211 replies to this topic

[harrypotter]

Martian, you are a very insecure Chinese. Thanks God many Chinese are not like you.

[marchpole]

Martian, you are a very insecure Chinese. Thanks God many Chinese are not like you.

What are you on about?

On the contrary, we need more people lile Martian, many more.

[Martian]

World’s first directly solar powered air conditioning system unveiled in China - SlashGear

"World’s first directly solar powered air conditioning system unveiled in China
By Shane McGlaun on Friday, Sep 17th 2010

In many southern states like Texas, we have the opposite problem that folks in northern states with respect to keeping our homes at a tolerable temperature. In the summer the heat reaches such high temperatures that, a home without air conditioning can literally kill people. In the north, the cold winters can kill. In Texas, the cost of running an AC system in the hot months of the summer can run hundreds of dollars for cooling alone.


China's VICOT solar air conditioning

A new directly solar powered air conditioning system has been unveiled in China that has the potential to not only make cooling a home green, but also save homeowners a huge amount of money at the same time. The machine is made by a company called Vicot.

The machine claims an 85% thermal cooling conversion efficiency and it can utilize solar energy at 27 times what a typical water-heating unit is able to do. The system allows for 24/7 cooling, heating, and a supply of hot water with natural gas used to supplement when needed. The company claims that in 3.5 years, the initial investment for the system can be recovered and in 6.7 years, the entire investment in the system can be recovered. The downside is that the cooling system appears to be too large for most residential home and price is unknown.

Via VPO (Membership required)"

[Martian]

China starts up first fourth-generation nuclear reactor


China Experimental Fast Reactor


China Experimental Fast Reactor control room
(Photo credits: China Institute of Atomic Energy)

China starts up first fourth generation nuclear reactor

"China starts up first fourth generation nuclear reactor
English.news.cn   2010-07-22 07:22:44

BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have succeeded in testing the country's first experimental fourth generation nuclear reactor, an expert said here on Wednesday.

The successful start up of the China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) marked a breakthrough in China's fourth generation nuclear technology, and made China the eighth country in the world to own the technology, Zhang Donghui, general manager of the CEFR project, told Xinhua over phone.

China's existing 11 nuclear power generating units all use second generation of nuclear power generation technology. The country started the construction of its first third-generation pressurized water reactors using AP1000 technologies developed by U.S.-based Westinghouse in 2009.

Compared with the third generation reactors which have an utility rate of uranium of just one percent, CEFR boasts an utility rate of more than 60 percent.

A new recycling technology called pyroprocessing is also used to close the fuel cycle by separating the unused fuel from most of the radioactive waste.

"The CEFR is safer, more environment-friendly, and more economic than its predecessors," Zhang said."

China Close to Firing Up a Fast Reactor « Carbon-Nation

"The Chinese Experimental Fast Reactor is so-named because the neutrons produced in its core are not ‘moderated’ with water like those that generate heat in nearly all commercial nuclear reactors. The faster neutrons can burn down nuclear waste and even generate new fuel, promising a solution to the thorny problem of waste storage as well as energy independence.

Fast reactors have proven difficult to operate because most rely on highly flammable liquid sodium to cool the reactor, but their promised benefits keep the hope alive."

China's Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) Program

"China's Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) Program

原子能快堆研究中心

China began research on fast neutron breeder reactors in the mid- and late-1960s. During its basic research period from 1965 to 1987, China's research focused on fast reactor technology such as fast reactor physics, thermodynamics, sodium technology and small sodium facility. During this initial period about 12 experimental setups were established, and one sodium loop was constructed. This included a 50 kg 235U zero-power neutron setup. On June 28 June 1970, this device reached criticality.  The engineering goal for the applied basic research phase of China's FBR program (1987-1993)  was to successfully construct a 65 MWt (25 MWe) experimental fast reactor.  Further developments were made in sodium technology, fuel and materials, fast reactor safety, and reactor design. A preliminary foundation for a fast reactor design was established, and approximately 20 experimental setups and sodium loops were built."

Nuclear Engineering International

"Nine years after construction began on the China Experimental Fast Reactor near Beijing, the reactor is close to start up. First criticality is expected before the end of 2009 and the reactor is due to be connected to the grid in June of 2010.
...
Ordering of components for CEFR began in 1997. The components were imported mainly from Russia, France, USA and UK, with imports from abroad sharing about 30% of the total systems and components budget."

China Experimental Fast Reactor Ready to Connect | Nuclear Energy Insider

"Following the start of operations for CEFR in June, the next milestone will be the commissioning of the so-called China Demonstration Fast Reactor (CDFR), planned for 2018, though initial work on the design was approved back in 2007.

The CDFR will be located in Fujian province on China’s busy and economically active eastern seaboard, opposite Taiwan.

Following CDFR, the plan is move towards a Chinese developed commercial fast reactor (CCFR), though no preliminary dates have been released for this final stage of the programme as yet – dates including 2028 and 2035 have been [mooted] but not confirmed.

Despite this, the press has reported (unconfirmed by the central government in Beijing but suggested by sources at the government-linked China Institute of Atomic Energy) that several CDFR plants should be in operation by 2030 and that China’s nuclear capacity will rise to 240-250GWe by 2050 with most of this produced by fast breeder reactors that will be introduced to replace China’s current stock of highly polluting, inefficient and costly coal fired power plants.

New record for nuclear, for China

If China does deliver the CEFR in June then it will be the only third power-generating fast reactor in operation globally."

[Note: This is an updated post with new high-resolution pictures from "ANR."]

[Martian]

SANY launches Asia's largest crawler crane


SANY Heavy Industry 1,180-ton crawler crane SCC11800.  "SCC11800 crawler crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 1180 tons; the equivalent of lifting six [fully-loaded] Boeing 747 aircraft" (e.g. 88 tons empty weight per Boeing 747).


