Early Science and Technology

Four Great Inventions

1) Magnetic Compass
● 1st century AD → magnetised objects for divination
● Investigations in magnetism 1000 years later discovered:
○ Directionality → slight deviation from strict N-S
○ Polarities
○ Iron can be magnetised, but not copper or pottery
● Tiny turning tendency → revealed in clever ways
○ Resting magnetised spoon on smooth table
○ Float magnetised object in water
○ Use of thin and sharp needles
○ Suspend needle from thin thread of silk
● However, magnetism was ascribed to the Dao → still primitive
● Used by Zheng He in his 11th century Treasure Voyages
2) Gunpowder
● Produced (accidentally) in 850 AD by Daoist alchemists while finding the elixir
of immortality
● Made using sulphur (easy to ignite), coal (burns) and saltpetre (provides
oxygen) at a ratio of 10:15:75
● Most later advances were mostly in the form of European gun-making
3) Paper Making
● Invented in 2nd century AD by Cai Lun 蔡倫
● Raw material: wood, bamboo, jute, rags, straw
● Process
○ Boil in water, pound into paste
○ Sieve → lift up thin sheet of criss-crossed fibres
○ Dry, peel off, press
● No fundamental science, purely trial and error
4) Printing
● Originated from imprints of carved seals and ink rubbings from stone
carvings, then changed to wood-block printing in around 7th century
● 1041 → Bi Sheng 畢昇 invents movable-type print
● However, each character had to be carved individually
● Gutenberg in 15th-century Germany → poured molten metal into typeface
moulds to mass-produce typing blocks → printing then took off in Europe

Other Inventions
● Simple gadgets
○ Stirrup → allows rider to sit tightly on horse
○ Harness → allow plough animals to pull efficiently
○ Wheelbarrow → 1000 years before it was used in Europe
○ Rotary devices such as steam-mills and cranks
○ Double acting bellow → air forced out of a valve → double-acting means that
it blew out in both push and pull, not just in push
● Iron and Steel
○ Cast Iron known in China since 4th century BC
 ○ Mix iron ore with burning charcoal
● Nautical Inventions
○ Chinese junk → evolved from bamboo raft, with hull segmentation and
watertight compartments
○ Elevated stern → efficient rudder
○ Paddle-wheel boats → used since 5th and 6th centuries, mostly in lakes and
rivers
● However, while there was careful observation, there was little attention to the “why” of
processes

Mathematics
● Algebra
○ Traditional Chinese mathematics excelled in algebra
○ Han Xin 韓信 Counting Soldiers Problem

■
■ Solution now taught as “Chinese remainder theorem” → however, it
was unknown that all three numbers have to be prime (eg. 3, 5, 7)
○ Liu Hui 劉徽 discovered a method for calculating square roots in the 3rd
century

■
○ 13th century → method for solving polynomials

■
 ■
■ No attempt to express roots as radicals
■ Focus only on one root
■ No awareness of polynomials as a function
○ Chinese algebra was mostly algorithm with little to no underlying theory
● Geometry
○ Pythagoras’ Theorem
■ Discovered in Greece by Pythagoras in 6th century BCE
■ Discovered independently in China under the name of gou-gu-xian 勾
股弦
■ However, Chinese mathematicians did not have as much of an
elegant proof as Pythagoras
○ Value of Pi
■ Hexagon inscribed inside of circle → gives the value of pi = 3
■ Liu Hui used a 96-sided shape to derive 5 digits of Pi in 3rd century
■ Zu Chongzhi 祖冲之 → used ~30000-sided shape to get 8 digits of Pi
in 5th century
○ Circles
■ Never moved beyond circular geometry to elliptical geometry and
conic sections
● Calculus → never developed in Ancient China, imported from the West

Astronomy
● Background
○ Associated with rituals and the imperial court → phenomena were considered
the “mandate of heaven”
○ Closely guarded court functions → observations, methods, calendar
○ Good records
○ However, there were no independent astronomers, deterring innovations
● 1054 → supernova observed around the “Tianguan” constellation (Zeta Tauri)
● Had successes in predicting ellipses, but Jesuit missionaries did it better because
they had the geometric heliocentric model
● Astronomical coordinates
 ○

