17 h. ago China’s ‘silent sanction’ on US semiconductors creates a weapons generation gap

In addition to the spectacle of Wednesday’s military parade in Tiananmen Square, with its rows of never-before-seen weapons and equipment, was a less visible but highly consequential shift. At its heart lies China’s growing dominance in gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology, giving it a strategic advantage that is reshaping the global arms race, according to a report by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Physics. “Behind this technological advancement lies a ‘hidden thread’...

Events

24 h. ago Europe power guru Wang Xiongfei brings grid stability expertise home to China

One of the European Union’s top power systems experts, Wang Xiongfei, has come full circle after returning to China to take a leading academic role at Tsinghua University. As the newly appointed Xinghua chair professor and doctoral supervisor, Wang brings years of knowledge and experience in European power electronics and grid stability. He has led more than 40 research projects funded by the EU, Denmark, Sweden and various corporations. He has collaborated with grid companies in Germany, the...

Politics

46 h. ago Russian film festival kicks off in Beijing, tours three Chinese cities

Russian film festival kicks off in Beijing, tours three Chinese cities  news.cgtn.com

Culture

50 h. ago AI, lasers and chips: the science and tech of China’s military parade

China’s military parade on Wednesday – featuring the latest AI-powered uncrewed vehicles, laser weapons and missiles – signalled an arms race fuelled by scientific and technological advances. Artificial intelligence, optics and physics and information technologies have underscored how innovations will shape the future of modern warfare, paving the way for futuristic intelligent systems. “The parade featured unmanned intelligent systems, underwater combat units, cyber and electronic forces and...

Events

53 h. ago Venice’s iconic winged lion statue originated in ancient China

Venice’s iconic winged lion statue originated in ancient China  Science News

Politics

4 d. ago Dirty laundry: Chinese team joins race to develop washing machine for astronauts

Astronauts have to get used to many things in space, including that they cannot wash their dirty clothes. But researchers in Beijing have proposed a solution: a compact, detergent-free washing machine that cleans clothes with mist and ozone using almost no water – a limited resource in space. The cube-shaped device is a bit larger than a carry-on suitcase and weighs 12kg (26lbs), according to the team that developed it from the China Astronaut Research and Training Centre. They said it used only...

Politics

4 d. ago China's first science popularization month kicks off in Beijing

China's first science popularization month kicks off in Beijing  China Daily

Politics

4 d. ago China: Science and technology courtyard brings expertise to farmers in Beijing

China: Science and technology courtyard brings expertise to farmers in Beijing  Hortidaily

Events

4 d. ago Could this small ancient shrimp be the next big thing in Xinjiang aquaculture?

They are small, ancient and might just have the potential to help some of China’s most salt-affected areas turn a profit. Brine shrimp, also known as Artemia, are among the oldest surviving species on Earth, going back about 400 million years. They are widely used as aquaculture feed, and also have medicinal and cosmetic value. And now scientists have spotted them in the far reaches of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The shrimp are extremely tolerant of salt and were...

Politics

5 d. ago Geoffrey Hinton on preventing an AI takeover and the ‘worrying’ China

Geoffrey Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist often called the “godfather of AI” because of his revolutionary neural network models inspired by the structure of the human brain. His research brought about a paradigm shift that enabled today’s machine learning technology. He won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics with John J. Hopfield of Princeton University. Hinton holds the title of university professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. A company he co-founded with two graduate...

Politics

5 d. ago The ‘godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton on when superintelligence will arrive

Geoffrey Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist often called the “godfather of AI” because of his revolutionary neural network models inspired by the structure of the human brain. His research brought about a paradigm shift that enabled today’s machine learning technology. He won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics with John J. Hopfield of Princeton University. Hinton holds the title of university professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. A company he co-founded with two graduate...

Politics

5 d. ago The ‘godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton on preventing takeover by the technology

Geoffrey Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist often called the “godfather of AI” because of his revolutionary neural network models inspired by the structure of the human brain. His research brought about a paradigm shift that enabled today’s machine learning technology. He won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics with John J. Hopfield of Princeton University. Hinton holds the title of university professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. A company he co-founded with two graduate...

