https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/rss/512325/feed Ling Xin is a science journalist based in Ohio. She mainly covers physics, astronomy and space. Her writing has appeared in Science, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review and other English and Chinese outlets. She was a visiting journalist at Science magazine in Washington, and has a master's degree in journalism from Ohio University. en https://assets-v2.i-scmp.com/production/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg Ling Xin Ling Xin A scorched hunk of metal that turned up in a US farmer’s cornfield may have handed China an awkward moment and technically an “international incident”, according to a British astronomer who has tracked rocket launches for more than 30 years. The farmer found the bowl-shaped object, measuring about 3.35 metres (11 feet) across, while harvesting corn in west-central Minnesota on October 14. Online, some residents joked that aliens had landed, while Chinese internet users said it looked like a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3371947/rocket-debris-hitting-us-homeland-embarrassing-china-says-astronomer https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3371947/rocket-debris-hitting-us-homeland-embarrassing-china-says-astronomer Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:00:07 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin In author and computer engineer Liu Cixin’s science fiction hit The Three-Body Problem, three suns throw a doomed world into chaos. Chinese astronomers say they have found a real three-star system that is far better behaved. Using FAST, the world’s biggest single-dish radio telescope in southwestern China, the researchers found two dead stars and a “living” one locked in a steady cosmic dance about 7,000 light years from Earth. One of the dead stars is a pulsar that spins more than 300 times a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3371702/chinese-astronomers-find-real-three-body-system-it-not-what-liu-cixin-thinks https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3371702/chinese-astronomers-find-real-three-body-system-it-not-what-liu-cixin-thinks Fri, 23 Oct 2026 01:00:06 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A Johns Hopkins University scientist whose award-winning work suggests that a brief stomach bug could raise the risk of colon cancer has moved to China full time. Wan Fengyi, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has joined Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, according to his new profile on the Chinese university’s website. Wan returned to China this month and now holds a chair professorship at Zhejiang University. He is based at a national laboratory at its Second... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370955/us-prize-winning-cancer-scientist-wan-fengyi-joins-chinas-zhejiang-university https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370955/us-prize-winning-cancer-scientist-wan-fengyi-joins-chinas-zhejiang-university Mon, 19 Oct 2026 04:00:06 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Professor Qian Jiang, a senior eye expert at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, has moved back to China full time to pursue research on eye transplants. For more than two decades, Qian built and ran the genetic data hub at Johns Hopkins’ renowned Wilmer Eye Institute. He was welcomed at a ceremony on October 5 at Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, part of Zhejiang University, the hospital said. At the ceremony, Qian said he would also work on “virtual cells” – computer models... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370936/qian-jiang-former-johns-hopkins-eye-institute-expert-joins-hospital-china https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370936/qian-jiang-former-johns-hopkins-eye-institute-expert-joins-hospital-china Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:00:07 +0000 Han Li,Ling Xin,Zhang Tong Han Li,Ling Xin,Zhang Tong A US congressional committee has released details of investigations into dozens of researchers, many of them Chinese-American, revealing the scale of government scrutiny sweeping academia over alleged links to China. The documents – running to hundreds of pages – were released alongside a separate report by the House Select Committee on China. Titled “How to Stop China’s Theft of Taxpayer-Funded Research”, the report pushes back against arguments by universities and academic groups that tighter... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/us/science-technology/article/3371154/new-details-emerge-us-investigations-chinese-american-scientists-over-china-links https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/us/science-technology/article/3371154/new-details-emerge-us-investigations-chinese-american-scientists-over-china-links Fri, 16 Oct 2026 22:00:16 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A mysterious glow of high-energy light in our Milky Way galaxy could be the remains of an extremely rare cosmic “gold factory”, according to a new study by Chinese and US researchers. The collision of two orbiting neutron stars – dead stars so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh a billion tonnes – may have shone as brightly as Jupiter in the sky, they wrote in a paper posted last week on the preprint server arXiv, which has yet to be peer-reviewed. The violent smash spewed out... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370141/china-us-astronomy-team-may-have-found-possible-relic-recent-gold-factory https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370141/china-us-astronomy-team-may-have-found-possible-relic-recent-gold-factory Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Initial results from the world’s first two working nuclear clocks indicate that China’s timepiece is about six times as stable as the one in Vienna, according to papers published this week by the journal Nature. The clocks were developed independently but both the Chinese team, led by Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the researchers at Vienna’s TU Wien used thorium-229 nuclei embedded in crystals to keep time by the steady rhythm of the atom’s core, rather than the electrons whirling around... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370006/chinas-thorium-229-nuclear-clock-beats-viennas-stability-studies-show https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3370006/chinas-thorium-229-nuclear-clock-beats-viennas-stability-studies-show Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:00:07 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A small Singaporean research team has beaten scientists in China and the United States to build the world’s most accurate atomic clock. The clock, built with a single ion of a rare earth metal element known as lutetium, is so precise that it would lose one second every 260 billion years – nearly 20 times the age of our universe. It is about four times as accurate as the previous record holder, a calcium-ion clock developed by a Chinese Academy of Sciences team in Wuhan, and also surpasses an... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3369532/david-vs-goliaths-singapore-builds-most-accurate-clock-ever-leaves-us-and-china-dust https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3369532/david-vs-goliaths-singapore-builds-most-accurate-clock-ever-leaves-us-and-china-dust Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:00:11 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A heavily redacted police report has deepened the mystery surrounding the death of a young Chinese semiconductor researcher at the University of Michigan, who took his own life soon after what US federal agents described as a routine and voluntary interview. On the cold morning of March 18, Wang Danhao, 31, spoke with two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers for about 10 minutes outside his rented home in Ann Arbor. When one officer offered to end the interview because of the weather,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3368780/us-police-report-raises-more-questions-about-chinese-researcher-wang-danhaos-death https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3368780/us-police-report-raises-more-questions-about-chinese-researcher-wang-danhaos-death Mon, 28 Sep 2026 15:00:19 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Chinese researchers appear to have revealed a previously unknown satellite-to-satellite refuelling operation in high Earth orbit, putting the country at the forefront of a technology that could reshape the space race. In a paper undergoing peer review for the Journal of Deep Space Exploration, the team said China had “successfully provided room-temperature propellant refuelling for a high-orbit BeiDou satellite for the first time”. The researchers from the state-funded Deep Space Exploration... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3368579/claims-chinas-beidou-satellite-was-refuelled-orbit-could-change-space-race https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3368579/claims-chinas-beidou-satellite-was-refuelled-orbit-could-change-space-race Sat, 26 Sep 2026 22:00:13 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Chinese researchers have tested a new way for spacecraft to navigate in deep space, putting a concept funded by Nasa into practice and paving the way for the country’s planned mission to Jupiter in 2030. Known as stellar aberration navigation, the approach uses tiny shifts in the relative position of stars to work out how fast a probe is moving and in what direction, allowing autonomous real-time navigation without constantly relying on tracking and commands from Earth. In a low-Earth-orbit... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3368292/china-gets-closer-jupiter-mission-bringing-nasas-starnav-concept-life https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3368292/china-gets-closer-jupiter-mission-bringing-nasas-starnav-concept-life Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:02:19 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China said it can now predict weather 10 days in advance at a cutting-edge resolution of 5km (3.1 miles), finer than most major systems in routine use around the world. The advance was achieved by a Chinese-developed weather forecasting model running on Sugon 8,000, a massive home-grown computing system built entirely with domestically made AI chips. Most major global forecasting systems have resolutions of roughly 5km to 10km, according to the China Meteorological Administration and... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3367747/china-uses-100000-home-grown-ai-chips-build-leading-weather-forecast-system https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3367747/china-uses-100000-home-grown-ai-chips-build-leading-weather-forecast-system Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:00:05 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Chinese researchers have developed the world’s smallest CT scanner, a portable device designed to produce images of tiny fossils and archaeological relics. Built by the Shandong province-based Rayim, the Xtomo-Cube is about the size of a desktop speaker and weighs just 6kg (13.2lbs). “The device can be held in one hand and is the world’s smallest and lightest CT system, earning it the nickname ‘palm-sized CT scanner’,” Liu Baodong, a senior engineer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and general... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3367612/chinese-scientists-build-worlds-smallest-ct-scanner-weighing-just-6kg https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3367612/chinese-scientists-build-worlds-smallest-ct-scanner-weighing-just-6kg Wed, 16 Sep 2026 04:00:09 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China’s FAST telescope has compiled the world’s largest catalogue of neutral hydrogen beyond the Milky Way, replacing a long-dominant US survey as the main reference for mapping the gas that fuels the formation of stars and galaxies. The FAST All-Sky H I Survey (FASHI), conducted with the 500-metre (1,640-foot) radio dish in southwest China’s Guizhou province, released its second batch of data this week. It contains 156,411 extragalactic sources – nearly five times the number detected by the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3367154/chinas-fast-telescope-maps-neutral-hydrogen-cosmic-gas-making-stars https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3367154/chinas-fast-telescope-maps-neutral-hydrogen-cosmic-gas-making-stars Sun, 13 Sep 2026 12:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A year after China unveiled the world’s first operational air-breathing hypersonic missiles, the United States is launching a programme to double down on developing similar weapons. The US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) will bring contractors together later this month to lay out what it wants from the Next Generation Hypersonic Cruise Missile, with air-breathing propulsion at the heart of the project, according to the agency’s website. Unlike rocket-powered missiles,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366908/us-scrambles-match-chinas-air-breathing-hypersonic-missiles-darpa-programme https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366908/us-scrambles-match-chinas-air-breathing-hypersonic-missiles-darpa-programme Wed, 09 Sep 2026 14:00:09 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China has started an international project to build a three-dimensional satellite network between Earth and the moon that will track solar activity and study some of the universe’s most powerful explosions. The project plans to send 30 backpack-sized CubeSats into highly elliptical orbits around Earth in the next four years or so, according to the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, which will lead the project. The laboratory said on Friday the constellation would “fill a global gap in systematic... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366483/china-launches-plan-3d-satellite-network-monitor-sun-and-cosmic-explosions https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366483/china-launches-plan-3d-satellite-network-monitor-sun-and-cosmic-explosions Sat, 05 Sep 2026 13:00:06 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin In a rare study, Chinese aerospace researchers have explored how a war could one day spill into the vast space between the Earth and the moon, with rival spacecraft chasing and evading each other, trying to slip past defences and even blocking strategic routes. Spacecraft could hide in the complex gravitational environment around the moon, where their trajectories are difficult to predict, before emerging and moving towards targets closer to Earth when needed, according to a team from the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366170/war-earth-could-spill-over-moon-chinese-space-scientists-warn https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366170/war-earth-could-spill-over-moon-chinese-space-scientists-warn Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:00:09 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Chinese researchers have found a way to extract uranium from seawater at several times the target rate set by the US Department of Energy, putting China at the forefront of a global quest to tap into a vast source of nuclear fuel. The team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao did this using a material they developed called PhosCage – a sponge-like molecular structure filled with phosphate groups that act as chemical traps. In a statement, the researchers said they had recovered up to... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366307/chinese-team-extracts-uranium-seawater-8-times-us-target-rate https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3366307/chinese-team-extracts-uranium-seawater-8-times-us-target-rate Fri, 04 Sep 2026 14:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China has pulled off two-way laser communication between Earth and the moon, making it only the second nation after the United States to do so. But the data rates it achieved were well behind those recorded by Nasa more than a decade ago, and that has left space experts scratching their heads. Using telescopes in Yunnan province and an experimental satellite that is now orbiting the moon after a launch mishap in 2024, the team recorded a downlink speed of 100 megabits per second and an uplink... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365942/chinas-2026-moon-laser-communication-speed-slower-nasas-2013 https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365942/chinas-2026-moon-laser-communication-speed-slower-nasas-2013 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 04:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Gong Zizheng, a pioneer of space debris research and a key figure in China’s planned asteroid defence mission, has died at 61. A top government adviser and prominent leader in international space debris organisations, Gong died on Saturday after a battle with illness, according to Chinese media reports. No further details were given. On social media, one of Gong’s colleagues at the China Academy of Space Technology remembered him as a prolific scientist deeply devoted to his work, a warm and... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365533/gong-zizheng-who-led-chinas-planetary-defence-project-dies-61 https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365533/gong-zizheng-who-led-chinas-planetary-defence-project-dies-61 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 12:00:12 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China’s delay of a high-stakes mission to hunt for water ice near the moon’s south pole may slow its lunar ambitions, but is unlikely to change the bigger contest with the United States over who can build a lasting presence on the moon, according to space experts. No reason was given when Chang’e-7 was postponed until next year, just hours before Sunday night’s scheduled lift-off, though a major tropical storm was approaching the launch site. Chinese space authorities said only that the mission... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365283/could-delay-chinas-moon-mission-ease-pressure-nasa https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365283/could-delay-chinas-moon-mission-ease-pressure-nasa Wed, 26 Aug 2026 13:00:12 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Chinese archaeologists are heading to South America for the first field project on the continent in search of ancestral bonds between ancient Chinese and native American civilisations. Under an agreement signed by national research institutions from the two countries in Supe, Peru on Friday, archaeologists from China will soon start working with their Peruvian counterparts in the Caral archaeological zone – home to the oldest known urban centre in the Americas. The joint archaeological team will... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365148/china-sends-archaeologists-south-america-trace-ancestral-links-first-time https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3365148/china-sends-archaeologists-south-america-trace-ancestral-links-first-time Tue, 25 Aug 2026 14:00:06 +0000 Ling Xin,Victoria Bela Ling Xin,Victoria Bela In a global first, leading Chinese commercial rocket company LandSpace has recovered a stainless-steel booster after an orbital launch, marking a major step in the country’s efforts to develop lower-cost, reusable rockets. Previous reusable boosters deployed in such launches have been made from aluminium alloys, which can be more expensive to develop due to higher design and raw material costs. China is also the first country to succeed in orbital launch recovery down distinct technological... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3364492/chinas-landspace-beats-spacex-steel-booster-recovery-after-orbital-launch https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3364492/chinas-landspace-beats-spacex-steel-booster-recovery-after-orbital-launch Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:28:33 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A top naval software expert, whose work helped warships to process battlefield information and support combat decisions, has vanished from the Chinese Academy of Engineering’s online membership list. Zhao Xiaozhe, 63, a vice-admiral in the PLA Navy, once headed the Central Military Commission’s top science and technology body, helping to shape research priorities across China’s armed forces. He is the latest prominent defence expert to disappear from the academy’s website, following reporting in... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3364364/chinese-navys-combat-software-guru-zhao-xiaozhe-disappears-academy-website https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3364364/chinese-navys-combat-software-guru-zhao-xiaozhe-disappears-academy-website Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:00:14 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A China-led team has cleared the last major hurdle in the race to commercialise the most promising alternative to conventional silicon solar technology, paving the way for the next generation of low-cost, high-efficiency panels to be made on an industrial scale. Researchers from China and Canada, led by Nanjing University, have developed a super-stable coating for perovskite – an ultra-thin, lightweight material that can be printed onto large surfaces – suitable for patching the tiny defects... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3364155/chinas-1mw-perovskite-solar-farm-beats-silicon-system-industrial-scale-test https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3364155/chinas-1mw-perovskite-solar-farm-beats-silicon-system-industrial-scale-test Sat, 15 Aug 2026 22:00:10 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China is expanding its scientific collaboration with Iran into the strategically sensitive field of rare earths, including processing technologies that Beijing has increasingly sought to protect from overseas transfer. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) unveiled the latest joint workshop programme with its Iranian counterpart on Monday, listing the “exploration and processing of rare earth elements” among five areas selected for cooperation. The Chinese side will provide... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3363814/china-sending-scientists-iran-rare-earth-exploration-and-processing https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3363814/china-sending-scientists-iran-rare-earth-exploration-and-processing Wed, 12 Aug 2026 15:00:12 +0000 Ling Xin,Holly Chik Ling Xin,Holly Chik The rare failure of China’s Long March-7A rocket on Monday – which resulted in the loss of a communications satellite – has prompted questions over whether it was an isolated operational setback or a systemic problem. While space experts caution against immediately linking the incident to China’s rapidly increasing launch cadence, the ongoing investigation will determine if the event was caused by a localised technical anomaly or deeper systemic vulnerabilities within the Long March rocket... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/military/article/3363574/chinas-long-march-7a-rocket-explodes-after-launch-satellite-lost https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/military/article/3363574/chinas-long-march-7a-rocket-explodes-after-launch-satellite-lost Mon, 10 Aug 2026 16:09:01 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin The international physics community has hailed a Chinese-led discovery as a “triumph” after researchers presented the strongest evidence yet for the existence of the “glueball” – a mysterious particle made of pure force. On Chinese social media, the conversation centred on whether the research could lead to a Nobel Prize. The announcement was made last week at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Natal, Brazil. Made entirely of gluons – the tiny, massless carriers of the force... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3363444/matter-pure-force-us-israeli-physicists-hail-chinas-glueball-discovery-triumph https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3363444/matter-pure-force-us-israeli-physicists-hail-chinas-glueball-discovery-triumph Sun, 09 Aug 2026 10:05:54 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Robot dogs could one day lead the way across the moon, patrolling research stations, scouting hazards and helping astronauts search for scientifically valuable rocks, according to a blueprint by researchers working on China’s lunar base. The concept envisions three astronauts working alongside intelligent machines. As the crew explores the moon’s surface, one astronaut would direct two robot dogs across the landscape, while another collects rock samples and carries out detailed scientific... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3363149/chinas-lunar-research-station-could-be-guarded-robot-watchdogs-space-scientists-say https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3363149/chinas-lunar-research-station-could-be-guarded-robot-watchdogs-space-scientists-say Sat, 08 Aug 2026 12:00:10 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A China-led team has detected the highest-energy light particle ever recorded, showing that the universe can accelerate matter to 30 times the previously predicted limit. The particle was born in a violent binary system – known as Cygnus X-3 – in the constellation Cygnus. That process involves a dead star stripping material from a massive companion and shooting powerful jets into space. After travelling for nearly 30,000 years, the particle reached Earth in March 2024, where it was captured by... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3362881/chinese-observatory-finds-most-powerful-particle-accelerator-universe https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3362881/chinese-observatory-finds-most-powerful-particle-accelerator-universe Tue, 04 Aug 2026 05:00:56 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Chinese researchers believe they may have found the most effective way to destroy or deflect a large, Earth-threatening asteroid – by burying a nuclear bomb beneath its surface and exploding it. The idea is to first slam a metal penetrator into the asteroid, digging a deep hole. A second spacecraft would then drop a nuclear bomb into the hole and blow it up, according to a team led by researchers at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing. In simulations, a 3-megaton explosion... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3362361/chinese-rocket-scientists-find-most-effective-way-nuke-doomsday-asteroid https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3362361/chinese-rocket-scientists-find-most-effective-way-nuke-doomsday-asteroid Sun, 02 Aug 2026 14:00:12 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Researchers based in China or having a Chinese surname were far less likely than their US and Canadian counterparts to have papers published in the world’s most prestigious journals, according to a new study. Just 2.5 per cent of submissions from China-based researchers were accepted, compared with 8.3 per cent overall for those from North America, a team found after analysing a rare dataset of more than 110,000 manuscripts submitted to Science and Science Advances between 2015 and 2020. Even... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3362349/top-us-science-journals-more-likely-reject-paper-chinese-authors-study https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3362349/top-us-science-journals-more-likely-reject-paper-chinese-authors-study Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:00:08 +0000 Ben Jiang,Ling Xin Ben Jiang,Ling Xin American materials scientist Elsa Reichmanis, whose pioneering work helped lay part of the foundation for modern semiconductor manufacturing, said scientific collaboration should transcend rivalry after receiving one of China’s highest honours for foreign experts, describing science as “a universal language” that benefits all of society. Reichmanis, a professor of chemical engineering in Lehigh University’s department of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the director of its Institute for... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3362398/us-scientist-elsa-reichmanis-defends-global-collaboration-amid-scrutiny-science-exchange https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/tech/tech-war/article/3362398/us-scientist-elsa-reichmanis-defends-global-collaboration-amid-scrutiny-science-exchange Thu, 30 Jul 2026 14:00:09 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China has unveiled its latest ambitious space-based computing network designed to process satellite data in orbit using AI before sending the results to Earth. Xingshu, or “Star Hub”, will eventually comprise around 1,000 satellites, according to Chi Nan, an optical communications professor at Fudan University. The network is being jointly developed by Fudan and Shanghai Xingshu Tiansuan Space Technology Co. It would offer on-demand, time-based computing services in orbit, allowing governments,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3361559/china-targets-new-space-based-computing-network-process-data-born-orbit https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3361559/china-targets-new-space-based-computing-network-process-data-born-orbit Fri, 24 Jul 2026 01:00:09 +0000 Zhang Tong,Ling Xin Zhang Tong,Ling Xin For the first time, China has produced Fields Medal winners educated on its own soil – and two at once. Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu took the honour, alongside John Pardon and Jacob Tsimerman. The Fields Medal is the top honour for young mathematicians under 40 years of age. The medals, along with a modest cash prize, were given out on Thursday at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Philadelphia. The prestigious medal, often called the “Nobel Prize of... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3361633/fields-medal-win-wang-hong-deng-yu-are-first-chinese-nationals-score-top-maths-honour https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3361633/fields-medal-win-wang-hong-deng-yu-are-first-chinese-nationals-score-top-maths-honour Thu, 23 Jul 2026 13:56:30 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China has brought online a record-breaking particle accelerator that can produce the world’s most intense beams of charged atoms. It gives scientists a new tool to create previously unknown atomic nuclei and advance research on cancer treatment and spacecraft materials. Scientific operations have now begun at the 2.6 billion yuan (US$384.1 million) facility in Huizhou, Guangdong province after construction was completed on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported. Known as the High Intensity... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3361428/china-fires-powerful-particle-accelerator-unlock-secrets-atoms https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3361428/china-fires-powerful-particle-accelerator-unlock-secrets-atoms Thu, 23 Jul 2026 01:00:07 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China’s first planetary defence mission appears to be far more ambitious than Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart), according to a new paper outlining its plan to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid before 2030. Unlike Dart, a proof-of-concept that nudged one asteroid’s orbit around another, China is aiming for a more realistic planetary-defence test. It aims to directly alter an asteroid’s orbit relative to Earth, “or even break up its structure”, according to a team led by Li Mingtao,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360752/china-plans-hit-asteroid-mach-26-projectile-planet-defence-test https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360752/china-plans-hit-asteroid-mach-26-projectile-planet-defence-test Sun, 19 Jul 2026 12:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China’s successful recovery of a reusable rocket has sparked debate among aerospace experts over whether its unconventional approach could actually cut the cost of reaching space. On Friday, the country’s Long March-10B became the first orbital-class rocket outside the United States to return to Earth and be recovered intact. The rocket’s first-stage booster deployed four hooks as it descended and was then caught by a giant net on a ship waiting in the South China Sea. SpaceX and Blue Origin do... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360553/china-used-giant-net-land-reusable-rocket-does-idea-have-legs https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360553/china-used-giant-net-land-reusable-rocket-does-idea-have-legs Tue, 14 Jul 2026 15:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin The ashes of Chinese researcher Wang Danhao have been returned to his home in China, nearly four months after he died by suicide following questioning by US law enforcement. The remains of the 31-year-old University of Michigan (UMich) semiconductor scientist – remembered by colleagues as a gifted, hard-working researcher with a bright future – are now with his mother, his only immediate family member, who raised him as a single parent, according to a source familiar with the matter. Both Wang’s... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360236/what-happened-chinese-semiconductor-scientist-wang-danhao-took-his-life-us https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360236/what-happened-chinese-semiconductor-scientist-wang-danhao-took-his-life-us Sat, 11 Jul 2026 14:00:07 +0000 Victoria Bela,Ling Xin Victoria Bela,Ling Xin China on Friday became only the second nation in history to achieve the controlled recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster, after successfully retrieving part of its Long March-10B reusable rocket during its maiden launch. Unlike the methods pioneered by Elon Musk’s US-based SpaceX, the Chinese rocket achieved the first-ever use of a unique sea-based net-capture system for a more adaptable recovery. The Chinese rocket also offers a new reusable path to space flight, as Beijing doubles down... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360069/china-recovers-long-march-10b-reusable-rocket-maiden-launch https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3360069/china-recovers-long-march-10b-reusable-rocket-maiden-launch Fri, 10 Jul 2026 04:37:28 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A Stanford University-led team including two Chinese researchers said they built the first general-purpose biomedical AI agent capable of working alongside human scientists, taking on complex tasks that once required groups of specialists. Jure Leskovec, a Stanford computer science professor who supervised the work, said the agent had been released as an open-source system with a web interface so that biologists could use it without writing code. “We have over 10,000 scientists all over the... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3359945/meet-biomni-free-powerful-biomed-ai-agent-turning-data-hypotheses https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3359945/meet-biomni-free-powerful-biomed-ai-agent-turning-data-hypotheses Thu, 09 Jul 2026 18:00:08 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Omar Yaghi, the winner of last year’s Nobel Prize for chemistry, has joined China’s Tsinghua University to lead a new AI-driven research centre. The 61-year-old materials scientist will head a team working on ways artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the design and synthesis of new materials and shorten their development cycle “by orders of magnitude”, Tsinghua said on Friday. Speaking at his appointment ceremony, Yaghi said he hoped to develop materials to tackle major environmental... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3359430/nobel-prize-winning-materials-scientist-omar-yaghi-joins-tsinghua-university-us https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3359430/nobel-prize-winning-materials-scientist-omar-yaghi-joins-tsinghua-university-us Sat, 04 Jul 2026 13:00:09 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China has tested a satellite engine with a record-breaking operating life, a key technology that could help propel the world’s largest communications, military and deep-space spacecraft into their intended orbits faster and more reliably. The upgraded engine, developed by the China Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology in Xian, can produce 750 newtons of thrust, according to Chinese media reports. The Chinese engine fired for 11,617 seconds – 3.2 hours – across five orbit-raising manoeuvres... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3359363/chinas-satellite-engine-smashes-record-leaves-us-rival-far-behind https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3359363/chinas-satellite-engine-smashes-record-leaves-us-rival-far-behind Fri, 03 Jul 2026 14:00:10 +0000 Ling Xin,Meredith Chen Ling Xin,Meredith Chen As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Ling Xin and Meredith Chen look at how the fight against discrimination continues to this day. The rise of the United States to superpower status was fuelled by the untold millions of immigrants who arrived from foreign... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/diplomacy/article/3358796/why-chinese-american-success-stories-still-provoke-prejudice-and-fear https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/diplomacy/article/3358796/why-chinese-american-success-stories-still-provoke-prejudice-and-fear Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:00:22 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin The first scientific ship built by private interests in China is still waiting for its first assignment after it launched last month near Wenling, in Zhejiang province, on the east coast, according to Chinese media reports. The 82 metre-long (269-foot), 3,500-tonne Haiying Jiake research vessel was built with 150 million yuan (US$22 million) raised by 37 Zhejiang fishermen. It is designed to operate anywhere in the world’s oceans, including in thin sea ice, and support research ranging from... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3358496/why-no-one-chartering-chinas-first-privately-owned-research-vessel https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3358496/why-no-one-chartering-chinas-first-privately-owned-research-vessel Fri, 26 Jun 2026 14:00:05 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin A popular K-pop star has found an unlikely place in the scientific record after researchers in China named a newly discovered fish species after her. Jennie Ruby Jane, from Blackpink, was “a constant source of inspiration” for the master’s student who discovered the tiny black-and-yellow fish – shorter than an average human fingernail – near southern China’s Pearl River estuary. The fish, named Brachygobius jennie, is the first bumblebee goby found in China and could provide a model for studying... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3358076/chinese-scientists-love-blackpinks-jennie-so-much-they-named-fish-after-her https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3358076/chinese-scientists-love-blackpinks-jennie-so-much-they-named-fish-after-her Wed, 24 Jun 2026 04:00:06 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China has reclaimed the world’s fastest supercomputer crown for the first time since 2017, according to the latest TOP500 rankings released at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany, on Tuesday. LineShine, built by the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, achieved 2.198 exaflops of performance – nearly 2.2 quintillion calculations per second – surpassing the previous champion, El Capitan, at California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which reached 1.809... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3358107/return-top-chinas-lineshine-beats-us-el-capitan-top500-supercomputer-rankings https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3358107/return-top-chinas-lineshine-beats-us-el-capitan-top500-supercomputer-rankings Tue, 23 Jun 2026 16:37:44 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Using a few mirrors, solar panels and a microwave transmitter, Fan Guanheng and his team can send power over 100 metres (330 feet) through the air. But they are dreaming much bigger – 36,000km (23,460 miles) bigger. The team at Xidian University in Xian, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi province, are testing hardware that could one day be used to generate power in space and send it back to Earth. On a sweltering June morning, the team were measuring how well light was concentrated by a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3357593/chinese-scientists-hoping-use-space-solar-plant-power-world https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3357593/chinese-scientists-hoping-use-space-solar-plant-power-world Fri, 19 Jun 2026 01:00:12 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin China’s Qianfan network has hit a national milestone by placing over 200 broadband satellites in orbit, but there are concerns its deployment could be too slow and costly. The constellation now has 201 satellites after a successful launch on board a Zhuque-2E rocket from the Gobi Desert at 4.23pm Beijing time on Tuesday. The mission delivered Qianfan DTC-01 – a direct-to-cell test satellite – alongside a satellite from China Mobile, state broadcaster CCTV reported. The flight followed... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3356587/starlink-rival-qianfan-hits-satellite-milestone-it-too-slow-and-costly https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3356587/starlink-rival-qianfan-hits-satellite-milestone-it-too-slow-and-costly Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:00:06 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin Construction on the Tibetan plateau of some of the Earth’s most powerful optical telescopes is putting China on track to house the world’s biggest astronomy base by the mid-2030s, according to project scientists. Deng Licai, lead scientist for site planning at the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) in Beijing, said the telescopes at Saishiteng Mountain in northwestern Qinghai province would stretch between 6.5 metres (21.3 feet) and 14.5 metres across, and partner with dozens of... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3356164/how-china-working-turn-saishiteng-mountain-worlds-largest-astronomy-base https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/news/china/science/article/3356164/how-china-working-turn-saishiteng-mountain-worlds-largest-astronomy-base Sat, 06 Jun 2026 14:00:07 +0000