Scientific Fraud in China

[Randy W]

in the NY Times

 

Fraud Scandals Sap China’s Dream of Becoming a Science Superpower

 

It now has more laboratory scientists than any other country, outspends the entire European Union on research and development, and produces more scientific articles than any other nation except the United States.

But in its rush to dominance, China has stood out in another, less boastful way. Since 2012, the country has retracted more scientific papers because of faked peer reviews than all other countries and territories put together, according to Retraction Watch, a blog that tracks and seeks to publicize retractions of research papers.

. . .

In April, a scientific journal retracted 107 biology research papers, the vast majority of them written by Chinese authors, after evidence emerged that they had faked glowing reviews of their articles. Then, this summer, a Chinese gene scientist who had won celebrity status for breakthroughs once trumpeted as Nobel Prize-worthy was forced to retract his research when other scientists failed to replicate his results.

At the same time, a government investigation highlighted the existence of a thriving online black market that sells everything from positive peer reviews to entire research articles.

President Xi Jinping, whose leadership is expected to be reaffirmed at a Communist Party congress that begins next week, has stated his goal of turning China into “a global scientific and technology power” by 2049. But the revelations have been a setback to this effort.

 

 

 

 

[MikeandRong]

I once researched a new medical technique that a Chinese doctor was preforming over there that some of the family wanted to try. He appeared quite famous and had published many many articles of his research and results. Now this was all written in Chinese and the medical translation words were very slow going for me. In the end it was just too much of a good thing and promised just too many cures for way too many things for me to believe it.

 

Some people we know did go against my advice and were suddenly pain free and able to move better again. Of course I was called the doubter for going against the wise Chinese doctor who was held in such high regard.

 

But strange things quickly started happening too. Lots of infections, and symptoms coming back rather quickly, but worse now.

 

Best I could determine was he was using some kind of injectable steroid that wore off way too quickly, but worked short term to give the more immediate positive results. The 30 day tea concoction was more diaretic and laxative in nature and am told tasted terrible. When it wasn't consumed as directed for the full 30 days, that was declared the reason for their failure to be cured.

 

While I am no doctor by any means, but I've been around the block a few times to know when if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, espically when it comes to medical claims in far away places.

Edited October 14, 2017 by MikeandRong (see edit history)

[Greg.D.]

I have said it here (CFL) several times before: as a rule of thumb, don't trust Chinese research. I have enough first hand experiences with their methods and fraud and know enough second hand stories - many from naturalized US citizens from China who refuse to collaborate anymore with mainland Chinese - to even waste my time anymore.

Furthermore: falsified transcripts, work histories,etc. They didn't invent it, just do it as a matter of course there. And, remember, they mock us for being so trusting. It's not that most of them aren't capable of working hard and following validated methods and doing well, it's just viewed as a waste of time and a risk to getting ahead.

 

I have worked with Chinese scientists for almost 30 years. The first to go abroad were not only the best but were standouts here among all scientists. As their quality degraded and professors still needed warm bodies in the lab, China kept the pipeline full, seeing an opportunity to plant "scientists" in foreign labs to filter feed on the original research to send back home.

 

China wants to have it both ways: clamp down on individuality and thought throughout their society while expecting homegrown disruptive creativity to drive their copycat technology sector and turn it into world beaters.

[Allon]

Not to beat the subject to death but I am amazed also by the Indian cult of programmers. India long ago decided to slant its education system to favor technology in computers. So hundreds of colleges started emphasizing degrees in all kinds of technology from hardware to software, but mostly software.

There emerged after a few years a practice of cheating on tests. Then open book exams evolved. And then the government clamped down on them by banning open book exams and punishing cheating more severely. Near riots broke out in the colleges.The government finally relented and allowed open book exams.

The first waves of software "engineers" were actually pretty good. But there still remains a major cohort of them that are lacking in basic skills -- like thinking. Analysis behind a lot of programming is missing. The culture of India being one of not taking risks shows in the work ethic of doing only what is directed, even when creativity is encouraged.

We experienced this phenomena here in lack of creativity. One study I read said that the reason was a lack of teaching in the arts in the college curricula. Where students were required to take a core set of arts and writing classes, the creativity factor in later exams increased. (Yes, I want the details of the study too but there were none.)

 

Remains to be seen what is going to happen with tech training and culture in general. So much of it is culturally bound. I am guessing with our diverse and heterogeneous culture, we seem to be a little better at it. But not by much.

