The death of three prominent young scientists from top Chinese universities in recent months has again put the country’s ambitious science goals and ruthless academic system under scrutiny. While none of their institutions has issued any official statement about the deaths, the cases have once again prompted criticism of China’s flawed talent system, which is…
The hottest company in China right now is Cambricon Technologies, an artificial intelligence chipmaker whose stock has surged about 10-fold over the past two years, driven by expectations that it could be a serious challenger to Nvidia in the mainland market. The frenzy over Cambricon, whose stock is trading at an eye-watering trailing 12-month price-to-earnings…
China has been urged to speed up the development of solar power in space to gain a stronger footing in the new energy sector and the space race. Ge Changchun, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, called in an article for a top-down strategy to speed up efforts to develop the technology and…
In the quest to harness the power of the stars, one of the greatest challenges lies not in mastering fusion, but in finding materials strong enough to contain it. At the heart of a nuclear fusion reactor is an ultra-powerful superconducting magnet, operating at temperatures near absolute zero and under immense magnetic stress. For decades,…
Chinese researchers say they have developed a material that changes colour at a molecular level based on the surrounding light, creating a new form of camouflage that could help people blend into their environments – much like a chameleon. “In other words, applying this technology to clothing could make an individual effectively ‘invisible’,” said lead…