○
○ Chinese astronomers made reference to equatorial plane
○ Equatorial system developed in Europe in 16th century → much better →
come to be known as “Right Ascension” and “Declension”
● Armillary spheres for determining coordinates

○
● Cosmological Models
○ Three models
■ Gai Tian 蓋天 → sky is a canopy above earth
■ Hun Tian 渾天 → stellar objects lie on a hemispherical surface above
Earth
■ Xuan Ye 宣夜 → infinite space
○ Each model contains some aspects of modern thinking
○ However, there was no push for quantitative observations
Interchange with the West

● Exchange between West and China happened from mid-16th century onwards from
Europe, unequal
● Two distinct periods
○ Late Ming to Early Qing → first awareness of European advancement
○ Late Qing onwards → full force of EUropean might shattered Chinese
confidence and complacency

The Missionaries
● First period → exchange facilitated by missionaries
○ Matteo Ricci 利瑪竇 in 1582 and Adam Schall 湯若望 in 1619
○ After Copernicus; before Galileo, Newton and Watt
○ Modern Science still in its infancy
● Matteo Ricci
○ Respected local population and culture, learnt Chinese language
○ Modern Map of the World in Chinese → bring knowledge of the New World
and that the Earth is round to China
○ Chinese-Portuguese Dictionary
○ Ricci in Beijing 1598
■ Gained access to court in 1602
■ Predicted eclipses accurately
■ Shared geometry of Euclid
■ Built cathedral and converted senior officials → science was used as a
tool for religious conversion
○ Brought more advanced European mathematics, geographical knowledge
and astronomy, but influence limited to higher echelons of society
● Johann Adam Schall von Bell
○ Landed in Macau in 1619
○ Learnt language and customs before going north to Beijing in 1630
○ Worked with Xu Guangqi 徐光啓 to compile new calendar for the last Ming
Emperor Chongzhen 崇禎
○ Became a court official in the court of Emperor Shunzhi 順治 → first
European to do so → made over 500 thousand converts
○ Former observatory officials had him ousted and imprisoned, he died shortly
after leaving prison
● Xu Guangqi 徐光啓
○ Extraordinary Ming Scholar in agriculture, mathematics, and astronomy
○ Deputy Prime Minister in the era of Chongzhen
○ Converted to Catholicism in 1603, three years after meeting Ricci in 1600
○ Worked with Ricci to translate the Elements by Euclid → translated first 6
chapters on plane geometry
○ Worked with Schall to improve Chinese Calendar
● Rites Controversy
○ Jesuits accepted “catholicism with Chinese characteristics”, and the Qing
court was initially tolerant
○ However, conservative catholics complained to the Pope in 1705 about
Chinese worship of Confucius and ancestors
 ○ Qing Emperor Kangxi 康熙 banned foreign missionaries except in Macau
○ Ended the first wave of exchange with the West

Self-Strengthening Movement
● First Opium War 1839-42 → Humiliating defeat by British forces
● Foreigners had “sturdy ships and fierce cannons” 船堅炮利
● Another defeat in Second Opium War 1856-60 → something had to be done urgently
● Reforms led by Prince Gong 恭親王 with officials such as Zeng Guofan 曾國藩, Li
Hongzhang 李鴻章 and Zhang Zhidong 張之洞
● Developments
○ Buy armaments and products
○ Develop own industrial capability
○ Produce munitions + ship building (Jiangnan Arsenal)
○ Naval vessels purchased from Europe
○ Fleets organised (eg. Shandong’s Northern Fleet)
○ Need for metal works, coal mines, machinery
○ Short stretches of railroads built (eg. between Beijing and Tianjin)
○ Telegraph introduced
● Private sector industries → Matchsticks (known as “Western fire” 洋火),
paper-making, cement, household water, electrical supplies
○ Often controlled by foreigners in treaty ports
● Capitalist system and Middle class
○ China Merchants Group (CMG) 招商局 founded by Li Hongzhang
○ Modern banks such as the HK & Shanghai Bank → first Chinese-owned
modern bank
● Movement lost its momentum in the 1894 Qing defeat in the Sino-Japanese War