November 27, 2009  The special-engineering company in Guangdong, with SANY SCC9000-type 900-ton crawler crane, successfully lifts the dome into place at Ningde Nuclear Power Station 1000MW nuclear power plant No. 1.

Sany launches Asia's largest crawler crane.(News roundup) | HighBeam Business: Arrive Prepared

"Sany launches Asia's largest crawler crane. (News roundup)
Article from: Cranes Today | March 1, 2008

SHANGHAI SANY SCIENCE & Technology Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sany Group, is launching a crawler crane with a maximum lifting capacity of 900t (and a maximum load-moment of 13,500 tm), which it claims is the largest-capacity crawler ever made by an Asian company.

In the past, large crawler cranes have only been available in China as imports, but over the last few years Chinese manufacturers have rolled out larger and larger crawlers. Shanghai Sany said its goal is "to fully replace the import of crawler cranes and enter the international market."

In superlift configuration, the crane can lift 900t at 7m radius (and out to 12m), and 800t to 17m. In this …"

SANY America - Heavy Equipment Manufacturing

"About SANY America

SANY Group Company Ltd. was established in 1989 in China. SANY is the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in China, and also one of the top 10 heavy equipment manufacturers in the world. SANY employs more than 30,000 employees worldwide.

SANY Heavy Industry, a core entity of SANY Group, is a publicly traded company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. SANY Group has had an annual growth rate of 50% for the past 10 years. Despite the impact of global economy recession in 2008 and 2009, SANY Group maintained a 50% annual growth rate and achieved $3 billion in sales revenue.

As one of the overseas subsidiaries of Sany Heavy Industry Company, Sany America Inc. was founded in 2006. This North American headquarters is located in Peachtree City, Georgia.

September 12, 2007 Sany Heavy Industry signed an investment deal with the State of Georgia. According to this agreement, Sany shall invest in 228 acres and over $100 million to create and establish a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility; constructing and engineering Sany products to be competitive both in price and quality for all of North America. We have broken ground on phase one of our facility and estimate completion in the second half of 2011. The first phase on construction will consist of a 360,000 square foot manufacturing facility as well as 3 stories of office area totaling 180,000 square feet. With an expected 300 employees by the third year, SANY America will focus on R&D, assembly, marketing and sales of our Truck Mounted Concrete Pumps, Stackers, Handlers, Motor Graders, Drilling Rigs, Excavators and Hydraulic Crawler Cranes which will begin production soon after the completion of our manufacturing facility.

With pride we integrate global resources to provide our customers with excellent equipment and services with unique advantages in cost, performance and localized manufacture, localized management and localized services. At Sany America, we are committed to the North American Market and bringing our customers a successful and outstanding product."

[Martian]

Reactor starts up at Ling Ao II


"Guangdong nuclear power station in foreground.  Ling Ao nuclear power station in background."


Workers begin loading fuel into the reactor core of unit 1 of Ling Ao Phase II on April 22, 2010.  A total of 157 fuel assemblies will be loaded into the reactor core in an operation expected to take five days to complete. The unit is scheduled to begin commercial operation by the end of 2010.  (Image: CGNPC)


"Nuclear plant trainees working at a simulator in a Chinese training center, which uses the latest in digital equipment."

Reactor starts up at Ling Ao II

"Reactor starts up at Ling Ao II
11 June 2010

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC) has celebrated the achievement of criticality at the first reactor of the Ling Ao II nuclear power plant.

Control rods were withdrawn from the core of the pressurized water reactor on 9 June, while concentrations of boron in the coolant water were reduced to create conditions for a sustained chain reaction. CGNPC then undertook 35 hours of zero-power tests that helped it verify the performance of the reactor core as well as instrumentation and monitoring systems.

The commissioning milestone of criticality comes before start-ups and shutdowns at low power, connection to the grid and a stepped increase to full power and commercial operation in around October. At that point it would become the 12th nuclear reactor to supply power to China and take total generating capacity close to 10 GWe.

The reactor is the third CPR-1000 to be built, representing a development from a French 900 MWe design imported in the 1990s: The CPR-1000 can deliver 1080 MWe and has a design life of 60 years.

CGPC noted the increased involvement of Chinese designers and suppliers, which reached about 50% with this unit. A subsequent reactor at Ling Ao II should have 70% local content - including the first Chinese-made pressure vessel. The figure is rising beyond 80% for the 12 other CPR-1000s currently under construction and beyond those another 13 are firmly planned which should use Chinese suppliers for over 90% of parts.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News"

[Note: Thank you to "ANR" for the post.]

[Magnus]

China launches remote sensing satellite



China launched Wednesday a remote sensing satellite that will also likely be used by the military. The Long March 2D lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:42 pm EDT Tuesday (0242 GMT, 10:42 Beijing time Wednesday) and placed the Yaogan 11 satellite into orbit. The satellite, according to official Chinese media, will be used for various scientific and earth observation applications, but is widely considered by Western observers to be a military reconnaissance satellite. The launch was the fifth by China in less than two months.

[Martian]

Hydro superpower China has "the world's largest hydropower capacity"


"The 958 ft. (or 292m) Xiaowan dam is the world's highest hyperbolic arch dam; as high as the Eiffel Tower."  (Xinhua Photo)

China boosts, boasts hydroelectric power - UPI.com

"China boosts, boasts hydroelectric power
Published: Aug. 30, 2010 at 9:24 PM

BEIJING, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- China, whose latest hydropower station came on line last week, has laid claim to having the world's largest hydropower capacity, authorities said.

The inauguration of the Xiaowan hydropower station in China's southwest Yunnan province was described by Lui Qi, deputy director of the country's National Energy Administration, as a "great leap forward," China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The 700,000-kilowatt Xiaowan station is expected to increase China's installed hydropower capacity to 200 million kilowatts, Xinhua said. The country's second-largest hydropower project, which cost $5.86 billion, can produce 19 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year, officials said.

