Scientist saves workers' eyes, cuts factory costs

In a giant, dark factory, thousands of young workers sat in separate booths, each staring through a small glass rectangle at a white lamp on their tables looking for defects.

Each had a pile of the smartphone screens and several large bottles of eyedrops, which they used often.

Zhang Zhengtao, 36, a scientist and Party representative from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Automation, witnessed the scene at a quality inspection factory for smartphone screens in Dongguan, Guangdong province, two years ago.