May 4th Movement

● M4M was about changing “souls and values” more than just technology
● May 4th Movement → Umbrella Term for two elements that are related but not the
same
○ May 4th Movement 1919
○ New Culture Movement 1915 - 1920s
● May 4th Movement 1919 → demonstrations by university students in Beijing after
German concession in Shandong given to Japan instead of returning it to China →
demand boycott of treaty
○ Political awareness among intellectuals spread to workers in the major cities
○ Focus on national sovereignty → democracy and science were tools to save
the nation and defend sovereignty, not goals in their own sake
● New Culture Movement
○ Fundamental changes needed
○ Change in material technology was not enough, needed change of mindsets
and attitudes
■ Innovations and revolutions in the cultural sphere
■ Question and challenge if old traditions need to ba abandoned
○ Chen Duxiu 陳獨秀 → published the “New Youth” Magazine in 1915 + Dean
of Arts in Peking U (1917) → coined the terms “Mr. Democracy” and “Mr.
 Science” → “Mr. Science” did not mean STEM in the modern sense, but more
so means rational thinking and abandonment of superstition
○ Cai Yuanpei 蔡元培 → President of Peking U (oldest of the intellectuals, was
a jinshi 進士 of the Imperial Exam)
○ Li Dazhao 李大釗 → Chief Librarian of Peking U, mentor to Mao Zedong 毛澤
東
○ Other intellectuals → Lu Xun 魯迅, Hu Shih 胡適 (youngest of the
intellectuals, held a doctorate from UColumbia) etc.
● Innovations of the New Culture Movement
○ Vernacular writing in Literature 白話文
○ More modernised education
○ Traditional Confucian values questioned
○ Western ideas promoted
○ Women’s rights advocated

Study Abroad
● During the late Qing and early Republican period, students went abroad and brought
knowledge back from the West
● Japan was also important in literature, social science, law, and military studies
● First Chinese student getting a degree from the US was Yung Wing 容閎 from
Zhuhai, studying classics at Yale in 1850~54 → believed that China could be
“enlightened and powerful” with Western education
○ After returning to China, Yung started a modern school in Zhuhai for
translation, law and commerce
○ Advised Zeng Guofan on his purchase of armaments
○ Led a delegation to the US, as well as leading the official scheme of sending
students abroad
○ Four cohorts in 1872 with a total of 120 students → scheme faltered a decade
later because Qing officials were wary of young men being Westernised
○ Zhan Tianyou 詹天佑 → Sent abroad under Yung’s scheme, studied civil
engineering in Yale, responsible for developing China’s railroads
● 1909 Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Fund 庚子賠款 → Increase flow of students to the
US
○ Over 1000 scholars in ensuing decades
○ Similar smaller scheme in UK, France and Japan
● Second half of 20th century
○ 1950s-60s → Students from PRC going to USSR to study
○ Same time → Students from Taiwan going to USA to study (mainly electrical
engineering) → return of students 1980s onwards contributed to Taiwan’s
semiconductor industry
○ 1980s onwards → Mainland students go abroad and return 海歸
● Story: Deng Xiaoping
○ Sent to France on work-study programme at age 16
○ International exposure may have shaped his outward-looking policies (reform
and opening up)
The Needham Question

Raising the Question

● “Why did modern science fail to emerge in China”
● Gap already recognised by Xu Guangqi, but there was no sense of urgency
● 1914 Cornell Science Society of China → founded by Ren Hongjuan 任鴻雋
○ Founded the journal Kexue 科學 → published article “On the question of why
China had no science” in 1915
○ Motivated to “save the nation”
○ Tentative answers to his question → lack of scientific method, lack of curiosity
about causes

Joseph Needham 李約瑟

● Biochemist in Cambridge
● Sent by Royal Society to Chongqing to head an office for scientific cooperation
● Interest in Chinese science initially kindled by Chinese student Lu Gwei-djen 魯桂珍,
further kindled by deployment to Chongqing
● Honorary doctorate from CUHK in 1983
● Monumental study of early Chinese science
● Scientist and Sinophile, potential Marxist and Daoist inclinations

The Magnum Opus

● “Science and Civilisation in China” over 20 volumes
● More accessible version → “Shorter Science and Civilisation in China” by Colin
Ronan
● Demonstrates that China was rich in inventions and culture → potentially
exaggerated as Needham was a Sinophile
● Cannot be denied that traditional Chinese science was an example of pre-modern
science and was robust
● Pre-assumption → Chinese science has always lagged
● Needham → Early Chinese science boasts a host of achievements, in many cases
leading the West
● However, does not focus on the question of “why did modern science fail to emerge
in China”

Needham’s Thesis
● Answer to his grand question was not in his books, but in his lectures
● “Science and Society in East and West” (Volume 6 of SCC) → possibly explained by
Chinese-style feudalism → different from “aristocratic military feudalism” of Europe
● Wittfogel → Chinese “bureaucratic feudalism” was not favourable to mercantile class
or productive industrial enterprises

Evaluation and a more viable alternative

● Some truth in Needham’s description of Chinese society
● NO Explanation for failure of modern science to emerge in China
● Perhaps an explanation for slow rise of modern industries
● In Europe → Rise of Europe after Middle Ages
○ Conceptual break = Scientific Revolution
 ○ Far-fetched to claim that “mercantile society” or “industrialism” led to Scientific
Revolution
● Modern treatment to Needham’s Question
○ Chen Fong-ching 2021 → suggested that possible factors may include the
legacy of Greek philosophy and science, the European tradition of curiosity
and seeking causes
○ Kepler’s ellipses and Newton’s point masses belong to the Platonic World
● Mercantile societies are decentralised while bureaucratic societies are centralised →
over-emphasis on large projects sidelines genuine innovation?
Story of Modernisation

The Republican Years

● Increase in number of universities
● Academia Sinica 中央研究室 → established in Nanjing in 1928
● Southwest Associated University 西南聯大 → amalgamation of Peking U, Tsinghua
U, and Nankai U in Kunming during the eight years of the Second Sino-Japanese
War (1936-45)
● Despite harsh conditions of the war, SWAU produced many important graduates
○ Nobel Prize Winners TD Lee 李政道 and CN Yang 楊振寧 → first Chinese to
win Nobel Prize
○ Key members of the team that would eventually develop nuclear bombs for
China were also trained at the SWAU

First three decades of PRC

● PRC established in 1949
● Initial period of relative stability → followed by political disruptions, the devastating
Great Leap Forward, and the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution
● Major achievements → “Two Bombs and One Satellite” 兩彈一星
● Nuclear Weapons
○ 1964 → development of atomic bomb (A-bomb)
○ 1967 → development of hydrogen bomb (H-bomb)
○ Perceived need → fears that the US would use nuclear weapons against
China during Korean War
○ Decision in 1955 to launch a top-priority project to build the bomb
○ The scientists
■ First generation of returnees helped to establish credible departments
■ Had good undergraduate education, most went to top graduate
schools abroad
■ Were mentored by top scientists like Meitner (pioneer in nuclear
fission), Irene Joliot-Curie (daughter of Marie Curie), and Born
(founder of quantum mechanics) while they were studying abroad
■ Younger generation of scientists were trained domestically
○ National effort
■ Geological surveys for uranium
■ Mining for Ores
■ Chemical extraction
■ Isolating U-235 by gas diffusion
■ Assembly and Testing
○ The nuclear bomb project was directed under military coordination under
Marshall Nie Rongzhen 聶榮臻, while policy directives came from the State
Council
● Rockets and Satellites
○ Satellite programme gave birth to space programme and long-range missiles
○ Qian Xuesen 錢學森
■ Educated at Jiaotong University
■ Went to the US under Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, gained PhD from
Caltech under the mentorship of von Karman
 ■ Gained the rank of colonel in the US army
■ However, after the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War, the rise of
McCarthyism in the US led to Qian coming under suspicion because
he considered visiting China
■ Deported to China via Hong Kong in 1955
■ Back in China, he was put in charge of rocket and satellite project
○ Milestones
■ 1960 → Short-range missiles
■ 1966 → Carrying nuclear weapons
■ 1970 → Artificial satellite (Dongfanghong)
● Laser
○ Proposed by EInstein, actually developed by Maiman in the US in 1960
○ First Chinese laser built in 1961 by Wang Daheng 王大珩
○ Wang Daheng
■ Educated in Tsinghua
■ Boxer Indemnity Scholarship to the UK
■ Master of Science at Imperial College
■ Gave up doctoral studies at Sheffield to join an industrial lab →
acquire industrial know-how
■ 1948 → returned to China
■ Founded Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics under
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1952 → Leading centre for
optics and precision engineering
○ 1961 → first Chinese laser was a ruby laser
○ 1963 → He-Ne lasers, Nd glass lasers, GaAs semiconductor lasers
○ 1964 → Ar+ lasers
○ 1965 → CO2 lasers
○ 1966 → YAG lasers
● Insulin
○ 1920 → Insulin extraction developed
○ 1965 → Three teams at the Institute of Biochemistry in Shanghai, Peking U,
and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry → succeeded in artificial
synthesis of insulin
○ 5 project leaders → 4 trained abroad, 1 trained in Peking U
○ 1977 → realised work was world-class → raised the issue in CAS
○ 1978 → applied for Nobel Prize Nomination → rejected because:
■ early indecision
■ “limited marketing” caused by the Cultural Revolution in China
■ inexperience in writing nomination
■ a European team had synthesised insulin earlier with a different
method
○ Why was the Chinese effort seen as Herculean
■ Much larger teams than Europe → some reagents has to be produced
in-house + many recipes were tried
■ Collective system → practical success in focused project
● Medicine
○ Tu Youyou 屠呦呦 → won Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2015 for “discoveries
concerning a novel therapy against Malaria” back during the early 1970s
 ○ Her work leveraged on TCM
○ Treatment for malaria used to be quinine → not very effect, many side effects
○ 1967 → North Vietnam appealed to China for a better malaria cure
○ Wormwood was apparently very effective
○ Ancient texts said to soak herbs in cold water, not heat up → Tu Youyou tried
cold extraction, which succeeded in extracting active ingredient artemisinin
○ Tu also discovered the chemical structure of artemisinin
○ Not elected to CAS, but given Highest Science and Technology Award in
2016 + Medal of the Republic in 2019

Reform and Opening Up

● Deng restored to power after Mao’s death and arrest of Gang of Four in 1976
● Hua Guofeng was in charge → “Two Whatevers”: Defend whatever Chairman Mao
decided, follow whatever Chairman Mao directed
● 11th Central Committee → Deng’s influenced expanded and replaced Hua as leader
● Third Plenum August 1978 → economic development and technological innovation
given attention
○ Four Modernisations → agriculture, industry, defence, science
○ “Practice is the only criterion to judge truth”
● Impact of political change on science
○ Sense of liberation and purpose among scientists
○ Task of rebuilding institutions began → universities, re-establishment of
Gaokao in 1977
■ 1978 → President of CAS Guo Moruo 郭沫若 made a speech “The
Spring of Science” → captured positive mood of scientists at the time
○ Economic gains due to reforms
● Economic Developments
○ Past four decades → US economy expanded by factor of 7, Chinese
economy expanded by factor of 70
○ First stage → collective system was relaxed and then essentially abandoned
○ Next → low-end industries took off, followed by industries with more
technology content
■ Initially with outside partners, later with indigenous developments
○ Proprietary intellectual property launched an economy increasingly driven by
innovations
● Science and innovation are “necessary ingredients for moving up the value chain and
avoiding the middle-income trap”
● China is now number one in journal articles in science and technology, and in patent
applications
● Limitations → quantity over quality
○ The output per capita is less impressive
○ Unfortunate “bean-counting” culture implies a perverse incentive to publish or
to seek patents whether or not the result is particularly worthwhile

Recent Achievements
● World Leading?
○ E-payments
○ High speed trains
 ○ 5G Technology → Huawei 華爲
○ AI → SenseTime 商湯 → spun off from CUHK
● Highly VIsible Projects
○ Space
■ Beidou Navigation System 北斗 for missions to the moon → brought
back samples in 2020
■ Astronauts → first went into space in 2003, and now Chinese
astronauts are now spending months in space station Tiangong
■ Mars rover landed in 2020
○ Deep Sea
■ Unmanned submersible reached a depth of 10,000 m, near the bottom
of the ocean
○ Civil Aviation
■ Regional jet ARJ21
■ The larger C919 → compete with A320 and B737
■ The even larger C929 → compete with A330 and B787
○ Alternative Energy
■ Dominates photo-voltaic (PV) production
■ Largest wind power capacity
■ 3rd largest nuclear power capacity
● Daya Bay → Initially installed French Reactors in 1994 → Gap
in technology, management, capital
● Later installations Chinese-built with core technology licensed
● Further evolution to proprietary reactors
● Potential development of novel reactor models → aim to be
more efficiency and safer

