The Central University canteen was situated exactly halfway on the shortest path between the Faculty of Mathematics and the Department of Neuroscience. The meeting that was about to take place could in all likelihood have been predicted. And then prevented. That’s not what happened.
Jan Radecki, a neuroscientist, noticed his mathematician colleague Antoni Mikulicz at the buffet. He immediately lowered his gaze and began piling his plates onto the tray, getting ready to leave. Unfortunately, when he took his next, brief glance around, their eyes accidentally met. His colleague beamed a wide smile and began moving towards him.
It was too late.
The next moment, Mikulicz was at Radecki’s table, sat down opposite him, opened his laptop and, without a word, showed him the screen, blue at the bottom, white at the top. His smiling, unshaven face framed with black, curly hair poked out from behind the black casing.
This ritual recurred with tiresome repetitiveness – only the screen content changed.
Jan narrowed his eyes, staring alternately at the white and blue parts. A few seconds passed, but he still didn’t know what he was looking at. He cleared his throat a few times and asked: “What is it?”
“The probability density function of the results of the random number generator I told you about last time,” said the mathematician in a single breath.
Radecki made a wise face and nodded, and Mikulicz continued: “Completely homogeneous. For the entire range.”
“Is that good?”
“It’s perfect.”
He scrolled down on the screen. Some rows of numbers appeared.
“This is just the beginning. Great performance results. I’m saving memory at every step, so it’s suitable for embedded systems. What’s more…”
“That’s excellent, excellent,” interrupted Radecki, because he’d heard this story many times before. “And what’s next? Publication? A patent?”
He knew the answer to that question too.
“No.” His colleague surprised him. “I’m not publishing anything. I applied to the Ministry of War for a grant. Two months ago. I’m expecting an answer in another two, and by that time, I’ll have prepared the documentation and developed the test results.”
“What grant’s that?” asked Radecki, suddenly animated.
“The Ministry of War has allocated millions – unfortunately, the exact amount is a secret – to the creation of innovative solutions
