Work on the ¥10bn ($1.5bn) Beijing-based laboratory will start early next year, while the Shanghai-based laboratory recently received approval from government funding agencies. Covering an area of 13 km2 on the outskirts of Beijing, the new national lab will comprise three major research facilities: the Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility (SECUF), the Beijing Advanced Photon Source (BAPS) and the Earth System Simulator. It will also feature five “research platforms” that focus on accelerator technology, clean energy, materials genome, environment science and brain science. After seven to eight years of construction, the lab will house some 3000 employees, a scale similar to Argonne or Oak Ridge national laboratories.

CAS news release, Octdober 19, 2016

The team around Chao CHEN from Tsinghua University School of Environmental Sciences has screened 164 water samples from 155 sites in 23 provinces and 44 cities across the country. On average, nitrosamine concentrations were 3.6 fold higher than in comparable studies in the US. As water treatment via chlorination or chloramination of organic nitrogen-containing wastewater can lead to the production of NDMA at potentially harmful levels, better cleaning of factory water may be one way to improve the situation.

China Bio news release, October 14, 2016

The group of Professor Shuhong YU simulated the growth mode and control processes of mollusks’ mother-of-pearl. They first froze chitosan to generate a layered structure of the framework, followed by acetylation, resulting in a shell made up from a chitin framework. A calcium bicarbonate solution containing polyacrylic acid and magnesium ions was then pumped through this framework, allowing calcium carbonate to grow in situ on this matrix. The artificial mother of pearl was highly similar to natural pearls in chemical composition, inorganic content, multi-level structural form and extraordinary fracture strength and toughness.

China Bio news release, October 8, 2016

The exascale supercomputer will do at least a billion calculations per second and CPU, the high-speed interconnection communication and operating system was developed completely independent by the National University of Defense Technology and the National Supercomputing Center.

CAS news release October 17, 2016

The two astronauts docked tot he Tiangong-2 space lab where they will stay for 33 days. The mission aims to transport personnel and materials between Earth and Tiangong-2, and test rendezvous, docking and return processes. Other objectives include aerospace medical experiments, space science experiments and in-orbit maintenance. Astronauts will conduct three experiments designed by middle school students from Hong Kong, including raising silkworms in space. The astronauts will also be special correspondents for Xinhua, sharing their work and life in space via text, photo, audio and video through Xinhua’s global media services.

CAS news release, October 17, 2016

The partnership, involving Alibaba’s cloud computing unit Aliyun will result in the establishment of a big data research center, featuring an open online database of astronomical information that enables users to explore the cosmos via a virtual space observatory.

CAS news release, October 14, 2016

According to the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information (MOST), Chinese scientists contributed 12,8 % to the most-cited science publications over the last decade, ranking now 3 after the USA and the UK. And 2 in eight fields including mathematics, medicine and agricultural sciences.

CAS news release, October 13, 2016

New technologies will allow astronauts to use their thoughts to control equipment in spacecraft, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The National Key Laboratory of Human Factors Engineering and Tianjin University have developed a human brain-to-computer test system, which translates astronauts’ brain impulses into words to communicate with ground control and operate instruments in spacecraft.The system will be tested by astronauts during real spaceflight.

China Bio news release, October 10, 2016

China plans to launch the experimental core module of its space station around 2018 with a Long March-5 heavyload carrier rocket, and the 20 ton combination space station will be sent into orbit around 2022. When the ISS retires in 2024, China’s space station may then be the only one left in service.

CAS news release, October 8, 2016

Longping YUAN, aged 86 and China’s Father of hybrid rice” working at the Wuhan Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology’s Institute of Crop Science, believes in the commercialization of polyploid rice varieties within the next 5 years, leading to yield improvements from presently 15 to 17 t/ha.”

China Bio news release, September 26, 2016

The group around Professor Jianyong LIU has developed a two-stage process based on an primary oxidation-reduction step followe by a 1,5 min protease treatment which helps in the anti-shrinking of wool. The wool textile industry is an important part of China’s textile industry.

China Bio news release, Sept. 28, 2016

The 4900 to ship, with home port Shanghai, is the mthership for Rainbow fish”, a manned submersible which can dive 11,000 m deep. Test dives have been done at 8,000 m in the Solomon sea near Papua New Guinea and are planned, later this year, at an unmanned dive at 10,000 m in the Mariana trench near Japan.”

CAS news release, September 26, 2016

The group of Zhiping XU at Tsinghua University and MJ Buehler at MIT have found that layered structures of water at the nanometer interface between cells and graphene have a lower diffusion coefficient compared to bulk water, leading to reduced thermal resistance between cells and graphene. This helps in an efficient heat dissipation in bio-nanodevices and may lead to thermal manipulation of cells.

China Bio news release, September 23, 2016

In view of China’s huge medical device industry market, with a 2015 market size of more than 300 billion yuan and a growth rate of more than 20%, Suzhou Hi-Tech Zone will attempt to built a leading national park which attracts domestic and foreign companies in this field.

China Bio news release, September 23, 2016

The combined-cycle aerospace vehicle will be propelled by a combination of turbine, ramjet and rocket engines. It will use turbine engines, like those installed on jetliners, or rocket-based combined-cycle engines, when it takes off from a conventional runway.

CAS news release, September 22, 2016

The 180 days experiment with 4 volunters was started in June, 2016, and will finish in December. It is examined how oxygen, water and food can be used and reused in space. The physiological changes and emotional fluctuations of the volunteers brought by a hermetic environment will be checked, and a total of 25 kinds of plants in the capsule are studied as part of a larger ecological treatment system.

CAS news release, September 22, 2016

The index is based on an assessment of a select group of scientific journals in which research papers are published, and of authors’ contributions to such papers. Among 100 top institutions in the life and basic medical sciences, 48 are located in the USA, 10 in the UK, 8 in France and 3 in China.

CAS news release, September 9, 2016

The plant located in Dingzhou will use six bioreactors with a total of 28,800 m3 to digest 180,000 t of manure and straw from 3340 ha crop land.

China Bio news release, September 9, 2016

The group of Yanlei YU at Fudan University has developed a novel concept for liquid handling. It is based on channels with deformable tubular microactuators containing azobenzene derivatives. Upon illumination, these channels change shape and drive the liquid into a desired direction, without any need for pumps. The new concept is expected to help design small-sized and portable instruments for blood tests at home.

China Bio news release, September 9, 2016