Politics

5 d. ago China launches tiny Mexican satellites in rare North American rocket contract

Mexico has become the second country in North America to send satellites into orbit using a Chinese rocket – more than half a decade after Canada blazed the trail. Two satellites from ThumbSat, a start-up based in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, were among a batch of seven launched into sun-synchronous orbit earlier this month by Beijing-based CAS Space on board its solid-fuel Kinetica-1 rocket. ThumbSat hailed the launch of its femtosatellites – each weighing less than 100 grams...

Events

5 d. ago How China could turn Paracels into a submarine kill zone in South China Sea

Four years after the USS Connecticut, one of the most advanced nuclear submarines in the US Navy, slammed into an uncharted seamount in the South China Sea, the site of that near-catastrophic grounding may now become a deadly minefield for future naval battles. Chinese military scientists are proposing to transform the dangerous underwater terrain where the Connecticut crashed into a strategically engineered kill zone, packed with powerful mines designed to exploit the very same acoustic blind...

Events

7 d. ago Human microbiome scientist Wang Leyao leaves US government agency for China

Epidemiologist and human microbiome scientist Wang Leyao, a scholar for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has returned to China amid drastic research funding cuts initiated by the White House. Wang joined the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation (Smart) as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Human Immunology last month, according to an announcement on Smart’s official social media account on Monday. The academy stated that Wang “has long been dedicated to the...

Politics

7 d. ago How China streamlines national labs into tech war machines: a case study of HK

Hong Kong’s once sprawling and diffuse network of state-backed research labs has undergone a surgical transformation – streamlined, repurposed and laser-focused on Beijing’s strategic technology ambitions. In a move emblematic of China’s broader overhaul of its national scientific apparatus, the city has dismantled underperforming labs, rebranded legacy institutions and launched three cutting-edge facilities dedicated to quantum materials and climate resilience – all under tightened alignment...

Events

7 d. ago How China streamlines national labs into tech war machines: the Hong Kong case

Hong Kong’s once sprawling and diffuse network of state-backed research labs has undergone a surgical transformation – streamlined, repurposed and laser-focused on Beijing’s strategic technology ambitions. In a move emblematic of China’s broader overhaul of its national scientific apparatus, the city has dismantled underperforming labs, rebranded legacy institutions and launched three cutting-edge facilities dedicated to quantum materials and climate resilience – all under tightened alignment...

Events

7 d. ago Top scientist who left US for ‘unprecedented’ opportunity in China, dies aged 33

Dong Sijia, a promising young Chinese researcher, has died at the age of 33. The oceanographer was an assistant professor at Nanjing University’s school of sustainable energy and resources but despite her internationally recognised contributions to marine chemistry, no official notice has been issued by the university. Instead, the news emerged from a note in a scientific journal that did not give a cause of death, leaving colleagues, students and friends trying to piece together more...

Events

7 d. ago China unveils VTOL drone that looks like UFO ‘Gimbal’ spotted by US Navy pilots

In 2015, a US Navy F/A-18 pilot flying off the East Coast with the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt encountered something inexplicable: an unidentified flying object shaped like a spindle, hovering above the clouds with no visible means of propulsion. Encoded as “Gimbal”, the footage – officially declassified in 2021 – ignited global speculation about unidentified aerial phenomena and prompted serious questions about advanced aerospace technology beyond known military capabilities. Now,...

Events

8 d. ago Luo Weiwei: the former Nasa scientist who became China’s semiconductor trump card

At a time when the United States is decoupling from China on cutting-edge chip technology, Nvidia has unveiled its list of suppliers for the advanced 800 VDC power architecture powering next-generation AI data centres. Among American and European giants was an unexpected name: Innoscience, a Chinese company specialising in gallium nitride (GaN) technology. Innoscience marks China’s growing clout in the high-stakes semiconductor race, and behind the company’s rapid rise is Luo Weiwei, a former...

Politics