World News by Wild Rose

Cell Press, one of the world’s leading scientific publishers, has launched an investigation after prominent Chinese biologist Rao Yi accused the editor-in-chief of a top medical journal of soliciting bribes from mainland authors. “Several important international academic journals have seen editors, and even editors-in-chief, soliciting and accepting bribes,” said Rao, a tenured chair professor at Peking University who stepped down as president of Capital Medical University last year, in a social...

By the time the Chinese navy hospital ship had docked in the Guinean capital Conakry earlier this month, patients were already queuing for free consultations. The queues in front of the Auspicious Ark were so long that some people were told to come back the next day, according to Guinean media reports. The ship, operated by the PLA Navy, offers a range of medical services wherever it stops, including surgery to treat cataracts, appendicitis and hernias as well as gynaecological care. On this...

For patients with advanced, metastatic cancer that has progressed despite systemic therapy – options remain critically limited. Now, Chinese scientists are pointing to an unconventional therapeutic agent – the element iron. This idea originated in industrial waste water treatment: iron can react with hydrogen peroxide to generate hydroxyl radicals, which degrade various organic and toxic molecules in waste water. Chinese scientists wanted to treat malignant tumours the way they treat waste water...

Chinese scientists have unearthed a fossil of the earliest known flightless bird, offering compelling evidence that not all early birds evolved to take to the skies. The discovery could also challenge long-held assumptions – including ideas dating back to evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin – that flightlessness in birds arose only as a secondary adaptation after earlier species had mastered flight. The 150 million-year-old fossil of the Late Jurassic avialan Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis found in...

A China-led international team has reported a new pre-earthquake phenomenon that has shown strong predictive potential for major earthquakes since 2022 with minimal failures. The anomalous seismic, magnetic and ionospheric resonance signals they observed – termed “seismo-ripples” by the researchers – are ringlike disturbance patterns triggered before earthquakes happen. Their findings challenge the long-standing scientific belief that these events are unpredictable, opening up a promising new...

A grassland fire in Mongolia has raised fresh concerns in China, underscoring the recurring risk of cross-border environmental hazards. This is not the first time an environmental disaster originating in Mongolia has threatened to cross the 4,700km (2,920 miles) border into China, with the impacts sometimes also affecting the Korean peninsula and Japan. The blaze, which erupted on October 8 in the inland country’s easternmost Dornod province bordering Russia and China, advanced rapidly towards...

A rare albino Asian black bear was captured on camera in China’s Shennongjia National Park

While Russian authorities have denied the death of a woman who worked in a laboratory at an anti-plague institute in Siberia was connected with the pathogen, the incident has sparked global concern – including in China – over a potential spread of the disease and a lack of transparency. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he planned to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after it emerged late last week that the 28-year-old female lab technician had been admitted to...

Chinese researchers have developed a catalyst that converts synthesis gas into sustainable jet fuel – a breakthrough that could boost production, help meet net-zero carbon goals and yield a gross profit margin exceeding 50 per cent. The team verified the efficacy of the chemical catalyst in a thousand-tonne pilot test and found that combining woody biomass-derived synthesis gas, or syngas, with the cobalt-manganese catalyst enabled the “highly efficient synthesis of jet fuel”. Based on a...

China has nominated health official Song Li to run for director general of the World Health Organization, the foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday. If elected, Song would be the first person from mainland China to head the United Nations health agency. China previously backed Margaret Chan, a Hong Kong-born doctor and former director of health of Hong Kong, who served as WHO director general from 2007 to 2017. Song’s nomination comes as the WHO faces a major funding shake-up following the US...

“Science has no borders,” Arup Neogi, an India-born scientist who works at a US-sanctioned university, told Chinese state media. Neogi’s speciality is photonics, the study of generating, controlling and detecting light. At the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in the southwestern city of Chengdu, he leads a team exploring the interconnection between light and sound. This university has one of China’s top electronics and communication programmes and has been on the...

China has pledged to expand its health partnership with Kazakhstan by helping the Central Asian nation integrate traditional medicine directly into its national healthcare system, shifting away from simple product exports. The Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan on Monday called for the alignment of high-level policy to enhance bilateral health cooperation for both countries’ benefit. “Both nations should promote the qualitative upgrading of cooperation in smart healthcare, hi-tech diagnostics and...

