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GLOBAL VOICES OF SCIENCE:
Ascent of Nanoscience in China
Chunli Bai
In recent years, nanoscience and nanotechnology, which refer to the growing knowledge base and technical framework for understanding and manipulating matter on nanometer scales ranging from the atomic to the cellular, have been ascendant on the world stage of science and technology. First introduced into China in the 1980s, the nanoresearch movement has been picking up momentum there. As growth in this technical arena accelerates and the vast technological and commercial stakes become more apparent, China has been embracing and supporting its own efforts with ever more vigor. In his roles as a pioneer researcher in Chinese nanoscience and as a prominent and powerful voice in China's scientific community, Chunli Bai has been instrumental in ushering his country into the front lines of this now global technical framework that some have likened to a modern-day industrial revolution. Although China has yet to invest as much in this coming nano era as have countries such as the United States and Japan, its researchers are contributing increasingly more consequential discoveries and advances. In time, predicts Dr. Bai, China will be among those countries most influential in determining how the coming era of nanoscience and nanotechnology unfolds.
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The author is in the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China. E-mail: clbai{at}iccas.ac.cn
