CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2002-16

CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
 
N0.296 May 30,2002
　
IN THIS ISSUE
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* China Beijing International S and T Industries Fair
* 10 Million for Innovation Fund
* 1551 Nature Conservation Zones in China
* New Method for Longer Nanometer the Tubes
* Chinese Ox Cloned
* China Obtained Lung Cancer Serum Markers
* North Asian Tropical Forest Positioning Station
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SPECIAL ISSUES

China Beijing International S and T Industries Fair

The Fifth Session of China Beijing International S and T Industries Fair, or China Beijing International Week for High tech Industries was closed on May 28, 2002,. The Fair has demonstrated from different facets great market perspectives for high tech industrial development in China and harvested rich results on international cooperation, technology transfer and trade. As is shown by statistics, the Fair has seen 397 cooperative agreements signed in a total amount of USD 7.35 billion.  
The Fair has attracted extensive attention of both home and abroad with the participation of 5,000 and more representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations, EU, 68 countries and 70 and more governmental or industrial delegations. Nearly 10,000 domestic representatives from 35 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities also made their presence at the Fair. The participants from both home and abroad had active exchanges and discussions on many dedicated topics.
During the Fair, more than 100 shows, lectures, technology transfer and trade talks were arranged with the involvement of 600,000 person/time. In addition, more than a dozen of international exchange events such as International Invention Conference, International Environmental Protection Conference and etc. were held in the period.  

IP Management for Research Results

Recently the Chinese State Council approved the Regulations on Management of Intellectual Properties Derived from National Scientific Research Programs jointly submitted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance. The Regulations have clearly defined the ownership of intellectual properties derived from national scientific research programs and made corresponding requirements for the management and protection of intellectual properties derived from these programs. The Regulations will greatly stimulate the output of proprietary scientific results from scientific research programs in the country.  
It is reported that since the 1990s, China has kept an output of 30,000 S and T results each year. In 1998, the major national S and T programs turned out 1,369 patents, among which invention patents were only 462 in number. The Regulations have stipulated the following principles on the ownership of intellectual properties derived from national scientific programs: 1) apart from the intellectual properties related to national security, national interests and major social interests, the intellectual properties derived from scientific research programs can be entitled to the project implementation institution by the state authorities; the implementation institution may independently decide to implement, and permit others to implement, transfer, make it an equity for investment and collect the benefits derived from the property; 2) when needed, the state authorities may retain the right to use, develop the research results so as to make it effectively utilized and collect the derived benefits on free basis; 3) in case that the implementation institution is the owner of the intellectual property derived from scientific research programs, the government has the right to interfere with when the proprietary result is not transferred or the public application of the said result is affected on an unreasonable basis; 4) when transferring the intellectual property derived from scientific research programs by the implementation institution, the result accomplisher shall enjoy the priority right to the transference under equal conditions.  

10 Million for Innovation Fund

The Computer Hardware Expert Panel under the National 863 Program announced recently that Tide Group would finance High End Server Innovation Fund with RMB 10 million to support high performance computer R and D under the Program. The Fund will encourage innovations in high performance computer related configurations, algorithm, applied technologies and products, promoting the research, development and industrialization of domestically made high performance computers and nurturing talented people in the field.
Responsible for its financing, operation and management, Tide Group will take out at least RMB 1 million from the Fund annually to award in the name of 863 Program individuals or groups making outstanding contributions to advanced computer systems. This is the first award fund jointly established by the government and the enterprise and also the largest fund support from enterprises for government sponsored S and T development program.
Being the financing party, Tide Group will enjoy the priority right to purchase selected projects or prize winning project under the same condition.  

1551 Nature Conservation Zones in China

It is reported from the sources of the Chinese National Environmental Protection Agency, as of the end of 2001, Chin has basically established its nation wide nature protection network consisting of 1551 nature conservation zones, of which 171 are run by national authorities occupying an area of 12.9% of the nation's total territories. It is briefed that China's nature conservation activities have enjoyed ever increasing influence in the world with 21 nature conservation zones listed under the World Human and Biosphere Protection Network, 21 others being protected under the International Major Wetlands List and 3 others named as World Nature Heritages. Up to date, 70% of China's land based ecological systems and species, 80% of wild animals and 60% of higher plants, especially the majority of endangered animal and plant species under national priority protection have found their safe haven in these nature conservation zones.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

China's Advanced High Performance Server

On May 21, 2002, the Institute of Mathematics and System Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Legend Group jointly announced that Legend would be contracted to the research and development of high performance server listed under the National 973 Program. Legend will provide high performance computer system with a peak speed of trillion times per second for the Institute of Mathematics and System Science. The development shows that the IT enterprises of China have started to head for the research and development of high performance computers, which is of great importance to the product and engineering process of China's high performance computer industry.
LSSC-II to be delivered to the Chinese Academy of Sciences by the Legend Group is the first official product having a calculation speed exceeding trillion times per second in domestic high performance computer market. Being one of the priority projects under the National 973 Program, the said computer system will provide service for the institutions or individuals involved in the 973 Program in the country, especially for the applications in the fields of numerical weather forecasting, climate prediction model and oil prospecting modeling.  

Tissue Engineering Skin

Thanks to their one-decade long explorations, Chongqing Daping Hospital has recently worked out the so-called tissue engineering skins of strong resistance against infection and possessing epidermis and derma.
Prof. Wu Jinjin of Daping Hospital started the first try on hair follicle stem cells in his artificial skin study from 1992. He created hair follicle organ culturing model through externally reconstructing hair follicle by using tissue engineering method. Prof. Wu has for the first time induced the formation of hair follicle structures over the upper keratin of hair follicle by mixing dermic hair follicle in collagen gel. On the said basis, he established the culture model for live skin substitute and animal transplanting model. Prof. Wu, has developed polysaccharide gel preparation method on the basis of conventional gel method , and proportionally mixed collagen, vitriol chondroitin, polysaccharide and fiber making cells to form real skin substitutes. Transplanting with epidermis cells, he produced tissue engineering artificial skin.
The said artificial skin is extremely close to natural skin in terms of both tissue science and functions, showing finely divided epidermis and derma with certain elasticity, convenient for cutting and sewing at surgeon's will. The experiments on rabbit and rats have demonstrated perfect interfacing between an artificial skin of a size of 3 cm2 and the animal's natural skin after transplanting 3 months later with easily seen newly born blood vessels in the artificial skin.

Chinese Ox Cloned

Chinese Agriculture University and Beijing Gene S and T Co. Ltd. have in collaboration with Tangshan Lutai Farm in Hebei Province successfully cloned China's first fine species ox with the help of stem cell technology. Named Boeve, the cloned Chinese ox was born on April 27, 2002 in the farm. The core stem cells were collected from the ear skin tissue of a young Red Jinan cow's ovary of less than six months with the egg cells from other cow's ovary bred in the farm.
The analysis of 28 genetic markers under international standards has shown that Boeve's genetic matters are completely identical with those of the suppliers. However, Boeve has shown 18 different markers of the said 28 against its bearing mother, showing the different genus origins. Red Jinan Ox family is a fine local ox species on the brink of extinction. The said cloning makes conceiving Hesston Cow by Red Jinan Ox possible and creates an effective approach to preserving rare animal species and protecting biodiversity with stem cell technology.
Up to date, Chinese Agriculture University has conducted 5 rounds of stem cell cloning experiments and landed some technical progresses with the indicators such as cloned pregnancy, cell mixture and egg division reaching internationally advanced level. In the meanwhile, Chinese scientists have found that the employment of dedicated culture base may remarkably increase the number of blastaea, improving the survival rate of clone fetus and reducing the miscarriage.  

Robot Playing Cells

Harbin Polytechnic University has recently made the debut of their high accuracy robot able to perform at nanometer level. Designed for industrial applications, the robot is able to work on genes and perform operation on cells and chromosome in addition to its applications in the fields calling for high accuracy such as microelectronics and sophisticated processing. It is briefed that the robot has seen no apparent difference from their overseas counterparts in terms of technical performance but with both its functions and costs more competitive than that of the latter.
Under the support of the National 863 Program, Nankai University has also worked out its mini robot able to work on cells, embryos and chromosomes at micron level. It is reported that the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has used the robot to cut the plant chromosomes and some medical research institutes used the same robot to make their genetic modifications.  

New Environment Friendly Fuel

Beijing Tengfei Shidai Energy S and T Development Co. Ltd. has recently turned out environment friendly M19 compound fuel additive making technology. The said fuel is the compound of a number of petrochemical raw materials such as methanol, virgin gas, aromatic hydrocarbon, light hydrocarbon and additives with an additive volume of 19%. The fuel's technical performance has reached that of regular No. 90 and 93 gas. The existing gas station and vehicles can directly use the fuel without making any modification.
It is briefed that the new fuel has overcome four technical difficulties such as material solubility, decreased dynamics, water induced stratification and cold starting. In addition, China's rich coal resources have made massive methanol production possible and most other raw materials making methanol gas are the by-products of oil refinery and ethylene manufacturer. If the product can find extensive applications in the country, it may become the substitute for nearly 10 million tons of gas and produce additional output value of RMB 30 billion.

China Obtained Lung Cancer Serum Markers

On May 18, 2002, the Proteinome Institute of Higher Learning Institution made its official announcement that China had screened out 15 serum protein molecule markers with the help of protein chip technology. It is briefed that the finding has demonstrated China's world advanced progress achieved in the field of screening out disease related biological molecule markers with proteinome technology.
The scientists with China Proteinome Research Center under the Life Science Institute of Beijing Normal University made analysis to serum samples collected from 30 lung cancer patients and the same number of healthy people and worked out 15 lung cancer molecule markers in March 2002.

NEWS BRIEFS

China's 2nd Science and Technology Week Opened

2002 Science and Technology Week lifted its curtain on May 18 at China Century Square in Beijing. With a keynote "science and technology create the future", the S and T Shows have attracted massive visitors. Some of the objects carried aboard by the spacecraft Divine Boat III were displayed in addition to the debut of our home-made Mars explorer model. People enjoyed scientific lectures on different topics and watched S and T movies in Beijing Yuyuantan Park.
S and T activities sponsored by other provinces or cities were also applauded for their splendors. At the Popular Science Show staged at Beijing Ethnic Cultural Palace, volunteers dispatched by the Shanghai Municipality provided people with S and T related consultation while Sichuan Province had their events tailored for teenagers' scientific dreams. During the period, relevant governmental agencies organized Intensive S and T Diffusion Activities at Er'yuan County, Yunnan Province which stirred up a heat wave for learning and using science and technology among rural people. During the week from May 18 to 24, the whole country had seen 400 and more massive S and T activities organized under the theme.

North Asian Tropical Forest Positioning Station

Wuhan Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently decided to construct China's North Asian Tropical Forest Ecological Positioning Station over Mulan Mountain Area, a rare and endangered plant species conservation and migration base in the middle section of China.
It is briefed that Mulan Mountain is geologically connected to the southwest end of Dabieshan Mountain Range with only 80 km from the Wuhan Municipality and an altitude ranging from 200 to 600 meters above sea level. Occupying an area of about 22,000 mu(1mu=0.0667ha.), the Mountain's forest coverage reaches 95% with one half for virgin and the other half for secondary vegetation. The trees grown over the Mountain are mixed with North Asian tropical evergreens, hardwood and broadleaf in more than 100 families, 300 genus and over a thousand species. Mulan Mountain area represents a transition from North Asian Tropical to Temperate with such nature strongly reflected in its vegetation. In this context, Mulan Mountain area is ideal for studying North Asian tropical ecological system positioning at lower sea level and such studies will provide scientific evidence and technical support for the restoration of forest coverage and ecological environment control over North Asian tropical hilly areas.