News on China's scientific and technological development.

The repeat order is significant.

A.Man said:

Jinan Machine Tool win another punch line to the U.S. auto manufacturing-China exports help the U.S. auto industry

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This one has better English

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Jier puts stamp on order for Ford line in US
Updated: 2013-07-12 07:40
By Zhao Ruixue in Jinan ( China Daily)
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Jier Machine Tool Group Co Ltd - China's largest maker of metal-forming equipment - has won yet another order to build a high-speed stamping line for a Kentucky-based Ford Motor Co plant.

This will be the sixth stamping line that Jier builds for a US-based Ford Motor plant, and it is scheduled to be completed in April 2015, the company said on Thursday.

The State-owned company, which is based in Jinan, Shandong province, has an 80 percent domestic market share in the field of large-scale and high-speed stamping lines.

"The new order means that our products have been recognized by Ford Motor," said Zhang Zhigang, Jier's chairman.

A line that Jier built for Ford Motor's new plant in Kansas is already in operation, and is the factory's only stamping line.

Another four were installed at a factory in Detroit to replace some 20 stamping lines that were built in 1938. The installation project for the four lines will be completed early next year.

"This order is the largest single export order that Chinese machine tool producers have ever received in the field of high-end machine tools. It also means that for the first time, several complete stamping lines made by Chinese companies are being used by a well-known car manufacturer in a developed country," said Wu Bolin, the vice-president of the executive committee of the China Machine Tool & Tool Builders' Association.

Zhang said that is the first time in two decades that Ford Motor bought complete sets of stamping equipment from a country other than Germany.

"Jier has embarked on China's project of selling high-end machine tools to overseas markets," Wu said.

China has been the world's largest metalworking machine tool consumer for 11 consecutive years and the largest producer for four years in a row.

The country spent $38.28 billion on metalworking machine tools last year, accounting for 45 percent of the global total, according to data provided by the association.

Equipment made by Chinese factories only accounted for 64.3 percent of the domestic market for metalworking machine tools and for 55.6 percent of the computerized machines market.

Most Chinese machine tool companies can only make low-end equipment and rely heavily on imports for high-end computerized machines.

Last year, investment in research and development reached 1.024 billion yuan ($167 billion), accounting for 1.97 percent of the country's GDP, according to figures from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

China's import volume of machine tools registered a year-on-year drop of 15 percent to $2.9 billion in the first quarter, while the export volume was at $960 million, up 8.52 percent year-on-year.

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Only God Knows?

记者童岱 通讯员曾明彬

中科院理化所全球首创的液态金属热管理技术(在室温条件下，以镓为主要成分的液态金属可以像水一样流动)，突破了传统技术观念，其本身拥有的相关特性，使其有望成为第四代芯片散热技术。

而与企业顺利开展产业化合作，也再次证明该所的研究成果并不甘心只停留在实验阶段。



现实中，科研人员也找到了一种金属，在室温下就呈现液态，并成功地将其应用在计算机CPU散热系统中。此液态金属的沸点高达2000℃，抗击极端温度的能力异常强，且性质稳定、无毒。

中國科学院理化技术研究所（以下简称理化所）低温生物与医学实验室主任刘静和他的团队完成了这项工作。他在接受《中國科学报》记者采访时表示：“在CPU热管理领域引入液态金属，突破了传统技术观念，其本身拥有的相关特性，有望成为第四代芯片散热技术的关键。”

两年多来，理化所和北京依米康散热技术有限公司（以下简称依米康）就高性能液态金属CPU散热器展开产业化合作，在中科院理化所产业策划部的指导下，产业化进展顺利。

Auto Translation:

Reporter correspondent Zeng Ming Tong Dai Bin Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the world's first liquid metal thermal management technology (at room temperature as the main ingredient in gallium The liquid metal can flow like water), breaking the traditional technology concept has the relevant characteristics of its own, it is expected to become the fourth-generation chip cooling technology. The smooth development of industrial and business cooperation, but also once again proved that the results of research and not willing to just stay in the experimental stage. In reality, the researchers also found a metal, liquid at room temperature, on the show, and successfully apply it in the computer CPU cooling systems. This liquid metal boiling up 2000 ℃, the ability to fight against extreme temperature anomalies strong and stable, non-toxic. Technical Institute of Physics (hereinafter referred to as physics and chemistry) Cryobiology and medical laboratory director Liu Jing and his team completed the job. He told the "China Science News" reporter, said: "In the introduction CPU liquid metal thermal management, breaking the traditional technology concept has the relevant characteristics of its own, is expected to become the fourth generation of chip cooling technology is the key." two years more, Physics and Chemistry and Technology Co., Ltd. Beijing by Micon cooling (hereinafter referred to by Micon) to expand high-performance CPU cooler liquid metal industry, in cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Physical Planning Department under the guidance of industry, industrial progress.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers said Thursday they have developed an "easy and safe way" to create stem cells, a breakthrough that could greatly promote the development of so-called therapeutic cloning to generate tissues and organs for treatment of diseases.

The method, described in the U.S. journal Science, involved a cocktail of small-molecule compounds to reprogram somatic cells to a pluripotent state with the ability to differentiate into any other type of cell in the body.

Previously, the genetic manipulation required to induce this pluripotent state, via nuclear transfer into oocytes or through the ectopic expression of defined factors, is complicated, a fact that has limited the cells' clinical applications so far.

In this study, Professor Deng Hongkui of Peking University said his team validated "a whole new route" to pluripotent stem cells by inducing a pluripotent state in mouse somatic cells with a combination of seven small-molecule compounds.

"Small molecules have advantages because they can be cell permeable, non-immunogenic, more cost-effective, and can be more easily synthesized, preserved, and standardized," the researchers wrote in their paper.

"Moreover, their effects on inhibiting and activating the function of specific proteins are often reversible and can be finely tuned by varying the concentrations," they said.

In total, pluripotent stem cells can be generated from mouse somatic cells at a frequency up to 0.2 percent using the combination of small-molecule compounds, the researchers found.

To characterize their differentiation potential, they injected the chemically induced pluripotent stem cells (CiPSCs) into immunodeficient mice and found that the cells were able to differentiate into tissues of all three germ layer.

Unlike mice generated through traditional methods, the mice generated from CiPSCs were "100 percent viable and apparently healthy for up to 6 months," they said.

Using the CiPSCs technology, the researchers have successfully created several healthy laboratory mice from fibroblastic cells in the adult mouse lung, including one called QingQing, Deng wrote in an email.

"QingQing has been living for more than 100 days up to now. It develops well and it's lively and healthy. What's more, QingQing has already got its own 'babies' and they no longer need to worry about their health," Deng said.

The researchers believed that these findings "open up the possibility of generating functionally desirable cell types in regenerative medicine by cell fate reprogramming using specific chemicals or drugs, instead of genetic manipulation and difficult- to-manufacture biologics."

"To date, the complete chemical reprogramming approach remains to be further improved to reprogram human somatic cells and ultimately meet the needs of regenerative medicine," they wrote.

Proposed deep sea marine stations.




I wonder if there's military applications...

Cactus 'points' Way for Oil Spill Clean-up
2013-08-07

Inspired by prickly cacti, Chinese scientists have developed a new technique for removing oil from water, which could have applications in oil spill clean-up work.

An article published in the online scientific journal Nature Communications describes the study by Jiang Lei and his co-workers at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, whose creation of copper spike arrays have proved to be highly efficient in absorbing oil during experiments.

Jiang said the idea came from cacti needles, which can collect water by condensing moisture from the air and directing it to the root of the spines, an ability that keeps the plant hydrated in arid environments, like deserts.

Simulating cacti spines, researchers used substances with an affinity for oil, not water, to build conical spikes with a rough surface. These spikes have proven capable of catching micro-sized oil droplets in water.

"Oil separation using such needle arrays has an efficiency rate of over 99 percent, and compared with conventional methods, our technique can be used continuously and is more environmentally friendly," Jiang told Xinhua.

Researchers expect that the technique could help clean water pollution caused by oil spills and be applied in industrial sectors, including those involved in oily industrial effluent disposal and tertiary oil recovery. (Xinhua)

For a more complete report

2013 International Aerial Robotics Competition tests student-built espionage robots

By Brian Dodson

The Tsinghua University (Beijing) successfully completed the 2013 IARC Mission Six



Some of the most advanced work in autonomous aerial robotics is not done by DARPA, or by massive corporations. Rather, it is accomplished by teams of university students who participate in the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC). For the past 23 years, the IARC has challenged college teams with missions requiring complex autonomous robotic behaviors that are often beyond the capabilities of even the most sophisticated military robots. This year's competition, which was held in China and the United States over the past week, saw the team from Tsinghua University in Beijing successfully complete the current mission – an elaborate espionage operation known as Mission Six.


