The open access database CitGVD http://citgvd.cric.cn/page_more/general/aboutCitGVD integrates information on closely-related variations through genomic annotations, incorporating a variety of unique and powerful built-in tools for data accession and in-depth analysis of 346 citrus types.

Xinhua news release, February 11, 2020

According to LIU Yahong, president of the university, a research team analyzed more than 1,000 metagenome samples of wild animals and found pangolins as the most likely intermediate host. Sequence analysis of coronavirus strains assembled from metagenomes revealed that Betacoronavirus occurred in 70% of the pangolins analyzed, and the sequence was 99 percent identical to that of infected people in the recent coronavirus outbreak. The virus structure obtained by electron microscopy was also very similar.

Xinhua news release, February 7, 2020

A patrol robot for temperature measurement using 5G network is being deployed in Huangpu District, Guangzhou (Guangdong Province). The robot records where it has moved, and if it finds a person whose body temperature is above a set point or has no mask, it sounds an alarm. The robot performs on a panorama view with no blind spot.

People Daily online, February 7, 2020

In an open paper published by Oxford Press’ National Science Review, WEI Xiaoman, LI Xiang and CUI Jie from the CAS Institut Pasteur and CAS Wuhan Institute of Virology draw the following conclusions, based on next-generation sequencing:

“The novel coronaviruses 2019-nCoV in Wuhan likely had a bat origin, but how the human-infecting viruses evolved from bats requires further study. The human-infecting virus may become more infectious but less virulent as it continues to (co-)evolve and adapt to human hosts. Since Wuhan is one of the largest inland transportation hubs in China and the city has been closed off, it is urgently necessary to step up molecular surveillance and restrict the movement of people in and out of the affected areas promptly, in addition to closing the seafood markets.”

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa009

The service provides information on the first new virus strain isolated in China by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, electron micrographs, novel nucleic acid detection primers and probe sequences. It integrates global coronavirus genes and genomic big data, and helps to establish a global coronavirus data platform.

Voice broadcast, CAS Institute of Microbiology

According to a press release of Nanjing University, entangled photons could be fired from a drone at points A and B 100 meters away when reaching an altitude of several tens of meters. The photons met interference from atmospheric turbulence, rainwater, sunlight, etc., but still reached the ground almost unchanged.

Japan JST China news, January 23, 2020

The plan will build a digital resource system with five types of data: 

• agricultural natural resources
• important agricultural varieties resources
• rural collective assets
• rural housing bases, farmers and new farmers, and 
• digital agriculture

It is designed to promote computerization of cultivation industry, smarter livestock industry, smarter fisheries, digitalization of seed industry, diversification of new business types, and a comprehensive process of quality and safety management, and increase the production capacity of digitalization of agriculture.

Japan JST China news, January 23, 2020

During a meeting on January 18, 2020, CAS president BAI Chunli announced that the CAS plans for the world’s largest high-energy synchrotron in Beijing’s Huairou district. With other major equipment and 11 new scientific and educational facilities in the park, total investment will sum up to 10.4 billion CN¥ or 1.5 billion US$. The academy will also build new labs in Shanghai, in Hefei (Anhui province), the Xiongan New Area (Hebei province) and in the Greater Bay Area connecting Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao.

By the end of last year, the academy had launched 58 pilot projects in fields such as space technology, green industry and regenerative medicine

The CAS has also launched a new version of its cloud database and opened it for researchers around the world, including cloud calculation, data search and storage, analytical software and community networking.The network includes scientific data on energy, oceanography, biosciences, health and other frontier fields.

CAS news release, January 24, 2020

According to a press conference of the Ministry of Water Affairs, China has now established a network of hydrological observatories of its large rivers and their major tributaries, for flood countermeasures and water quality control. Observation points now number 121,000, with 3,154 stations, 14,286 surface water quality stations and 26,550 groundwater quality stations.

Japan JST China news January 21, 2020

Mikania micrantha, dubbed “mile-a-minute” weed, is one of the top 100 worst invasive species and one of the most harmful invasive plants, also in south China. WAN Fanghao, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and colleagues have prepared a 1.79 Gb reference chromosome map and have shown that half of the genome is composed of long terminal repeat retrotransposons, including a whole genome duplication event. Mikania micrantha achieves higher photosynthetic capacity by CO2 absorption at night to supplement its carbon fixation during the day, as well as enhanced stem photosynthesis efficiency. Furthermore, the metabolites of the plant can increase the availability of nitrogen by enriching microbes that participate in nitrogen cycling pathways.

Nature Communication https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13926-4

The new technology is based on an improved method to detect motion blur. A parameterized motion blur kernel is mapped into the 3D pose space of the camera to obtain a 3D pose set, and the intersection of the 3D pose sets (shared pose set) corresponding to multiple image patches is obtained. Compared with state-of-the-art methods, the detection accuracy of the proposed method is claimed to be improved by more than 20%.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8760546

On an area of ​​5,000 mu (approximately 333.3 hectares) with an average altitude of more than 2,200 meters at Wei Ning Yi Hui Miao Autonomous County, engineers seek lead technologies for vegetable production such as Chinese or white cabbage and radish. 5G-supported drones with multispectral equipment monitor crop growth, soil moisture and weather conditions and make decisions using an AI judgment system. Remote operation maintenance and quality tracing will be installed in Guiyang city. If the “smart farm” trial is successful, 400,000-mu (approximately 26,700 hectares) vegetable bases will also be built in all prefectures. 

Japan JST China news, January 21, 2020

In Heilongjiang Ice Base Speed ​​Skating Pavilion, a model system acquires exercise information in real time based on AI technology. It automatically tracks the position on ice, draws the trajectory of the run, and calculates a speed-related index. The AI component is based on viewing angle algorithms and full panorama connection technology.

Japan JST China news, January 21, 2020

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), a single-dish telescope with a diameter of half a kilometer and a receiving area equivalent to about 30 football fields, was officially taken in operation. It is located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in Southwest China’s Guizhou province.

Xinhua news release, January 13, 2020

RAO Zihe and WANG Xiangxi from the CAS Institute of Biophysics and BU Zhigao from the CAS Harbin Veterinary Research Institute have determined the structure of the African swine fever virus (ASFV) at a resolution of 4.1-angstroms, using an optimized image reconstruction strategy. The virus’s structural details will provide strategies for vaccine development.

CAS news release, January 16, 2020

GAO Hongjun and colleagues from CAS Institute of Physics have achieved atomically precise folding of graphene nanostructures through STM tip-induced manipulation technology. They were able to fold graphene nanoislands in an arbitrarily chosen direction, constructed bilayer graphene stacks withs a tunable twist angle and a tubular edge connection between the layers, and created intramolecular junctions of bicrystal graphene nanoislands. Atomically precise “origami” can be used for the construction of quantum materials and quantum devices.

CAS news release, January 16, 2020

The project initiated by LI Can of CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics combines hydrogen production by electrocatalytic water splitting with highly selective, carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol. Energy consumption is reduced to 4.0-4.2 kWh / m3 hydrogen. Carbon dioxide hydrogenation to methanol uses a bimetal oxide catalyst (ZnO-ZrO2). Methanol selectivity is greater than 90%, and degradation of the catalyst after 3000 hours of operation is less than 2%. A1,000-ton scale demonstration project was commissioned in the Green Chemical Park in Lanzhou New District.

CAS news release, January 17, 2020

China’s quantum satellite QUESS (Quantum Experiments at Space Scale, nickname Micius), jointly developed by the University of Science and Technology of China, QuantumCTek Co., Ltd. and the Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology, was successfully linked up with a mobile quantum ground station and conducted an encrypted data transmission in Jinan, Shandong Province. The latest mobile version installed on a vehicle has been significantly reduced in weight and construction cost. The experimental quantum communication network in Jinan was further connected to the Beijing-Shanghai quantum communication backbone network.

Xinhua news release, January 2, 2020

The joint program of CAS Institute of Hydrobiology, Tibet University, Henan Agricultural University, CAAS Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, CAS Beijing Institute of Genomics and Huazhong University of Science and Technology starts out with over 3,000 species of eukaryotic algae and protozoa kept by CAS Institute of Hydrobiology and is scheduled to extend to 10,000 protists within 3 years. Its goal is to better understand biodiversity, the origin and evolution of multicellular organisms and sexual reproduction, and to push forward the research on environmental protection, nutrition and disease control.

Xinhua news release, January 3, 2020 

The incidence of osteoarthritis among Chinese is about 2.2 to 3.5 percent, with an upward trend. The First Hospital affiliated to Army Medical University (AMU)  so far has conducted 27 clinical trials on knee implants based on customized 3D-printed porous tantalum. After 3D CT scan of a patient’s bone and bone defects, it takes only 72 hours to design a porous tantalum implant and 3D print the customized implant.

China Daily news release, January 6, 2020