Another banger year!
China is building a 10MW demonstration thorium-based molten-salt reactor in the Gobi Desert, scheduled to be operational by 2030, after a successful building a 2-MW experimental version and operated since 2021.
3,600 times faster: high-purity steel in 3 – 6 seconds. Cuts energy 70%, eliminates coal. Vortex lance injects ore particles into a furnace, causing an explosive oxidative reaction. In production.
A prototype hypersonic passenger plane reached Mach 6.56 for 20 minutes – that’s Beijing to New York in two hours. Its fat body, cape-like wings provide large cabin space at extreme speeds.
Boron-powered, supersonic ramjet uses air and water as oxidizing agents.
Integrated Electric Propulsion, IEP, moves to aviation for greater efficiency and lower noise.
Tiny, real-time imaging sensor instantly detects spoiled food, blood oxygen, heavy metals in water…
Optical computing: Large-scale programmable logic array achieves complex computations by using parallel spectrum modulation to achieve an 8-input system, the first time such a complex model has been executed on an optical platform without relying on electronic components for nonlinear computing.
Wuhan’s JFS Labs lit a laser integrated into a silicon chip, filling one of the few blanks in China’s optoelectronics technology. Silicon photonics use optical signals instead of electric signals for transmission.
YMTC leads the world in 3D NAND flash–and China is the world’s biggest customer. “This shifts the semiconductor industry’s power balance. The global semiconductor market now has a new contender poised to lead”.
Peking University wins 2024 International Collegiate Programming Contest World Final. No US college in the top ten.
Scientists identify bacteria at the single-cell level without requiring chemical labels.
Commercial companies launched 48 rockets, carrying 177 spacecraft into orbit since the beginning of 2020.
High-speed rail enthusiasts glimpse 450km/h train. Starts regular service next year.
Tiangong space station research aims to break technology choke points.
New sunblock can lower body heat 6ºC. A cooling sunscreen lowers skin temperature.
HH70 is the world’s first high-temperature superconducting tokamak. Shanghai’s Energy Singularity designed, built and demonstrated it in under two years.
First military-proof 5G can connect 10,000 robots. World’s first military mobile 5G base station, below, is being deployed.
‘Out of Africa’? Chinese scientist challenging evolutionary theory. The long-held theory of human evolution says that modern humans originated in Africa and then migrated to other parts of the world.
Archaeologists confirm southern China’s oldest city over 3,000 years old, from early Shang Dynasty (1600-1050BC).
