Dr Wise Young, CEO of Chinascinet, and one of the world's leading researchers into spinal cord injuries, says China could hold the key to a cure that he has been searching for since he met late actor Christopher Reeve in the 1990s. [AFP] more ›

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A man has passed away in Shenzhen a week after being admitted to the hospital for bird flu. This is said to be the first bird flu fatality since 2010: more ›

Bill Gates enthusiastically confirmed on Wednesday that TerraPower, a company where he serves as Chairman, is cooperating with the China National Nuclear Corporation on the development of a new type of nuclear reactor. The new reactor is said to be eco-friendly, and able to endure any type of earthquake. more ›

Heads up astronomers, astrologists, and all manner of moonstruck folk! Providing the sky is not too obscured by a Shanghai drizzle, your best chance in ten years to witness a total lunar eclipse is this Saturday, December 10th. more ›

Greenpeace Asia says rainforests in Hainan have been disappearing at the alarming rate of about 200,000 square metres every day over the last decade due to illegal logging and the growth of new plantations. That's led to a precipitous decline in the natural habitat of the Hainan Gibbon, and the situation is so bad now that there are just 23 of them left in the wild. more ›

In a scientific development that conjures images of Chinese vampires taking over the earth, scientists at Wuhan University (in conjunction with colleagues from Canada and the U.S.) have figured out a way to extract human serum albumin (HSA) from rice seeds. more ›

Well this certainly won't help calm all the rampant 2012 doomsday speculation. Chinese scientists at Beijing's Tsinghua University have decided it's just too difficult to do research on asteroids out in the solar system and instead want to bring one into Earth's orbit by altering the asteroid's trajectory. more ›

That's right, he's done it again folks! Professor Cao Yilin is the chief director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Tissue Engineering at Jiaotong University, as well as a plastic surgeon at No. 9 People's Hospital, and he's been growing human ears on mice since before Justin Bieber was born. He eventually won fame and fortune in 2001 and received 300 million yuan (US$47 million) in research funding as a result. But now he's come under fire from former colleagues who claim his earmice weren't REAL earmice... or something. more ›

The recent discovery of the Xiaotingia, a chicken sized dinosaur discovered originally in Liaoning province, has dealt a blow to the archaeopteryx, who, until now, was considered to be the oldest bird. The findings of Chinese paleontologist Dr. Xu Xing, who discovered the Xiaotingia, claims that the archaeopteryx is in fact a dinosaur, not a bird. more ›

When it comes to earthquake prediction, Jiangsu province has got it all down pat. No kidding:

The government of East China's Jiangsu province is encouraging residents to report abnormal natural phenomena or abnormal animal behavior, either of which may be an omen signaling that an earthquake is imminent, according to a draft rule issued by the government. more ›

Big news from the world of science today: A group of Chinese scientists from the National Institute of Biological Sciences have appeared to find a way to regulate sexual preference in male mice. more ›

Is this good news or is it just plain creepy? Genetically modified dairy products similar to human milk will be available on the market in as little as two years, says a Chinese biotech expert. more ›

In December the world watched (and giggled) as panda researchers donned panda suits for the good of the species, in an effort to reduce human contact and prepare them for the wild. This time they dressed up for the transfer of Cao Cao and her cub Cao Gen to the outer ring of the Wuloong Panda Reserve in Sichuan. more ›

Scientist-turned-whistle blower Fang Zhouzi (dubbed "science cop" by many) has received a grand total of 500RMB (about $75) in a civil court ruling over a violent attack he received on August 29. This follows October's equally disappointing five-month jail sentence for Xiao Chuanguo, a medical professor responsible for the attack who lashed out against Fang and his associate Fang Xuanchang (no relation) after they attempted to expose his fraudulent research and credentials. more ›

It seems that modern man has once again been unable to keep it in his pants and fell victim to the seduction of a saucy siren - what's new?! Well, this modern man in question lived about 100,000 years ago and got fresh with a... Neanderthal. more ›

The crackdown on the anti-crackdown squad seems to have begun. Beijing police have arrested four men - including a professor - believed to have been responsible for last month's assault on Fang Zhouzhi. Fang is notorious for his hard-hitting exposures of religious fakes, bogus researchers and fraudulent academics. more ›

The New Humanist has a fascinating article on two Chinese mythbusters everyone should know - Caijing Magazine's science editor Fang Xuanchang and biochemist-turned-fraud-exposer Fang Shimin. Both are in a fight against psuedoscience and fake resumes, and both have suffered for it. more ›

...And it's on a competing Chinese search engine! Wang Ling, a computer scientist at SOSO.com, a site that's suspiciously laid out very similarly to the one currently having troubles in this country, has developed a bioinformatics search engine that mimics the way Chinese characters are indexed. Wait, what? more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here). more ›

