Published: 3:00pm, 30 Jul 2025Updated: 3:55pm, 30 Jul 2025
We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.
1. Chinese scientists break design ‘curse’ that killed US Navy’s drone programme
Chinese aerospace engineers have a revolutionary software design that they say will allow them to overcome a major barrier to stealth aircraft development.
2. Chemotherapy can speed up cancer spread, Chinese study finds
A team of Chinese scientists has found that the spread of cancer from original tumour sites to distant organs can be caused by chemotherapy triggering the awakening of dormant cancer cells.
3. How Chinese scientists fought 74 years for world’s most powerful dam – and won
Beijing has launched the massive Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project in southern Tibet after decades of scientific research.
4. China unveils the largest crystal for high-powered laser weapons
Chinese researchers have manufactured the world’s largest barium gallium selenide (BGSe) crystal, a breakthrough that could pave the way for ultra-high-power laser weapons capable of zapping satellites from the ground.
5. How to stop US bunker busters? Chinese scientists have an idea
Precision-guided bunker busters fly slowly but carry massive warheads wrapped in thick armour. Small nations without air power watch helplessly as bombs fall. When US B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s nuclear sites with GBU-57 MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) bunker busters on June 22, there was reportedly little resistance.
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Chinese researchers have offered a countermeasure: strike the weak flank.
6. Brain disorder no match for young Chinese prodigy at maths Olympiad
As the world’s brightest young mathematical minds gathered last week at Australia’s Sunshine Coast for the biggest global maths competition of the year, one moment stood out before the contest had even begun.
7. China unveils next-gen high-speed rail tech as US puts brakes on bullet train
China has pulled the wraps off its next-generation high-speed rail technology as the United States revokes federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project.