China shows off its revolutionary silent submarine engine
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Submarine engines are noisy, for a hole host of reasons, but China’s latest engine is the quietest in the world and it could revolutionise underwater warfare. In the 1990’s film The Hunt For Red October, by Tom Clancy, Sean Connery plays the role of...
World first as Chinese scientists teleport particles 300km into space
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Teleportation is the ultimate sci-fi dream, and scientists are getting better at teleporting quantum particles further than ever before but teleporting real objects is still a long way away. Earlier this week Chinese scientists managed to teleport an object from Earth and into space,...
China wants to build a 20,000 tonne warship that submerges
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As China continues to build out its military capabilities it’s beginning to put new twists on old ideas, and this latest one is straight from the movies The Chinese navy is taking the concept of arsenal ships, ships that were first thought of by...
Chinese scientists have built the world’s first quantum satellite network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Quantum networks promise almost total secrecy but significant hurdles remain to creating international and internet scale networks, now though China looks like it will be the first to create the first international, cross border, quantum network Late last year, a green dot appeared in...
China brings the world’s largest floating solar power plant online
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Solar power is on an unstoppable roll and with companies bringing new capacity online every minute of every day the future of the technology looks bright Late last week, workers switched on a solar energy plant that’s capable of producing 40 megawatts of power...
Scientists two headed ‘Franken-Rat’ paves the way for human head transplant trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Scientists have been performing head transplants on animals for decades, and now a Chinese team want to move to human trials by the end of the year Following hot on the heels of the creation of a Human-Animal hybrid “animal,” a team of Chinese...
Experts are starting to agree that AI will replace CEO’s
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If you can break a job into roles and tasks you can automate it, and now CEO’s are coming into the firing line… There’s a saying – if you can describe your job in one sentence then get prepared for it to be automated....
Baidu’s AI just achieved Zero Shot Learning
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As babies humans often “just learn” things, it’s a gift, but now AI’s are catching us up and starting to learn in the same way we do and it’ll change AI forever. Given the glut of artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs in the past year,...
China vows to replace 67,000 taxis with electric vehicles
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many cities around the world, including London, are struggling with high pollution levels which affect the health of their citizens, Beijing’s new mandate will help alleviate it. Many people think that taxis are a bane, and depending on where you live many of them...
Smog and waste push China to cancel the roll out of 103 coal fired power stations
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Coal fired power stations are regarded as the most polluting form of energy production, this latest roll back of investment in coal could be good news for the environment. At the same time that China’s government is talking about creating new global energy supergrids...
China guns for dominance in AI, builds out national labs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Artificial intelligence is the world’s next key battle ground, and China wants to lead it. The Chinese government, who recently announced they want to build AI based cruise missiles and a new nationwide Social Credit Scoring system, has approved a plan to create a...
New solar panels generate electricity from rain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A new range of all weather solar panels could help further reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels and make renewable energy an even more attractive proposition. Solar panel technology has changed the way many people bring energy into their homes, but it’s always had...
China’s new climate control program is a monster
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A large part of China is arid, with serious implications on the people’s livelihoods and health, the new climate control program will improve their living conditions. China, the world’s second largest economy, announced on Wednesday that it’s going to spend $168 million on a...
Genetically modified super cows are resistant to tuberculosis
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Every year in the UK over 36,000 cattle that contract TB are culled, but now that might end up being a thing of the past. Tuna and pigs recently got their own slice of emerging technology action by getting their own blockchains, but now...
New Chinese camera can see round corners
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to photograph and “see” objects that are out of sight have both military and civilian applications. In an age dominated by megapixel counts, a research group from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China led by Bin Bai have designed a one megapixel camera...
New H2 smartphone puts a lab grade molecular sensor in your hands
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to analyse the chemical composition of products, particularly counterfeit ones, has long been something you could only do in a lab, now the lab’s in the palm of your hand. Smartphones already do a lot of things, in fact, it’s likely that...
China’s Ehang gets serious about autonomous sky taxis, begins tests
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Flying cars and flying taxis’s have been tried before, they’ve been scoffed at, but the investment, regulatory and technology environment is now coming together in their favour, one day you’ll be able to take a ride in one. At Las Vegas’ glitzy Consumer Electronics...
China to build artificially intelligent, fire and forget, cruise missiles
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The increasing use of intelligent, autonomous systems is getting people spooked, so much so that the UN are getting involved It’s the start of 2017 and I knew there was a void – something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but something I...
China to spend $500 Billion by 2020 to build new high speed rail links
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many countries believe that having strong infrastructure helps their economies grow and thrive, and China is out investing everyone. The Chinese government plans to expand the country’s high-speed rail network to 18,600 miles by 2020, part of public infrastructure spending aimed at shoring up...
Walmart improves public safety by putting pork on the blockchain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Global supply chains are complex and can be easy for criminals to exploit by putting pork onto the blockchain Walmart are able to ensure and query the integrity of their supply chains, identify problems and pull tainted batches off of the shelves faster. Walmart...
