China Scientist Awards Blog

  Desert ant shows Chinese team the way to hi-def polarised light sensor chip Chinese  researchers  have looked to the eyes of the desert ant to develop a compact chip to detect the orientation of polarised light. The chip could have a wide range of uses including in navigation, fingerprint detection, and even identifying cancerous tissue, the team said.  Polarisation photodetectors (pol-PDs) are special light sensors that can sense the direction of polarised light. By identifying differences in incoming light, these photodetectors can distinguish contrast and improve image quality. Such photodetectors have widespread applications in areas including “geological remote sensing, machine vision [and] biological medicine”, the team wrote in a paper published in peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on December 4.  But commercial polarised photodetectors are hard to miniaturise because the optical systems and parts are complex, according to the team. Working alongsi...

  China publishes blue book on scientific journal development BEIJING -- China unveiled a blue book on Thursday on the country's scientific journal development, according to China Science Daily. The blue book highlighted that China had 5,211 scientific journals in 2023, with an increase of 48 from the previous year, which were mainly in English. China has published more papers in its English-version scientific journals, and they are increasingly included in internationally renowned databases. In 2023, Chinese authors published 728,700 SCI papers, accounting for about 33 percent of the global total, while the amount of the country's SCI journals was limited, publishing only 33,400 papers written by Chinese authors. Despite this, according to the blue book, the amount and global share of China's SCI journals have steadily increased over the past three years, and their academic quality has significantly improved. The academic influence of Chinese scientific journals continued ...

  Xiong'an hunts for technological innovation A competition showcasing technological innovation will be held in Hebei province's Xiong'an New Area next year, to promote opportunities in scientific and technological development that will help the area become a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. The second Xiong'an Future City Scene Expo and Series of Competitions recently opened its registration channel online, inviting tech innovation teams to participate in 10 competitions scheduled from March to May next year, said Geng Feng, deputy director of the organizing committee office of the expo and deputy director of the area's administrative committee. These competitions cover both emerging fields and future industries such as aerospace information, low-altitude transportation and large-scale vertical models. The competitions aim to identify high-value technological achievements with market potential that can turn into new productive forces effectively, Geng said a...

  Scientists discover 3,000-year-old silk at China’s mysterious Sanxingdui ruins hinese  archaeologists  say they have discovered silk at the  Sanxingdui ruins  for the first time, and they believe the treasured textile was used 3,000 years ago in rituals to “communicate between heaven and earth”. According to the researchers, the discovery sheds light on the cultural origins of silk and the religious beliefs of the ancient Shu people, who lived in what is now Sichuan province.  “The presence of silk residues detected in the Sanxingdui sacrificial pits … provides archaeological evidence of the Southwest Silk Road, confirming that silk was already used in the  ancient Shu state  more than 3,000 years ago,” the team wrote in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports last month. The team includes researchers from the China National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, the Sanxingdui Research Institute and the Sanxingdui Museum in Sichu...

  Cyborg cockroaches can now be mass-produced in a robotic factory. Pleasant dreams Researchers have taken the concept of cyborg insects to the next level – automated mass production that could turn out  cybernetically controlled  bugs every 68 seconds, a technology that may prove useful in search-and-rescue operations or factory inspections. Previous experiments have found that it is possible to merge electronics with live insects to remotely control their behaviour without hurting them. But the research by the mechanical engineers in Singapore has helped to streamline the process of implanting electronic backpacks onto insects   such as cockroaches   and beetles by using a robot equipped with computer vision. The findings, which have not been peer-reviewed, were published on the preprint platform arXiv on November 20 by Professor Hirotaka Sato with Nanyang Technological University and first author Lin Qifeng, from China.  The team previously experimented ...