[Randy W]

Speaking of too much of a good thing . . .

 

Company Behind ‘Water-Fueled’ Vehicles Hits Speed Bump in Henan

Though government officials praised Youngman Automobile Group’s project, the public attention has also revealed the company’s scandal-ridden past.

 

 

In central China, top government officials’ visit to a company that claims to have produced the world’s first water-fueled vehicle was intended to highlight the supposed achievement, but the publicity stunt has instead backfired.

 

. . .

 

But in a report Friday by The Beijing News, the Nanyang Bureau of Industry and Information Technology said that the local paper’s reporting on the water-fueled vehicle was inaccurate and that it had asked Pang to clarify the claims in a written report. In 2017, Pang had claimed that the vehicle is fueled only with water, which reacts with a catalyst to produce hydrogen that powers the vehicle. A 200-kilogram water tank can give a 500- kilometer mileage, according to Pang.

Pang told Sixth Tone’s sister publication, The Paper, on Friday that his company’s investment in and technology for water-fueled vehicles is “a secret,” adding that his team invented the catalyst on their own but haven’t applied for a patent yet. Sixth Tone’s phone calls to the head office of Youngman Auto Group and the Nanyang government’s administrative office went unanswered.

“They (Youngman Auto) are hyping the concept of water-hydrogen fuel,” Hu Mingruo, associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of Mechanical Engineering, told Sixth Tone, adding that onboard technology for turning a water-based methanol solution into hydrogen fuel is currently considered neither practical nor economically viable for vehicular use.

 

 

 

They apparently didn't read their physics textbooks - from phys.org. This is 2006

 

Why a hydrogen economy doesn't make sense

 

“More energy is needed to isolate hydrogen from natural compounds than can ever be recovered from its use,” Bossel explains to PhysOrg.com.

 

 

 

One thing about filing patents is that they (legitimate ones, anyway) provide a blueprint for how it was done, and often provide a road map for competitors as to how to sidestep the restrictions on its use.

[Randy W]

More about the process that they might want to read about - from Purdue University in 2007

 

MAY 16, 2007

New process generates hydrogen from aluminum alloy to run engines, fuel cells

 

Hydrogen is generated spontaneously when water is added to pellets of the alloy, which is made of aluminum and a metal called gallium. The researchers have shown how hydrogen is produced when water is added to a small tank containing the pellets. Hydrogen produced in such a system could be fed directly to an engine, such as those on lawn mowers.

"When water is added to the pellets, the aluminum in the solid alloy reacts because it has a strong attraction to the oxygen in the water," Woodall said.

This reaction splits the oxygen and hydrogen contained in water, releasing hydrogen in the process.

The gallium is critical to the process because it hinders the formation of a skin normally created on aluminum's surface after oxidation. This skin usually prevents oxygen from reacting with aluminum, acting as a barrier. Preventing the skin's formation allows the reaction to continue until all of the aluminum is used.

The Purdue Research Foundation holds title to the primary patent, which has been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is pending. An Indiana startup company, AlGalCo LLC., has received a license for the exclusive right to commercialize the process.

. . .

"I was cleaning a crucible containing liquid alloys of gallium and aluminum," Woodall said. "When I added water to this alloy - talk about a discovery - there was a violent poof. I went to my office and worked out the reaction in a couple of hours to figure out what had happened. When aluminum atoms in the liquid alloy come into contact with water, they react, splitting the water and producing hydrogen and aluminum oxide.

"Gallium is critical because it melts at low temperature and readily dissolves aluminum, and it renders the aluminum in the solid pellets reactive with water. This was a totally surprising discovery, since it is well known that pure solid aluminum does not readily react with water."

The waste products are gallium and aluminum oxide, also called alumina. Combusting hydrogen in an engine produces only water as waste.

"No toxic fumes are produced," Woodall said. "It's important to note that the gallium doesn't react, so it doesn't get used up and can be recycled over and over again. The reason this is so important is because gallium is currently a lot more expensive than aluminum. Hopefully, if this process is widely adopted, the gallium industry will respond by producing large quantities of the low-grade gallium required for our process. Currently, nearly all gallium is of high purity and used almost exclusively by the semiconductor industry."

Woodall said that because the technology makes it possible to use hydrogen instead of gasoline to run internal combustion engines it could be used for cars and trucks. In order for the technology to be economically competitive with gasoline, however, the cost of recycling aluminum oxide must be reduced, he said.

