Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Scientists find some chemicals can kill the cotton leaf curl Multan virus and others can boost cotton plants’ immunity to it
It is feared the virus could wreak havoc in China’s Xinjiang region, which produces most of the country’s cotton
A cotton picker in Xinjiang, where cases of the virus have been reported. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese scientists have found chemicals in medicinal herbs that could tame a destructive plant virus threatening the cotton industry in its western Xinjiang region.
Some small-molecule chemicals in herbs commonly used in Chinese medicine can effectively suppress cotton leaf curl Multan virus, according to ongoing research led by Professor Ye Jian at the Institute of Microbiology in Beijing.
By targeting WRKY20, a gene in the virus’ DNA, the chemicals could disrupt the viral infection and transmission, Ye’s team found.
Some early findings from their research were published last month in the journal Science Advances.
The leaf curl virus – a species of Begomovirus, the largest genus of plant viruses – poses a significant threat to the world’s cotton plantations, causing leaf curling, stunted growth and lower yields of cotton fibre. It costs the cotton industry in the Indian subcontinent about US$1 billion a year, according to a press release about the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Were there to be a pandemic in China, the drop in output and measures to contain it could cost the cotton farming industry 50 billion yuan (US$7 billion), according to some researchers’ estimates, the academy added.
The first known cases of the virus in China over the past decade were limited to coastal areas in the country’s east, but several cases have now been reported in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
“We are running out of time,” Ye told the South China Morning Post.
Cotton is a pillar industry in Xinjiang, which provides more than 80 per cent of China’s total cotton production. The industry also contributes up to 50 per cent of the income of farmers involved in it, according to government statistics.
Exact figures for infections in the region are not available, but outbreaks so far remain isolated, according to Ye and other researchers with knowledge of the situation.
Double threat to China’s cotton industry: warmer weather and mirid bug
However, Professor Gao Feng, cotton researcher at the Agricultural College of Shihezi University in Xinjiang, warned that leaf curl virus could reduce cotton production in an infected field to almost zero.
“A large-scale outbreak has not occurred yet, but the threat is very serious and people are very nervous,” Gao told the Post. “We are in desperate need of a solution.”
The challenges facing China’s pork industry highlight the danger viruses can pose to the domestic market. A swine fever outbreak that has wiped out 100 million pigs caused pork prices to rise, forcing China to look to new countries to import from, such as Portugal and Argentina.
Its biggest overseas supplier of cotton is the United States, with which it is locked in a protracted trade war. In July, the government allowed some Chinese companies to buy a total of 50,000 tonnes of cotton from the US without tariffs being charged.
The central and regional governments fear that falling incomes caused by the impact of an outbreak on the cotton industry would increase the risk of ethnic conflict, social instability and anti-government thoughts.
Ye’s team adopted two approaches to fighting the virus.
How trade war with the US is changing China’s cotton industry
Some chemicals they discovered could improve cotton plants’ immunity against the infection by stimulating them to generate an antibody that killed the virus. The other chemicals they found could target the virus, directly reducing its intensity.
“They can be used as sprays,” Ye said, adding that he planned to reveal the chemical composites and related herbs in a paper to be published in a peer-reviewed journal in the coming months.
The discovery could offer an environmental benefit, too. Cotton farmers in Xinjiang use pesticides to deter the whiteflies that transmit the virus, but their overuse has affected Xinjiang’s delicate ecology, which in its desert areas is particularly vulnerable to disturbance.
In the agricultural research community, there is growing concern that some whitefly species will become resistant to pesticides. “If that happens, we will have a major problem,” Ye said.
He said the chemicals identified in the ongoing study would not harm the environment.
“These chemicals come from plants, so the negative impact to the environment would be minimal,” he said.
The study also found that it may be possible to use the cotton leaf curl Multan virus to benefit farmers. It stimulates cotton plants to generate a chemical that is harmful to other insects, such as the bollworm, that compete with whiteflies for food, meaning that it could be genetically modified into a pest control agent.
Most cotton species in commercial plantations are genetically modified to produce an insecticide to kill bollworm. Ye said a man-made virus could reduce the dependence on genetically modified plants.