The station will receive water from the Xiaowan dam, the world's tallest double-arch dam with a storage capacity of almost 530 billion cubic feet.

The Xiaowan is the fourth dam the Chinese have built on the upper part of the Mekong River, which the Chinese call the Lancang, Inter Press Service reported."

[Note: Thank you to "ANR" for the post.]

[Martian]

Fountain Relocates $1 billion dollar Manufacturing Plant to Yangtze River Delta


Fountain Set is the world’s-largest circular-knitted fabric manufacturer.

Fountain Relocates Manufacturing Plant to Yangtze River Delta - Business China | Finance, Economics, Business and Industry news from China

"Fountain Relocates Manufacturing Plant to Yangtze River Delta
30 Jul 2010

July 30, Fountain Set (Holdings) Ltd. (Fountain, 00420.HK), the world's largest circular knitted fabrics manufacturer, plans to gradually relocate its manufacturing plant from the Pearl River Delta to the Yangtze River Delta, which has lower labor costs and looser environmental protection regulations, China Business News reported Friday.

The company’s $1 billion dollar manufacturing plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu province will start trial production in the near future, the report said.

Monthly production capacity at the plant will reach two million pounds by the end of this year, and is expected to rise to 10 million tons per month in the near future, the report said.

“(The) labor market in the Yangtze River Delta is more stable compared to Guangdong province. Meanwhile, our new plant is around four hours drive from Shanghai. The sophisticated transport system in the province gives us a natural advantage in our logistics operations,” Zheng Hui Xian, the company’s media manager, was quoted as saying in the report.

Zheng told the paper the support of the local government was the key reason behind the move.

“The Yancheng Municipal government has offered various preferential policies to us. As a textile-dyeing manufacturer, water and power supplies are crucial to our operations. And of course, the government gave us preferential policies on water sewage quotas,” Zheng said.

In recent years, Guangdong-based manufacturers have begun relocating to inner-China to avoid stricter environmental regulations imposed by the local government."

[Note: Thank you to "ANR" for the post.]

[Martian]

Zhuji Fuwei computerized embroidering machines

It appears that embroidery machines are no longer strictly mechanical devices.  The modern versions are also highly computerized.  That is a surprise.  Semiconductor chips have spread to the textile industry.


Zhuji Fuwei computerized embroidering machines

China Embroidery Machine,Computerized Embroidery Machine,Multi-Head Embroidery Machine,Sequin Embroidery Machine,Sequins Embroidery Machine,Cording Embroidery Machine Manufacturer - Zhuji Fuwei Embroidery Machine Factory

"Zhuji Fuwei Embroidery Machine Factory is located at the Huandong Development Area of Zhuji. It's a high-tech enterprise that specially manufactures computerized embroidering machines and integrates research. The factory occupies 5,000 square meters and has over 100 employees and its annual production capacity is 1,000 sets of computer embroidering machines.

Our enterprise has many patents and all of our products have complete company-owned intellectual property. Many of our new products have passed the provincial-level authentication and won municipal-level Prize for Science & Technology Progress and been listed as the state level Torch Program projects. Our company implements strict product quality management actively and introduces advanced international management concepts.

Our company has a team of excellent product research and development professionals and medium- and high-level managers. Our tenet is "technology innovation high quality and efficiency." We attach the greatest importance to customers and continuous improvement of our products. Our service principle is "credible service and quality first." Through surefooted and industrious work, we may build a more splendid future together with new and old friends at home and abroad!"

[Martian]

China's first computer-controlled hydroponics greenhouse seedling enterprise


An employee inspects lettuce plants growing under artificial light and in a liquid solution (i.e. hydroponics) at China's first computer-controlled greenhouse seedling factory located on the outskirts of Beijing on August 27, 2010. The factory will supply 15 million pesticide-free vegetable, fruit and flower seedlings per year to domestic growers; China's Xinhua News Agency reported. (REUTERS/David Gray)

[Martian]

Breaking News! China's 380 km/h CRH 380B-6401L (L means 16-car train) is ready.

Breaking News! The first CRH 380B and CRH 380B-6401L (L means 16-car train) have been completed at CNR Tangshan factory on September 21st!


The picture caption made a mistake on the train number.  The following video clearly shows the train number is CRH 380B-6401L.

Here is a 12-minute video of the official ceremony.
???? - ?? - ???? - ????

CRH 380A: Train Nos. 6001-6140 (140 train sets in total) manufactured by CSR Sifang Factory; 7 train sets completed by September 26th.

CRH 380B: Train Nos. 6201-6310 (110 train sets in total) manufactured by CNR Changchun Factory.

CRH 380B: Train Nos. 6401-6470 (70 train sets in total) manufactured by CNR Tangshan Factory; 3 train sets completed by September 21st.

CRH 380C: Train Nos. 6601-6680 (80 train sets in total) manufactured by BST.


CRH 380A-6002 trial run at Yuyao station for Huhang PDL on September 24th.


China CRH 380


China CRH 380


A different CRH 380 trial run on Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR.

[Note: Thank you to "greenlion" for the post and "Carnivore" for the last picture.]

[Martian]

China's Chang'e-2 to scout Moon in early October for lunar rover landing sites


Chang'e-2 is part of China's three-stage lunar program.


Chang'e-2 lunar exploration satellite model


In Taoism, Chang'e is the Goddess of the Moon.

China's Chang'e-2 to scout moon in later half of 2010 for lunar rover landing sites - People's Daily Online

"China's Chang'e-2 to scout moon in latter half of 2010 for lunar rover landing sites
14:49, September 01, 2010

China's second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, will be launched in the latter half of the year, said Sun Jiadong, a top space scientist and the winner of China's State Supreme Science and Technology Award, on Tuesday.

Sun said that Chang'e-2, which is named after the Chinese goddess of the moon, will photograph landing sites for the country's lunar lander and rover.

