know.

Solids are divided into two concepts: crystalline and amorphous.

The scientific method to distinguish crystalline from amorphous is X-ray diffraction.

But this Mythical Beast Crystal presented to Lin Li and others is very special:

It has a lattice structure—because a unit cell was detected, and the lattice structure is obtained by infinite translation of the unit cell.

In other words, the Mythical Beast Crystal is crystalline, no doubt about it.

But at the same time, it cannot be analyzed by X-ray diffraction, meaning the covalent bonds inside it are simply nowhere to be found!

It's like suddenly encountering a smartphone at the current level of technology—it has all the standard functions of taking pictures, accessing the internet, and making calls.

Yet, when you plan to dismantle it, you discover it doesn't have a battery, chip, or any internal electronic components.

Of course.

Even though this situation is currently singular and a typical unknown case, it's not quite a thundercloud yet.

Thus, Lin Li quickly adjusted his mindset.

He took a deep breath, seeming to make a certain decision, and said to Wang Qiang:

"Let's activate the SIMS instrument and bombard it with Ar+ ions!"

Upon these words, the entire lab fell silent.

SIMS instrument

In layman's terms... ahem, the academic term is Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer.

It bombards the sample surface with a high-energy primary ion beam, causing atoms or atomic groups on the surface to absorb energy and generate secondary particles through sputtering.

These charged particles can be analyzed by a mass spectrometer to obtain a spectrum of information about the sample surface.

It is currently the instrument with the best penetration effect and the highest precision on objects.

For example, this was equipped on our previous Zhurong Mars Rover, and in a panoramic picture online, SIMS instrument's external interface is located at about 30° on the bottom right.

However, SIMS technology has two drawbacks:

Firstly, it's extremely expensive, excessively so. Even Huaxia would struggle for several years.

Generally, Ar+ ions can bombard about one micron of the crystal's surface overnight, and for an object like the Mythical Beast Crystal, the full experimental cost could potentially reach the high eight digits or even nine digits.

After all, with this, even ppb isn't enough; achieving 10 ppt is necessary to complete the task.

Secondly...

It could damage the Mythical Beast Crystal, even rendering it completely ineffective.

Considering the current situation, the lattice structure within the Mythical Beast Crystal should be in some very complex form.

It even includes the possibility of a trace chaotic state—no matter how slim the likelihood, theoretically it must be acknowledged it indeed exists.

Therefore, even breaking up to a depth of 1 micron could potentially cause irreversible damage to the Mythical Beast Crystal on a microscopic level.

Thus, Lin Li's command involves significant risk.

If the Mythical Beast Crystal has issues on a microscopic level, it means this unique specimen would be completely wasted.

But Lin Li eventually decided to take this step; some risks are essential in exploring the unknown.

At this point, not moving forward would be unworthy of being a researcher.

However, this step requires his presence on site, which is why he's there—put bluntly, if the Mythical Beast Crystal gets damaged by the ion beam, as the camp leader and a renowned Huaxia biology authority, it's at most a matter of writing a report.

He wouldn't be punished administratively.

But if he wasn't present.

Even if a command was issued via remote communication, if an experimental accident occurred, part of the responsibility would fall on Wang Qiang.

At that point, the young lady might remain in the camp, but her research permissions would be significantly reduced, and there'd be hardly any chance to touch the dissection of third-level beasts.

Therefore, as a teacher, Lin Li absolutely won't allow this situation to happen.

Once everything was ready, Lin Li stood in front of the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer, while Wang Qiang assisted beside him.

"Target sample C surface, minimum area diameter 80nm, deposition bombard angle 2theta!" (Why can't I input the symbol?)

"Incidence current 10mA/c㎡, incident source ion concentration greater than 10^14 atoms/c㎡!"

"High-energy Ar+ ion beam is ready, energy 9659.6 electron volts!"

With the completion of several processes, a resolute white light flashed in Lin Li's frames.

He waved his hand and ordered:

"Start the bombardment!"

Whew—whoosh—

A high-energy ion beam composed of Ar+ swiftly bombarded the target surface of the Mythical Beast Crystal, producing extremely faint secondary ions through the high-energy bombardment.

These secondary ions were then extracted into the field-free drift tube, following the established flight path to arrive at the ion detector.

Under normal circumstances, the sputter removal speed of static SIMS is generally 0.1 nanometers per hour.

But in today's lab with unrestrained expenditures, Lin Li employed the dynamic SIMS model, achieving a removal speed for secondary ions on the Mythical Beast Crystal surface of 100 micrometers per hour.

Anyway, since we're going to destroy the structure, we might as well use more power.

With XRD unable to analyze, not to mention 0.1 nanometers, damage at even 0.1 femtometers or 0.1 attometers would be akin to an amputation.

After just an hour, the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer produced the first batch of results.

The task of analysis then fell on Wang Qiang and her senior Li Yan.

Students familiar with mass spectrometry should know.

The horizontal axis of the secondary mass spectrum represents the mass-to-charge ratio, while the vertical axis represents intensity.

Signal intensity of the spectral peak is essentially an electrical signal, representing a relative intensity.

Typically, within the detection mass range, the peak with the highest signal intensity is marked at 100%, with other peaks' heights displayed as a proportion against that 100%.

Normally, a spectrum can only have one base peak. More than one usually indicates equipment anomalies or ion beam issues, or maybe a problem with your eyes.

But in the secondary mass spectrum Wang Qiang and Li Yan held, 50% of the peak heights were consistent—and the equipment and ion beam absolutely cannot be noncompliant.

This is quite interesting.

"A few fragment peaks, calculate peak area with internal standard method...."

"Mass interval of 236.... differs by 2 from the cycle's molecular weight...."

"This substance isn't in the database... as expected...."

"Excluding matrix effect influences..."

"Hmm? Polymerization degree starts at 7? So it has covalent bonds internally, right?"

"Found it, it's a peptide chain! The peptide bonds in the peptide chain are broken..... so can B series ions or Y series ions be separated?!"

Suddenly, Wang Qiang raised her left hand high:

"Teacher, I've analyzed it, it's Y2 ions!"

But before Lin Li could react, Wang Qiang's voice suddenly rose sharply, nearly shrill:

"No, no! Teacher, the peak showed a broken phase! The y ion's peak has three extra hydrogen.... that's impossible... could it be...."

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