A rock mechanics scholar talked to me a few days ago: "it's very difficult to do original work, which I understand. I have a question to ask you, does originality need advanced knowledge? What do you think of "pending, quantum mechanics" on the Internet? " Considering that our dialogue may be beneficial to aspiring scholars, this paper arranges the dialogue into this article in order to play the role of throwing bricks and attracting jade.

Originality, especially theoretical originality, often involves the most essential "Zong" of natural objects. To reveal the evolution mechanism and law of "Zong", it usually requires the most basic scientific concepts and principles, such as the principle of energy conservation and the principle of minimum energy consumption, and almost does not need special deep knowledge. For rock mechanics scholars, mastering these basic principles, paying attention to the basic mechanical properties of rock - heterogeneity and brittleness, and understanding the basic mechanical behavior of rock deformation and failure at different stages, they have the capital to overcome scientific problems such as landslide, rock burst, earthquake and so on. In the study of the above scientific problems, this "religion" is to reveal the accelerated fracture mechanical behavior of rock from volume expansion point to peak strength point. When studying the mechanical behavior of accelerated fracture in the locked section, we found that no matter how the various factors change, the strain ratio of the two points remains approximately unchanged, which opens up a new and simple way to solve the prediction of locked landslide and large earthquake.

Geoscience research mainly takes large-scale geological structure as the research object, and almost does not involve too micro things. Therefore, I think quantum mechanics is basically useless in geoscience research. However, when you are free, it doesn't hurt to understand quantum mechanics, or it can play a role in developing thinking. When we study the fracture behavior of locking section, we mainly use the basic discipline knowledge of geological tectonics, damage mechanics, rock mechanics and renormalization group theory, and do not use other knowledge of Shenma.

To do original work, the key lies in scholars' unique ideas. Potential original offbeat, as long as we grasp the basic knowledge of multidisciplinary, guide others with unexpected thinking and reverse thinking, or start a new world, be struck dumb and original.

To master the basic knowledge, it is best to read the classic teaching materials, especially the original foreign language teaching materials. I often read rock mechanics textbooks, such as fundamentals of rock mechanics by j.c.jager and n.g.w.cook and introduction to rock mechanics by R. E. Goodman. These textbooks are classic because their concept expression is clear and unambiguous, the principle description is simple and easy to understand, and the combination of theory and practice is easy to use flexibly.

When reading the textbook, I have a strong experience that it is not easy to fully understand the basic concepts - really understand the connotation and extension of the concepts. For example, a doctoral student asked me whether the volume of triaxial compression rock sample at the volume expansion point is larger than that before loading? This is actually due to the unclear understanding of the basic concepts. The volume expansion point is the dividing point where the volume of rock sample changes from compression to expansion. At this point, the volume of rock sample is still smaller than that before loading.

Scholars have solid basic knowledge. They can get to the point by looking at the literature and see the relevant achievements clearly. I remember once, a doctoral student showed me the results of his rock sample uniaxial compression AE experiment. As soon as I saw it, I immediately said, "at the initial stage of loading, high-energy AE events cannot occur. 80% of them are caused by uneven rock samples, aren't they?" He replied, "yes, you're great. Please explain it in detail." I continued: "the two ends of the rock sample are uneven, and its uneven stress will cause local stress concentration, resulting in splitting and high-energy events. The result of your experiment is invalid. Don't publish an article. Make a new sample and redo the experiment. "

In short, the basic knowledge is solid, which can lay a good foundation for making original work; On the contrary, if the foundation is not strong and the earth is shaking, let alone being original, you won't even follow the trend.