China Science & Technology Forum

[Martian2]

China develops indigenous large-scale Air Separation Unit (ASU) compressor

Air compressor first in China as Shengu breakthrough affirms domestic equipment potential | News | gasworld

 

[JSCh]

A New Water Robot "Born" to Detect Water Quality
Jan 06, 2016

Autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) (Image by YU Daoyang)​

As for water quality detection and sampling technology, the available domestic water robot has its own limitations that through on-line detection, it generally detects conventional water quality parameters. In this case, it is difficult to comprehensively detect the organic substances, nutrients and heavy metals in water and the water detection is conducted only through water samples in the laboratory. Thus, the conventional water detection technology fails in the in-situ and real-time detection of heavy metals and other important pollutants. In addition, the available technology apply only to shallow water. While it fails in detecting the distribution of the water quality at different depth levels in the water.

Given this, employing wind and solar hybrid generating system, a study team led by Prof. LIU Jinhuai’s from Institute of Intelligent Machines, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IIM, CAS), fabricated an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) which can be applied on the water surface for float automatic cleaning, automatic oil removal and in-situ water measurements and so on.

This new-designed ASV has absolute advantages over the existing water unmanned surface vehicle. The power source comes from large capacity battery, wind and solar power hybrid generating system which solve the motive forces problem of the long duration cruising for surface robot. Additionally, to cope with the robot global path planning and local real-time obstacle avoidance, the new ASV employs two-mode target recognition method based on vision and radar to develop intelligent algorithm. Moreover, the new ASV manages to overcome difficulty in automatic control of surface target via integrating multi-mode navigation system, the three dimensional electronic compass, drive automatic control of motor speed control technology, high bandwidth wireless data real-time transmission technology and artificial intelligence technology.

Since the advantages mentioned above, the water surface vehicle is taken as a platform to achieve the three-dimensional section in-situ and real-time detection and pollution state analysis of water quality. Moreover, the water quality monitoring instrument developed by the water vehicle is state-of-the-art and it is integrated into the surface of the water robot platform to build mobile water quality monitoring laboratory that can replace the available water quality monitoring station or monitoring buoy to achieve in-situ monitoring and early warning in any water and all-weather with low cost water quality.

Taking the ASV as the common platform, researchers have developed surface autonomous trash-cleaning robot, which consists of surface float automatic recovery device and the ASV. Similar to house cleaning robot, it is mainly used in sea, lakes, rivers, beaches and scenic lakes, ponds, and other solid waste disposal. It can be used even in danger zone by remote operations to enhance safety and efficiency.

Furthermore, researchers have also developed an efficient reusable super hydrophobic lipophilic material at a low cost. With the help of this material, surface vehicle can automatically identify the oil spill water, autonomous cruise, automatic cleaning and recovery of spilled oil. In this way, efficiency and automation level are improved with the cost saved.

At present, IIM has fabricated a prototype and its industrialization is underway.

Drawing extensive attention, the new design was reported by Xinhua Net, China News Network, People's Daily, CCTV network, Anhui Daily and other medias.

Interface for control system of ASV (Image by YU Daoyang)​

(Editor: YUAN Linlin)​

 

[JSCh]

8 Jan 2016
Visualising Atoms of Perovskite Crystals

Organic-inorganic perovskite materials are key components of the new generation of solar cells. Understanding properties of these materials is important for improving lifetime and quality of solar cells. Researchers from the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences (EMSS) Unit, led by Prof. Yabing Qi, at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in collaboration with Prof. Youyong Li’s group from Soochow University (China) and Prof. Nam-Gyu Park’s group from Sungkyunkwan University (Korea) report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society the first atomic resolution study of organic-inorganic perovskite.

Perovskites are a class of materials with the general chemical formula ABX3. A and B are positive ions bound by negative ions X. Organic-inorganic perovskites used in solar cells are usually methylammonium lead halides (CH3NH3PbX3, where X is bromine, iodine, or chlorine). The OIST scientists used a single crystal of methylammonium lead bromide (CH3NH3PbBr3) to create topographic images of its surface with a scanning tunneling microscope.

This microscope uses a conducting tip that moves across the surface in a manner very similar to a finger moving across a Braille sign. While the bumps in Braille signs are a few millimetres apart, the microscope detects bumps that are more than million times smaller — atoms and molecules. This is achieved by the quantum tunneling effect — the ability of an electron to pass through a barrier. The probability of an electron passing between the material surface and the tip depends on the distance between the two. The resulting atomic-resolution topographic images reveal positions and orientations of atoms and molecules, and also provide a detailed look at structural defects in the surface.

Topography image of atoms of the perovskite crystal and calculated images with position of atoms and molecules indicated. ​

"At room temperature atoms and molecules are quite mobile, so we decided to freeze the crystal to almost absolute zero (-269ºC) to get a good picture of its atomic structure,” says Dr Robin Ohmann, a member of the EMSS Unit and the first author of the paper. The crystal was cut and studied in a vacuum to avoid contamination of the surface. Dr Ohmann's colleagues from Soochow University calculated atomic structures using principles of quantum physics and then compared them with scanning tunneling microscopy data.

