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CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and
Technology
People's Republic of China
N0.322 February 20,2003
IN THIS
ISSUE
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*
China Accelerates Biomedical Industrialization
*
China Is to Realize Its Manned Space Dream
* China
Took the Lead in Measuring the 4.3billion-year Zircon
* China's Rich Harvest for Nanometer Material Study
* New Hope for Petroleum Substitutes
* New
Genes for Lupus Discovered
* Progress on Hepatitis C
Testing
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SPECIAL
ISSUES
China Accelerates Biomedical
Industrialization
To implement the high tech
industrial development plan defined for the 10th Five-Year
Plan period (2001-2005) and accelerate the development of
China's biomedical engineering industry, the Chinese State
Development Planning Commission published a public notice on
Feb. 11, 2003 to organize the implementation of the special
project for biomedical engineering high tech
industrialization (hereafter referred as the special project
in brief).
The Notice presents the major
objectives of the special project as follows: accelerate the
industrialization of high tech findings and results, guide
and promote the sustainable, fast and healthy growth of
China's biomedical engineering industry, make China's
biomedical engineering products reach an industrial scale of
RMB 50 billion-70 billion in 2005 and maintaining an annual
growth of 10%-15%; accelerate industrial restructuring and
develop industrial patterns featured with integration,
intensiveness and specialization, promoting the
industrialization of ten series products in four major
categories and developing special industrial fields of
relative strength; enhance technical innovation and
conversion capacity by taking advantage of resource
advantages in production, learning and research, and jointly
establish national engineering research centers, developing
mechanism for sustainable industrial technical innovations
and improving the overall industrial level and its
international competitiveness.
The said
special project will be implemented in a phased manner
during the 10th Five-Year Plan period. Those who are
qualified may apply for establishing their dedicate
sub-projects under the State Development Planning Commission
through project sponsors such as governmental agencies under
the Chinese State Council, the planning authorities of
provinces, autonomous regions, major cities under direct
jurisdiction of the central government, major cities and
major enterprise groups on governmental planning list. The
application deadline for 2003 is April 30, 2003, and the
application deadline for 2004 and 2005 is October 30 of the
previous year.
China Is to Realize Its Manned
Space Dream
Not long ago a senior official
responsible for China's manned space program disclosed that
Shenzhou V spacecraft will be sent into space around
November 2003. The specific date of launch will have to be
determined upon the weather and the progress of the overall
testing of the spacecraft. In addition, Chinese scientists
will take into consideration other possible affecting
factors in the space such as ground temperature, solar
activities and the condition of space radiation when
scheduling astronauts' return. Up to date, Shenzhou V
spacecraft has entered the phase of general assembling and
testing. Most of the onboard scientific and research
instruments and equipment have passed the approval check.
It is briefed that on the basis of the
previous four trial flights, the spacecraft's seven major
sub-systems, namely the astronaut system, the application
system, the manned spacecraft system, the carrier rocket
system, the launching cabin, the measuring system and the
landing site have been greatly improved. The manned
spacecraft has been equipped with special security chair
able to help the astronaut stand up 4 to 5 excessive gravity
accelerated velocity in launching and the emergency return
system able to make its automatic return to the earth
landing site in the emergency situation.
At
present, 12 Chinese astronauts candidates are pressing ahead
with their tense training. Among them, three will be chosen
to embark on China's first manned space flight in Shenzhou
V. Chinese astronauts' space suites have been made ready.
Each space suite weighs about 10 kilograms. In addition, 20
and more China's home-made space food have reached the
required standards.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
China Took the Lead in
Measuring the 4.3billion-year Zircon
On Feb.
9, 2003, Mr. Liu Dunyi, Director of Beijing Ion Probe Center
disclosed that their Center had successfully measured the
only shelled zircon (a mineral with highly stable
performance) older than 4.3 billion years in the world with
its high sensitivity and high resolution ion probe spectrum.
The said zircon is the third of its kind in the world but
the only one keeping its growth shell. Chinese scientists
bombarded the sample with ion stream and measured the
obtained ion stream. The development will help scientists to
find a gold key to the mystery of the earth's first 500
million years after its formation.
The earth
has a history of 4.56 billion years. However, what happened
in the early 500 million years after its formation has
remained a mystery as people had found no continental
shelled rocks older than 4 billion years in the past. Before
the said development, the ancient zircon grains found by
Australian scientists are loosely imbedded in sedimentary
rocks that are much younger than the former.
The two zircon grains older than 4.3 billion
years thus far discovered in the world are broken and
wearing no growth shell and therefore cannot tell anything
related to the stories in the course from 4.3 billion years
ago to 3.6 billion years ago.
Scientists from
the U.S. and Australia worked together with the Center to
determine the age of 115 zircon grains brought from
Australia. Scientists found among them a zircon grain of
290x115microns in Z shape with 15-30 microns and aged
between 3.6-3.7 billion years. The zircon grain has kept its
growth shell with its core in bay shape. Testing has shown
that its core has an age of between 4.323 and 3.95 billion
years. Australian scientists finally confirmed the measuring
result after their testing in Australia's Curtin University
of Technology with the same instrument.
Major
Progress for Low Temperature Heat Conversion
On the basis of their 15-year research
efforts, Prof. Wu Yuyuan and his collaborators of Xi'an
Jiaotong University have successfully worked out the new
evaporation condensing technology and produced the world
first new evaporation condenser with the technology. In
collaboration with Hangzhou Oxygen Making Group, the
research team have achieved breakthrough proprietary
theoretical and technical findings in improving evaporating
and condensing based heating conversion ratio, reducing
condenser's size and weight and upgrading the performance,
security and reliability of the conversion system.
It is briefed that China's low temperature
heating conversion technology has explained for the first
time in the world two phased flow boiling heat transmission
phenomena and both theoretically and practically confirmed
the mechanism forming such phenomena. Chinese scientists
have firstly proposed the new mechanism and structure in
which narrow duct based air phase movement intensifies
circular evaporation boiling heat conversion. They
also created the new structure made up of multiple fluid
feeding channels, which remarkably enhanced the heat
transmission effect while effectively reducing the
temperature difference in heat transmission and greatly
enhancing heat transmission coefficient. In addition, they
created for the first time in the world new mechanism and
structures on intensified imbalanced condensing heat
transmission. The new evaporation condenser made on the said
new heat transmission mechanism has recorded a boiling heat
transmission coefficient 5 to 9 times higher than that of
the conventional evaporation condenser with its temperature
difference in heat transmission reaching the minimum among
its international counterparts and the reduced size and
weight by one third or more. The new technology has found an
effective technical solution to the key issues long unsolved
in traditional condensers both at home and abroad, and found
the fundamental solution to the problem of unevenly
distributed gas and liquid within the heat converter.
The said new evaporating condensing technology
is China's first proprietary new finding of international
leading level in China's 50-year history of oxygen making as
well as the key component for China's new generation oxygen
making device. The new technology has resulted in a reduced
cost by 39% but an increased oxygen output by 15%-20% per
unit and a saved electricity of 70,000 kwh per unit. The
oxygen-making device equipped with the new evaporation
condenser has been working smoothly for over 5 consecutive
years, a world record against other similar products both at
home and abroad in terms of its consecutive running.
China's Rich Harvest for Nanometer Material
Study
China National Natural Science
Foundation S&T Award has recently unveiled its winners
for 2002. The Study of Integrated Design, Structural System
and Performance of New Inorganic Compound co-chaired by Hong
Maochun, a research fellow of Fujian Institute of Matter
Structure under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Wu
Xintao, an academician of CAS were conferred with the Second
Prize of the Award. The findings have led to the successful
development of nanometer cage, nanometer tube and nanometer
thread in unique structures and new series of high polymeric
compound with semi-conductor properties.
Their
finding has constructed the metal nanometer cage of the
largest volume with its inner room exceeding 1000A3, capable
of containing different ions and small molecules. In the
meantime, it developed inorganic- organic nanometer tubes
and made them into the first metal organic nanometer tube
array in special clusters. In addition, the winners have
turned out different metal nanometer threads under the
principle of rational mixing. What makes the winners most
proud of is that these cages, tubes and threads are made up
of even nanometer grains.
The nanometer cages,
tubes and threads developed by Hong and Wu have shown
unusually special features and strength though they are
remaining at the experimental stage. Experts believe that
once developed into materials, they will be easily studied
for their structure, performance and utility.
It is disclosed that the paper presenting the
findings has been recommended by its authors' international
counterparts as a new direction for the study of the
electric property of inorganic high polymeric compounds.
Many renowned overseas scholars have shown great interest in
the development and are willing for cooperation.
New Hope for Petroleum Substitutes
The super high yield rape project chaired by
Dr. Chen Jinqing, a research fellow of Zhejiang Provincial
Academy of Agricultural Sciences has recently been selected
as one of the ten major S&T progresses voted by
academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the
Chinese Academy of Engineering. The study has worked out the
theoretical evidence for oriented crop seeds breeding, and
paved a new pilot approach for mankind to leading to
extracting matters from plants to be the substitute of
petroleum.
The study team headed by Chen
proposed the original scenario of base matter competition on
the basis of their in-depth study on organic synthesizing of
crop protein and fat. The team also for the first time in
the world worked out the technical lines for increasing rape
seeds oil content by using adverse PEP genes from the angle
of photosynthesis distribution, effectively blocking the
channels through which rape protein is formed so as to
increase the oil output according to the law of conservation
of energy. Under the support of the theory, the team
developed Chaoyou I and super-high oil and high erucic acid
Chaoyou II new varieties whose oil content reached 47% or
above, which became the rape varieties of the highest oil
content in the world cabbage family. The two new varieties
have also recorded the highest oil yield among their
existing genetically modified counterparts.
So
far the Chaoyou series rapes have completed their
environmental release and were approved by the Ministry of
Agriculture for experimental production. Both its invention
patent application at Chinese Intellectual Property Bureau
and PCT process have entered substantive examination. The
finding has been published in the U.S., Canada, France and
Germany and its utility, originality and innovation have
been confirmed.
Dr. Chen expressed that in
addition to Chaoyou rapes, his study team have achiewed
desired results in oriented seeds breeding for soybean,
sesame, sunflower and rice. Now the team is working hard at
increasing the effective medicinal compound of Chinese
traditional herbs and the oil content of rose essence.
New Genes for Lupus Discovered
On Feb. 15, 2003, US Journal of Immunology
published the findings of Dr. Sun Jian , a Chinese scholar,
telling the story that loss of transfer factor Aiolos has
led to the expression of human lupus erythematosus in rats.
The finding concludes that Aiolos gene is a candidate gene
that may cause some systematic lupus erythematosus.
Dr. Sun discovered that the rat that has lost
Aiolos gene would produce double-chain DNA antibody and
resulted in glumerulus nephritis caused by immune compound
sediments. Such phenomena are clinically important
benchmarks for diagnosing lupus erythematosus, and nephritis
based kidney crocking up is a major cause leading to the
death of lupus erythematosus patients.
The
finding has provided a new rat model for the further study
on systematic lupus erythematosus. As there is only 1%
difference between the genes of rats and human beings, the
rat-based study of human systematic lupus erythematosus is
of great importance to understanding the mechanism
triggering such a disease.
It is significant
to notice that Dr. Sun and his Swiss colleagues have mated
the rat that lost Aiolos with a rat that lost its OBF-1
transfer factor and discovered that their offsprings would
not produce similar self immunity and systematic lupus
erythematosus, which confirmed that OBF-1 depletion may
completely prevent the occurrence of lupus erythematosus.
This finding has created a new approach to treating
systematic lupus erythematosus. These findings have applied
for international patent rights.
Progress on
Hepatitis C Testing
Hepatitis C different
region antibody testing agent package jointly developed by
the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences under the Chinese
Academy of Military Medical Sciences and Beijing Jinweikai
Biomedicine S&T Co. Ltd. is one of the major medical
projects listed under the nation's 9th Five-Year Plan. The
said bioengineering product is created on the basis of
advantageous antigens screened out from the major epidemic
genes of hepatitis C prevailing in China through computer
simulation technology. Scientists worked out high quality
hepatitis C testing confirmation agent through restructuring
the genetic expressions on single HCV section. As
far as the field of bioengineering technology is concerned,
this result should belong to the category of high-tech new
products.
The trial applications at Beijing
Red Cross Blood Center and other hospitals have shown that
the testing agent package is of numerous merits such as time
saving, simple operation, and accurate and objective
readouts and its technical indicators having all reached or
even surpassed the level of similar products abroad.
In addition to its merit of low cost, the new
testing package is able to shorten the hepatitis C
confirmation time period by more than 30 days. Now the
testing package has been granted with Class II new drug
certificate and the approval series number for drug
production issued by the State Drug Administration.
Breakthroughs in Deep Fracturing Technology
Daqing Oil Field has mastered the deep natural
gas well fracturing technology, which has made China one of
the few countries in the world able to perform special rock
fracturing technology at an depth over 3,000 m and a
temperature of 170ā. China's super thick lava
fracturing technology has reached the internationally
advanced level.
Researchers of Daqing Oil
Drilling Engineering Institute have worked out the solutions
to a number of key technologies such as lava fracturing risk
prediction and control, fast interpretation of testing
fracturing, high temperature and pressure resistant
fracturing fluid and pillars. With the applications of these
technologies, Daqing Oil Field has found successful
fracturing in its three deep gas wells and six natural gas
reserves layers the year before. The maximum discharge of
fracturing fluid in Zhaoshen No. 10 well reached 7mī3
per minute and the fracturing was for the first time
successfully performed over rhyolite multi-fracture layers
in high angles. Researchers also found fracturing success in
super thick reserves of Xushen No. 1 well and Weishen No.5
well and obtained resistance free natural gas flow of 1.18
million m3 and 1.02 million m3
respectively.
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