China’s Big-Science Future: How China Made the Modern Silk Road Revisited, and How it Became the First Underground Neutrino Observatory

A researcher at Ohio State University says that collaboration between other countries is important for China’s big-science future, even as politics with the West remain tense. Wagner points out that most of the big-science infrastructure that China has invested in has been designed in consultation with scientists at world-leading facilities overseas. She says that researchers know that disengages is the way to lower quality work, and can be seen from the experience of Russia.

The BRI is often described as a modern-day reboot of the Silk Road, an ancient system of trade routes that connected China’s heartland with the eastern edge of Europe. The BRI wants to strengthen the resilience of the China’s trade networks, both overland and by sea, and there are a number of ports and fueling stations in the Asian region.

The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory is located in southern China. Centred on a colossal sphere filled with 20,000 tonnes of liquid and housed in a subterranean laboratory some 700 metres deep, it is designed to answer fundamental questions in particle physics. It is the largest and most sensitive instrument of its kind ever built.

In particle physics, for example, after a series of upgrades, BEPC became the first instrument in the world to detect a confirmed ‘tetraquark’, an exotic form of subatomic matter (M. Ablikim et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. The book was published in 2001 and is available in the following books: 110, 252001, and 2013). In astrophysics, LHAASO captured the highest-energy γ-ray burst ever detected, an event so bright that it challenges classical theories of physics (The LHAASO Collaboration Sci. Adv. 9, eadj2778; 2023). “I think [China’s president] Xi Jinping sees an era in which China is a more proactive and influential player, shaping the rules of the game,” says Simon.

Nature Index tracks five subjects and shows the top fields of research. Out of all the FORs, materials engineering is the one that has the highest level of output and represents 34.7% of the physical sciences output. FORs can relate to more than one subject: biochemistry and cell biology is also among the top five FORs for health sciences, for instance.