Dr Robin Ohmann, first author of the paper, transfers a sample into the scanning tunneling microscope.​

The researchers discovered that methylammonium molecules can rotate and that they favour specific orientations that lead to two types of surface structures with distinctly different properties. Apart from rotation, these molecules affect positions of neighbouring bromine ions, further altering the atomic structure. Since the structure dictates the electronic properties of the material, the geometric positions of atoms are essential for understanding of solar cells.

The researchers discovered that methylammonium molecules (represented by a ball-and-stick model in the centre) can rotate and that they favour specific orientations that lead to two types of surface structures with distinctly different properties (left and right images).​

Scanning tunneling microscope images also reveal local imperfections caused by dislocations of molecules and ions and, probably, missing atoms. These imperfections may affect device performance, for example, by changing electrical properties such as conductivity.

The structure of perovskite materials is temperature-sensitive and the observed structure of the frozen crystal might not be fully identical to the structure at room temperature. However, the comprehensive description of perovskite crystals at the atomic level paves the way to better understanding of their behaviour under real-life conditions. The current findings shed light on molecule-ion interplay on the surface of an organic-inorganic crystal and should help to improve designs of future solar cells. The next goal of the researchers is to examine interactions between perovskites and other molecules, for example water molecules that are known to interfere with the performance of solar cells.

By Olga Garnova

Visualising Atoms of Perovskite Crystals | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University OIST

 

[Martian2]

Taiwan's ITRC builds indigenous lithography projection lens for 3D integrated circuit steppers

Manufacturing technology for lithography optics | SPIE Homepage: SPIE

 

[cirr]

Lattice Power Receives National Science & Technology Invention Award for Development of Silicon Based LED Technology

HONG KONG, Jan. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited ("SFCE" or the "company", HK stock code: 1165) today announced that its subsidiary, Lattice Power Corporation ("Lattice Power"), has won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Invention Award for the "High Efficacy GaN-on-Si Blue LED" technology that was jointly developed by Lattice Power, Nanchang University, CECEP Lattice Lighting Co., Ltd. and the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group.

"Currently there are three LED technology paths in the LED lighting industry – sapphire substrate, silicon carbide substrate and silicon substrate," said Eric Luo, SFCE's executive director and CEO. "While the first two of these technologies have already been monopolized in the US and Japan, after a decade of research and development, the silicon substrate technology has finally been patented and commercialized by Lattice Power in China. I would like to congratulate Professor Fengyi Jiang, Dr. Qian Sun, Dr. Min Wang and their team at Lattice Power for achieving this impressive technological breakthrough and winning this award."

Silicon substrate LED technology benefits from good thermal conductivity, low-cost materials as well as competitive wafer sizes, which enables lighting products to be manufactured at lower cost, with higher power and better directivity. Compared to sapphire substrate and silicon carbide substrate technologies, the silicon substrate technology can be applied to a wider range of applications including residential lighting, commercial lighting, landscape lighting and automotive lighting.

Professor Fengyi Jiang and Dr. Min Wang co-founded Lattice Power with the goal of commercializing silicon substrate LED lighting technology in 2006. Lattice Power subsequently completed four rounds of fund-raising from GSR Ventures, Temasek Holdings, IFC and APAC Resources Limited, respectively. In May 2015, SFCE acquired a 59% equity stake in Lattice Power as an important part of its low-carbon, integrated, clean energy platform.

About SFCE

Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited (SFCE) is committed to becoming the largest low-carbon, integrated, clean energy generation provider globally. Through strategic acquisitions and integration, SFCE owns a number of well-known product and technology brands in the industry. SFCE fosters a continuous improvement in energy generation including in solar, sea water power and ground source heat pumps, combined with energy management and storage capabilities. SFCE aims to provide clean energy solutions to large scale public facilities and commercial users such as business facilities, office buildings, schools, hospitals sports stadiums and households. SFCE's energy solutions can achieve energy cost reductions of 50% - 70%, creating energy generation choices for its customers to reduce both carbon emissions and energy costs. To learn more about the company, please visitwww.sfcegroup.com/en/.

Lattice Power Receives National Science & Technology Invention Award for Development of... -- HONG KONG, Jan. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

 

[Keel]

中国首架极地固定翼飞机在南极成功试飞
2015-12-07 20:49 来源： 新华社

12月7日，中国首架极地固定翼飞机“雪鹰601”在中山站附近成功试飞后，科考队员们合影留念。当日，中国首架极地固定翼飞机“雪鹰601”在南极中山站附近的冰盖机场成功试飞。固定翼飞机在南极考察，特别是内陆考察中可发挥快速运输、应急救援等重要保障作用，同时可搭载多种科学观测设备，是高效的科研平台。据介绍，目前世界上只有少数几个国家在南极拥有集快速运输、应急救援和航空科学调查于一体的多功能固定翼飞机。加快固定翼飞机在中国南极考察中的成熟应用，具有重要意义。新华社记者 朱基钗 摄

