World News by Wild Rose

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...

As technological developments augur an era of renewed space exploration, China is aiming to become a major player. In the second part of this two-part series, Wency Chen and Ben Jiang examine the country’s strategy and progress on reusable rockets – a field where the US has a tremendous lead. US commercial space firm SpaceX has been eager to tout its deployment of reusable first-stage rocket boosters, claiming to have flown more than 600 missions with the cost-cutting launch components. Despite...

China confirmed on Wednesday that a research vessel conducted a month-long, wide-ranging geological survey in the waters near Scarborough Shoal, a South China Sea flashpoint between Beijing and Manila. The Haiyang Dizhi Shihao, or Marine Geology No 10, carried out the survey from August 11 to September 8, with the aim of “gaining a comprehensive understanding of the basic geological features and ecological environment” of waters under its jurisdiction, the Ministry of Natural Resources said on...

Singapore’s most decorated chemist has confirmed he will leave his current position to join the fledgling Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, eastern China. Lu Yixin, a professor with the National University of Singapore (NUS), told the South China Morning Post that he plans to move to the private research institute in early 2027, in a full-time role. Lu is a fellow of the Singapore National Academy of Science and president of the Singapore National Institute of...

China has launched a 500-tonne production line to extract rubidium and caesium from lithium waste. A demonstration line in Jiangxi province – the world’s first with an annual capacity of 500 tonnes for continuous tower extraction and separation of low-grade rubidium and caesium – has achieved stable production, according to the Institute of Process Engineering under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Rubidium and caesium are critical to aerospace, quantum computing, biomedicine, new energy...

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...

Denisovan remains discovered in southwestern China reveal that Yunnan province’s warm, biodiverse plateau was a “hunting paradise” for the hominins during a global glacial period, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Within the region’s coniferous forests and forest-steppe environments, this archaic human group established a stable subsistence pattern highly adapted to local resources through specialised hunting and the intensive exploitation of animals. The extinct...

Two laboratories in central China have been shut down for alleged surrogacy activities, an underground practice that persists despite repeated crackdowns. On Wednesday, the health bureau in Changsha, Hunan province, said six people were detained after a tip about a “laboratory that illegally uses assisted reproductive technologies”, according to state news agency Xinhua. A day earlier, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, in neighbouring Hubei province, announced that an illegal lab had been...

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 radar satellites capture sharp images of glacier collapse site in Nepal Within hours of a devastating glacier collapse on the China-Nepal border, a Beijing-based satellite company had already redirected six of its satellites to survey the disaster zone. 2. Chip expert Chen Ye joins China’s Zhejiang...

China’s biotechnology market has “significantly” driven up the demand for primate experimental models as the market recovers, tightening the supply of laboratory monkeys, according to a leading biotech firm. The continued recovery of fundraising and out-licensing deals in innovative drugs in China this year has led to significant growth in the demand for primate experimental models, research firm Joinn Laboratories (China) said on Tuesday. Primate experiments typically use monkeys and other...

US President Donald Trump’s vision of new warships bristling with huge-calibre guns – widely mocked as a billionaire’s vanity project and a throwback to the battleship era of the second world war – has received an unexpected nod from military scientists in China. In a paper published last month by the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Command Control & Simulation, the authors suggested that large-calibre naval guns could have a critical role in future warfare by countering the growing threat of...

A study in one of the world’s top scientific journals that concluded China’s policy-driven solar energy expansion was harming bird diversity has come under fire after allegations emerged that the analysis may have used observations of 2.1 billion little egrets in a single park – more than the entire global population of the species. It also brought up heated conversations on social media about negative narratives surrounding China’s green energy sector. The study in question – by researchers in...

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...

A young Chinese man recently became colleagues with the doctor who saved him from a congenital heart defect 19 years ago, prompting many to marvel at the wonder of fate. Huang Hongxin, 23, has recently enrolled as a postgraduate student in the neurosurgery department at Xiangya Hospital, affiliated with Central South University. Nearly two decades ago, Huang underwent a life-saving surgery to address his congenital heart disease at the same hospital. His condition included pulmonary artery...

Soon after becoming a mother, Hong Kong resident Sarah Tam enjoyed eight hours of sleep a night and yoga sessions at a post-partum care centre in neighbouring Shenzhen, where carers looked after her newborn around the clock. Tam, a 30-year-old social worker who gave birth in mid-July, spent a month at the facility in mainland China, recovering from delivery with total peace of mind. She said she felt completely at ease leaving her baby in their care, which allowed “mothers to truly focus on...