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Zhang Minghui blew his chance to attend one of China’s top universities. Now, he’s building experimental devices for the country’s space program. Standing in his office at the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Zhang Minghui reaches into a nearby cupboard and takes out a handful of small glass beads. “It took me over a decade to develop them,” he says, showing them off. The size of miniature pearls, they are a concentrated form of rare earth elements. As hard as diamonds, they shine nearly as bright in the lab’s cold light. Although still in an early stage of development, Zhang says the beads could power the future of satellite communications. If they can be mass-produced, they could wind up in your smartphone camera — or even on jewelry shelves. Glass samples made through containerless materials processing techniques, Shanghai, Oct. 23, 2024. Wu Huiyuan/Sixth Tone But as impressive as these tiny marbles are, they’re not the reason I made the journey to the institute’s l
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