12月7日，“雪鹰601”在中山站附近飞行。新华社记者 朱基钗 摄

12月7日，中国首架极地固定翼飞机“雪鹰601”停在中山站附近。新华社记者 朱基钗 摄

12月7日，“雪鹰601”在中山站附近冰盖上滑行，即将起飞。新华社记者 朱基钗 摄

12月7日，中国科考队员登上“雪鹰601”。新华社记者 朱基钗 摄

Translation:
China's first aircraft fixed-wing aircraft in the Antarctica successful test flight
2015-12-07 20:49 Source: Xinhua News Agency

December 7, China's first aircraft Polar fixed-wing aircraft, "Snow Hawk 601" after a successful test flight near the Zhongshan station, expedition team members posed for pictures. The same day, China's first aircraft Polar fixed-wing aircraft, "Snow Hawk 601" Zhongshan Station in Antarctica ice sheet near the airport successful test flight. Fixed-wing aircraft in the Antarctic expedition, especially inland expedition can play fast transport, emergency rescue, and other important security role, but can carry a variety of scientific observation equipment, efficient research platform. According to reports, the world only a few countries have set rapid transit in the Antarctic, emergency rescue and aviation scientific investigation multifunctional fixed-wing aircraft. Accelerate the maturity fixed-wing aircraft used in Chinese Antarctic expedition of great significance. Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhu Ji and Chai She

December 7, "Snow Hawk 601" near the Zhongshan Station flight. Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhu Ji and Chai She

.

我科考船“海洋六号”完成科考任务 明年将挺进南极
2015-11-10 19:29 来源： 新华社

新华社广州１１月１０日电（记者王攀）历时１９７天、航程近６万公里——隶属中国地质调查局广州海洋地质调查局的科考船“海洋六号”完成了入列以来航次时间最长、参航和轮换人数最多、作业区跨度最大的一次大洋科考任务，于１０日归航广东省东莞市专用码头。据介绍，这也是“海洋六号”遭遇恶劣海况时间最长、受厄尔尼诺现象影响程度最大的一次科考航次。

在当天举行的欢迎仪式上，广州海洋地质调查局高级工程师、“海洋六号”总首席科学家何高文说，“海洋六号”于今年４月２８日从广州启航，横跨西、中、东太平洋，经受１０个台风袭扰，８家单位１２１人参与，在多个区域开展调查，在深海稀土资源调查、我国富钴结壳合同区资源与环境考察和多金属结核资源调查以及“海马”号无人遥控潜水器（ＲＯＶ）应用等方面取得了丰硕成果。本航次一共获得作业区测线调查２．３万千米和航渡测线调查１４万千米综合地球物理调查数据资料、测站调查１２８个站位样品资料，获取沉积物岩心样品总长２９７米，多金属结核样品１．１吨，现场分析各类样品３０００个，为室内进一步研究提供了宝贵的第一手数据和样品。

其中，“海洋六号”承担的２０１５年深海资源调查航次历时７７天，取得两项成果：一是继续在太平洋国际海域开展深海稀土资源调查，首次发现高含量稀土富集层段，初步圈定新成矿远景区；并对深海沉积物稀土富集机制等问题进行了探讨，为下一步开展成矿机制和资源评价研究提供了基础资料；二是首次在东太平洋国际海域开展多道地震为主的综合地质地球物理调查，初步查明了调查区的地层和构造特征，为后续研究提供了基础资料。

此外，“海洋六号”还承担了中国大洋第３６航次任务，航次历时１２０天，取得多项成果，包括继续履行我国与国际海底管理局签订的富钴结壳勘探合同义务、实现了多波束回波勘探新技术在多金属结核和富钴结壳资源调查领域的推广应用、进一步扩展富钴结壳合同区环境调查范围，深化深海环境认知水平等，特别是首次成功将我国自主研制的４５００米级无人遥控潜水器（ＲＯＶ）“海马”号应用于我国富钴结壳合同区调查，填补了我国在海山区资源和环境调查手段方面的一项空白，提升了我国在该领域的技术水平。

自１９８６年以来，中国地质调查局广州海洋地质调查局先后组织“海洋四号”、“海洋六号”完成了１６个航次的中国大洋科学考察活动。何高文说，明年“海洋六号”计划挺进南极执行新一轮科考任务，预计用时约３００天。

Translation:

China's research vessel "Ocean VI" to complete the task next year will advance to the Antarctic expedition
2015-11-10 19:29 Source: Xinhua News Agency


Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, November 10 (Reporter Wang Pan) - Lasted 197 days, nearly 60,000 km voyage - under the China Geological Survey Bureau of Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey research vessel "Ocean VI" time since the completion of the voyage into the column the longest, largest number of Senate flight and rotation, once the operation area spans the largest ocean expedition mission, on the 10th owned by Air Dongguan, Guangdong Province wharf. According to reports, this is the "Ocean VI" in bad sea conditions, the longest time, the degree of influence by the El Nino phenomenon biggest expedition voyage.
At the welcoming ceremony held the same day, a senior engineer of Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, "Ocean VI" Total Chief Scientist 何高文 said, "Ocean VI" on April 28 this year, set sail from Guangzhou, across the West, East Pacific, subjected to 10 typhoons harassment, eight units of 121 people involved to carry out investigations in a number of areas in the deep earth resources survey, China's cobalt-rich crusts contract Land Resources and Environment Investigation and polymetallic nodule resources in the investigation and "hippocampus" No. aspects of ROV (ROV) applications and achieved fruitful results. The cruise line received a total operating area measuring 2.3 million kilometers and a sea-crossing survey survey line survey 14 million meters of integrated geophysical survey data, station 128 stations sample survey data, sediment core samples get the total length of 297 meters, more 1.1 tons of metal tuberculosis sample, on-site analysis of various samples 3000, for further study provided valuable firsthand indoor data and samples.