Sun also said that China's manned lunar landing project is in progress now. He said that the manned lunar landing is an important exploration for all human beings and China cannot miss it.

The timing of China's manned lunar landing is also being discussed now, he said.

Sun is one of the major scientists planning China's lunar exploration and was nominated as the chief designer of the first stage of China's lunar orbiter project.

He said that China's lunar exploration program mission will progress in three stages. Chang'e-1 ended its 16-month mission on March 1, 2009 when it [intentionally] impacted the Moon's surface; marking the completion of the first stage. Chang'e-2 will make preparations for the second stage that will send China's first lunar lander and rover to the Moon to perform close observations on the Moon surface. During the third stage, China will send a spacecraft to the Moon to collect samples and return.

By Zhao Chenyan, People's Daily Online"

Launch of Chang'e-2 Satellite Eyed in Early Oct.

"Launch of Chang'e-2 Satellite Eyed in Early Oct.
2010-09-25 22:10:00     CRIENGLISH.com      Web Editor: Zhang Xu

Astronauts and experts from China's manned spaceflight project told students in east China's Shandong Province on Wednesday that the Chang'e-2 lunar probe is expected to be launched in early October, Qilu Evening News reports.

Six Chinese astronauts participated in an interactive event with local youths in Tengzhou, Zaozhuang, including Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong, Nie Haisheng, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming, and Jing Haipeng. All of them have previously flown on manned space flights.

The Chang'e-2 satellite has been sent to the Xichang Satellite Launch Center and will be ready by the upcoming launch date; the newspaper learned from the event on September 22nd.

The report tentatively gave the launch date as October 1st, but did not elaborate.

The main tasks of the Chang'e-2 are to perform tests of the key technologies that will be used for the Chang'e-3's lunar landing and record images of the Chang'e-3's landing area with a high-resolution stereo camera.

The experts said the Chang'e-2 will reach lunar orbit within 120 hours; much faster than the Chang'e-1 which changed its orbital direction four times and circled the Earth for seven days.

Moreover, the Chang'e-2 will orbit 100 kilometers closer to the Moon than its predecessor which was 200 kilometers from the Moon's surface.

The Chang'e-1 was launched in October 2007 as part of China's ambitious three-stage moon mission. Named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the Moon, the Chang'e-1 was a milestone in the Chinese space program."

[Martian]

Outer space tracking of Chang'e-2


China's lunar exploration program

With the imminent launch of Chang'e-2, which is most likely on China's National Day on October 1st, it is a propitious time to examine the equipment used to track Chang'e-2 in outer space.  We will look at the control center in Beijing, land-based radio telescopes on continental China, and sea-based Yuan Wangs for telemetry, tracking, and command of outer space probes.

BERNAMA - China To Blast Off Second Lunar Probe On National Day

"China To Blast Off Second Lunar Probe On National Day
September 28, 2010 20:54 PM
By Vincent Low

BEIJING, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- China's second lunar probe, the Chang'e-2, has completed its final pre-launch test and is ready to blast off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre on National Day, or by latest, early next week."


Beijing Space Command Center
"China's first lunar orbiter Chang'e I and technical graphs are shown on the screen at the Beijing Space Command and Control Center, which is conducting real-time monitoring of the launch on October 24, 2007. [Xinhua]"


"Experts at the Beijing Space Command and Control Center are conducting real-time monitoring of the launch on October 24, 2007. [Xinhua]"

[Martian]

China completed network of four enormous radio telescopes in 2006 for Chang'e-1


A radio telescope, used for monitoring China's first moon orbiter Chang'e-1, is seen at the Urumqi observatory in Urumqi (i.e. capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) on Oct. 24, 2007. Observatories in Shanghai, Beijing, Kunming and Urumqi monitored the orbiter after it launched at 6:05 p.m. on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Wang Fei)

People's Daily Online -- China completes radio telescope for moon-probe project

"China completes radio telescope for moon-probe project
UPDATED: 08:06, April 04, 2006

Chinese scientists on Monday completed the main part of a high-tech radio telescope which will serve China's ambitious moon-probe project scheduled for launch in 2007.

The 45-meter tall telescope weighs 400 tons and measures 40 meters in diameter for the antenna. It's located in southwest China's Yunnan Province and is the country's second-largest radio telescope. The largest is being built in Beijing.

According to Li Yan, director of Yunnan Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with two radio telescopes already set up in Shanghai and northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China now has four large radio telescopes which are 2,000 to 3,000 kilometers apart from each other.

The telescopes will form a comprehensive earth-based research and survey network that will be able to detect, track and retrieve data sent back from China's first moon-orbiting satellite, Li said.

Located on top of the 2000-meter-tall Mountain Phoenix in an eastern suburb of Kunming, capital city of Yunnan Province, the newest radio telescope is "superbly well positioned", the scientist said.

The construction of the telescope started in August last year and will be completely installed and tested by June.

Source: Xinhua"

China's lunar probe in good condition

"The BACC (i.e. Beijing Aerospace Control Center) said the VLBI transponder on board the satellite has started operation in the early hours on Saturday and China's four ground monitoring stations, with the application of VLBI (or "Very Long Baseline Interferometry") technology, have been monitoring Chang'e-1.

The VLBI technology helps to reduce the time needed for orbit determination, according to Ji."

[Martian]

China made 8 breakthroughs in space telemetry, tracking, and control


"Yuanwang 2 in Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand on October 27, 2005. The ship was resupplying after being at sea to support the Shenzhou 6 spaceflight."

ANJA A THIRD EYE: Yuanwang Space Tracking Ships

"Yuanwang 5 has a full displacement of 25,000 tonnes and is equipped with a whole range of space tracking and communications systems, including an S-band and C-band tracking and control system; and a C-band pulse radar. The ship is capable of tracking space launch vehicles, satellites, manned spacecraft, and other types of spacecraft; as well as real-time voice/image communication and data exchange with the land-based control centre.

