Harbor vitae [The Editor´s Desk]

China has become an increasingly important player in critical technologies like nanotechnology. Although it is difficult to delineate nanoscience and nanotechnology, it has been argued that China has recently achieved a position second only to that of the United States (Zhou, Ping and Leydesdorff, Loet, 2006). Funding for R&D by the Chinese government has kept pace with China´s economic growth in the last ten years.