A trillion times brighter than the sun: Beijing builds most powerful X-ray light source
biomedicine and
physics
Advertisement
The High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) will generate beams that are a trillion times brighter in terms of photon density than the surface of the
sun , thanks to their extreme focus and precision. It is set to surpass similar facilities in Europe, Asia and the United States, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of High Energy Physics, the facility's lead developer.
'Once HEPS reaches its designed brightness, it will be capable of revealing the microscopic world in unprecedented detail,' Pan Weimin, project director at the institute, told China Science Daily on Thursday. 'It offers a powerful tool to manipulate matter and observe its entire life cycle.'
The facility had begun light commissioning, marking the start of integrated system testing with real photon beams – a phase crucial for fine-tuning the machine before trial operations begin, Pan said.
Since the 1970s, more than 70 light sources have been built around the world to help
scientists see deep inside matter – from decoding virus structures to developing advanced aerospace materials, batteries and semiconductors.
Advertisement
These massive facilities work by accelerating electrons to near the speed of light and steering them with powerful magnets. As the electrons change direction, they emit high-energy light particles, which researchers use to probe the atomic and molecular structure of materials.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
08-08-2025
- South China Morning Post
China's water paradox: rainfall drenches big cities while river run-off drops
Beijing and surrounding areas may have been engulfed in deadly torrential downpours in the past fortnight but a new study reveals a longer-term drying trend for the country's major rivers. New research shows that despite many Chinese cities increasingly being hit by extreme rainfall, the volume of water in China's rivers has fallen over 60 years, particularly in the country's north. The researchers found that from 1956 to 2016, some 756 – or 72 per cent – of the 1,046 hydrological stations in China reported a decline in run-off, with 593 stations showing a decrease of less than 40 per cent and 163 stations showing a drop of more than 40 per cent. 04:46 'It's all gone': Beijing villagers left with nothing after deadly floods 'It's all gone': Beijing villagers left with nothing after deadly floods The study was led by the Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the team's findings published in the journal Science Advances on Thursday. According to the paper, China has more than 1,500 rivers that have a drainage area exceeding 1,000 sq km (386 square miles). The authors said these rivers delivered more than 2,700 cubic kilometres of water each year to sustain 1.4 billion people, irrigate more than 120 million hectares (297 million acres) of farmland, and provide fresh water for the largest share of industrial output and food production in the world.
South China Morning Post
07-08-2025
- South China Morning Post
‘Dormant bombs': unique genes that make us smart may also fuel cancer, China study shows
A genetic study in China that could have major implications for human evolution – and cancer research – has shown that a special type of recently evolved gene can be sequestered by cancerous tumours to fuel their growth. The team of researchers from Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) examined a group of young genes that emerged de novo, meaning they recently evolved from regions of the genome that do not code for proteins rather than from coding genes through typical gene evolution Unlike most genes, which evolve from existing genes through duplication and modification, 'motherless' de novo genes come from DNA that previously had no function. These new genes are thought to be key to some uniquely human traits, such as our advanced cognitive abilities and susceptibility to certain diseases. 'We identified 37 young de novo genes,' the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Genomics on July 17, adding that they found strong evidence that these genes were functional and actively coded for the creation of proteins. 'Collectively, this set of 37 genes represents the most rigorously validated catalogue of young human de novo genes to date.' The researchers said that the expression of these genes was 'significantly' increased in tumours, while the deletion of some of the genes could suppress the proliferation of tumour cells.
South China Morning Post
30-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
US Earth imaging satellite fleet is creating ‘low-cost orbital landmines', China team says
A team of Chinese researchers has criticised the world's largest Earth-imaging satellite fleet, describing the shoebox-sized spacecraft as 'low-cost orbital landmines' that threaten the safety of space operations. Using a self-developed tracking platform, software scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences analysed the Dove constellation – which has launched hundreds of CubeSats since 2013 to provide daily, medium-resolution imagery of the Earth's surface – according to the team's article posted on Chinese social media on July 21. The Chinese team said the thruster-less satellites operated by San Francisco-based Planet Labs, posed a growing threat to space safety. They found that by early July more than 80 per cent of the 662 Dove satellites had deorbited, raising concerns about uncontrolled re-entry and potential collisions. They also noted that more than 100 Doves listed in public databases, including the US Space Force's tracking website, were assigned 'incorrect or fabricated' identification codes and lacked orbital data. 01:19 SpaceX Starship explodes during routine pre-launch ground test SpaceX Starship explodes during routine pre-launch ground test 'The Dove constellation has reshaped the commercial Earth observation industry with its low-cost, high-frequency observation model,' the researchers wrote. 'However, it may be turning valuable low Earth orbits into a dangerous 'minefield'.'