Yuanwang 5 features a fibre optics-based shipboard network for data sharing and exchange between different sub-systems onboard. The living conditions for the crew have also been significantly improved compared to previous Yuanwang space tracking ships. According to the Chinese media report, Yuanwang 6 differs from Yuanwang 5 in that it has a large mission control hall occupying two decks. The ship is expected to be commissioned in 2008.

Mission Equipment

The ships are fitted with C- and S-band monopulse tracking radar, Cinetheodolite laser ranging and tracking system, velocimetry system, and onboard computers to track and control the spacecraft. They use a combination of inertial, satellite, and stellar for accurate navigation and positioning. Communications include HF, ULF, UHF, and SATCOM, in the form of secured telephone, radio, fax and data link. The ships are also equipped with a range of weather forecasting equipments including weather radar, sonde, weather balloon, and meteorological satellite image receiving terminal."

China made 8 breakthroughs in space telemetry, tracking, control - People's Daily Online

"China made 8 breakthroughs in space telemetry, tracking, and control
17:10, September 14, 2010

In the course of 50 years of development, China's space telemetry, tracking and control technology has evolved from scratch; formed an unique, multi-functional and air-ground space telemetry, tracking and control system; accomplished all space launch, telemetry, tracking and control tasks and has achieved eight key breakthroughs, according to the ceremony for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Spacecraft Telemetry, Tracking and Control Committee under Chinese Society of Astronautics as well as the 25th Space Telemetry, Tracking and Control Academic Annual Meeting held in Beijing on Sept. 13th.

The first breakthrough is the success in independent research and development of large optical and radio measurement instruments.

The second is the further leap forward in systematic planning, design and construction of missile and space telemetry, tracking and control networks that have focused on the three tasks of long-range missile whole-course flight tests, submarine-to-ground missile flight tests and geostationary communications satellite launch tests. The networks cover almost all types of missiles and satellites and have become part of China's comprehensive telemetry, tracking and control facilities.

Third, the scope of China's Space Tracking, Telemetry and Command (TT&C) network has expanded from land to oceans, which is marked by the establishment of the Yuanwang Fleet consisting of six surveying vessels.

Fourth, China independently developed several crucial technologies and built the communications network for manned space flights, which is a major breakthrough in the country's aerospace research.

Fifth, based on the establishment and utilization of the Beidou Satellite Navigation System and the Space-based TT&C System, the scope of China's tracking, telemetry and control network has extended from the Earth to outer space.

Sixth, the successful completion of the Chang'e-1 mission, which is part of China's lunar exploration program, represents a major breakthrough in the country's tracking, telemetry and control capabilities in deep space.

Seventh, China helped the International Maritime Satellite Organization build a satellite monitoring station in Beijing. This was the first time that China's space tracking, telemetry and control technologies were applied in the international market and it has promoted China's cooperation with foreign countries and international organizations in satellite monitoring.

Eighth, China successfully exported a ground-control station to Nigeria, which was China's first export of an entire ground-control station. It has laid a good foundation for China's space tracking, telemetry and control technologies to occupy a prominent position on the international market.

By Zhao Chenyan, People's Daily Online"

[Martian]

Chinese Researchers Make Cloned Human Blastocysts


"(Clockwise from left) Three-, 5-, and 6-day-old cloned blastocysts."

"At the press release, leader of the research team, Li Jian-yuan explained the newly invented cloning technology is expected to facilitate medical treatment for patients like the sufferers of Parkinson disease."

http://cellnews-blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/...oned-human.html

"Chinese Researchers Make Cloned Human Blastocysts
Tuesday, 3 February 2009

SCNT Using an Alternative Enucleation Method for Patient-specific Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs)
Tuesday, 03 February 2009

China Daily report that a research team at the Shandong Stem Cell Engineering Research Center  has successfully cloned five human blastulas from 135 eggs on experiment, according to a press conference jointly held by the research centre and Yantai Procreation Medicine Center on Monday. The Yantai Region is located north-central on the Shandong Peninsula, south of the Bohai Sea.

Of the five cloned human blastulas, four were from skin fibroblasts of healthy donors while the other one was from lymphocytes of patients with Parkinson disease.

At the press release, leader of the research team, Li Jian-yuan explained the newly invented cloning technology is expected to facilitate medical treatment for patients like the sufferers of Parkinson disease.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was used to generate patient-specific embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from blastocysts cloned by nuclear transfer (ntESCs). In this study, a total of 135 oocytes were obtained from 12 healthy donors (30–35 years). Human oocytes, obtained within 2 h following aspiration, were enucleated and human fibroblasts or lymphocytes were used to construct the SCNT embryos.

The web edition of the science journal "Cloning and Stem Cells" reported the Chinese scientific achievement on January 27, 2009.

Reference:
Human Embryos Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Using an Alternative Enucleation Approach
Jianyuan Li, Xuexia Liu, Haiyan Wang, Shouxin Zhang, Fujun Liu, Xuebo Wang, Yanwei Wang. Cloning and Stem Cells. ahead of print. doi:10.1089/clo.2008.0041"

[Martian]

China gets success in cloning world's first rabbit

http://www.scienceahead.com/entry/china-ge...s-first-rabbit/

"China gets success in cloning world's first rabbit
Parul G | Jul 24 2007



After research of more than three decades in cloning and producing the first cloned animal, a goat in 2000, China has once again been successful in cloning world’s first rabbit. The Chinese scientists have produced the cloned female rabbit biologically, using the somatic cells of a rabbit fetus.

Dr. Li Shangang who conducted the experiment of rabbit cloning is a researcher at the National Center for Molecular Genetics and Animal Breeding of the Beijing Institute of Animal Sciences.