Among them, the "Ocean VI" assumed 2015 survey of deep-sea resources voyage lasted 77 days, and achieved two outcomes: First, continue to carry out deep-sea surveys of rare earth resources in the Pacific international waters, first discovered high levels of REE enrichment layer segment, preliminary delineation of new metallogenic prospect areas; and issue deep-sea sediments REE enrichment mechanisms were discussed for further mineralization mechanisms and resources to carry out evaluation studies provide basic data; the second is for the first time to carry out multi-channel seismic-based international waters in the eastern Pacific Comprehensive geological and geophysical surveys, preliminary identification of the stratigraphic and structural characteristics of the survey area, provided the basic data for future study.

Moreover, "Ocean VI" also bear the China Ocean Voyage 36th mission, the voyage lasted 120 days, made a number of achievements, including cobalt-rich crusts continue to fulfill our obligations under the contract for exploration signed with the International Seabed Authority to achieve a multibeam echo promote the use of new technologies for exploration for polymetallic nodules and cobalt resources survey in the field of environment to further expand the scope of investigation Crust contract area, deepening the cognitive level of the deep ocean environment, especially for the first time China has independently developed successfully 4500 m level ROV (ROV) "hippocampus" was applied to the investigation of cobalt-rich crusts contract area, to fill our resources and the environment in an investigation means sea mountain gaps, to enhance the country in this field skill.

Since 1986, China Geological Survey Bureau of Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey Bureau has organized the "Ocean IV", "Ocean VI" China completed 16 scientific expeditions ocean voyage.何高文 said that next year, "Ocean VI" plan to advance the implementation of a new round of the Antarctic expedition mission, expected to be approximately 300 days when used.

.

 

[cirr]

Another Enemy For Qualcomm: Huawei

Dec. 29, 2015 11:57 AM ET

Summary

Huawei is going to sell more than 100M smartphones in 2015.

Huawei, through HiSilicon, is building some of its own SoCs.

It looks like it is working on a personalized GPU and personalized memories.

It is only time to see also personalized CPU cores from HiSilicon.

This is another decreasing revenue source for Qualcomm.

I have already written something about Huawei and other companies that are building their own application processors, in order to detach from Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM), improve system optimization and increase profits.

Huawei has been able to build low cost and competitive SoCs in a very narrow time frame, even if they are still not very fast from the graphic point of view. For example, Huawei has managed to build a very competitive SoC with its Kirin 950, which shows various specs that are able to better face competitors' solutions.

But recently, it looks like Huawei is willing to become even more independent and it may also become a serious SoC supplier for other producers.

Kirin 950

The Kirin 950 looks to be a very good piece of silicon: it is a big.LITTLE application processor (big cluster of 4 high performance ARM A72 cores - LITTLE cluster of 4 low power ARM A53 cores), powered by a Mali T880 MP4 at 900 MHz. From the CPU point of view, it has a lot of power, while the GPU is modern and updated, it will be no match for the Snapdragon 820 or the Exynos 8890. But, generally, these are more paper specifications than effective user experience features: the CPU power is more than enough to drive any kind of typical application and the same goes for the GPU, where even high demanding mobile games do not push actual GPUs to their fullest.

Huawei did not only build a good CPU/GPU SoC, but it has been able to build an overall interesting solution: it has an i5 co-processor that reduces power consumption from 90 mA to 6.5 mA, there is a LTE Cat-6 integrated modem, it uses a 16nm technology node, it has VoLTE support, it provides high support for voice frequencies from 50 Hz to 7 KHz and it reduces audio latency by 80%. The i5 implementation is particularly interesting given the wide difference for power consumption and it is likely to provide some consistent power efficiency boost.

This Kirin 950 also provides other important characteristics: the ISP is finally competitive, with a dual ISP 14 bit, which is the new PrimISP and IVP32 DSP. This feature will permit to reach good camera and video results, probably at competitors' level. In addition, HiSilicon implemented a hybrid memory controller, compatible with both LPDDR3 and LPDDR4, getting even ahead of the ARM (NASDAQ:ARMH) team.

It is quite clear that HiSilicon/Huawei has been able to massively improve in the Application processor field: it has started from low end SoCs, getting now to high end SoCs and the results are very promising.

More autonomy

Recent rumors state that Huawei is working on its own personal GPU: this is something that both Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) are already trying to do; therefore, it is not a surprise to see such an important producer trying to develop some personal IP. Developing a personalized GPU would permit to improve profit margins and to better scale software optimization. If we also remind that Huawei is even working on a new operative system, the choice to develop a personal GPU makes even more sense.

All of this gets more interesting once we read that Huawei is also working on some kind of personalized flash memory to be produced by Samsung, SK Hynix or Micron (NASDAQ:MU). In this way, Huawei would get more autonomy and it would undertake a similar path to Apple, which is actually developing its own Application Processor that are produced by TSMC (NYSE:TSM) and Samsung, a path extended to the overall platform.

