The Blip Report for Tuesday, October 29th 2024
The China Files
I read a very interesting story by Godfree Roberts - “China's Photonic Supply Chain”, that China is again leap-frogging, into what they see as a future technology, that says:
“At least ten countries must cooperate to manufacture one advanced IC – from design to fabrication, to assembly, packaging and components to supplies – except China. Only China has a complete domestic supply chain – from IP to shipped product …”
However, while electronically moving large amounts of data requires lots of energy and cooling, to move the same large amounts of data photonically requires much less energy and cooling, and is much faster too.
Godfree then tells the story about how China is now moving from electronically integrated circuits to photonically integrated circuits!!!
“China already makes all the components for photonic chips and its specialty foundries produce photonic chips for critical applications. Moreover, China is itself the world's largest optical communication market, growing from $800 million in 2017 to $3 billion today.”
Instead of having to watch as our data centres are buying up nuclear power plants (and prioritizing electricity use for themselves) perhaps, we should cooperate with Chinese researchers into studying photonics.
Then I read another story about Chinese research - “Chinese research team develops new type of eco-friendly fire extinguishing agent targeting lithium battery flame”, that says:
“It not only quickly puts out flames but also absorbs harmful reactive gases, proving highly effective in various complex fire scenarios, particularly in extinguishing lithium battery fires … This technology effectively addresses fires caused by thermal runaway in batteries, quickly extinguishes flames, and reduces the emission of harmful substances, thus protecting the environment ...”
With all the worries lately about how to properly extinguish electrical battery fires, at least China is doing something to address people’s concerns, and to improve our fire safety methods. Perhaps we could look into this too!
And then I read a story about another Chinese research project - “A New Technology Turns CO2 into Clothing”, that has the amazing technology to capture CO2 out of the air that we breathe, and turn it into liquid ethylene glycol - ‘a key ingredient in polyester production’, that are then spun into fibers!!!
“These threads, born from the very air we breathe, will soon be woven into fabrics and sewn into garments.”
So, instead of building these expensive and fairly useless underground CO2 storage caverns in old oil wells, maybe we should do some new research, like China, and find some more fascinating and productive methods of CO2 use.
The fact that we’re not doing this kind of research, tends to make me think that all these eco-greenie-enviro scare stories are not done to protect or improve our environment, but are actually used for a population reduction narrative instead. Perhaps we could start by ending the witch-hunt against Chinese researchers in our own country, and by encouraging more of them to want to stay here, instead of forcing them to go back to China, OR … to go elsewhere.