Dr. Li and his team chose the back skin cells of a 20-day old rabbit embryo. They cultured these cells into fibroblast cell lines. Then these fibroblast cells (donor cells) were fused with an enucleated rabbit’s oocyte (immature egg cell of animal ovary) through electric pulse. Thus cloned embroys were produced which were later transferred into the rabbit’s oviduct. The female clone rabbit was born after a month-long normal pregnancy on February 12 and had weighed 60 grams at birth. Now the rabbit is doing well and is at an animal center in Shanghai.

The first animal to be cloned using somatic cells was the sheep - Dolly in 1996. Since then many other animals as mice, cattle and ###### have been cloned by scientists.

In 2002, French scientists too had claimed to produce the world’s first cloned rabbit but that was done by using cells from an adult female rabbit. However, the Chinese rabbit is the world’s first clone rabbit that has used “fibroblast” cells from a fetal rabbit.

On the achievement, Wang Hongguang, director of the China Center for Biotechnology Development affiliated to the Ministry of Science and Technology said:

    Chinese cloning research has reached a global advanced level. We can reproduce almost all the cloning results in top-class laboratories around the world. However, we are lacking in original creations such as the newly cloned rabbit.

Rabbits are considered significant research tools because of their shorter gestation period than other big mammals such as sheep or cows.

Malaysia has also turned to cloning and is in efforts to clone some of its threatened leatherback turtles to save them from extinction.

Source: Reuters"


"China's Liberation Daily reports today that the world's first transgenic-cloned rabbit is now three months old and living happily in Shanghai. The rabbit was cloned from the skin cells of a 20-day-old embryo, which were then implanted into the oviduct of a female rabbit."
(The photo shows the cloned rabbit (left) and her surrogate mother.
Posted by Xujun Eberlein)

http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/236263.htm

"As rabbits share similar genes with humans, the genetically-modified cloned rabbit is expected to be used for research into cardiovascular and eye diseases as well as some genetic ailments, said Dr. Li Shangang with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences."

[Martian]

Glowing cloned ###### passes on the trait


"The piglets were displayed earlier this week. When irradiated under ultraviolet radiation, the green fluorescence protein the piglets possess is visible. (China Daily via Reuters)"

http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-01-10/news...es-special-######

"Glowing cloned ###### passes on the trait
Inherited altered genes could lead to breeding organs for humans, researchers say
January 10, 2008|By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press


A researcher holds two piglets born to a cloned ###### under ultraviolet light to show their inherited green glow. Associated Press photo
Credit: Associated Press

Beijing - — A cloned ###### whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of ###### for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported.

The glowing piglets' birth proves transgenic ###### are fertile and able to pass on their engineered traits to their offspring, according to Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program at Northeast Agricultural University.

"Continued development of this technology can be applied to ... the production of special ###### for the production of human organs for transplant," Liu said in a news release posted Tuesday on the university's Web site.

Calls to the university seeking comment Wednesday were not answered.

The piglets' mother was one of three ###### born with the trait in December 2006 after ###### embryos were injected with fluorescent green protein. Two of the 11 piglets glow fluorescent green from their snout, trotters and tongue under ultraviolet light, the university said.

Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, said the technology "to genetically manipulate ###### in this way would be very valuable."

Lovell-Badge had not seen the research from China's cloned ###### and could not comment on its credibility. He said, however, that organs from genetically altered ###### would potentially solve some of the problems of rejected organs in transplant operations.

He said the presence of the green protein would allow genetically modified cells to be tracked if they were transplanted into a human. The fact that the ######'s offspring also appeared to have the green genes would indicate that the genetic modification had successfully penetrated every cell, Lovell-Badge added.

But he said much more research and further trials - both in animals and in humans - would be necessary before the benefits of the technology could be seen.

Other genetically modified ###### have been created before, including by Scotland's Roslin Institute, but few results have been published.

Tokyo's Meiji University last year successfully cloned a transgenic ###### that carries the genes for human diabetes, while South Korean scientists cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays."

[Martian]

Superconductivity: One layer is enough

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

"Superconductivity Found in One-Atomic-Layer

Not long ago, a study, led by XUE Qikun, CHEN Xi, and JIA Jinfeng at Tsinghua University Dept. of Physics, in collaboration with a team headed by MA Xucun with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Physics, Prof. WANG Yayu, Tsinghua University Dept. of Physics, Prof. LIN Haiqing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Prof. LIU Ying of the Pennsylvania State University Department of Physics and Material Research Institute, has found superconductivity in one-atomic-layer metal films grown on Si substrates. One-atomic-layer is the ultimate thickness a practical material can reach. The finding, published in the recent online issue of Nature Physics, renders a solution to the question concerning how thin a superconductor can be."

Superconductivity: One layer is enough : featured highlight : NPG Asia Materials

"Superconductivity: One layer is enough
NPG Asia Materials featured highlight | doi:10.1038/asiamat.2010.78
Published online 24 May 2010

Superconductivity has been observed in films as thin as one atomic layer.


Fig. 1: Scanning tunneling microscope image of a single atomic layer of lead (in the striped incommensurate phase) on silicon (image size is 50 nm × 50 nm).

Superconductivity is a fascinating phenomenon. The signatures of superconductivity, such as its vanishing electrical resistance and expulsion of a magnetic field, as well as its potential for diverse applications, have intrigued scientists for decades.

Nowadays, as low temperature ‘standard’ superconductors become better understood, attention has begun to focus on complex high-temperature superconductors. It is accepted that in these materials, lattice vibrations (referred to as phonons) mediate the formation of electron pairs, which is essential for the emergence of a superconducting phase. However, despite this recent trend in research, standard superconductors can still present intriguing results, as shown by Qi-Kun Xue and colleagues who have demonstrated that superconductivity can be observed even in single atomic layers of lead and indium1.

