China Scientist Awards Blog

  A team of Chinese scientists on a quest to develop bamboo into a biodegradable alternative to plastics say they have discovered a recipe to process the material into feasible products.China – which has more bamboo forests than any other country – is in the midst of a long-term effort to reduce pollution and reach carbon neutrality and has been looking for ways to transform the tall, thick grass into a viable replacement for petroleum-based goods that can decompose quickly. Plastic pollution has become a critical global concern, and the very slow biodegradation of traditional plastics has led to alarming accumulations of plastic waste in soil, waterways and even human bodies. “Bamboo, known for its rapid growth, renewability, biodegradability, and eco-friendliness , is regarded as a promising substitute for plastics,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the American Chemical Society’s peer-reviewed journal ACS NANO on August 20th. But significant technical challenges have pr

                A new way of making silicon carbide aerogel cuts the cost of production to a tiny fraction of the present price, researchers say The cost of a type of aerogel, the world’s lightest solid material, has been cut astronomically thanks to Chinese researchers .  Aerogels have long been used by space agencies such as Nasa for their high porosity and excellent insulating properties. But producing the material has always been expensive. According to information on Nasa’s website, the aerogel used in Nasa spacecraft cost around US$1,000 per litre back in 2005. The price has dropped with advancements in synthetic technologies, but high-performance silicon carbide (SiC) aerogels remain expensive from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per litre. Now Chinese researchers say they have managed to lower the production cost of SiC aerogel to just US$0.70 per litre.  Even in China, where aerogel manufacture is cheaper due to the economies of scale, this new technology can make

  Risk of asteroid impacts ‘much higher’ than previous assessment suggested, as researchers urge decision makers to think ‘long-term’ The best option to minimise the chance that an asteroid someday smashes into the Earth – possibly wiping out life – is through the use of nuclear weapons, according to scientists at China’s deep space exploration programme. The researchers said their analysis had found that in some situations, only nuclear weapons could prevent an asteroid from hitting the Earth, adding that they were fully aware of international laws against the use or deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and that nuclear fallout could also cause interstellar pollution. But they have urged decision makers to think long term and support research and development into a nuclear-based defence to prevent a doomsday threat to humanity. “The potential risk of asteroid impacts is much higher than the assessment based on currently discovered asteroid data,” the team wrote in a peer-review

     Two major shifts in the speed the world spins round were found – one during the Great Dying and the other during a sudden explosion of life The speed at which the world spins round slowed dramatically twice hundreds of millions of years ago, with one time coinciding with the biggest mass extinction event, according to new research.The other incident happened during a rapid expansion of life on Earth known as the Cambrian explosion, the Chinese-ledteam concluded. Although the world seems to rotate at a constant pace, the exact timing can vary and is not precisely 24 hours.   Changes in gravity caused by variations in the distance between the moon and the Earth are known to cause ocean tides, but the friction between the tides and the Earth’s surface also causes a slight deceleration in its rotation. At the same time, Earth transfers momentum to the moon, causing it to gradually move outward. According to the study, the Earth’s rotation has been decelerating due to this phenom

  Kuaishou is charging 19 yuan (US$2.66) for the first month of use, and 58 yuan per month thereafter under a ‘gold member’ plan for the video generation service.                                                                                                                                                            Chinese short-video app operator Kuaishou Technology is offering a monthly subscription to its Sora-like artificial intelligence (AI) video generating service, as China’s AI players step up efforts to monetise the cutting-edge technology. Kuaishou, the major domestic rival of TikTok’s sister app Douyin, is charging 19 yuan (US$2.66) for the first month and 58 yuan per month thereafter under a “gold member” plan for video generation services based on its Kling AI model. The plan, claimed to be “the lowest price among similar products”, would support the generation of around 3,300 photos and 66 videos per month, according a statement from Kuaishou on Friday. The move mark

  The popularity of Black Myth: Wukong has Chinese investors and video game developers looking at ways to replicate its success, but industry insiders say that might be a decade away. The blockbuster game, developed by Tencent Holdings-backed start-up Game Science, became an overnight sensation in China after its release on Tuesday and has been well received in global markets. Sales of Black Myth topped 8.4 million copies within three days, sending total revenue from the title on video gaming platform Steam to more than US$400 million, according to data from market research company VG Insights. The immense popularity of China’s first AAA title – an unofficial designation for games with large budgets and long development times – now has other developers in the country thinking more ambitiously. China’s first home-grown AAA game breaks records after debut “The emergence of Black Myth: Wukong proves that a [Chinese] AAA game project can be established, developed and eventually hit the s

  Chinese researchers have developed a new method that could produce massive amounts of water through the reaction between lunar materials and hydrogen found in surrounding lunar soil. Their study was published in the journal The Innovation on Thursday. Studies of the moon's water content play a vital role in planning for the construction of future scientific research bases on the moon. Research results from previous lunar explorations have revealed that ice may exist in a natural state at the moon's north and south poles and in its permanently shadowed regions. However, the natural water content in lunar minerals is extremely low, ranging from 0.0001 percent to 0.02 percent, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, making it challenging to extract and use water in situ on the moon. Recently, researchers from NIMTE, the CAS' Institute of Physics, the China Academy of Space Technology , the Songshan Lake M