For anyone who hasn't read the most recent C-R-Newsletter, here is the report from CRN Research Director Chris Phoenix on his recent trip to China:
The World High Technology Society invited me to China for their Life Spring Forum conference in Dalian and a subsequent speaking tour in Hangzhou and Shanghai. The trip was quite productive and interesting; I made some good contacts and got a better feel for China's technological progress.The trip wasn't quite what I expected. For one thing, they treated me (along with the other foreign speakers) as a VIP, not just a conference speaker. We met with government officials, had our picture taken with dozens of people, were taken on sightseeing tours, and were fed like a cruise ship.
My first afternoon in Dalian, I gave an interview for the Dalian Daily through a translator. The interviewer appeared to have at least some questions prepared; the translator referred to a printed sheet (in Chinese) for some of the questions. But I had plenty of opportunity to talk about not only the technical aspects of molecular manufacturing, but also the policy implications. I gave special emphasis to the danger that concerns me most: military competition between nations leading to unstable arms race and disastrous war. Several (perhaps all) of the other speakers were interviewed as well, and I haven't seen the article.
For a variety reasons, I was unable to hear most of the talks in the conference. But the nanotech session went very well. At the last minute, the conference organizer had to do something else, so I MC'd the session as well as giving the first talk. The audience asked good questions of each speaker—questions that showed they'd been listening. At the banquet-style dinner that night (did I mention they fed us well?), I got a plaque declaring me an honorary member of the WHTS. Here is a picture of me in a suit—a very rare occurrence—with Dong Qin, Neil Branda, and Mark DiIorio, the other speakers in the nanotech session. I'm told my talk was well-received and I did a very professional job of running the session.
We visited a research center in Dalian, another in Hangzhou, and two in Shanghai. I was too jet-lagged to see much in the Dalian center, and the Hangzhou visit was pretty quick. But the Shanghai visits were very informative. At the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, I gave a talk on "Advanced Nanotechnology and Human Rights" to perhaps 20 people. I'm told there were some government policy people in the room, but I didn't get a chance to speak with them. Then I got to tour a MEMS research cleanroom of 1800 square meters, with all the equipment needed to build two-inch wafers. I didn't learn much that was new, but it was great fun!
I did speak with scientists, there and at the second research center, attached to Shanghai Jiaotong University, where I gave a more technical talk—basically the talk I had prepared for the conference. (I didn't know I'd be giving that talk until the previous day.) The team there was working on a project to cut single strands of DNA with an atomic force microscope, pick up single fragments on the AFM tip, and analyze them. I thought this was pretty cool work—and it shows that they are using modern tools to do up-to-date research. I was able to suggest a method for detecting whether they had successfully picked up the DNA fragment; I haven't heard yet if my suggestion works. My impression of that team was that they felt more like a startup than like a university research lab. There was a strong sense of purpose, energy, and competence; a sense of 'Let's get this working so we can do the next thing.'
After each of my talks, in the discussion period, someone asked about the Drexler-Smalley debate. I told them what I thought: that Smalley was talking outside his field, that he was wrong about the capabilities of enzymes, that his position is looking weaker all the time, and that his position is motivated by a desire to debunk gray goo.
I asked a couple of questions about work that might be relevant to molecular manufacturing. The answer was: We're not doing that here, but maybe in Beijing. I got the impression that Beijing is where the cutting-edge research happens. So I didn't see any specific indication that China is working on molecular manufacturing, but I doubt that I would have seen it.
After the talk at the conference in Dalian, one professor gave me a tentative invitation to return to China next April, and another person suggested to me that CRN might work with Chinese universities on nanotech policy research. And a researcher in Shanghai told me that his research direction had been inspired in part by Eric Drexler's book Nanosystems. I'll be keeping in touch with these people, as well as others.
I was a bit off-balance with the city officials that we met, but all that seemed to be required was formality; they didn't ask me about nanotech. But I felt right at home with the researchers and students. I don't know if that's because they are Westernized or because I'm used to working with Easterners from my former software career in California. But my take-away impression is that at least some of China's research is fully modern in tools, topics, and attitude.
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