First proposed in 2010, the Mission Six scenario is that an enemy has plans for taking control of the Eurasian banking system, a move that could throw the entire world into chaos. This plan is contained in a USB flash drive located in a remote security office of the enemy's intelligence organization.
The IARC Mission Six orders (Photo: AUVSI Foundation)

The target building has a broken window on the same floor as the security office. This building measures roughly 15 x 30 meters, and is equipped with laser intrusion detectors, floor sensors, video surveillance, and periodic patrols. Mission Six calls for covertly capturing the flash drive, and replacing it with another of the same make to postpone discovery of the theft. Recognizing signs directing visitors to the security office is a part of the challenge. The mission must be carried out within ten minutes to avoid security patrols.

The vehicles are required to be completely autonomous, with no external commands accepted during the mission. The vehicles can be of any type (as long as they fly), must weigh less than 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), and be no more than 1 meter (3.28 ft) in the largest dimension. Most competing teams chose to base their vehicles on quadrotor designs. However, some chose other designs, including birotor and more unusual designs, such as the entry below from Pima Community College in Arizona that includes a balloon above a set of rotors to increase stability.
A jellyfish UAV configuration was introduced by the team from Pima Community College in Ar...

All vehicles must contain their own power supplies. The vehicle is required to sense its immediate surroundings, and decide on its own actions, but need not contain its control computer – it can instead be linked to an external computer by radio. While external navigation aids are allowed, GPS locating is not.

That's quite a challenge to say the least, and the Michigan Autonomous Aerial Vehicles team, which is associated with the University of Michigan, had been touted as the most likely entry at the American venue to succeed with Mission Six. Unfortunately, they encountered a perfect storm of equipment malfunctions, and were unable to complete the mission.
An artist's conception of the enemy facility to be burgled during the 2013 IARC (Photo: AU...

The remarkable performance of the Tsinghua University entry in completing Mission Six can be seen in the video below.

Source: AUVSI Foundation

[video=youtube;B-iZE_Nn52w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B-iZE_Nn52w[/video]

China makes it’s first Batch of Flexible AMOLED screen

By websitedeveloper on August 13, 2013 | From singsupplies.com

China makes it’s first Batch of Flexible AMOLED screen

August 13, 2013 by dio

China makes it’s first Batch of Flexible AMOLED screen : a few days ago, China’s first self-produced a color flexible AMOLED display at the South China University of Luminescent Materials and Devices Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology Co, Ltd. According to reports, the screen using a self-developed South China University of Ln-IZO metal oxide TFT technology, the display size of 4.8 inches and a thickness 100 microns, weighs less than 1g, and to achieve a color image display.

FANG said, this flexible screen with ultra-thin, flexible and folding, mechanical shock, and other advantages, has a very broad market prospects, will human life would have disruptive effects.

For now, the flexible screen is most likely the first to be used in the field of wearable devices, previously rumored Samsung will be released in September GALAXY Gear smart watches will be using the new flexible screen.

It is reported that the flexible AMOLED display technology widespread attention in the international community, to Samsung, LG , Sharp , AUO as the representatives of large international companies are actively developing the technology. The successful development of the color flexible AMOLED screen I believe will be worn on the domestic as well as other equipment to develop innovative electronic devices have a huge role in promoting, but currently the only solution is to require the production of flexible screen is extremely cost-control issues. Which we will continue to maintain attention.

China builds massive nuclear generator. But i dont understand the technical details. What is "per unit installed capacity"?

kroko said:

China builds massive nuclear generator. But i dont understand the technical details. What is "per unit installed capacity"?

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Should be referring to output per turbine. I think most power generating turbines are about 1000MW. Of course, a plant can have a few turbines.

kroko said:

China builds massive nuclear generator. But i dont understand the technical details. What is "per unit installed capacity"?

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t2contra is correct. Some twenty or thirty years ago a single generator of 1.3 GW in NE England ( was it for the Dax power station that was recently closed ? ) was the largest in the world and the BBC was very proud of it.