"Right now it costs more than $1 a pound to buy aluminum, and, at that price, you can't deliver a product at the equivalent of $3 per gallon of gasoline," Woodall said.

However, the cost of aluminum could be reduced by recycling it from the alumina using a process called fused salt electrolysis. The aluminum could be produced at competitive prices if the recycling process were carried out with electricity generated by a nuclear power plant or windmills. Because the electricity would not need to be distributed on the power grid, it would be less costly than power produced by plants connected to the grid, and the generators could be located in remote locations, which would be particularly important for a nuclear reactor to ease political and social concerns, Woodall said.

"The cost of making on-site electricity is much lower if you don't have to distribute it," Woodall said.

The approach could enable the United States to replace gasoline for transportation purposes, reducing pollution and the nation's dependence on foreign oil. If hydrogen fuel cells are perfected for cars and trucks in the future, the same hydrogen-producing method could be used to power them, he said.

"We call this the aluminum-enabling hydrogen economy," Woodall said. "It's a simple matter to convert ordinary internal combustion engines to run on hydrogen. All you have to do is replace the gasoline fuel injector with a hydrogen injector."

Even at the current cost of aluminum, however, the method would be economically competitive with gasoline if the hydrogen were used to run future fuel cells.

"Using pure hydrogen, fuel cell systems run at an overall efficiency of 75 percent, compared to 40 percent using hydrogen extracted from fossil fuels and with 25 percent for internal combustion engines," Woodall said. "Therefore, when and if fuel cells become economically viable, our method would compete with gasoline at $3 per gallon even if aluminum costs more than a dollar per pound."

The hydrogen-generating technology paired with advanced fuel cells also represents a potential future method for replacing lead-acid batteries in applications such as golf carts, electric wheel chairs and hybrid cars, he said.

The technology underscores aluminum's value for energy production.

"Most people don't realize how energy intensive aluminum is," Woodall said. "For every pound of aluminum you get more than two kilowatt hours of energy in the form of hydrogen combustion and more than two kilowatt hours of heat from the reaction of aluminum with water. A midsize car with a full tank of aluminum-gallium pellets, which amounts to about 350 pounds of aluminum, could take a 350-mile trip and it would cost $60, assuming the alumina is converted back to aluminum on-site at a nuclear power plant.

"How does this compare with conventional technology? Well, if I put gasoline in a tank, I get six kilowatt hours per pound, or about two and a half times the energy than I get for a pound of aluminum. So I need about two and a half times the weight of aluminum to get the same energy output, but I eliminate gasoline entirely, and I am using a resource that is cheap and abundant in the United States. If only the energy of the generated hydrogen is used, then the aluminum-gallium alloy would require about the same space as a tank of gasoline, so no extra room would be needed, and the added weight would be the equivalent of an extra passenger, albeit a pretty large extra passenger."

The concept could eliminate major hurdles related to developing a hydrogen economy. Replacing gasoline with hydrogen for transportation purposes would require the production of huge quantities of hydrogen, and the hydrogen gas would then have to be transported to filling stations. Transporting hydrogen is expensive because it is a "non-ideal gas," meaning storage tanks contain less hydrogen than other gases.

"If I can economically make hydrogen on demand, however, I don't have to store and transport it, which solves a significant problem," Woodall said.

 

[Randy W]

. . . and from Microwaves&RF and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL)

Jun 27, 2018

Army’s Aluminum Powder Produces Hydrogen as Needed

Recently, the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) developed a novel nanogalvanic aluminum-alloy-based powder that can produce hydrogen simply when it is mixed with water or any other water-based liquid. The structurally stable powder can be safely transported to where hydrogen is needed; it reacts without a catalyst to produce hydrogen gas quickly and with high efficiency.

. . .

ARL will be posting a Federal Register Notice as well as launching a website to invite companies to submit ideas on how to commercial this technology. ARL is seeking to work with the most appropriate commercial partners and collaborators to help develop this nontoxic, hydrogen-producing aluminum-alloy material.

 

[Randy W]

Here is an answer from RodentTrack on the hydrogen vs. gasoline ICE

 

Why Don't We Just Run Internal Combustion Engines on Hydrogen?

Hydrogen burns with zero emissions. Couldn't we just use it in place of gasoline? The answer is more complex than you might expect.

 

The answer? Use hydrogen in a fuel cell to generate electricity. Fuel cells are far more efficient than internal combustion engines, and a hydrogen fuel cell has cleaner emissions than an internal-combustion hydrogen engine.