China in Africa

According to Shilin CHEN, Director of the Academy, DNA barcodes and the corresponding quality control indicators presently developed are about to establish a traceability system which ensures control of the supply chains and limit market entry of counterfeit herbal products.

China Bio news release, February 10, 2017

Following the 1992 promulgation on Protection of Traditional Chinese Medicine Regulations”, 267 varieties of traditional Chinese medicines were protected. Five areas, namely respiratory medicine, medicine for the cardiovascular system, for the digestive system, for the genitourinary system and sex hormone drugs, and for the musculoskeletal system, account for 90.2% of all 267 varieties. Following the Outline of the National Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property (2016-2030), the Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan and the Strategic Plan for the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2016-2030), CFDA has recently announced that new regulations on TCM will be shortly announced which will cover IP, manufacturing processes etc.”

China Bio news release, February 9 2017

In a recent paper, the CAS Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have analyzed China’s water pollution situation. Based on more than 200 published studies, it was found that organo-chlorine pesticides (OCPs) occur in China’s waterways at similar levels to other countries in Asia and around the world. However, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) occur at elevated levels relative to other regions of the world for which data are available (e.g. PAH levels were between 15.1 and 72400 ng/L; PCBs between 0.2 to 985.2 ng/L). Serious PCB pollution in China’s waterways appears to be due to emissions and waste from China’s intensive manufacturing sector, as well as global trade in e-waste, which results in hazardous materials being shipped to China. Areas of China with particularly serious pollution include the Yangtze River basin, Pearl River Delta and Zhejiang province. These are all areas of intensive industry, including manufacturing and chemical industries, in China’s southeast. The study is in relation to China’s recent ‘Ten point plan’ for water pollution control and prevention, in an effort to curb water pollution and improve water quality throughout China.

CAS news release, February 9, 2017

According to a spokesman of China’s National Space Administration, China plans its first Mars probe by 2020. A second Mars probe will bring back samples and conduct research on the planet’s structure, composition and environment. Also on the agenda are an asteroid exploration, and a fly-by of the Jupiter system. China aims to become a space power around 2030 with an advanced and open aerospace industry and space infrastructure.

CAS news release, February 3, 2017

Shengkui CHENG, a researcher from the CAS Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, made an analysis on almost 7,000 tables and 366 restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai and the southwestern cities of Lhasa and Chengdu. The team interviewed hundreds of people, collated 7,500 questionnaires and weighed 32,000 dishes. From their data, they estimated that enough food is discarded in restaurants annually in China to feed between 30 million and 50 million people. The data were presented last November at the Food Waste Forum in Beijing. The researchers conclude that consumers should be more conscious of the amount of food waste they generate and minimize their personal food waste

CAS news release, February 3, 2017

China is expected to supply next-generation bullet trains capable of traveling at 400 km per hour for Russia’s Moscow-Kazan line by 2020. The line is expected to be about 770 kilometers long and will run through seven Russian regions with a total population of more than 25 million. To ensure the operation, China will test the 400 km/h train in a selected part of the 709-kilometer Beijing-Shenyang high-speed railway line. According to a spokesman ofthe CAS Institute of Mechanics, China will be able to produce cargo trains for transporting regular goods, high-end products and industrial equipment at speeds ranging from 120 to 250 km/h between Asia and Europe by 2020. The CRRC, China’s national railway corporation, is also trying to overcome technical barriers in its push to develop maglev trains with speeds of 600 km/h in its Qingdao research center in Shandong province.

CAS news release, February 8, 2017

The group around Xiaquan SU at QIBEBT has developed a software Parallel-Meta-3, which allows to extract rRNA segment, copy number, functional gene prediction, diversity analysis, biomarker screening, and symbiotic network analysis. It provides significant advantages in accuracy and comprehensiveness by a fully automated analysis.

China Bioindustry news, January 25, 2017

The satellite covers the globe with an all-weather, 24-hour observation service and will be used for disaster prevention and reduction, ocean monitoring, and the protection of maritime rights. Gaofen-3’s spatial resolution ranges from one meter to 500 meters and its largest viewing swath is 650 kilometers.

CAS news release, January 24, 2016

In a ceremony at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS, with the participation of elderly researchers and scientists who participated in the study then, a new stamp was issued to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Total synthesis of crystalline bovine insulin“. China started the project at the end of 1958 and succeeded in September, 1965. The achievements was the top prize of the national science award and nominated Nobel Prize. Bovine insulin was also chemically synthesized in 1963 by Helmut Bremer and Helmut Zahn at Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut Aachen.”

CAS news release, January 21, 2017

The Dalian Coherent Light Source Center around Xuemin YANG prepared the arguably world’s brightest vaccum UV FEL light in an energy range from 8 to 24 eV, making it unique of the same kind that only operates in the VUV region, By applying the undulator tapering technology in the HGHG mode, a photon flux of 1.4×1014 photons per pulse was achieved.

CAS news release, January 16, 2017

Ocean renewable energy includes energy generated from sea tides, waves, temperature differences and biomass. China’s maritime authority has issued a five-year plan on developing ocean renewable energy, including island renewable energy in the South China Sea and island regions.

CAS news release, January 13, 2017

The Biomimetic Smart Material Group at QIBEBT (Chaoxu LI) found that ultrasonically exfoliated WS2 strongly bound in thin layers to alginate. The nanofilm exhibited excellent mechanical properties with a high tensile strength and toughness superior to natural bio-composites such as nacre, bone and dentin. It can be self-heated up to 300 oC within several seconds under low-dose radiation due to its high photo-thermal ability of WS2 nanosheets. The water-absorption and cation-binding capacities of sodium alginate endow the composite film with smart actuating applications in the forms of photo-driven motor, walking robot and gripper, etc. For example, a soft gripper was created with four stripes of actuating film as cantilevers. The grasping/releasing motion was driven by switching light radiation on and off. The responsiveness was swift (e.g., 12 s to grasp and 10 s to release), being comparable with or even superior to other reported smart grippers. Due to the super mechanical properties, the gripper could grab a steel ball with the weight 500 times heavier than the gripper itself.

CAS news release, January 12, 2017

China’s investment in R&D is expected to have reached 1.54 trillion yuan (around 223 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, accounting for 2.1 percent of GDP, according to Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang. R&D expenditure increased by 9 percent from 2015, with over 78 percent of the spending coming from enterprises, mainly for technology transfer. Wan announced plans of future key projects involving quantum communication and computers, brain science and brain-like research, deep sea stations, and space-ground integrated technology. More projects, including ones on deep earth exploration and artificial intelligence, were said to be in the pipeline.

CAS news release, January 11, 2017

The honour was awarded to Prof. Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus, a physicochemist at Bielefeld University, for establishing basic research on the effective use of energy and clean combustion. In October 2016, Kohse-Höinghaus had already received the Friendship Award for International Experts and in January 2016 the prize of the CAS for International Cooperation.

CAS news release, January 11, 2017

China, the world’s biggest manufacturer of ballpoint pens, has finally developed its own pen tips, ending a long-term reliance on imported ones from Japan. Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group), or TISCO, said it has mastered the production of steel components for pen tips after trying for five years. Stationery manufacturers in China produce 38 billion ballpoint pens every year, but make less than 0.1 yuan on each pen, despite spending millions of dollars importing steel used to make the pen tips, at 120,000 yuan (17,000 U.S. dollars) per ton. Special microelements must be added to liquid steel to make a quality tip that is able to write continually for at least 800 meters, but the formula had long been kept a trade secret by foreign manufacturers.

CAS news release, January 10, 2017