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South China Morning Post
8 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
China extends funding programme to lure top young scientists from overseas
China is ramping up its campaign to lure top young scientists from abroad, extending a major funding programme for a second round – a move that could be partly aimed at US-based researchers facing budget constraints. The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) – the top funder of basic research – last week issued an additional call for applications for the Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Overseas) following its first round earlier this year. Since its launch in 2021, the programme has awarded individual grants of 1 million to 3 million yuan (US$140,000 to US$418,000) to thousands of scientists – born in China or overseas – under the age of 40. Applicants must have at least three years of postdoctoral experience abroad and commit to a full-time position at a Chinese institution. The additional round this year aimed to 'improve China's talent funding system, better use science grants to attract and support researchers, and bring more outstanding young researchers from overseas to work in China', the NSFC said in a statement on its website on July 30. In the United States, early-career scientists have been contending with shrinking federal support and deepening uncertainty since Donald Trump 's return to the White House. Funding agencies have been told to slash overheads since Donald Trump's return to the White House. Photo: EPA Major funding agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), have been told to slash overheads – the indirect expenses that cover lab space, infrastructure and administrative support, which are often closely tied to postdoctoral research.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- South China Morning Post
‘Absolutely impossible': how China created super steel for nuclear fusion
In the quest to harness the power of the stars, one of the greatest challenges lies not in mastering fusion , but in finding materials strong enough to contain it. Advertisement At the heart of a nuclear fusion reactor is an ultra-powerful superconducting magnet, operating at temperatures near absolute zero and under immense magnetic stress. For decades, scientists from around the world have struggled to find materials that simultaneously endure such extreme cold and extreme force. Chinese scientists have detailed how they created CHSN01 (China high-strength low-temperature steel No 1), deployed it this year in the construction of world's first fusion nuclear power generation reactor and put China in a leading position in materials science. 02:24 A look inside the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor in Japan A look inside the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor in Japan It was a decade-long journey marked by setbacks, doubt and ultimate triumph. In 2011, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is under construction in southern France, faced a critical material challenge. Testing revealed that the cryogenic steel prepared had become brittle and lost its ductility. ITER, the world's largest fusion experiment, was launched in 2006 from a collaboration between seven members, including China. Advertisement At the core of the fusion device, superconducting magnets are armoured with cryogenic steel, like a jacket engineered to endure ultra-low temperatures. This material must withstand both liquid helium's 269 degrees Celsius (516 Fahrenheit) cryogenic environment and the massive Lorentz forces generated by intense magnetic fields.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- South China Morning Post
How did the tomato create the potato? Chinese scientists trace tuber's hybrid past
They could not look less alike in the supermarket aisle, but a Chinese-led research team has uncovered an ancient link that makes a forerunner of the tomato a genetic parent of the potato. By examining genomes and data sets from cultivated and wild potato species, the scientists traced the tuberous plant's evolution back about nine million years to a moment when a tomato ancestor created a hybrid with a group of potato-like – but tuberless – plants called etuberosum. They published their findings in the journal Cell on Thursday. All varieties of potato have underground tubers, but until now it has not been clear how they developed them and diversified. The researchers concluded that hybridisation was a key driver of the development of tubers – the part of the potato that makes it a staple crop today. 'We not only show that the cultivated potato and its 107 wild relatives are derived from an ancient hybrid speciation event, but also that tuber formation itself, a key innovative trait, has a hybrid ancestry,' the team said in the paper. The potato is the third most widely consumed food crop globally, after rice and wheat, and is eaten by over 1 billion people, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
