News on China's scientific and technological development.

solarz said:

We mentioned the environment as an American advantage previously, but China's advantage in language and culture is also extremely powerful. It's probably not hard to imagine that to many scientists who grew up in China, the American academic culture would be very difficult to get used to. Given comparable offers from both Chinese and American institutions, the "comforts of home" might tip the balance quite a bit!

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t2contra said:

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Whenever I read about Li-ion research in the US, I tend to mistake Li for the Chinese name.

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China's State Power Investment Corp said Westinghouse's bankruptcy filing would not have a "substantial impact" on the country's nuclear plans and the two sides would ensure a key AP1000 reactor project would be completed on schedule this year.

The project is the world's first Westinghouse-designed AP1000 reactor project, being built at Sanmen on China's eastern coast, and is one of four reactors planned with State Power.

"The two sides were fully aware of the importance of the Chinese AP1000 project and agreed to continue to make the project a common priority and increase investment to ensure that the target of putting the reactor into operation this year is met," it said in a statement on Thursday.

The first AP1000 was due to be completed in 2014, but construction was subject to delays as a result of design problems as well as a nationwide review of the nuclear industry following the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Westinghouse hoped the AP1000 would become the centerpiece of China's ambitious nuclear strategy, and expected to win dozens of new projects.

But industry sources said the Pittsburgh-based firm underestimated China's ability to develop its own home-brand third-generation designs, with China's own "Hualong 1" reactor selected over the AP1000 for a number of domestic nuclear projects.

A senior Chinese nuclear industry official said earlier this month that the reactor was still scheduled to go into full operation in the second half of 2017.


“The restructuring application by Westinghouse will not have a substantial impact on third generation reactor work such as the construction of the AP1000, the subsequent construction of a batch of CAP1000 reactors or the CAP1400 demonstration project,” the company said, referring to its homegrown third-generation reactor designs.

Westinghouse, owned by Japanese conglomerate Toshiba, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday as a result of billions of dollars of cost overruns at four reactors under construction in the United States.

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taxiya said:

The first (prototype) in a new display tech from BOE. It is very recent news, so most googling results are in Chinese, here is the Xinhua report.

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The only google return in English.

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While LCD display using some sort of QD tech is sold on the market such as Samsung or TCL QD TVs for example, the BOE prototype is a true Quantum Dot LED in that it is electrical excited/modulated QD emitting light rather than the existing applications using QD films as backlight filters. The current commercial products are essentially LCD displays with LED backlight sandwiched with QD filters. AMQLED is more closer in principle as AMOLED except non-organic which means longer life and less chance of burn-out.

This is another chance to leapfrog/bypass existing technology monopolies by well established competitors.

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KIENCHIN said:

I am about to replace my Hisense 65 inch 4K TV bought about 3 years ago, I will wait for this technology to come to market.

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taxiya said:

hehe, I think you should not hold your breath for it in the coming 5 years. The prototype is only 5 inches now. It will take some years for it to grow to 65 inches with a compatible price as AMOLED. BTW, 3 year old TV is still new compared with my 10 year old projector.

Here is supposedly the prototype.

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Bionic soft-bodied robot developed successfully

A team at Beihang University, together with a foreign company, has successfully developed a soft-bodied octopus tentacle robot, which will be used in industrial and medical contexts, among others, Xinhuanet.com reported on March 30.

The bionic soft-bodied tentacle is composed of materials similar to the soft tissues in living organisms. Inspiration for the robot was derived from the physiological structure of mollusks.

Unlike traditional rigid robots, which are often inefficient, insecure and prone to damaging their targets, the bionic soft-bodied robot can move quickly and is able to safely and securely grasp objects, thanks to the sucking function of a built-in disc.

The design, manufacturing process, mechanical analysis and control system of the robot were all developed by postgraduate students at the university in collaboration with Associate Professor Wen Li from the Mechanical Engineering and Automation College.

Research done in the process of creating the robot will not only help to advance scientists' understanding of materials, mechanics and kinematics found in nature, it will also promote the research and development of new materials and robots, according to Yu Junzhi, a researcher at the Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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taxiya said:

hehe, I think you should not hold your breath for it in the coming 5 years. The prototype is only 5 inches now. It will take some years for it to grow to 65 inches with a compatible price as AMOLED. BTW, 3 year old TV is still new compared with my 10 year old projector.

Here is supposedly the prototype.

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