Market results

If we recall that Huawei is selling more than 100M devices in 2015, we can get the entity of such policy: tens of millions of devices are still powered by Qualcomm; therefore, if Huawei continues on this route with personal SoCs with integrated modems, it will be able to completely exclude Qualcomm from its smartphones.

In addition, if Huawei decides to provide its SoCs for a consistent number of producers, it would erode additional market share from Qualcomm and Mediatek. If we consider that Huawei products are already competitive, this company has a great potential to gain market share in this sector.

And what about ARM custom cores?

In this overall discussion, the fact that Huawei has no project about some customized ARM cores looks quite strange: a custom core like Samsung Mongoose, Qualcomm Kryo or Apple Twister would suit very well in a completely optimized platform (custom CPU, personal GPU, personal ISP, personal flash memory).

It is probably only a matter of time before we see some move on this frontier, but this delay is quite sensible since the ARM A72 cores are very powerful and the actual high performance level is more than sufficient for every kind of smartphone computing requirement. In addition, the next ARM substitute of A53 looks very promising and energy efficient.

A different story must be told for the Mali architecture, since it has never been able to provide constant leading edge performances in comparison to Adreno or Power VR. Think about the Snapdragon 810: even if it has a very hot CPU, the GPU was very good and was consistently faster than the Mali T760 on long-term performance (due to lower throttling).

Personalized OS doubts

The most relevant issue that comes to my mind regards Huawei OS: Huawei is working on some kind of OS, codenamed Kirin OS, and it would be useful to detach from Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

The criticism here is quite obvious: such a detach from Android would be probably deleterious for what concerns the Android applications ecosystem and services. The only profitable way to achieve such an objective would be to push developers to support Kirin OS.

But, my question is Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is still struggling to do so and it is doing it very slowly, even if it will be able to exploit the massive Windows installed base. Huawei cannot do it, therefore, how is it possible for it to build a solid and effective ecosystem when Android and iOS are very solid and Microsoft is still struggling? I personally doubt that a detach from Android could be a feasible and profitable way for its business: the Chinese market could be good enough for their projects, but Europe, US and other countries are a completely different story.

Takeaway

Huawei is becoming a strong competitor in the application processor field and it has the potential to gain good market share. Mediatek is also growing fast, providing updated SoCs every year, and becoming more and more competitive. Samsung is also growing fast and it is gradually using its own SoCs to substitute competitors' solutions even for the mid-end and the low-end devices.

In this scenario, the company, which is risking more to lose further market share is Qualcomm. Qualcomm is going to suffer a more and more oppressive competition in the AP market, while it has also has to face some infringement matters.

Qualcomm still has additional revenue sources to exploit, like the healthcare and the drone field, but the application processor market pressure and the gradually declining royalties yield are not good points to take into account.

On the contrary, the new Snapdragon 820 provides renewed good performances for a good enough power consumption tradeoff, with a completely personalized SoC and a very competitive GPU. Given the announced producers' adoption, the SD 820 is likely to provide a better financial performance than the SD 810 and it is going to improve Qualcomm's image that was somewhat scratched last year.

I actually rate it a hold, with a possible short-term upgrade if the SD 820 will provide optimal performance once released on real products.

Another Enemy For Qualcomm: Huawei - Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) | Seeking Alpha

 

[bobsm]

Chinese scientists develop shape-shifting material
2016-01-10 20:49:45 | Editor: huaxia

Hangzhou, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The plastic-flake-turned "paper crane" is not a work of origami - it is the result of a demonstration of a shape-shifting polymer developed by scientists at east China's Zhejiang University.

The material can change between different preset shapes under certain conditions, such as temperature. The crane was formed by dunking the material into water heated to 60 degrees Celsius.

The scientists' findings were published on Friday in Science Advances, an online journal from AAAS, the publisher of Science magazine.

Shape-shifting materials have been under development for years. Most of these materials are incapable of accumulating multiple changes over time.

However, the polymer developed by the scientists at Zhejiang University is able to snap between different shapes, opening new applications for shape-changing materials.

"It can be used to make veins or heart brackets or on surgical equipment that can get rid of blood clot thrombosis," said Zhao Qian from Zhejiang University. He is the first author of the paper published in Science Advances.

The material may also be used to make flexible medical equipment that can change shape in response to changes in body temperature.

Chinese scientists develop shape-shifting material - Xinhua | English.news.cn

 

[JSCh]

Interview: U.S. scientists thrilled to receive China's top science honor
English.news.cn | 2016-01-09 04:29:21 | Editor: huaxi

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. scientists, who were among the seven recipients of China's International Cooperation Award in Science and Technology on Friday in Beijing, said they were thrilled to be awarded the highest Chinese honor in science for foreigners.

"It is one of the greatest honors that a scientist can hope to achieve," Walter Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said of his first reaction when he first heard this honor.

Lipkin told Xinhua in an interview before the award ceremony that in 2013, at the height of the SARS outbreak, he was invited by the Chinese government to help assess the state of the epidemic and develop a strategy for containing the virus and reducing morbidity and mortality.

