Top 10 China Science and Technology News in 2020

2021-01-22 · Comments off

Sponsored by Science and Technology Daily and jointly selected by academicians of the two academies and media professionals, the top ten domestic and international science and technology news in 2020 were announced.
Top 10 China Science and Technology News in 2020
The top ten china science and technology news selected in 2020 are: the fight against COVID-19 shows the strength of China’s science and technology; the mystery of Chinese prehistoric population migration and ethnic origin is revealed; Tianwen No.1 starts the journey of exploring Mars; the Beidou navigation system is fully completed; The “Recommendations” chapter of the Central Plenary Session deploys scientific and technological innovation; the two core conjectures of differential geometry are finally certified after more than 20 years; the Chang’e 5 moon excavated 1,731 grams; the Hualong 1 was successfully connected to the grid to generate power; the “Struggle” was deeply manned The dive is 10909 meters; the introduction of the “Nine Chapters” quantum computer has attracted worldwide attention.
List of China’s Top 10 Science and Technology News in 2020:

2020 is destined to be an extraordinary year. The blockbuster news in the scientific and technological world flies down like snow flakes, reflecting the light of this era.
The boundless space, the dark seabed, the courage and confusion, the hard work and hard work, even if they are far apart, we can truly perceive them. Times are surging, human emotions are connected, we witness and invest, we watch and experience. At the end of this year, we pray that next year will be better.

1. The fight against COVID-19 highlights the power of China’s science and technology

The violent COVID-19 virus was defeated by science. Fighting the COVID-19 epidemic is a great demonstration of the strength of disease prevention and control technology in the 70 years since the founding of New China.
After the outbreak, Chinese scientists quickly figured out that this is a new type of coronavirus in a short period of time, and shared the virus’s whole genome sequencing results to the world for the first time. Experts from across the country rushed to Wuhan as soon as possible to determine the key points of scientific research according to the different stages of the development of the epidemic. The scientific research, clinical, and prevention and control are closely coordinated, and industry, education and research are coordinated. The Ministry of Science and Technology immediately established scientific research teams with 12 departments and units including the Health Commission. The rapid and effective efforts of the Chinese scientific and technological community have strongly supported the epidemic prevention and control war. After a field visit, the Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization said: Technology-driven is a major feature of China’s defense control measures.
China immediately notified the world of the epidemic information, shared the COVID-19 virus genome sequence and the COVID-19 virus nucleic acid detection primer probe sequence information, and provided the basis for the global fight against the epidemic. The Ministry of Science and Technology and other departments totaled 16 emergency research projects in 3 batches, focusing on virus traceability, drug research and development, vaccine research and development, testing reagents and the deployment of experimental animal models, so that the anti-epidemic team solidly marched towards victory step by step.
In order to rapidly develop a vaccine against the new coronavirus and increase the success rate, China has advanced multiple technologies in parallel, achieving an unprecedented rapid progress in vaccine research and development, and has been launched in many countries and regions. On the premise of safety and effectiveness, China’s vaccine research and development has achieved the greatest possible shortening of the process. Leading the world in many fields.
At the National Commendation Conference for Fighting the COVID-19 Epidemic, four scientific and technological workers were awarded national medals and national honorary titles, which symbolizes that the efforts of Chinese scientific and technological people have been fully recognized.

2. The mystery of Chinese prehistoric population migration and ethnic origin is revealed

Eight or nine thousand years ago, what was the relationship between the people living on Chinese soil and the current Chinese people? A paper published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Science in May, using ancient DNA sequencing, uncovered several secrets about the pattern, migration, and mixing of prehistoric populations in northern and southern China. Relying on newly developed DNA capture and recovery techniques, the genetic material that was difficult to obtain in the past, especially the genetic material that was difficult to preserve in the humid and hot environment of the South, has revealed a lot of truth.
By sequencing 25 individuals from 9500-4200 years ago at 11 sites in Shandong, Inner Mongolia, Fujian and other places, Chinese scientists found that there were two distinct ethnic groups, one north and one south, 9,500 years ago. As late as 8,300 years ago, the North and South people began to merge; 4800 years ago, there was a trend towards intensified integration, which is still continuing today.
People along the Yellow River basin to the grasslands of eastern Siberia have carried an ancient northern element since 9,500 years ago; and people along the coast of mainland China and on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have carried an ancient southern element since at least 8,400 years ago. The ingredients are completely different. For more than 8,000 years, the difference between North and South has gradually narrowed. At present, the Han nationality in any place is a mixture of these two groups, and there is no difference in the mixing ratio between the north and the south.
Nowadays, the Austronesian people who are widely distributed in the Taiwan Strait, Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands originated in Fujian and adjacent areas in southern China, and can be traced back to 8400 years ago. According to the latest genetic analysis, this population is not the ancient population who came to China tens of thousands of years ago that some scholars suspected.

