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SCMP

We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.
1. China’s new tech war warriors: PhD graduates without a thesis
China’s top defence university is piloting a scheme that allows PhD students to graduate with a product or design instead of a thesis in an effort to solve “bottleneck” engineering problems amid the tech race with the United States.
2. Chief scientist at China’s top warship-building research institute detained

Guo Wei, the chief scientist at China’s Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, has been detained as part of an investigation into alleged academic misconduct and misuse of state research funds, according to local media reports.
3. China team simulates large-scale electronic warfare against Musk’s Starlink

The findings of a groundbreaking simulation study by Chinese scientists suggests that jamming Starlink across a region as large as Taiwan is technically feasible, but only at an immense scale that would require 1,000 to 2,000 electronic warfare drones.
4. Ex-UC Berkeley scientist’s death aged 44 highlights toll on Chinese researchers
Chinese biomedical researcher Xie Hongxue, whose academic trajectory included years at the University of California, Berkeley, and collaborations with pioneering chemical engineers, has died at the age of 44. He is among the dozens of younger Chinese academics who have died this year, an issue that has raised further questions about the country’s cutthroat academic system.
5. China is building world-first floating artificial island with nuclear-proof bunker

China is building a mega science infrastructure that could add fuel to the global maritime power race: a floating artificial island engineered to withstand nuclear blasts. This 78,000-tonne, semi-submersible twin-hull platform is the world’s first mobile, self-sustaining artificial island.
6. Ancient Chinese DNA shows gender bias in human sacrifice ritual 4,000 years ago
Evidence from elite burials at a large Stone Age settlement in northwestern China also suggests the existence of an early hierarchical society, with gender preference relating to the type of sacrificial ritual, according to the Chinese archaeologists and anthropologists behind the study.
7. ‘It is fake’: why US industry leader refused to believe China’s robot march clip

On November 14, Chinese robotics firm UBtech released footage showing hundreds of Walker S2 humanoid robots standing in precise formation inside a warehouse. The machines turned their heads in unison, waved their arms and marched into shipping containers. Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of leading US robotics company Figure, responded with disbelief. He immediately took to social media to suggest the footage was computer-generated.


Chip prodigy returns to China, coal waste used for critical minerals: 7 science highlights

Japan’s Russia concern, businesses choose Malaysia over Singapore: 7 Asia highlights

Chinese archaeologist pleads guilty, firms flee Singapore’s costs: 5 weekend reads you missed

China doubts Musk’s Starship future; ex-TSMC chip prodigy returns: SCMP’s 7 highlights

SCMP Highlights

China’s new tech war warriors, study on jamming Starlink signals: 7 science highlights

Excavation at the large stone-walled site at Shimao began in 2012. Photo: Handout

Harbin Institute of Technology. Photo: Shutterstock

Reports say Guo Wei may only have a high school qualification. Photo: Handout

Satellites that will form part of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation await release into orbit from a Falcon 9 rocket on May 24. Photo: SpaceX

Artist impression of the 78,000-tonne “far-sea floating mobile island”. Photo: SJTU, China State Shipbuilding Corporation

Chinese robotics firm UBtech has released footage showing hundreds of humanoid robots carrying out visually striking feats. Photo: Handout

Li Minyong, noted Chinese chemist and Royal Society fellow, dies at age 49

Li Minyong is remembered for making significant contributions to biomedical innovation in China. Photo: Handout 

Shenzhou-20 astronauts return home, Qian Hong leaves US for China: 7 science highlights

Astronaut Wang Jie waves as he is carried out of the Shenzhou-21 spaceship’s return capsule after it touched down at the Dongfeng landing site on Friday. Photo: Xinhua

Qian Hong, previously the Olga Jung Wan endowment professor in applied mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle, has returned to China after 40 years in the US. Photo: Handout

For nearly three millennia, she has been remembered not as a person, but as a symbol: the beautiful femme fatale whose cold heart and untouchable beauty brought down a dynasty. Photo: Handout

Chinese geologists have discovered a rare gold deposit in the Kunlun Mountains near the western border of Xinjiang, the third large haul to be found this year. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Researchers at CHIPX pose for a photo with their high-performance 6-inch thin-film lithium niobate chip, an advance that is poised to accelerate progress in AI and quantum computing. Photo: Handout

China ‘breeding’ uranium; PLA’s hypersonic ‘morphing’ missile: 7 science highlights

An example of the hypersonic morphing missile prototype. Photo: NUDT


Researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics are working on a thorium-based molten salt reactor that could transform nuclear energy in the Gobi Desert. Photo: Xinhua

Illustration: Henry Wong

As the Donald Trump administration slashes research funding and brings institutes under broader political control, some Chinese-American scientists are drawing parallels with China’s Cultural Revolution. Photo: AFP

News

China

Science

From a chief scientist’s detention to a revealing DNA discovery, here are some highlights from SCMP’s recent science reporting


From a chief scientist’s detention to a revealing DNA discovery, here are some highlights from SCMP’s recent science reporting.


Taiwan

China’s new tech war warriors, study on jamming Starlink signals: 7 science highlights

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From a chief scientist’s detention to a revealing DNA discovery, here are some highlights from SCMP’s recent science reporting

1. China’s new tech war warriors: PhD graduates without a thesis

From a chief scientist’s detention to a revealing DNA discovery, here are some highlights from SCMP’s recent science reporting