China and Big Science

[XM5ER]

It would seem that China is putting serious money into big science projects at the moment.

Some interesting reading here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-0192822d-1...

Love that telescope.

[Eric Mc]

Saw the feature on the telescope on last night's news. I was wondering, is it really necessary to build such a huge dish in the modern age? The Araceibo dish, which is about 1/3 smaller than the new Chinese one, was built over 40 years Nowadays they can get good results by linking lots of smaller dishes to provide a lager baseline.

[XM5ER]

I must admit, that was my first thought as well. I guess we'll see from the results over time, if it has been a success. A bit of governmental willy waving probably helped to get it built too.

[Monty Python]

Advantages of a single large dish over a long-baseline interferometer:

http://areciboscience.org/singledish.html

[Eric Mc]

They would say that, of course

[Flooble]

They are certainly putting the money into a wide range of projects and committing to science. In about twenty years their investment is likely to be paying off hugely.

[Eric Mc]

It's a very interesting period with two major question marks -

will the Chinese economy remain buoyant enough to support these projects?

how will the US respond if China does start taking major leads in these advanced technology areas?

[Flooble]

Indeed. However, it's so hard to find anything mass-produced which isn't "Made in China" that I increasingly think the world economy is becoming centred in the East in an even more extreme version of the way the 18th/19th century world economy was "Built in Britain".

That period ended as far as I can tell thanks to overconfidence giving rise to too much politics short-term outlook (with the world war being the ultimate killer blow).

China appears to have the ability (at the moment) to play the long game and not demand immediate return on investment, together with a national focus on shared goals and not attempting to pander to every individual whim. Look at the time we spend navel gazing trying to build a runway at Heathrow or a new bit of motorway.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

how will the US respond if China does start taking major leads in these advanced technology areas?

A new space race perhaps - with Mars as the goal? In the big scheme of things Mars is worth more points than the Moon and the US will hate losing.

Interesting to think that China is now 'new world' and US is 'old world'. Centuries shorten to decades.

[scubadude]

Simpo Two said:

A new space race perhaps - with Mars as the goal? In the big scheme of things Mars is worth more points than the Moon and the US will hate losing.

The US will need China for a Mars mission, if only to resupply their transit vessel when it has to go back and get Matt Damon...

[XM5ER]

Eric Mc said:

It's a very interesting period with two major question marks -

will the Chinese economy remain buoyant enough to support these projects?

how will the US respond if China does start taking major leads in these advanced technology areas?

To the first question, probably. Compared to building huge ghost towns I would imagine the cost of these projects is relatively trivial.

The the second, I guess it depends on who is in power. Hilary will probably shrug, say "Meh" and do nothing. Trump would probably shout and bluster a lot, then do nothing.

[SystemParanoia]

China Has begun operating their FAST radio telescope

http://phys.org/news/2016-09-china-world-largest-r...



BIG:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/201...

[Dan_1981]

But it only cost £140m and took them five years to get it built.

What have we built or completed recently that has only cost £140m????

[Atomic12C]

Eric Mc said:

Saw the feature on the telescope on last night's news. I was wondering, is it really necessary to build such a huge dish in the modern age? ...

Eric Mc said:

..how will the US respond if China does start taking major leads in these advanced technology areas?

I'll try to answer these... the US has made a law that prevents US companies/agencies, such as NASA, collaborating with the Chinese when it comes to space projects.

Not sure why, but the US collaborates with the Russians on such projects but made a law to prevent it with the Chinese.

Therefore China needs to go its own way and build what ever infrastructure is required to allow their development on projects to proceed.


Good luck to them is what I say. A new space race in my view is a good thing. The speed at which science progresses when there is competition can be amazing.

[Eric Mc]

SystemParanoia said:

China Has begun operating their FAST radio telescope

http://phys.org/news/2016-09-china-world-largest-r...



BIG:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/201...

Britain spent a lot more on one of these. Unfortunately, we built it upside down and it was unable to use it properly -

[SystemParanoia]

Eric Mc said:

SystemParanoia said:

China Has begun operating their FAST radio telescope

http://phys.org/news/2016-09-china-world-largest-r...



BIG:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/201...

Britain spent a lot more on one of these. Unfortunately, we built it upside down and it was unable to use it properly -

We just havent shipped it to Australia yet

[Eric Mc]

They have one of their own already -

[SystemParanoia]

I notice they must have used the same engineers we did

maybe someone could setup a trade\exchange deal