3. Tianwen No.1 launches a trip to explore Mars

The exploration and questioning of the universe for thousands of years is the unswerving aerospace dream of the Chinese nation.
On July 23, my country’s first Mars exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 probe, was launched by the Long March 5 Yaosi carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site. After more than 2,000 seconds of flight, it was successfully sent into the scheduled orbit and started the Mars exploration journey. , Has taken the first step of my country’s autonomous planetary exploration.
The Tianwen-1 probe is composed of an orbiter and a landing patrol. The landing patrol includes an entry module and a Mars rover. The entry module completes Mars entry, descent and landing missions. The Mars rover is equipped with a variety of scientific payloads to carry out inspections in the landing zone.
The Tianwen-1 probe will fly in the ground-fire transfer orbit for about 7 months and arrive near Mars. It will complete the capture of Mars by “braking”, enter the ring-fire orbit, and choose the opportunity to carry out landing, patrol and other missions for scientific exploration of Mars.
The engineering goal of this Mars exploration mission is to achieve Mars circumnavigation and patrol exploration, obtain scientific data of Mars exploration, and realize my country’s technological leap in the field of deep space exploration; at the same time, establish an independent deep space exploration engineering system to promote my country’s deep space exploration activities sustainable development.
As of December 14, the Tianwen-1 probe has been in orbit for 144 days, with a flight mileage of about 360 million kilometers, a distance of more than 100 million kilometers from the Earth, and a distance of about 12 million kilometers from Mars. The flight is in good condition. The Earth-Moon photo has been successfully completed. , Detector “Selfie”, three midway corrections, one deep space maneuver, load self-checking, etc. Tianwen-1 is expected to implement “brake” braking and enter the ring fire orbit after it approaches Mars in mid-February next year to prepare for Mars landing.

4. Beidou navigation system is fully completed

On July 31, China solemnly declared to the world that China’s self-constructed and independently operated global satellite navigation system has been fully completed, opening a new chapter in high-quality service to the world and benefiting mankind.
Beidou is a huge complex space system with the largest scale, the widest coverage, the highest service performance, and the most closely related to people’s lives in my country so far. It consists of satellites, rockets, launch sites, measurement and control, operation control, inter-satellite links, and application verification. Large system composition.
Looking back at the present, this “report card” is hard-won. Since the establishment of the Beidou No. 1 project, 26 years of ups and downs, several generations of Beidou people have continued to struggle, hundreds of thousands of builders have joined forces, and in the great journey of rejuvenating the country, they have refreshed the “Chinese speed” time and time again and demonstrated the “China” “Accuracy”, showing “Chinese tolerance”, creating brilliant achievements worthy of the party, worthy of the people, worthy of the times.
Since the establishment of the project, the Beidou system construction has insisted on “drawing a blueprint to the end” and has stepped into its own rhythm step by step. The Beidou-1 test system was completed in 2000, making my country the third country in the world with an autonomous satellite navigation system. The Beidou No. 2 regional system was completed in 2012 to provide services to the Asia-Pacific region. The Beidou-3 global system will be completed in 2020, realizing the “global dream” that the Chinese are diligently seeking.
According to statistics, since the start of the project, more than 400 units and more than 300,000 scientific and technical personnel have been mobilized across the country to participate in the development and construction. Two “two bombs and one star” founders Chen Fangyun and Sun Jiadong and dozens of academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences led the campaign.
Today, China’s Beidou has officially stepped onto the world stage, standing in the “first echelon” of my country’s active promotion of building a community with a shared future for mankind with practical actions.

5. The Fifth Plenary Session of the “Recommendations” chapter deploys technological innovations

“Science and technology innovation has been raised to an unprecedented height.” said Godson’s father Hu Weiwu.
“This plenum will elevate the role of science and technology to a new level, described with such strong colors as’core position’ and’strategic support’.” Academician Yang Wei said.
On November 3, the “Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and Long-Term Goals for 2035” adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was formally released, proposing: Persist in innovation At the core of the overall situation of my country’s modernization drive, take science and technology independence and self-reliance as the strategic support of national development, face the frontiers of world science and technology, face the main economic battlefield, face the country’s major needs, face the people’s lives and health, and implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and the strategy of strengthening the country through talents , Innovation-driven development strategy, improve the national innovation system, and accelerate the construction of a science and technology power.
Putting scientific and technological innovation at the top of all planning tasks and deploying special chapters is the first time in the history of the Communist Party of China that it has compiled a five-year plan proposal. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China raised the status and role of technological innovation to an unprecedented strategic height, which fully embodies the consistent high attention and strategic planning of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core. From the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, to the proposal of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that innovation is the first driving force for development, to the proposal of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to accelerate the establishment of a technological power, the Party Central Committee’s strategic policy on technological innovation Coming down in one continuous line and advancing with the times. The Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifth Plenary Session of the major deployment of scientific and technological innovation has clear objectives at the strategic level and specific and pragmatic measures at the tactical level, which will point the way for scientific and technological work in the future.

6. The two core conjectures of differential geometry were finally certified after more than 20 years

On November 8, Xinhua News Agency reported that Professors Chen Xiuxiong and Wang Bing of the University of Science and Technology of China had made major breakthroughs in the field of differential geometry and took the lead in solving two core conjectures that have plagued the international mathematics community for more than 20 years-the Hamilton-Tian conjecture and partiality The zero-order estimation conjecture. Related research results were published in the top international mathematical journal “Journal of Differential Geometry”.
Differential geometry originated in the 17th century. It mainly uses calculus methods to study the geometric properties of space, which has a huge boost in physics, astronomy, and engineering. “Rich Flow” was born in the 1980s and is a differential geometry research tool that describes the evolution of space.
Many natural phenomena can be attributed to the evolution of space, ranging from the expansion of the universe to the small expansion and contraction of heat. Chen Xiuxiong and Wang Bing’s team has long studied the convergence of the “Rich flow” in differential geometry, using new ideas and new methods, and they have taken the lead in the world to prove the two proposals of “Hamilton-Tian” and “Zero-Order Estimation” Conjecture in the 1990s.
It is understood that the two mathematicians have spent 5 years studying these two conjectures, and the paper is more than 120 pages long. Due to the length of the paper and the long review period, the paper took another 6 years from submission to official publication.
The reviewers of the Journal of Differential Geometry commented that this paper is a major advance in the field of geometric analysis and will stimulate many related studies. Fields Medal winner Simon Donaldson praised this as “a major breakthrough in the field of geometry in recent years.”

7. Chang’e 5 moon excavation 1,731 grams

Dare to go to the moon for nine days, talk and laugh triumphantly!
Chang’e 5 successfully returned to Earth with lunar samples. More than 40 years later, another human spacecraft returned to the moon and collected samples. This is a huge scientific achievement for China and the global aerospace industry.
After 23 days, Chang’e-5 passed through many difficulties such as earth-moon transfer, near-moon braking, circumlunar flight, lunar landing, automatic sampling, lunar take-off, lunar orbital rendezvous and docking, reentry and return, and successfully carried lunar samples. Return to earth. This task requires very precise control and is technically difficult.
The Chang’e-5 spacecraft developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation is one of the most complex spacecraft systems developed by China. It consists of an orbiter, a returner, a lander, and an ascender, and includes 15 sub-systems. In this mission, Chang’e 5 went through 11 flight phases and spent more than 20 days in orbit. It collected 1731 grams of lunar samples and returned to Earth. The automatic sampling and packaging of the lunar surface is the most eye-catching part of the Chang’e-5 mission. Chang’e 5 landed on a selected area on the lunar surface and did everything possible to collect the lunar soil, realizing my country’s first extraterrestrial celestial body sampling and packaging.
The achievements of Chang’e 5 once again tell the world that China has become a major aerospace power. For more than 40 years, scientists in the global aerospace field have been hoping to study the lunar soil in more depth, and believe that the success of Chang’e 5 will help them solve their puzzles.