• The best way to show how hot the earth will be (thanks to global warming)? Strip off your pants in public. 20 people did just that in Guangdong. [Treehugger]
• Xinjiang is continuing to lift communications restrictions, including on international calls and *gasp* the internet? [Xinhua]
• Exactly how much have officials swindled out of China? It's hard to say, but a 2004 study places it at $50 billion USD. And this is before the stimulus. No wonder Beijing keeps on holding corruption conferences. [China Media Project]

• A regional newspaper photoshopped out the label “路政巡查” [Road Administration Patrol] from a vehicle that had hit and killed a 16-year-old in order to distance the accident from the government. People were pretty displeased when they found out. [Chinasmack]
• China has pretty darn good coverage even in its rural areas. Estimates hold that 99.86% of the country's administrative villages have telephone service, 91.5% have internet. [Xinhua]
• In 2040, the Chinese economy will reach $123 trillion, or nearly three times the economic output of the entire globe in 2000, according to Robert Fogel. [Foreign Policy]

No, it's not a mechanical rampage of social awkwardness - it's a conference and a cool sounding one at that - a grassroots meeting where artists, engineers, scientists, DIY enthusiasts (and you!) interact under the broad delineation of “people doing strange things with electricity.” more ›

Despite the low pay, it seems that there's nothing that Chinese people admire more than their teachers. According to a recent survey by the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, teaching ranked as the most widely admired profession, followed by scientists and doctors. About 1,500 adults from ages 18 to 69 were polled in a survey about the most desirable jobs for the next generation. Thanks perhaps to all the news of corruption crackdowns, government official ranked only fourth on the list and trailed the top three by a long shot. Not mentioned was who exactly these 1,500 adults were - Urban professionals? Country farmers? Migrant workers? We would think that the various income levels would have all their own ideas of what they want for their children. Source: CRI English Photo from China Daily more ›

A lot of folks on the Chinese Twitter clone Fanfou have been tweeting about an article regarding the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "blueprint" for China's development from now until the year 2050. Here's our very rough translation followed by a typically snide and cynical commentary. more ›

• Common sense reigns as IOC ends worldwide torch relay [Yahoo! Sports] "The International Olympic Committee decided to end the globetrotting torch relay, discontinuing an event that began with the Athens Games in 2004 and was used again by the organizers of the Beijing Games this past August. For future games, the torch will only tour the country where the games are being hosted."
• China News: Ai Weiwei: Q&A On Earthquake Toll Accounting Efforts [China Digital Times (CDT)] "Artist, activist, and blogger Ai Weiwei is leading an effort to publish the names of those who died in the May 12 Sichuan earthquake. The action has invited responses from around the globe — and questions from those most nearby, in China. Netizens asked Ai questions ranging from his thoughts on tofu dregs construction to his feelings regarding social responsibility. Ai has responded to dozens of questions found on the posts entitled “做客天涯 (一)” and “做客天涯 (二).” Below is a selection of five of these questions and responses. Translated by CDT." (Blocked in China)
• Analysts dismiss 'cyber spy' claims [China Daily] "Top analysts yesterday refuted claims by researchers hired by the Dalai Lama that China runs a cyper spy network, branding them "exaggerated" and an attempt to paint the nation as a "threat". "This is purely another political issue that the West is trying to exaggerate," said Song Xiaojun, a Beijing-based strategy and military analyst."

• Advisor: Financial crisis not to affect success of 2010 Shanghai Expo [Xinhua] "The global financial crisis will have only limited impacts on the Shanghai World Expo 2010, an official with the organizers said here Sunday. Wan Jifei, vice director of the Shanghai World Expo Executive Committee, pledged that the financial crisis would not affect the overall success of the Expo at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of China's political advisory body."
• The curious case of the disappearing TV drama [Danwei] "Looking at the headline numbers, 2008 was not a good year for TV drama producers in China. While TV drama production has grown by around 1,000 episodes annually every year since 2003, it actually dropped for the first time in five years in 2008."
• China's key sci-tech projects criticized for "retarded progress" [Xinhua] "China's major projects in its 15-year scientific and technological development program initiated in 2006 is progressing very slowly, a political advisor said here Sunday. The State Council, or Cabinet, approved the last major scientific and technological project late last year, he said. "It means we have spent one fifth of the time to start up the program." "

A Beijing clinic has apparently skipped all the controversy surrounding using stem cells and jumped right to marketing it as a way to rejuvenate your face. more ›

Jonah Lehrer's piece in the Boston Globe got us thinking (or, at least, trying to think — our brain has been subject to Shanghai for six years now): more ›

Her boyfriend told a doctor that her left ear cracked while they were kissing. The woman later found she couldn't hear anything with that ear. more ›