Online claims that archaeologists have identified the source of mercury in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang – China’s first emperor, who unified the country more than 2,000 years ago – have revived interest in ancient cinnabar sites in northwestern China’s Shaanxi province. The claims, which sent related hashtags trending on social media late last month, centred on three sites in Xunyang where archaeologists last year found evidence of cinnabar mining, processing and transport during the pre-Qin...

While China’s iconic silk embroidery is world-renowned for its exquisite detail and painterly effects, an even more meticulous traditional technique surpasses it. Originating in Dongtai, located in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, during the Tang dynasty (618–907), hair embroidery relies on the incredibly fragile medium of human hair. With a rich history spanning over 1,000 years, a single intricate piece can take skilled artisans anywhere from several months to multiple years to complete. It...

Senator Ted Budd, Republican from North Carolina, joined Balance of Power to discuss the Senate's last day in session before midterms. He also discussed recent news from the Fed and how the US must stay ahead of China when it comes to AI. (Source: Bloomberg)

China is offering the world’s brightest young scientists generous 15-year research grants for free exploration, as the country accelerates its drive to become a global science powerhouse. Dou Xiankang, director of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the country’s top funder of basic research, told a recent academic forum that the agency was selecting a group of the brightest researchers under 35 for long-term financial backing. Once this group of exceptionally brilliant...

China plans to complete a geological map of Mars by the end of 2028, as the red planet increasingly features in its space rivalry with the United States. Hou Zengqian, chief scientist of China’s next Mars mission known as Tianwen-3, on Monday said the map would cover the entire surface of the planet and it aimed to be the global standard for the Martian geological ages. State news agency Xinhua reported that the map would be the first AI-driven geological map of Mars and would be an important...

A young seal gained widespread attention on social media in China after swimming 200km to return to an island where it had lived for months following its release into the wild. This two-year-old seal marks its second return to a human-inhabited area after being freed into open seas. Internet users were touched by videos showcasing the seal, affectionately named Nana, as it returned to the shores of Dachangshan Island in northeastern China’s Liaoning province. Nana was released into the ocean on...

While major powers compete in militarised space races and state-led megaprojects, a group comprising a Russian astronaut trainer, Chinese science educators and Malaysian collaborators is laying the groundwork for an international youth space camp. Set to be held in Penang’s rainforest eco-park in late 2027 at the earliest, the week-long programme will gather youth from around the region to inspire future spacefarers, scientists and global citizens through physical exercises, immersion in space...

Neurobiologist Ye Bing is returning to China after a long period in the United States, but he says his move is not linked to the suicide of another Chinese scholar at the same university or US policy under the Trump administration. Ye said his decision to join Nanjing University and leave the University of Michigan was not influenced by the death of Chinese scholar Wang Danhao on the same campus six months earlier – a day after Wang was interviewed by US Homeland Security officers. “This is a...

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, September 23: The papers look ahead to US President Donald Trump hosting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. In other news, a Haitian-born novelist, tipped to win France's prestigious Goncourt literary prize, has been struck by an AI scandal. Finally, could the remains of Nefertiti lie behind the burial chamber of Tutankhamun?

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. J-50 design team reveals leapfrog tech for China’s next-gen stealth fighters China’s next-generation combat aircraft will be able to fly by themselves if a pilot loses consciousness, navigate without satellite signals and operate in self-reorganising large drone formations. 2. Chinese scientists develop oil...

China’s military medical experts are making progress in finding cures for common injuries seen in drone warfare, drawing on lessons from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, according to state broadcaster CCTV. Chen Juxiang, a senior Chinese military doctor, told CCTV on Monday that cranio-maxillofacial injuries – damage to the hard and soft tissues of the head – had become a particularly big problem in conflicts dominated by drones. Chen, director of neurosurgery at the First Affiliated...

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...

For low-lying Pacific island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, rising sea levels are not just an existential crisis but also one that calls into question the very foundations of statehood. At the heart of this lies a contentious question: should maritime boundaries shift with changing coastlines, or should they be frozen in place? The answer carries profound implications not only for the survival of vulnerable islands but also for the rest of the world. Some analysts have argued that China...