8. Hualong No. 1 was successfully connected to the grid for power generation

At 00:41 on November 27, the world’s first Hualong No. 1 reactor, China National Nuclear Corporation’s Fuqing Nuclear Power Unit 5, was successfully connected to the grid for the first time. It was confirmed on site that all technical indicators of the unit were in compliance with the design requirements, and the unit was in good condition, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent commercial operation of the unit and creating the world’s best performance in the construction of the third-generation nuclear power first reactor.
Hualong No. 1 is a third-generation pressurized water reactor nuclear power technology developed and designed by my country with completely independent intellectual property rights. The design life is 60 years. The reactor adopts a 177 core design, and the core uses 18 months of refueling. The power plant can be used as high as 90%. , Innovatively adopts the combination of “active and passive” safety systems and double-layer containment technologies, which meet the highest international safety standards in terms of safety.
The successful connection of the world’s first Hualong No. 1 reactor to the grid indicates that my country has broken the monopoly of foreign nuclear power technology and officially entered the ranks of advanced countries in nuclear power technology. This is of great significance for my country to realize the leap from a nuclear power country to a nuclear power power country.
As the “national business card” of my country’s nuclear power going to the world, Hualong No.1 is one of the most widely accepted three-generation nuclear motors in the current nuclear power market, and is a major landmark achievement of my country’s nuclear power innovation and development. At present, China National Nuclear Corporation has 6 Hualong No. 1 nuclear power units under construction at home and abroad, and the safety and quality of the construction projects are under good control.
“Hualong No. 1”, the world’s first Fuqing Nuclear Power Unit 5, connected to the grid for power generation will greatly enhance the competitiveness of China’s nuclear power industry, which is of great significance for optimizing the energy structure and promoting green and low-carbon development.

9. “Struggle” manned deep dive of 10909 meters

After a manned deep dive of 10,909 meters, the “Struggle” all-sea deep manned submersible successfully completed the 10,000-meter sea trial and returned successfully on November 28.
On October 10, the Struggle set sail from the Nanshan Port Terminal in Yazhou Bay, Sanya City, Hainan Province, and went to the Mariana Trench in the Western Pacific for a 10,000-meter deep diving test mission. On October 27, the “Struggle” dive exceeded 10,000 meters for the first time, and on November 10, it created a new record of 10,909 meters for manned deep diving in China; on November 13, the “Struggle” completed the world The first joint operation of a manned submersible and a lander on the seabed of 10,000 meters and a live video broadcast.
As the fourth full-sea deep manned submersible in human history, in order to achieve the goal of 10,000-meter submarine operations, the “Struggle” R&D team has gone through five years of arduous research. The design and safety evaluation of the pressure structure and the preparation of titanium alloy materials We have achieved a number of major technological breakthroughs in welding, buoyancy material development and processing, acoustic communication positioning, intelligent control technology, lithium ion batteries, sea water pumps, and manipulators. The localization rate of core components exceeds 96.5%.
The success of the “Struggle” development and sea trials has significantly improved my country’s manned deep diving technology and equipment capabilities and independent innovation level, and promoted the development of submersibles to the whole sea deep genealogy and function, in order to explore the mystery of deep sea science, The protection and rational use of marine resources has provided another weapon, and has made outstanding contributions to guiding the public to care about the ocean, raising the nation’s ocean awareness, and accelerating the building of a maritime power.

10. The advent of the “Jiu Zhang” quantum computer attracts worldwide attention

On a specific track, 200 seconds of “quantum computing power” is equivalent to the current “strongest super computing” 600 million years of computing power! On December 4, the “Nine Chapters” of China’s major computer breakthroughs published by “Science” magazine attracted the attention of the world.
This 76-photon quantum computing prototype “Jiu Zhang” developed by Pan Jianwei, Lu Chaoyang and other scholars at the University of Science and Technology of China has promoted the cutting-edge research of global quantum computing to a new level. After Google’s “Plananus” computer, it succeeded again. A milestone breakthrough in achieving the “superiority of quantum computing”.
In September last year, the American company Google announced the development of a 53-qubit computer Platanus. It only takes 200 seconds to calculate a mathematical problem. At that time, the world’s fastest supercomputer “peak” took 2 days, so they realized it for the first time in the world. The quantum superiority.
The Chinese quantum computer is named “Jiu Zhang” to commemorate the famous ancient Chinese mathematics monograph “Nine Chapters of Arithmetic”. Experiments show that the calculation speed of the classical mathematical algorithm Gaussian Bose sampling in Chapter Nine is one trillion times faster than the current world’s fastest supercomputing “Fuyue”, thus achieving quantum superiority in the second place in the world.
Compared with Platanus, “Jiu Zhang” has three advantages: faster speed, does not require a lot of ultra-low temperature equipment, and is faster than supercomputing on both small and large samples.
In recent years, China has witnessed frequent successes in the field of quantum technology. The successful initial test of quantum computers will certainly attract more young people to join this ascendant field.