Victoria Bela

3 weeks ago | scmp.com | Victoria Bela |Holly Chik

In the third instalment of a series to mark the 10th anniversary of the Future Science Prize, Victoria Bela and Holly Chik look at Professor Mok Ngaiming’s fundamental contributions to the field of complex differential geometry, which earned him the 2022 award in mathematics and computer science. The second part of the series can be found here.

2 months ago | scmp.com | Holly Chik |Victoria Bela |Shi Huang |Yuanyue Dang

The impact on a flagship Chinese oil and gas pipeline is under close watch after a powerful earthquake hit Myanmar on Friday afternoon, with tremors felt in neighbouring China and Thailand. Strong tremors were felt in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan, but no casualties have been reported so far, according to state news agency Xinhua. Other Chinese media outlets reported that many in Yunnan felt the quake, with some injuries and damage to houses. Rescue operations are reportedly under way.

2 months ago | flipboard.com | Holly Chik |Victoria Bela |Shi Huang |Yuanyue Dang

4 hours agoPowerful earthquake rocks Thailand and Myanmar, killing at least 3 in Bangkok high-rise collapseBANGKOK (AP) — A powerful earthquake rocked Thailand and neighboring Myanmar on Friday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed.

Feb 25, 2025 | scmp.com | Victoria Bela |Holly Chik

Chinese scientists have set a transmission record in quantum secure direct communication, which brings the technology to the internet dial-up speed of the 1990s and sets the stage for a future quantum internet. The team’s new quasi-quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) protocol set both a transmission and a distance world record with a transmission rate of 2.38 kilobits per second (kbps) over 104.8km (65 miles) of standard telecommunications optical fibre.

Feb 3, 2025 | scmp.com | Dewey Sim |Victoria Bela

While Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has drawn scrutiny in the West over national security and privacy concerns, it could be an opportunity for countries like Russia that have little access to advanced technologies. That is the assessment of analysts after Hangzhou-based DeepSeek surprised the world last month with the launch of an open-source reasoning model, R1, with capabilities that are comparable to OpenAI’s closed-source GPT but at significantly lower cost.