Two-dimensional (2D) superconductivity is a rather fragile state of matter. It is therefore natural to wonder what is the minimum thickness needed to observe this phenomenon, or whether a single layer of ordered metal atoms, which represents the ultimate 2D limit of a crystalline film, could be superconducting. The team studied single-layer films of lead (Fig. 1) and indium grown on Si(111). Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy at high energy resolution, they observed a region of zero conductance for low applied voltage, terminated on each side by sharp peaks — the signature of superconductivity. Furthermore, the films exhibited vortices when a magnetic field was applied, confirming the existence of a superconducting phase.

Through angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the team found that for each metal the electron–phonon coupling was greatly enhanced with respect to the bulk case. This implies that the covalent silicon–metal bonding has a strong role in providing the mechanism for electron pairing, while the metal itself mainly provides the necessary carriers.

“Our work sheds new light on the mechanism of superconductivity at reduced dimensionality, especially the crucial role played by the interface,” says Xue. “The tunable atomic and electronic structures in these well-defined 2D materials provide an ideal platform for testing various theoretical models when dealing with 2D many-body physics. In addition, the exploration of one-atomic-layer superconductors grown on silicon may also help to develop superconducting electronic circuits compatible with silicon technology.”

Reference

   1. Zhang, T.,1,2 Cheng, P.,1 Li, W.-J.,2 Sun, Y.-J.,1 Wang, G.,1 Zhu, X.-G.,1 He, K.,2 Wang, L.,2 Ma, X.,2 Chen, X.,1* Wang, Y.,1 Liu, Y.,3 Lin, H.-Q.,4 Jia, J.-F.1 & Xue, Q.-K.1,2* Superconductivity in one-atomic-layer metal films grown on Si(111). Nature Phys. 6, 104 (2010). | article

Author affiliation

1. Key Lab for Atomic and Molecular Nanoscience, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
3. Department of Physics and Material Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
4. Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
*Email: xc@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

This research highlight has been approved by the author of the original article and all empirical data contained within has been provided by said author."

[Martian]

Nanomechanics: Size matters

Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

"Strong Crystal Size Effects on Deformation Twinning

Under the guidance of her tutor, YU Qian, a post-graduate at Xi’an Jiaotong University State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, in collaboration with Prof. LI JU with University of Pennsylvania Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Dr. HUANG Xiaoxu of Technical University of Denmark Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, made an in-depth study of the deformation twinning behavior of nano-sized metal crystals and its impact on the dynamic performance of the materials. YU and coworkers found that the size of monocrystals is of a strong effect on the dynamic performance. The finding, published in the recent issue of journal Nature, provides a meaningful insight of materials performance evaluation and design; especially on material processing at the nano-scale utilizing the strong crystal size effect."

Nanomechanics: Size matters : research highlight : NPG Asia Materials

"Nanomechanics: Size matters
NPG Asia Materials research highlight | doi:10.1038/asiamat.2010.56
Published online 12 April 2010

The deformation mechanism of single-crystal nanopillars has been shown to change dramatically at dimensions below one micrometer.


Fig. 1: A scanning electron microscopy image of a nanopillar made from a single-crystal of titanium after it has been inelastically deformed.

Reproduced from Ref. 1 © J. Sun, J. Li

As electronic devices continue to shrink in size, it is becoming increasingly important to understand mechanical deformation at microscopic scales. Inelastic deformation — a type of deformation that persists even after an applied force is removed — can lead to device failure and occur primarily through two mechanisms: deformation twinning and ordinary dislocation plasticity. The mechanism that is activated depends on whether deformations across the sample are correlated.

The origins of deformation twinning are poorly understood, as is the dependence of this mechanism on size. Now, a team of scientists from China, the US and Denmark, led by Jun Sun at Xi’an Jiaotong University and Ju Li at the University of Pennsylvania, have demonstrated that deformation twinning is completely suppressed in nanocrystals below a critical size[1].

The researchers studied the deformation of pillars made from a single crystal of a titanium alloy using compression tests. Some of the tests were conducted while the sample was being observed by transmission electron microscopy. They found that when the pillars had a diameter of less than one micrometer, deformation twinning no longer occurred. This is in sharp contrast with bulk deformation of the same alloy, which is dominated by deformation twinning, which, it turns out, is more dependent on size than the action of dislocation plasticity.

Sun, Li and their colleagues consider this strong dependence on size to arise from the collective nature of deformation twinning. Correlated deformations occur when strongly coupled defects catalyze the slip of adjacent crystal planes past one another. As the pillar diameter is reduced, defect coupling and twinning are both suppressed, leaving dislocation plasticity as the dominant mechanism for sufficiently small samples.

“The research is in its early stages,” Sun says. “It is still quite fundamental, and the connection to new technologies cannot be known with certainty at the moment.” At the same time, however, micrometer-sized pillars are commonly encountered in a range of applications, suggesting that these findings could be relevant to many devices, including micro- and nano-electromechanical systems. Future work will involve the use of high-quality electron microscopy to better understand how crystal planes slip past each other.

Reference

   1. Yu, Q.,1 Shan, Z.-W.,1,2 Li, J.,3 Huang, X.,4 Xiao, L.,1 Sun, J.1 & Ma, E.1,5 Strong crystal size effect on deformation twinning. Nature 463, 335 (2010). | article

Author affiliation

1. Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale (CAMP-Nano), State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China
2. Hysitron Incorporated, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55344, USA
3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
4. Danish-Chinese Center for Nanometals, Materials Research Division, Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, Technical University of Denmark, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
*Email: junsun@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

This research highlight has been approved by the author of the original article and all empirical data contained within has been provided by said author."

