Professors from the University of Hong Kong have achieved a remarkable scientific feat - developing a creative method to make ultra-strong steel that can even outperform aerospace steel.

The accomplishment was notable enough to make its way to Science Magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world's top academic journals that recently published the discovery.

However, an essential contributor to the academics' research data is less known outside the science field - the China Spallation Neutron Source - the only one of its kind in China and one of the world's four spallation neutron sources, besides those in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Located in the budding comprehensive national science center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, CSNS is among an array of top-end, large-scale science research facilities built or being built at the center.

Making fair use of these facilities, the area is gearing up to strengthen original innovation and incubate new industries. More importantly, the Hong Kong professors' success signaled that the center is no longer merely a plan promised in policy documents. Many of its facilities and buildings are already in place and have attracted researchers and technology firms.

Guangdong province's robust production ability is quickly translating innovations into products, while Hong Kong universities and startups have weaved themselves into the science center's innovation network.

Unlike regular high-tech zones or technology incubators on the Chinese mainland, which usually depend on importing top technology firms, a comprehensive national science center focuses on building large-scale scientific research facilities and institutions to stimulate original innovation and incubate its own stars.

According to the official description, it aims to become a foundation of the national innovation ecosystem and a crucial platform for the nation to participate in the global technology competition.

Besides the center in the Bay area, there're only three hubs with such title in the country - in Beijing, Shanghai and Hefei, Anhui province. Many other cities, including Chengdu in Sichuan province and Wuhan in Hubei province, are also on the same trail.

In 2019, the central government explicitly pinned Shenzhen as the principal city of a new comprehensive national science center in the guideline on supporting the city in building a pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics.