China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Thursday unveiled the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science (SYNL), in an endeavor to push forward advanced research on nano technology.

Nowadays, most developed countries are putting huge finances into research on advanced materials including nano technology.

Experts said that advancement of materials science always greatly boosts the economic and social development of society.

In 2000, the United States depicted a giant project of the National Nano-technology Initiative, which focuses on research in nano science, engineering and technology.

Global scientists estimate that the thriving nano technology might stimulate another industrial revolution.

Some major national laboratories in the United States have research centers for materials science and the government financially supports labs that are affiliated to universities. Japan and Germany are also paying close attention to research and development of advanced materials.

Since the 1980s, China has deployed dozens of state key labs on materials science, which have achieved lots of outstanding scientific goals and cultivated groups of professionals.

The CAS separately sets up the State Key Lab for Rapidly Solidified Non-equilibrium Alloys, State Key Lab for Fatigue and Fracture of Materials, and the Lab for Atomic Imaging of Solids, which were regarded as world leading research bodies.

The country should construct a more comprehensive, creative and powerful laboratory for studying materials science, CAS president Lu Yongxiang said.

Separate academic groups and limited research areas greatly impede the vigorous development of research, Lu said.

The newly-established laboratory is expected to compete with its counterparts in developed countries, such as the United States, Japan and Germany, in the field of nano technology, he said.

(China Daily 06/29/2001)