After the SARS outbreak was contained, he helped China create a series of centers aimed at more rapidly detecting and responding to emerging infectious disease threats.

Currently, Lipkin's academic efforts in China focused on areas such as mentoring young Chinese scientists, encouraging China-born scientists to return home for positions in drug diagnostics and discovery, and helping them prosper through technology transfer and collaboration.

He also served as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee member of the Joint Center for Global Change Studies at Beijing Normal University.

"I am pleased to say that China now has state of the art infectious disease research and surveillance and am proud to have participated in the birth of the new era of science in China that we are celebrating today," he said.

As to how to further promote Chinese-foreign science cooperation, he said China should build academic and research programs that attract not only Chinese nationals but also the best students and investigators worldwide irrespective of country of origin.

Peter Stang, a distinguished professor of chemistry and former dean of science at the University of Utah, also told Xinhua he was "very surprised and greatly honored" to receive this award. "I did not at all expect this very special recognition," he said.

Stang's collaborations with Chinese chemists originated from a visit to the Institute of Chemistry the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he discovered that they "had expertise that we did not have but would be very interesting to apply in our research," he recalled.

Noting that he likes Chinese culture, Chinese history, Chinese people and Chinese food, Stang said: "I have many excellent visiting scholars and postdoctoral fellows from China. In fact, my current research group of 10 persons has seven researchers from China."

He called China's investment in science and technology a "wise" decision because it's very important for the future.

"I hope China will continue to strongly support science and technology," Stang said. "Future economic wellbeing and the health and wealth of people all over the world depend on new discoveries and developments in science and technology."

Seven foreign scientists received this year's International Cooperation Award in Science and Technology at a ceremony on Friday in Beijing. The awards were presented by state leaders including Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Liu Yunshan and Zhang Gaoli.

Besides Lipkin and Stang, the other five recipients were Jan-Christer Janson from Sweden, Kazuki Okimura from Japan, Evgeny Velikhov from Russia, Carlo Rubbia from Italy and Joannes E. Frencken from the Netherlands.

Since 1995, China has given the International Cooperation Award in Science and Technology to 101 foreign scientists and two international organizations.

 

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New material can fold itself into hundreds of shapes

• By John Bohannon
• 8 January 2016 2:00 pm

Call it one small step for material science, one giant leap for origami. Researchers have created the first heat-reactive polymer material that can not only remember its current shape but also memorize new ones. The material—which currently requires high temperatures to change shape and reset its memory—could lead to a new generation of reusable self-folding materials that could be useful for everything from medical implants to shape-shifting electronics.

Self-folding materials aren’t new. The first generation of shape memory polymers folded into a single predetermined shape whenever they were heated. Later generations could be triggered by other stimuli, such as light, electrical charges, or a magnetic field. But they all relied on a property known as elasticity. When cool, their stringy polymers coil up. They straighten out into a new shape when heated, and then they bend right back to the default shape once they cool off again. In this way, they keep a “memory” of their original shape.

But elastic shape memory materials can only memorize two or three shapes. A 2005 Science paper offered a possible route to hundreds or even thousands: Rather than elasticity—the tendency for a material to come back to the same shape—the paper demonstrated a way to trigger a change in a material's plasticity, that is its ability to be reshaped. "The question was ... can we incorporate these two shape-shifting behaviors in one polymer?" says Tao Xie, a chemical engineer at the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering in Hangzhou, China.

To make a material that is both plastic and elastic, Xie and colleagues started with a known elastic material: crosslinked poly(caprolactone), or PCL. To give the material plasticity, they added a chemical called 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD). If it works, then above and below PCL's elastic temperature point the material should flip between a default shape and one other shape. But if the temperature is raised above the plasticity threshold, then the TBD kicks in by creating chemical bonds between the polymer chains. If you physically manipulate the material into a new shape before this plastic "annealing" process starts, then the default shape gets replaced.

But the trick for Xie was to combine PCL and TBD in such a way that the elastic and plastic temperatures were far enough away from each other that the material can switch cleanly between its different shapes. Otherwise, it could become a chaotic shape-shifting mess, like the death scene of the liquid metal T-1000 in the film Terminator 2. (You're welcome, sci-fi geeks.)

After months of fine-tuning the mixture of these chemicals, the team nailed the critical temperature gap. The new substance has transition temperatures of 70°C and 130°C for elasticity and plasticity, respectively. To demonstrate its multishape capabilities, Xie's team turned a 30-millimeter square of the material into an origami masterpiece that could fold between two shapes using elasticity and change into other shapes using plasticity.

​

Drs. Qian Zhao and Tao Xie​

The steps that the new material goes through to change from one shape to another.​

Not only did the material fold into multiple different shapes, but it could also snap between them hundreds of times with little sign of fatigue—a critical feature if the material is to be used in real-world applications, they report today in Science Advances.

The team is already working on a version of the material that works at lower temperatures. "The biggest challenge for us is not necessarily technical, but rather our imagination of what the possibilities are with this type of shape-shifting behavior," Xie says. He considers flexible electronics to be one possible "killer application." Imagine an electronic newspaper that becomes plastic in the heat of your hands but always folds back down when you're done reading it.

