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CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
N0.305 August 30,2002
IN THIS ISSUE
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*
Unveil the World Largest Canyon's Mystery
* High Tech
Protects World Heritages
* China's Super High Speed
Computer
* Progress on Nanometer Pharmaceuticals
* New Hepatitis Gene Found
* World Advanced
Cornea Preservation
* China's Weather Computer
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SPECIAL
ISSUES
Unveil the World Largest Canyon's
Mystery
The first full range grid geographic
investigation expedition over Yaluzangbu Grand Canyon has
recently seen successful completion. The mystery of the
world largest canyon will soon be unveiled before the
public.
Being the world largest canyon,
Yaluzangbu has a total length of 504.9 km and an average
depth over 5000m with the maximum depth at 6,009 m. Within
the Canyon stand numerous snow peaks middled with dense
forests and embracing rushing flowing rivers at its bottom.
The Canyon is also a rare kingdom for wild animals and
plants and of rich resources for both hydrology and tourism.
Geologically, the Canyon is a collided result between
Euro-Asia plate and India oceanic plate and the eastern
extension of Himalayas Mount is believed one of the key
missing links unveiling the stories behind the elevation of
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Canyon has become a hot spot
attracting the great attention of geologists all over the
world as well as one of limited geological blanks to be
filled in the country.
Chinese Geological
Survey Bureau decided in 1999 to launch a geochemical
investigation over the Canyon at 1: 200,000 scales. Its
two-and-odd year efforts have resulted in rich harvests from
the first full range grid investigation over the Canyon.
It is briefed that the investigation expedition
has measured water sediments over an area of 17,162 km2,
collected 3,954 samples from individual sites and 400 rock
measuring samples, investigated 13 abnormal sites, and
measured water sediments at a scale of 1:50,000 over an area
of 438 km2 with 973 samples. In addition, the investigation
team have made soil measurement over an area of 16.5 km2 and
sectional mapping 55.5 km2, analyzed 42 chemical elements
and oxides and worked out a hundred and more drawings and
charts. All these have contributed valuable basic
geochemical data to the basic geological study on the canyon
and evaluation of its potential resources and ecological
environment protection.
On the basis of
massive investigations and by marrying different
disciplinary techniques such as geochemistry, geology and
remote sensing based interpretation, researchers have made
in-depth study from different angles of the distribution of
regional chemical elements and their typical chemical
properties and worked out further identification indicators,
which provided evidence for studying and exploring the
Canyon's geological structures and its characteristics.
While harvesting new knowledge and findings about the
Canyon, the investigators made some mining investigations
over it and preliminarily selected 13 abnormal sites for
further investigation of their mining potentials. The
investigators have published their preliminary evaluation of
the mining resources and potentials over the Canyon and
provided evidence for the future mining efforts in the
region.
High Tech Protects World Heritages
Up to date 28 Chinese cultural or natural
relics have been included in the world heritage list, of
which 21 are cultural relics, 3 nature heritages and 4
combined with both natural and cultural heritages.
Leshan Giant Buddha Statue, the largest of its
kind in the world has a height of 71 m and is one of four
world heritages possessing both nature and culture beauty in
China. The Giant Buddha Statue experienced a number of
repairing in the previous century without satisfactory
result. In the late 1990s, Chinese scientists employed
modern means such as supersonic, sonar, geographic mapping,
electric resistance to detect the defects in the giant
statue and consolidated its endangered parts. On the basis
of the screening of 108 different pieces of rock samples,
scientists selected out the most desirable rock materials to
make plastic surgery on Buddha's face. Experts also
developed weathering and biological damage resistant
techniques to maintain the statue in addition to a well
designed tourism development and management system. It is
briefed that the systematic study will reveal the physical,
chemical and biological weathering mechanism of the rock
layers in Jurassic period, which will not only effectively
protect the Buddha statue but also raise the research level
of Chinese cultural and natural heritages to a new stage.
In 1998, the Beijing based Temple of Heaven
was honored in the world heritage list. Recent years have
witnessed enhanced high tech means in protecting and
managing the temple with remarkable result. The Chinese
Government has not only invested nearly RMB 1 million in
installing video monitoring and warning systems over the
major sites of the temple but also established electronic
tour guide system. Meanwhile, scientists have made
scientific researches on many issues important to protecting
the temple such as prevention of fire, lightening, pest and
weathering.
In addition, China used the latest
computer graphic and imagery techniques to restore or repair
the damaged caves in the world renowned Dunhuang Murals.
With the help of computer technology, archaeologists may
make the reproduction of any murals in the cave at random
selected scale while in the past it would take a dozen of
skilled workers one year to restore the cave.
Dunhuang Murals is listed as a world heritage
for its cultural and historical relics for as long as a
thousand years. Along with the establishment of database for
Dunhuang historical and cultural data, pictures and experts'
findings, experts who are studying Dunhuang culture now may
discuss and study their interested issues without physically
visiting the site, serving the goals for both research and
protection.
It is reported that many more
world heritages in China have found their high tech
protection heaven. For example, Jiuzhai Valley and the
Palace Museum have been equipped with atmosphere environment
monitors and experts may exercise all-round protection of
these world treasuries with the full knowledge of the air
quality over the sites.
RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
China's Super High Speed Computer
On August 29, 2002, LSSC-II Massive Computer
System independently developed by the Legend Group
demonstrated under the internationally acknowledged Linpack
test its super floating point computation capability for
1.027 trilliontimes per second. The proprietary
computer system is not only the first of its kind in the
country with its actual working speed reaching trillion
times/second but also ranks itself in the 24th place among
the world top 500 computers proud of their super calculation
speed announced twice a year.
It is reported
that being a major facility developed for large-scale
scientific computation studies and a basic research project
under the National 973 Program, Legend's trillion-level
computer system will physically sit at the Institute of
Mathematics and System Sciences under the Chinese Academy of
Sciences and enjoy applications of the scientists and
researchers engaged in the project. The system will find
extensive applications in the fields of fluid dynamics,
seismological data processing, oil reserve simulation,
climate model calculation, material science and DNA and
protein calculations. In addition, it can be employed to
make engineering calculation for many other areas such as
meteorology, hydrology, space vehicle, automobile and ship
designing, system simulation, new drug design and national
information network.
Progress on Nanometer
Pharmaceuticals
Nanometer Pharmacy Co. Ltd.
which is subordinated to Huazhong Science and Technology
University announced recently that it has so far developed
ten and odd invention patents for nanometer medicines. It is
briefed that the company has worked out numerous preliminary
findings such as nanometer drug carrying system, modern drug
digestion system and associated techniques. Of these
promising results, the ones such as R and D and associated
industrialization of new nanometer medicines and
applications of nanometer technologies in modern Chinese
traditional medicine preparation have won respective support
from the national program for addressing key scientific and
technological issues during the 10th Five-Year Plan
(2001-2005) period and from the 863 Program sponsored by the
Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.
It
is briefed that nanometer pharmaceutical industry is of
great development potentials and broad market perspectives
as it may bring about numerous new advances in medical
treatment. For example, people now may orally take the
medicines that needed to be injected in the past without
reducing the treatment effects. In addition, it may help to
extend drug's semi-decay period within human body and thus
reduce the frequency of taking medicines. Besides, it
improves the medical treatment of many diseases such as
hypertension and coronary heart disease that desire for
long-term or even permanent drug treatment. Thanks to the
solution to the positioning of drug carrying nanometer
elements, nanometer drugs may not only be able to reduce the
adverse effects of traditional drugs but also able to bus
some special drugs to the natural biological barriers so as
to treat the diseases that have to be dealt with through
surgeries.
So far the company has completed
the research and development of nanometer applications in
Chinese traditional medicine preparation and associated
systematic methods for pharmacological, effect and
toxicological evaluations. The company is now working on the
market development of the selected typical drugs.
New Hepatitis Gene Found
Thanks
to their painstaking efforts for two years, the researchers
of No. 302 Military Hospital have recently discovered the
new gene that responds to hepatitis viruses, the first of
its kind in the world. Chinese scientists have found that
the new gene on the 22nd human chromosome is able to work
together with the core protein of hepatitis C viruses. The
new finding has revealed the orientation for future
hepatitis studies and is a new breakthrough point for
developing new drugs treating hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver
cancer.
It is reported that the discovery of
the new gene constituted an arduous but important advance in
understanding the interactive mechanism between hepatitis
viruses and liver cells, the key links telling the survival
and reproduction of hepatitis viruses and hepatitis attack
mechanism after being affected by the viruses. Scientists
may on the basis of understanding the living habits of
hepatitis viruses work out treatment techniques and
medicines capable of interrupting the reproduction of
viruses and new drugs or medical therapies preventing
hepatitis attack from getting into chronic stage.
NEWS BRIEF
New Optic Imaging
System
Thanks to their 4-and-odd-year efforts,
the researchers of Zhejiang University have eventually
worked out the binary optical imaging technology for
hemispheric field. Applied with a new image-making system
that does not work on conventional optic imaging principle,
the new technology is working together with the binary
optics and hemispheric imaging system for a large field
view, which brings about not only lighter structures but
also clear pictures without focusing. When finding the
applications in the fields such as space and marine optics,
the system is able to obtain an image of 170-degree
horizontal field view without turning around its components.
The result has created a new perspective for optics studies
and is of broad application potentials in a variety of areas
such as aviation, national defense, medical treatment etc.
World Advanced Cornea Preservation
Xie Lixin, an academician of the Chinese
Academy of Engineering and Director of Shandong
Ophthalmology Institute has recently made the debut of his
cornea preservation agent that is able to keep the cornea's
activity for as long as one month, a leading level in the
world.
In 1981, Prof. Xie started his
development of cornea preservation agent and produced a
result able to keep the cornea's activity for 4 days. In
1997 he updated his cornea preservation record to 11 days
with repeatedly modified formula, reaching the then world
advanced level. Last year Prof. Xie applied organ
transplantation technique in preserving cornea and found an
improved preservation solution for a longer period of time.
He employed human umbilical cord serum and made the new
preservation agent not only avoid the possible accidental
infections caused by using animal serum but also reduce the
immune rejection. The new technique has greatly improved the
success rate of cornea transplantation and extended the
cornea preservation time to 30 days.
China's
Weather Computer
On August 22, 2002, China's
first proprietary computer system dedicated to
meteorological applications made its debut in Beijing.
It is reported that the said computer system
is solely developed for daily meteorological applications.
It can be simply operated by moving mouse over its graphic
interfaces. In the past, meteorological departments had to
print out 1000 and more cloud charts to work out a 48-hour
weather forecast and it would take several hours to make the
corresponding computation. Now with the help of this
wonderful electronic brain, it only takes 42.7 minutes for
weather men to work out the weather forecast for the same
time period. The system is able to transmit processed
results to weather departments in the form of data after
identifying two different colors green and red on weather
charts and allow clients to have timely and accurate weather
service.
Progress on High Yield Soybeans
The new high yield and protein soybean breed
called Zhonghuang 13 or Zhongzuo 975 developed by Wang
Lianzheng, a renowned soybean expert in the country,
recently passed experts' verification check at national
level and will soon expect its extensive diffusion over the
Yellow River and Huaihe River areas.
Zhonghuang 13 is a new soybean variety
featured with high yield, high protein, fine adaptability
and strong diseases resistance. Thanks to its improved
merits such as strong adaptability, falling and diseases
resistance and great yield increase potentials, the new
breed may make per mu yield reach 250 - 300 kilos.
Extensive Fossils Discovered in Yidu
Not long ago Chinese scientists discovered
ancient marine biological fossils over an area as large as
50 mu(1mu=0.0667ha.) in Yidu Township, Hubei Province. The
preliminary investigation has shown that there are 40 and
odd different marine biological fossils appearing on the
surface of the ground. There are countless fossils of marine
cave animals, chordates, shells and ocean floor plants. So
far scientists have only identified a few of them such as
nautilus and Metacrinus with most of others to be
identified.
It is briefed that the fossils are
not only great in number but also well preserved, which are
of important scientific values for studying ancient
biological belts, changes of ancient continents, changes
from ocean into continent, and the evolution, development
and disappearance of the ancient living creatures.
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