Image copyright AFPImage caption Meet Hong and Kong?
Two newborn panda cubs at Berlin Zoo have been unexpectedly caught up in Hong Kong’s political unrest, after German newspapers started a campaign to name them “Hong” and “Kong”.
One of Berlin’s leading papers, Der Tagesspiegel, asked its readers to come up with name suggestions.
Top of the poll: “Hong” and “Kong”.
One reader wrote in to say they should be named “in solidarity with a city fighting for survival”.
Other suggested names included “Joshua Wong Chi-fung” and “Agnes Chow Ting” – after two prominent Hong Kong democracy activists.
Loaning pandas to zoos around the world is part of China’s soft diplomacy, aimed at winning hearts and minds abroad.
As the cubs will have to be returned to China in two to four years, the paper suggested that naming them after the activists might even be a sneaky way of keeping them in Germany.
The poll is in no way binding or even related to the zoo – but it was soon picked up by Germany’s leading tabloid, Bild, which issued a passionate call “to politicise” the naming of the little pandas.
“Bild is choosing to call the panda cubs Hong and Kong because it’s China’s brutal politics that lies behind these panda babies,” the paper wrote on Thursday.
“Bild is demanding of the German government that it reacts in a political way to the birth of these small bears.”
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently on a visit to China, Bild said she could even relay the news to President Xi Jinping in person.
Image copyright EPAImage caption Mother panda Meng Meng has been on loan to Germany since 2017
Hong Kong activists had already called on Ms Merkel to raise their cause during her talks in Beijing.
In an earlier interview with Bild, activist Joshua Wong had suggested the zoo should name the animals “Freedom” and “Democracy”.
The German media’s foray into panda PR came as Hong Kong’s government launched a series of full-page adverts in international newspapers, designed to reassure investors that the city is still open for business.
The ads, which will run in leading papers around the world, say the government is determined to achieve a “peaceful, rational and reasonable resolution” to present political tensions.
Image copyrigh tGETTY IMAGESImage caption Chandrayaan-2 is a three-in-one mission comprising an orbiter, a lander and a six-wheeled rover
India’s second Moon mission will see the country’s space agency attempt to land a rover on the lunar surface on 7 September. Science writer Pallava Bagla explains how it will reach the Moon and why it is significant.
Why is this mission unique?
Costing $150 million, Chandrayaan-2 will carry forward the achievements of its predecessor Chandrayaan-1 which was launched in 2008 and discovered the presence of water molecules on the parched lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-2 is a three-in-one mission comprising an orbiter, a lander named Vikram and a six-wheeled rover named Pragyaan.
It was launched on 22 July, a week after its scheduled blast-off, which was halted due to a technical snag.
It entered the Moon’s orbit nearly a month later in a tricky operation, completing a series of manoeuvres before its lander was cut loose on 2 September.
Media caption The successful launch of India’s Moon mission
Now, on 7 September, a little after midnight India local time (1800 GMT), the lander which contains the rover will be sent hurtling down to the lunar surface where it is expected to make a landing near the South Pole of the Moon.
The last 15 minutes of the mission, when the Vikram lander will attempt to autonomously guide itself down to the lunar surface with no support from ground control, has been described as “15 minutes of terror” by the head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Dr K Sivan.
If India does succeed in touching down with the Vikram lander intact, it will become the fourth country to do so after the US, Russia and China.
More importantly for Indians, it will mean the nation’s flag will reach the Moon intact.
How will it land on the Moon?
The Moon may be Earth’s closest neighbour, but landing on it is a very tricky operation.
It has no atmosphere worthy of the name, which means parachutes cannot be used to slow the lander’s descent to the surface. The only option therefore is to go in for what is called a “powered descent”.
This means that the velocity of the lander is steadily reduced with its own rocket engines.
The lander will be moving horizontally across the surface of the Moon as it descends. The rocket engines must bring that horizontal movement to a stop whilst at the same time controlling the rate of descent to near zero just before the moment of touchdown.
This is known as a “soft landing”.
Before the final approach, both the orbiter and lander would have surveyed the Moon to find a “sweet spot” with no craters and boulders where it can land.
If the lander does not function properly it could crash land on the Moon surface, like its predecessor Chandrayaan-1 – though this was an intentional crash landing as in 2008 India had not yet mastered how to perform a soft landing.
Media caption Is India a space superpower?
Either way, once the landing happens and the lunar dust that may have been kicked up settles, the ramp opens up and the rover is very gently wheeled out.
The rover will then “Moon walk” at the princely speed of one centimetre per minute. It can travel a maximum of 500m (1,640ft) from the lander.
Both the lander and rover are powered with solar batteries and carry three instruments apiece.
What will the lander do?
The lander will, among other things, measure Moon quakes in its vicinity and do a thermal profile of the lunar “soil”. Meanwhile, the rover will further analyse the lunar soil.
The rear wheels of the rover are imprinted with the national emblem – the Ashoka Chakra – and the Isro logo, which means a permanent mark of India’s visit will be left on the surface of the Moon.
But the extreme temperatures on the Moon’s surface are a real challenge to the mission.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption The rover will “Moon walk” at a speed of one centimetre per minute
When the Sun shines, the lunar temperature can cross 100C and when it sets the temperature can drop to -170C.
As their batteries must be recharged with sunlight, the nominal life of both the rover and lander is expected to be one lunar day, since Isro is not sure if they can survive the ultra-cold temperatures of the long cold lunar night which lasts 14 days.
Both will send back photos of each other so the first Indian “selfies” from the lunar surface are expected soon after they land.
Why is the South Pole of the Moon significant?
The South Pole of the Moon is still a largely unexplored area, and India is targeting a spot that no other landing craft has reached so far. The mission will attempt to soft land its rover and lander in a high plain between two craters – Manzinus C and Simpelius N – at a latitude of about 70° south.
Most earlier missions including the Apollo manned missions targeted the equatorial region of the Moon.
Isro says the lunar South Pole is especially interesting because the surface area that remains in shadow here is much larger than that of the Moon’s North Pole. This means that there is a possibility of water in areas that are permanently shadowed.
In addition, the South Pole region has craters that are cold traps and contain a fossil record of the early Solar System.
This unexplored region is also especially important because in the near future, possibly by 2024, the US space agency Nasa aims to place boots back on the Moon through its Artemis Mission, and wants to target landing near the South Pole.
India’s mission will therefore give the Americans much needed data of this unchartered territory.
Why will the orbiter circle the Moon for a year?
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is expected to circle the Moon for a further year.
During that time, it will map lunar minerals, take high resolution photos and search for water on the lunar surface in the most detailed fashion till date by any lunar craft, using an infra-red imager and radars.
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption The imprints of India’s national emblem and the Isro logo will be left on the Moon by the rover
The high resolution camera will help make a digital terrain map of the moon
It will also analyse the thin lunar atmosphere.
There is also the possibility that the orbiter may last longer than a year, as Isro says it has made suitable savings in fuel. But once its fuel runs out, the orbiter will become a long-lasting Indian-made lunar satellite.
The fourth China-Arab States Expo is opened in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)
YINCHUAN, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — The fourth China-Arab States Expo opened Thursday in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
The four-day event will feature trade fairs and forums on infrastructure, Internet plus healthcare, high technology, modern agriculture, logistics, tourism, digital economy and industrial cooperation.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Ningxia regional government, this year’s event attracts around 12,600 participants from 2,900 regional organizations, commerce chambers, associations and enterprises in 89 countries, according to the organizer of the expo.
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd L) meets with Ri Su Yong (2nd R), member of the Political Bureau and vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also the director of the International Department of the WPK Central Committee, in Pyongyang, DPRK, Sept. 4, 2019. (Xinhua/Cheng Dayu)
PYONGYANG, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) pledged on Wednesday to promote friendly cooperation between the two countries.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the DPRK, which is of great importance for both countries, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a meeting here with Ri Su Yong, member of the Political Bureau and vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) of the DPRK.
Despite changes in the international arena, the traditional friendship forged by the leaders of the former generations of both countries has withstood the test of time and become a shared asset of the two countries, said Wang.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un have injected fresh vitality into the relations between the two parties and the two countries, Wang said.
“We should abide by the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two countries, shoulder the responsibility to maintain, consolidate and advance the traditional China-DPRK friendship, and promote friendly cooperation between the two countries in various fields,” he added.
Under Kim’s leadership, the WPK has created a new strategic line which is in accordance with the fundamental interests of the country, the nation and the people of the DPRK, said Wang, noting that he believes that the DPRK will overcome all difficulties and achieve its strategic goal.
Speaking of China’s development, Wang said that socialism with Chinese characteristics has achieved great success and revealed promising prospects.
History will prove that China’s development and rejuvenation are an irresistable trend that cannot be stopped, he said, adding that China and the DPRK should conduct more communication and exchanges, understand each other, trust each other and support each other in safeguarding their mutual interests and legitimate rights.
Ri, also the director of the International Department of the WPK Central Committee, said that Kim and Xi have met many times in recent years and charted the course for the development of bilateral relations.
Wang’s visit to the DPRK on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries is of great significance for the implementation of the consensus reached by the top leaders of the two countries, he said.
The DPRK is willing to join China in strengthening exchanges at different levels and push forward the practical and friendly cooperation between the two sides, he said.
Extending his congratulations on China’s achievements and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Ri said that the DPRK side will continue to firmly support the policies and measures of the CPC and the Chinese government on issues concerning China’s core interests, including the issues of Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The two sides also exchanged in-depth views on the Korean Peninsula situation.
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday signed a State Council decree on the appointment of Ho Iat Seng as the fifth-term chief executive of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR).
The decision was made according to related regulations of the Basic Law of Macao SAR. Ho’s tenure will start from Dec. 20, 2019.
People walk beside the terraced lands of paddy fields in Gaoniang Town, Tianzhu County of southwest China’s Guizhou Province, Sept. 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)
When Kazakh actress Reyizha Alimjan arrived in Shanghai last month wearing jeans and a camisole it reignited a long-running debate over who gets a say on how Chinese women should dress
Fashion choices that would be regarded as unremarkable in Europe or North America are often seen as outrageous in the world’s most populous nation
Kazakh actress Reyizha Alimjan’s fashion choices sparked a social media storm in China last month. Photo: Weibo
When Li Xiang broke up with her boyfriend over a selfie she posted on social media, it was not just about a woman letting a man know he wasn’t entitled to tell her how to dress in public, but a matter of personal freedom, social norms and cultural tradition.
A few weeks ago, the 24-year-old media worker from Shanghai shared a photo on WeChat that showed her posing at her bedroom door in a camisole and mini shorts. Her boyfriend said it made him very “uncomfortable”, and they quarrelled.
“‘Look how scantily clad you are, and [if] that is not enough, you shared it online,’ he said,” Li recalled.
“I got mad when he said, ‘You should go and ask other men if they’d like their girlfriends to dress like that’, as if he should decide what I wear – as if I were his appendage,” she said, referring to the archaic notion that a woman is secondary to a man in their relationship.
What clothes Chinese women should or should not wear has been the subject of intense online debate in recent weeks. Photo: EPA
Their argument was not unusual in China, especially over the past month when the online world became embroiled in a war of words about women’s freedom to dress as they please.
The controversy erupted when an article defending Reyizha Alimjan – the Kazakh actress criticised for showing too much flesh when she arrived at an airport in Shanghai in late July wearing jeans and a camisole – appeared on a WeChat movie review account called Staff of the 3rd Hall on August 12.
Reyizha Alimjan was criticised for her outfit on Chinese social media. Photo: Weibo
While that perspective was supported by many women online, others disagreed and said that society was open and tolerant but that people had the right to disagree.
By coincidence, a poll about women wearing camisoles in public was launched on August 10 by a WeChat account called Cicada Creativity. About 70 per cent of the nearly 14,000 respondents said they did not dare to do so.
More than 40 per cent avoided doing so for reasons such as thinking they were “not thin enough”, but a quarter said they said no because either their boyfriends disapproved or would not allow it, or they feared they would be harassed.
Chinese women spurn Victoria’s Secret for home-grown lingerie brands
Joy Lin, a feminist from Shanghai, said the debate was so fierce because it was not just about dress.
“It’s more about people’s judgment about one’s character and morals behind what she wears,” Lin said. “If you wear revealing clothes, they would say you are asking for harassment. If you show a little skin, you are frigid. And if you are casual, they call you ‘dama’ [Chinese slang, often derogatory, for middle-aged and elderly women].”
Some women say they are often judged by the clothes they wear. Photo: AP
In her experience, Lin said that if she appeared on the streets of Shanghai – the most cosmopolitan city in China – without a bra, there would be judgmental looks from passers-by before she had walked 10 metres (33 feet).
In contrast, she did just that in Paris in July, and, “no one stared at me or came near me at all”.
“Usually, when it comes to comments about what we wear, they’re not about whether the dress matches the hairstyle or things like that, but about our bodies, whether we’re slim or not and stuff like that,” she said. “Some [comments] can be very malicious and insulting.”
#MeToo rally accuses Hong Kong police of sexual violence against protesters
While shaming women for their clothing choices has been an issue for many years, it reached peak public awareness in China after the #MeToo movement took off in the US.
The social media campaign went viral in 2017 when dozens of women accused American film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assaults over a period of nearly 30 years.
The #MeToo movement took off in the US in 2017 after dozens of women accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. Photo: Shutterstock
Lu Peng, a researcher from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said the online debate helped encapsulate conflicts between a growing desire for freedom, gender norms and generations of tradition.
“There will hardly be a consensus on such a question about whether women have the freedom to dress,” he said. “But if this discussion can make people realise that men, not just women, also face restrictions in dressing, then it’s bringing progress.”
The simplest example was to dress for the occasion, which applies to both sexes.
“We have never been free in dressing. We’re only free within a certain extent … About what to wear in public, I don’t think we should emphasise freedom only and ignore the local culture and society,” Lu said.
Keeping a low profile has long been part of the Chinese philosophy. Photo: Xinhua
In China, there is no law banning states of dress or undress in public, nor do the Han people, who make up most of the population, have religious beliefs that restrict their mode of dress. But keeping a low profile and avoiding unwanted attention has long been part of the Chinese philosophy.
“My father will also ask me not to be ‘overexposed’, because he believes it’s increasing the risk of being harassed,” Li, the Shanghai media worker, said.
“They think they mean well, but I just want to be myself. I’m not breaking any law. I want to make my own contribution in changing this culture,” she said.
Doctor who helped 13-year-old girl recover says demands on her to do well at school induced condition
Weibo poll reveals that 68 per cent of participants had hair loss in school
Studies and polls suggest stress leading to hair loss is a big health concern in China. Photo: Alamy
When the 13-year-old girl walked into the hospital in southern China around eight months ago, she was almost completely bald, and her eyebrows and eyelashes had gone.
“The patient came with a hat on and did not look very confident,” Shi Ge, a dermatologist at the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, told the Pear Video news portal.
The girl had done well in primary school but her grades dropped in middle school, Shi said.
Under parental pressure to do well, the girl pushed herself harder, but the stress resulted in severe hair loss.
With time and medical treatment, the teen’s hair grew back but her story left a lasting impression, raising awareness of the increasing number of young people in China seeking treatment for stress-induced hair loss, according to Chinese media reports.
Jia Lijun, a doctor at Shenzhen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, told state-run Xinhua News Agency in May that aside from genetics, factors such as stress in work, study and life would result in endocrine imbalances which affected the cycle of hair growth.
And in January, a survey of 1,900 people by China Youth Daily found that 64.1 per cent of people aged between 18 and 35 said they had hair loss resulting from long and irregular working hours, insomnia, and mental stress.
Hits and myths: stress and hair loss
Shi said that an increasing number of young people had come to her for treatment of hair loss in recent years, and those working in information technology and white-collar jobs were the two biggest groups.
“They usually could not sleep well at night due to high pressure or had an irregular diet because of frequent business trips,” Shi said.