The new material is a “step forward” in shape-programmable systems, says Timothy White, a chemical engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, who was not involved in the research. Among the possible applications on his mind is a "reconfigurable antenna." Not only could it be bent into many different shapes, but it would still always be able to retract.

Science| DOI: 10.1126/science.aae0202

New material can fold itself into hundreds of shapes | Science/AAAS | News

 

[JSCh]

China’s AUV Qianlong-2 Successfully Conducted Its First Undersea Exploration
By Zhu Xi (People's Daily Online) 04:21, January 12, 2016

China’s self-developed unmanned autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Qianlong-2 accomplished its first undersea exploration on January 10, 2016.​

Independently developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 4500-meter AUV dived to a depth of 1600 meters in the hydrothermal area of the Indian Ocean. It explored the seabed and collected high-precision hydrological data without any cable control.

(Editor:Shen Chen,Bianji)​

 

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CGN launches small demonstrative ACPR50S offshore nuclear reactor project
Xinhua Finance 2016-01-13 10:40 BEIJING

China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) announced Tuesday that it has started preliminary design for a small demonstrative ACPR50S offshore nuclear reactor project, which has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission to enlist in the 2016-2020 development plan for energy technology innovation.

Construction on the demonstrative offshore nuclear reactor is expected to start in 2017 and complete by 2020, said CGN. ACPR50S is an independent offshore nuclear reactor technology developed by CGN with unit thermal power capacity of 200MW, which could provide reliable and stable electricity for power and heat supply in offshore oil and gas exploration and island development.

Besides, CGN is studying on ACPR100, an inland small nuclear reactor technology with unit thermal power capacity of 450MW, which could supplement largest nuclear power generating units. (Contributed by Li Xiaohui, lixh@xinhua.org)

 

[Martian2]

China's CCRSS hyperspectral satellite sees in 328 electromagnetic bands with 15 meter resolution.

The hidden man fuelling China’s military ambitions: Xiang Libin honoured for work on ‘super camera’ to aid spy satellites | South China Morning Post

"The China Commercial Remote-sensing Satellite System (CCRSS) will be able to collect data on 328 bands offering very high resolution of up to 15 metres, according to the researchers from the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth in Beijing. This means each pixel in the image measures 15 metres squared.

Hyperspectral research efforts have been going on in China for several decades, having begun at the start of the 1970s, the team said in a presentation.

The technology was tested extensively and improved over time on aircraft-based platforms, before researchers shifted their attention to devices in space.

The first satellite-based hyperspectral camera, called the CMODIS, was installed on Shenzhou-3, an unmanned spacecraft that China launched in 2002.

The camera was fairly primitive with just 34 spectral bands and resolution as low as 500 metres, but it was soon replaced as Chinese technology in this area developed at a fast clip.

By 2008 the small satellite constellation known as HJ-1 was able to scan 115 bands with resolution of 100 metres, according to the researchers.

But as these developments and sensors all took place in equipment destined for the civilian sector, many suspect the cameras used by China’s military can perform significantly better."

 

[JSCh]

Archaeologists discover world's oldest tea buried with ancient Chinese emperor
The tea aficionado ruler – the Han Dynasty Emperor Jing Di – died in 141 BC, making the leaves 2,150 years old

• David Keys Archaeology Correspondent @davidmkeys
  
• Sunday 10 January 2016 21:22 BST

The tea drinking emperor, Jing Di ​

Archaeologists have discovered the oldest tea in the world among the treasures buried with a Chinese emperor.

New scientific evidence suggests that ancient Chinese royals were partial to a cuppa – at least 2150 years ago.

Indeed, they seem to have liked it so much that they insisted on being buried with it – so they could enjoy a cup of char in the next world.

Previously, no tea of that antiquity had ever been found – although a single ancient Chinese text from a hundred years later claimed that China was by then exporting tea leaves to Tibet.

The new discovery was made by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

By examining tiny crystals trapped between hairs on the surface of the leaves and by using mass spectrometry, they were able to work out that the leaves, buried with a mid second century BC Chinese emperor, were actually tea.

The scientific analysis of the food and other offerings in the Emperor’s tomb complex have also revealed that, as well as tea, he was determined to take millet, rice and chenopod with him to the next life.

Human figures buried in the tea-drinking emperor, Jing Di tomb complex near Xian ​

The tea aficionado ruler – the Han Dynasty Emperor Jing Di – died in 141 BC, so the tea dates from around that year. Buried in a wooden box, it was among a huge number of items interred in a series of pits around the Emperor’s tomb complex for his use in the next world.

Other items included weapons, pottery figurines, an ‘army’ of ceramic animals and several real full size chariots complete with their horses.

The tomb, located near the Emperor Jing Di’s capital Chang’an (modern Xian), can now be visited. Although the site was excavated back in the 1990s, it is only now that scientific examination of the organic finds has identified the tea leaves.

The tea-drinking emperor himself was an important figure in early Chinese history. Often buffeted by intrigue and treachery, he was nevertheless an unusually enlightened and liberal ruler. He was determined to give his people a better standard of living and therefore massively reduced their tax burden. He also ordered that criminals should be treated more humanely – and that sentences should be reduced. What’s more, he successfully reduced the power of the aristocracy.

“The discovery shows how modern science can reveal important previously unknown details about ancient Chinese culture. The identification of the tea found in the emperor’s tomb complex gives us a rare glimpse into very ancient traditions which shed light on the origins of one of the world’s favourite beverages,” said Professor Dorian Fuller, Director of the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology, based in UCL, London.

The research has just been published in Nature’s online open access journal Scientific Reports.

The tea discovered in the Emperor’s tomb seems to have been of the finest quality, consisting solely of tea buds – the small unopened leaves of the tea plant, usually considered to be of superior quality to ordinary tea leaves.

Archaeologists discover world's oldest tea buried with ancient Chinese emperor | Archaeology | News | The Independent

 

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Prosthetic Leg with Hoofed Foot Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb
by Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | January 11, 2016 09:41am ET

​

A 2,200-year-old prosthetic leg was discovered in a tomb in China and would've been worn by a man with a deformed knee.
Credit: Images courtesy Chinese Archaeology ​

The 2,200-year-old remains of a man with a deformed knee attached to a prosthetic leg tipped with a horse hoof have been discovered in a tomb in an ancient cemetery near Turpan, China.

The tomb holds the man and a younger woman, who may or may not have known the male occupant, scientists say.

"The excavators soon came to find that the left leg of the male occupant is deformed, with the patella, femur and tibia [fused] together and fixed at 80 [degrees]," archaeologists wrote in a paper published recently in the journal Chinese Archaeology. [In Photos: Ancient King's Mausoleum Discovered in China]

The fused knee would have made it hard for the man to walk or ride horses without the prosthetic leg, the researchers found. The man couldn't straighten his left leg out so the prosthetic leg, when attached, allowed the left leg to touch the floor when walking. The horse hoof at the bottom of the prosthetic leg acted like a foot.

The prosthetic leg was "made of poplar wood; it has seven holes along the two sides with leather tapes for attaching it to the deformed leg," the archaeologists wrote. "The lower part of the prosthetic leg is rendered into a cylindrical shape, wrapped with a scrapped ox horn and tipped with a horsehoof, which is meant to augment its adhesion and abrasion."

"The severe wear of the top implies that it has been in use for a long time," they added.

Radiocarbon dating indicates that the tomb in Turpan (also spelled Turfan) dates back around 2,200 years. The only other known prosthetic leg in the world that dates to that time is part of a bronze leg found in Capua, Italy. That leg was destroyed in a bombing raid during World War II. Prosthetic toes, dating to earlier times, have been found in Egypt.

Who used it?

Two other studies, published in the journals Bridging Eurasia and Quaternary International, provide more details about the man who used the hoofed leg. Researchers estimate that the man was about 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters) tall, and between 50 and 65 years old when he died.

The man died when he was 50 or 60 years old; some time after he died his tomb was reopened and the body of a woman was put in, disturbing the man's bones.
Credit: Images courtesy Chinese Archaeology​

What caused the odd fusion of his left knee joint? "Different causes, like inflammation in or around the joint, rheumatism or trauma, might have resulted in this pathological change," archaeologists wrote in the journal Bridging Eurasia.

Researchers found evidence that the man was infected with tuberculosis at some point in his life. They think that inflammation from the infection may have resulted in a bony growth that allowed his knee to fuse together. "The smooth surface of the bones affected by the ankyloses [joint fusion] suggests the active inflammatory process stopped years before death," the researchers wrote in Bridging Eurasia.

The man appears to have been a person of modest means, as he was buried with nonluxurious items: ceramic cups and a jar, a wooden plate and wooden bows, the archaeologists found. Sometime after he died, his tomb was reopened, and the body of a 20-year-old woman was put in, disturbing the man's bones. What relationship the man and woman had (if any) is unknown. The tomb was one of 30 that archaeologists excavated in the cemetery.

Gushi people

Based on the results of the radiocarbon dating, "the occupants of the cemetery might have belonged to the Gushi [also spelled Jushi] population," archaeologists wrote in the Chinese Archaeology article.

Little is known about these people. Ancient Chinese texts suggest that the Gushi had a small state. "As recorded in the Xiyu zhuan (the Account of the Western Regions) of the Hanshu (Book of Han, by Ban Gu), during the middle of the Western Han, there lived in the Turfan Basin the Gushi population, who constitutes one of the 'Thirty-six States of the Western Regions' of the Qin and Han Dynasties," the archaeologists wrote.

The Gushi state was conquered by China's Han Dynasty during a military campaign in the first century B.C., according to ancient records. "Given that the study of the Gushi culture is yet at its nascent stage, the [cemetery] provides valuable new materials," the archaeologists wrote.

Excavations at the cemetery were conducted between 2007 and 2008 by scientists at the Academia Turfanica, a research institute. A paper reporting their findings was published in 2013, in Chinese, in the journal Kaogu. That paper was recently translated and published in the journal Chinese Archaeology.

The papers reporting the study of the man's skeleton were published in 2014 in the journal Bridging Eurasia and in 2013 in the journal Quaternary International.

Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Prosthetic Leg with Hoofed Foot Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb