http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-0192822d-14f1-432b-bd25-92eab6466362 China is super-sizing science. From building the biggest experiments the world has ever seen to rolling out the latest medical advances on a massive scale and pushing the boundaries of exploration from the deepest ocean to outer space - China’s scientific ambitions are immense. Just a few decades ago the nation barely featured in the world science rankings. Now, in terms of research spending and the number of scientific papers published, it stands only behind the US. But despite this rapid progress, China faces a number of challenges. Here are five key science projects that illustrate its enormous strengths, as well as some of its weaknesses, and may help answer the question whether China can become a global leader in research. The biggest radio telescope Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Nestling in a vast natural crater, China’s giant is about to come alive. A colossal, steeply curved dish glints in the sunlight, surrounded by jagged mountains that cut into the sky. Construction workers, busy putting the finishing touches to this structure, look tiny against the huge backdrop. This is the largest radio telescope ever built, measuring 500m (1,640ft) across. “In China, in astronomy, we’re far behind the world,” says Prof Peng Bo, the deputy project manager of the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope - or Fast for short. We used to have to go abroad, to use telescopes outside China. I think it’s time for us to build something in China.” Situated in Guizhou Province, in the south-west of the country, Fast dwarfs all other radio telescopes. The former record-holder was the Aricebo Observatory, in Puerto Rico, with a diameter of 305m (1,000ft). The Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in the north of England measures 76m (249ft) across. This isn’t simply one-upmanship - bigger really is better when it comes to radio astronomy. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! While some telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, use light to see the visible Universe, a radio telescope is more like a giant ear “listening” for radio waves emitted by objects in deepest space. Like light, radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation - but they have extremely long wavelengths, ranging from about a millimetre to more than 100km in length. And because these cosmic signals have travelled for great distances in space they are also incredibly weak. This is why radio telescopes need to be big - the larger the dish, the more signals it can collect. China’s new telescope is so large that the team hopes it will pick up radio waves from the far reaches of the cosmos. The telescope will be searching for ancient signals of hydrogen - one of the building blocks of the early Universe - to try to understand how the cosmos evolved. It will also be hunting for new stars - in particular a rapidly rotating and extremely dense type of star called a pulsar - and it will even join the hunt for extraterrestrial life. “The search for extraterrestrial life is a very hot topic for every telescope - and also for the public. I think Fast can make a contribution,” Peng says. It took 10 years of trawling through satellite images of the Chinese countryside to find a natural depression big enough to fit the telescope inside. But construction has taken place in record time - just over five years, and it’s nearly complete. much more at link...................
This is one of the most pleasing articles I have read for a long time, and I urge all interested in the progress of science to take the time to read it. I have nothing but praise for China's efforts in promoting all disciplines of science, and am hopeful that as a result it may prompt more intense research elsewhere, plus better decision making. extract: "But one place taikonauts cannot currently go is the International Space Station. The US says it will not work with the Chinese space agency because it is run by the military - and it fears that sharing technology could result in a breach of America’s national security. Wu Weiren says China is keen to collaborate and is working with Europe and the Russians on other projects. But the US remains a sticking point. “We have urged them many times to get rid of the restrictions that would enable scientists from both countries to work together on exploration,” he says. China’s solution for now is to build a space station of its own. A prototype space lab, Tiangong-2, will launch this year, and a larger version will follow. It shows China’s determination to allow nothing to get in its way. And its rapid progress in space mirrors advances in so many areas of science".