Basic Science
● Near absence of developments in basic science
● Objective criteria → selection is made based on major international prizes
● Only two works have been associated with major international prizes
○ Transmutation of neutrinos → Breakthrough Prize in 2016
■ China had half a share, with CUHK contributing

■
 ■
■ Beat the French Team
○ DNA in blood plasma → Breakthrough Prize in 2021
■ Dennis Lo and colleagues in CUHK
■ Disproved two “facts
● DNA and RNA reside in cells
● Blood circulation of mother and foetus separate

■
■ Now blood sample from mother can be used for prenatal genetic
sampling → Application: Down’s Syndrome
■ Offered worldwide under CUHK’s licence
■ Next Steps
● Leakage of DNA from a foreign body
● Leakage of DNA from tumours
● Tests for Nasopharyngeal Cancer
Looking to the Future

● Strong advance in science and tech

● Positive impact on economy
○ Modest prosperity 小康
○ Rejuvenation 復興
● Still behind UK, Germany, Japan

14th Five Year Plan

● Xi Jinping at 19th National Congress in 2017
○ “Innovation is the primary force driving development”
○ Announced 14th Five Year Plan
● “The 14th Five Year Plan”
○ Sets out goals for 2021–25 and beyond
○ Total 65 Chapters, first 11 chapters given below:

○
● Ten-year vision statement
○ Published by the State Council in 2015
○ Titled “Made in China 2025”
○ Example: Phase II goals for 2035
■ “Reaching average levels among the leading manufacturing nations”
■ “Significant enhancements in innovative ability, major breakthroughs in
key areas,obvious improvements in competitiveness, global
leadership in selected areas of excellence, comprehensive
industrialisation”
■ Ten domains:

○ Agenda is regarded as unacceptable by the US

 ○ Chinese official sources have dialled down the rhetoric, but not the resolve, as
now more than ever, technological strangleholds are now seen as national
threats

Two Contrasting Narratives

● Optimistic Assessment → Edward Tse “The China Strategy” and “China’s Disruptors”
○ Reasons
■ Abundant opportunity and success stories
■ Slow-acting state-owned enterprises (SOEs) leave rooms for
entrepreneurs
■ Many novel areas not crowded with traditional players (eg. landline vs.
mobile, cheque books vs. e-payment)
■ People are willing to pay for technological solutions for so-called “pain
points” in the economic transformation
■ Applications can ride on the ubiquitous internet platform with a low
entry barrier
■ The huge domestic market allows innovators to pay off R&D costs
over a wide customer base
■ The high societal saving rate supplies capital
○ “Three-layered duality” unique to China
■ Central government sets overall policy and goals
■ Local governments deploy their resources to exploit opportunities
■ Private-sector entrepreneurs are then able to prosper in this
environment
○ Trade War helps
■ China opened up more sectors to foreign companies
■ Need to build up technological self sufficiency is now apparent
● Cautious Assessment → Liu Yadong at the 2018 World Science, Technology and
Innovation Forum in Beijing
○ Reasons
■ Science is not just scientific knowledge, but also the scientific model
and spirit → “China in 1919 lacked the scientific spirit, and China in
2019 still lacks the scientific spirit”
■ Low level of original innovation
■ Weak basic research → “Few significant theoretical breakthroughs or
original pioneering achievements worth a mention”
○ What should be pursued to increase scientific spirit
■ Truth
■ Pragmatism
■ Critical thinking and scepticism
■ Perseverance in exploration
■ Courage in innovation
■ Being open to different points of view
■ Acceptance of Failure
○ The Chinese term 科技 conflates science and technology, misleading the
public as well as policy makers. → basic science is also important in its own
right
● Reconciliation
 ○ Process of idea to product is five steps → Science, Engineering, Product
R&D, Production, Sales
○ Liu laments on weaknesses in first two steps
○ Tse points to strengths in the last three steps
● Reasons for weak basic science in China
○ Confucian obsession over ethics instead of curiosity about nature
○ Daoist fondness for vague correlative reasoning
○ Prevalent pragmatic attitude
○ Central economic planning
○ Hierarchical research community with bureaucrats at the top
○ R&D requires high expenditure