A Weibo poll on Wednesday revealed that 68 per cent out of 47,000 respondents said they had had serious hair loss when they were in school. About 22 per cent said they noticed after starting their careers, while only 5 per cent said it happened after they entered middle age.
More than half of the Chinese students who took part in a China Youth Daily survey said they had hair loss. Photo Shutterstock
Research published in 2017 by AliHealth, the health and medical unit of the Alibaba Group, found that 36.1 per cent of Chinese people born in the 1990s had hair loss, compared to the 38.5 per cent born in the 1980s. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
The teenager’s experience sparked a heated discussion on Weibo, with users recounting similar cases and some voicing their panic.
“My niece’s hair was gone while she was in high school and has not recovered, even after she graduated from university. This makes her feel more and more inferior,” one user said.
Hong Kong’s schoolchildren are stressed out – and their parents are making matters worse
Another said: “I lost a small portion of my hair during the high school entrance exam, but that is already scary enough for a girl in her adolescence.”
“I had to quit my job and seek treatment,” said a third, who adding that he also suffered from very serious hair loss a few months ago because of high pressure.
New material is almost identical in structure to human enamel, which does not regenerate itself
Crystal-like mineral can grow on teeth and last permanently, researchers say
Drops of the liquid solution are applied to a human tooth. Photo: Zhejiang University
Scientists at a Chinese university say they have discovered the world’s first material that can repair damaged tooth enamel once and last for life.
A few drops of the liquid solution can fix all invisible cracks and wear on an ageing molar, according to researchers at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, eastern China, whose work was published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.
The material, calcium phosphate ion clusters, can grow a thin layer of protective shield on teeth, the research showed. The transparent, crystal-like mineral has a structure resembling fish scales and a high mechanical strength – almost identical to the enamel on a human tooth.
Its repair of the tooth “would be permanent”, wrote the researchers, led by Professor Tang Ruikang at the university’s chemistry department.
A tooth’s non-repaired left side (darker) and repaired right side (lighter) are compared using a fluorescent chemical. Photo: Zhejiang University
The technology could be developed as an effective remedy in clinical practice for enamel erosion, the main cause of tooth decay, Tang’s team said. Tooth decay affects almost half of the world’s population, costing dental patients in the United States and European Union a combined US$200 billion annually, according to the World Dental Federation.
Enamel, the outer covering of teeth, is the hardest tissue in the human body, protecting teeth during biting and chewing food.
Unlike other tissues such as muscle, bone and skin, enamel is generated by cells that die immediately after completing their job. The human body cannot produce more of them, so when enamel breaks or chips, it will not regenerate itself.
For decades, researchers around the world have conducted studies to seek a solution, but the artificial materials tested previously could not recreate precisely the fine structure of natural enamel, leaving gaps or holes that could cause it to break off real enamel.
Wouldn’t it be nice if our teeth fixed themselves, just like pandas’ do?
Tang’s team claim their new material can grow seamlessly on human teeth. They mixed two different types of repairing material together to form tiny clusters of mineral particles only 1.5 nanometres in diameter – smaller than a strand of human DNA.
Unlike in previous experiments, these clusters could remain stable for a long time without clumping together, making precise reconstruction of an enamel-like structure possible.
Chen Haifeng, associate professor at Peking University’s biomedical engineering department, said that the research was a positive step but that the new material might need improvements before clinical use.
For instance, the artificial layer requires two days to grow, which could be difficult for dentists to schedule with patients.
Many children use so much toothpaste it’s unhealthy, experts warn
The liquid solution contains triethylamine, a toxic substance with a very strong smell, which may pose a health risk, according to Chen. “But it doesn’t mean we can’t do anything,” he said.
The researchers said the chemical would quickly vaporise and none would be left in the teeth after the protective shield had formed.
Some products preventing enamel erosion and decay, such as toothpaste with enamel-strengthening ingredients, are already available in shops.
“Prevention is the best approach,” Chen said. “We should never wait until the damage is done. Our teeth are a miracle of nature. Artificial replacement will never do the job as well.”
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 