Posts tagged as:

China

Is 华大基因 doing science?
     (aka BGI)

March 18, 2010

In a decade, the global Human Genome Project sequenced 3 billion DNA base pairs. Today, a single machine (the Illumina HiSeq™ 2000) can sequence 25 billion base pairs per day, and BGI (the Shenzhen company formerly known as the Beijing Genomics Institute) has purchased 128 of them. This puts BGI “on track to surpass [...]

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Asian Universities are Lagging
(according to lagging indicators)

November 7, 2009

I’ve recently written several posts related to research and education in China and India, and the comments led me to examine how their best universities are ranked among the universities of the world. The answer is “Low”, but the measuring rod looks crooked.
The “Academic Ranking of World Universities” (ARWU) is widely regarded as the best [...]

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Asia and the elements of innovation

August 6, 2009

The worldwide management consulting firm McKinsey & Company recently invited me to write about prospects for innovation in Asia, as a contribution to an ongoing discussion of where the world’s primary centers of innovation will be in the coming decades.
Today, they posted the result, “Asia and the elements of innovation”. I focus on China, and [...]

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Studying Nanotechnology: A Preface

February 18, 2009

Students interested in nanotechnology have often asked me for advice on what to study. I plan to write a series of posts about this, but there’s one basic piece of advice that will serve not only for nanotechnology, but for almost any area of physical science and technology: Study math and physics, then study more, [...]

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