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Langdao Silex, founded in 2024 by alumni of Tsinghua University's Gas Discharge Plasma Laboratory, showed off a prototype laser-produced plasma EUV light source called FlintNano LPP-OXXO at a Shanghai trade fair. The unit reportedly outputs over 15W with 90% domestically sourced components and can run continuously for more than 100 hours, but TrendForce reports commercialization is still three to five years away.
Nikon revoked the top prize in its 16th annual Small World in Motion contest after scientists flagged Dr. Ning Xu's time-lapse of cilia in a child's airway as likely AI-generated. Researchers pointed to cellular structures that appeared and vanished unnaturally, and a PhD student found what appeared to be an AI-generation watermark on the source image. Xu acknowledged using AI during post-processing to enhance grayscale images but denied generating the cilia or their motion artificially.
Nikon has stripped Dr Ning Xu of Tsinghua University of his Small World In Motion prize after ruling his winning video breached contest rules on generative AI. The video depicted cilia movement in a child with the respiratory condition PCD, but several scientists, including former judges, publicly questioned its authenticity. Nikon said the decision followed a re-evaluation of the footage and consultation with its judging panel, and does not reflect on Xu's professional standing.
Nikon is reviewing the winning video in its Small World In Motion microscopy contest after scientists alleged it was partly AI-generated. The clip, submitted by Dr Ning Xu of Tsinghua University, purports to show cilia moving in a child's airway, but critics flagged structures appearing and vanishing oddly and a possible AI-generation watermark on the source image. Xu has denied breaking contest rules, acknowledging AI was used only to enhance grayscale images, not to generate the cilia or their motion.
Education researcher Lixiang Yan of Tsinghua University found that an agentic AI tool called Codex could independently complete assignments, answer questions and join discussions without any student engagement. Surveys cited include one of over 1,000 US faculty members where 90% expect generative AI to weaken students' critical-thinking abilities, and a global survey of more than 8,000 higher-education students where about 20% said AI already makes it harder for them to work through problems unaided.
Ning Xu, an optical engineer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, won Nikon's 2023 Small World in Motion competition with a super-resolution video capturing the abnormal beating of airway cilia in a child with primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD). His entry topped 346 submissions from 40 countries in the contest, which is a video-focused offshoot of Nikon's long-running Small World Photomicrography Competition.