Gerald shot his son an indignant look and raised his eyebrows in warning. In his silent language, that meant: "Son, do not embarrass us! We are aristocrats, and you are behaving like an ordinary child."
Richie responded with a grin and made a gesture with his fingers as if to say, I know what I'm doing.
In return, the boy received a stern look from his father—one that promised nothing good once the official events were over.
From the outside, Richard's activity looked like childish fooling around. He had been sticking together halves of tape for quite some time now; it had taken on a slightly cloudy gray tint. Such behavior did not go unnoticed by the journalists. The sharks of the press were well aware of who the boy was.
A woman with bright red hair in a screaming scarlet dress nodded to the cameraman, pointing her microphone toward Richie. Instantly, the camera shifted to the boy, and the reporter detached herself from the crowd of colleagues and approached the young Grosvenor.
"Excuse me, young Lord," she said in a honeyed voice, "may I ask what you are doing?"
Richard smiled at the camera, careful not to show his teeth since one of them was missing. He stopped what he was doing and explained:
"Of course, ma'am. I just heard that scientists are having difficulty obtaining graphene. So I decided to help them. Here—" he indicated the piece of tape, "—I'm creating graphene flakes using the simplest possible method."
A heavyset elderly man in a brown wool suit suddenly appeared beside the journalist. His gray hair was disheveled, and his piercing blue eyes were fixed on Richard with lively curiosity. He pushed the reporter aside, took her place, and said:
"Young man, did I hear you correctly? Did you just say you're attempting to obtain graphene?"
"I already have, sir," Richard replied, shaking the strip of tape slightly.
"With adhesive tape?"
"With adhesive tape and a pencil."
"With adhesive tape and a pencil?!"
"Yes, sir. With adhesive tape and a pencil!"
"That cannot be. Show me, young man, how you are doing this!"
"I applied some graphite to the sticky tape, then pressed the tape together repeatedly. Each time, the graphite layer became thinner and thinner. In the end, in some places it should reach a thickness of one atom and form graphene flakes."
The gray-haired man's eyes filled with delight and widened dramatically.
Richard picked up a sheet of paper and a pencil from the desk. He quickly drew the atomic structure of graphene and showed it to the man, whose eyes seemed ready to pop from their sockets.
"Here. This is what you're trying to obtain, isn't it? A flat sheet of carbon one atom thick, rivaling diamond in strength and possessing high electrical conductivity…"
"Could it be…" the man whispered in astonishment. "My God! That truly is the structure of graphene. I must examine this tape!"
"Please, sir," Richard said, handing over the repeated results of his school experiment.
With incredible reverence, the gray-haired man accepted the strip of tape from the boy's hands and loaded it into the chamber of the electron microscope. Completely ignoring the crowd around him, he sat down at the computer and immersed himself fully in his work. The microscope began to hum with a transformer-like buzz. Television cameramen enthusiastically recorded everything.
While everyone's attention was focused on the gray-haired man, Richard's father approached him and demanded in a harsh whisper:
"Richie, what on earth are you doing?"
"Inventing a method for producing a nanomaterial that will change the world. Graphene is an advanced material. I heard the rector discussing how difficult it is to obtain, and I thought—it's simple, you just need tape and a pencil. So I tested it in practice."
"I was told that raising a genius is difficult, and I didn't believe it," Gerald muttered quietly before returning to the journalists.
"EUREKA!"
The gray-haired man's shout startled everyone. The university rector addressed him:
"Professor Roberts, what has happened?"
"Graphene!" exclaimed the professor in response. "I truly found a graphene flake! My God, this boy is a genius! Who is he? Whose child is this?" He pointed toward Richard. "I would take him into my department this very moment!"
"Richard, are you certain?" the rector asked the professor.
"It is definitely graphene! I assure you. Ten whole flakes!"
Richard Roberts sprang to his feet and pushed through the crowd of journalists to his young namesake. He seized Richie's hand, shaking it enthusiastically and thanking him sincerely.
"Thank you, young man! A tremendous thank you on behalf of world science. This method of obtaining graphene is worthy of the Nobel Prize. What is your name, young man? I will certainly mention you in my paper as co-inventor."
"Lord Richard Grosvenor, at your service, sir," the boy replied with composed politeness, bowing slightly. "I am glad that such a simple trick proved useful to world science. I hope that you personally—and the University of Sheffield—will make a significant contribution to the development of nanotechnology."
"Oh! A Lord?" Mr. Roberts blinked in surprise and shifted his gaze to the elder Grosvenor. "Ah! So that is whose son he is!"
A proper commotion erupted. The red-haired journalist pushed her way closer to the young Grosvenor.
"Tell us, Lord Grosvenor, how did the idea of obtaining graphene occur to you?"
"Inspiration," the boy answered calmly. "It happens to me from time to time. In much the same way, I once came up with the idea of releasing Skrepyshes."
The pen-shark bared her teeth in a predatory smile. From the look on the journalist's face, it was clear she had caught a sensation by the tail.
"Skrepyshes? So it was you who invented them?"
"It would be difficult to call a small piece of plastic an invention. The thought simply occurred to me that such a product would interest consumers. Practice has shown that to be true. My company, Grosvenor Junior, cooperates with such giants as Walmart, Asda, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and many other well-known international companies."
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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