[Martian]

Chang'e-2 has successfully entered its trans-lunar orbit


Long March 3C rocket, carrying China's second unmanned lunar probe Chang'e II, lifts off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, at 18:59:57 (Beijing time) on Oct. 1, 2010. (Xinhua/Li Gang)

China launches second lunar probe | The Jakarta Globe

"Jakarta Globe - Susan Stumme - ‎3 minutes ago‎
The probe successfully entered its trans-lunar orbit, Xinhua said. It will take five days for the Chang'e-2 to arrive at its lunar orbit. ... "

In celebration of Chang'e II's successful entry into its trans-lunar orbit, please enjoy the following video on China's lunar exploration program:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF5EYEJqY1o...t=1&index=2

[marchpole]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11773700

China Launches Second Lunar Exploration Probe

Post a Comment By Ben Blanchard
October 1, 2010

BEIJING (Reuters) - China launched its second lunar exploration probe on Friday, boosting the country's efforts to rise as a major space power eventually capable of landing a man on the moon and perhaps one day exploring far beyond.

The Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter blasted off from a remote corner of the southwestern province of Sichuan a few seconds before 7 p.m. (1100 GMT), state media said, on the same day the country celebrates 61 years since the founding of Communist China.

"Chang'e-2 lays foundation for the soft-landing on the moon and further exploration of outer space," Xinhua news agency quoted head of the orbiter's design team Wu Weiren as saying.

"It (will) travel faster and closer to the moon, and it will capture clear pictures," Wu added.

State television delayed the start of its main evening news to carry live pictures of the launch, bumping a story about the country's top leaders attending National Day ceremonies on Beijing's central Tiananmen Square into second place.

The Chang'e-2 is expected to fly as close as 15 km (9.3 miles) above the moon, testing skills and technology intended to pave the way for an unmanned landing planned in about 2013.

It will take high-resolution photos of the moon's Bay of Rainbows, where engineers plan to land Chang'e-3, the official China Daily said.

China is jostling with neighbors Japan and India for a bigger presence in outer space but its plans have faced international scrutiny.

Fears of a space arms race with the United States and other powers have mounted since China blew up one of its own weather satellites with a ground-based missile in January 2007. China says its aims are purely peaceful.

The Chang'e is named after a mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon. A successful Chang'e-2 mission would mark another advance in China's plan to establish itself as a space power in the same league as the United States and Russia.

Chief designer Huang Jiangchuan told Xinhua before the launch that Chang'e-2 may be given an extra mission -- flying into outer space to "test China's capability to probe further into space". He did not elaborate.

In 2003, China became only the third country, after the United States and Russia, to send a man into space aboard its own rocket.

In October 2005, it sent two men into orbit, and in 2008 it staged its first "space walk", when an astronaut floated outside a vehicle orbiting the Earth.

Chinese space officials said they are considering a manned landing on the moon by 2025-2030, state media reported last year.

China launched its first moon orbiter, the Chang'e-1, in October 2007, accompanied by a blaze of patriotic propaganda celebrating the country's technological prowess.

[Martian]

HD Video - Lift off for China's second lunar probe

"China launched its Chang’e-2 Lunar Orbiter today (Friday); taking it a step closer to one day landing a man on the moon.  The orbiter will take photos of the Bay of Rainbows on the moon, where they plan to land Chang’e-3."

"Once it reaches lunar orbit, Chang'e 2 will be able to snap pictures of the surface with 10 times the resolution of Chang'e 1.  One area of interest is the lava-flooded Bay of Rainbows; China's top destination for its first lunar lander, which could launch in 2013."

Please make sure to select 720p in the bottom right-hand corner. It is far clearer than 480p.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzuBZc95LaE&

[Martian]

Photograph of real Chang'e-2

All Things Nuclear • China?s Lunar Exploration Program and the Chang E 2 Mission

"China’s Lunar Exploration Program and the Chang E 2 Mission
| by Gregory Kulacki | China |
October 1, 2010


Image: The Change E 2 Lunar Orbiter as it was being positioned for installation on the Long March 3C launch vehicle at the launch site in Xichang.

China launched its second unmanned mission to the moon this morning at 6:59am EST. The robotic probe being sent on this mission, called the Chang E 2, follows on the success of the Chang E 1 mission, which sent China’s first probe to the moon almost three years ago on October 24, 2007.

The Chang E Project is also called the China Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP). Chang E is the name China has given to its lunar orbiters, derived from a character in an ancient Chinese folk tale: Chang E is China’s “woman on the moon.”

In 2004, the Chinese government authorized a three-stage robotic lunar exploration mission:

Stage 1: Orbiters will circle the moon and collect data.

Stage 2: Robotic probes will land on the lunar surface to collect and analyze lunar samples and transmit the data back to Earth.

Stage 3: After landing on the moon, the robotic probe will return to Earth with a set of moon rocks and soil sample.

According to a CCTV announcement accompanying today’s Chang E 2 launch, all three stages of the program are now fully funded. There is no fixed timetable for the separate stages, although Chinese space officials have been quoted in the press estimating that the second stage should be well underway by the middle of the decade and the program should be completed by 2020. The second and third stages are believed to require the new Long March 5 launch vehicle, capable of carrying heavier payloads than China’s current fleet of rockets. The LM5 is currently under development and scheduled to enter service in 2012 from a new launch site being constructed near the city of Wenchang on Hainan Island.

The Chang E 1 orbiter circled the moon 200 km above the surface, taking pictures and mapping the lunar surface. It also conducted a survey of the elements and types of materials present on the lunar surface, examining in some detail the characteristics and thickness of the lunar regula: the dusty coating on the surface of the moon. According to a recent Chinese press report the data collected during the first Chang E mission is considered secret and is still being analyzed by the small team of Chinese specialists granted access to the data.  Earlier reports indicated that the Chang E 1 data would be made public.

The Chang E 2 orbiter will circle the moon at an altitude of only 100 km, getting a closer look at the surface with the goal of choosing a site for the lander that is intended to touch down on the lunar surface in Stage 2. Chang E 2 will then maneuver into an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 100km and a perigee of 15km, at which time a high resolution three-dimensional CCD camera will take images of possible landing sites."

[Note: To my knowledge, this is the first known photograph of the real Chang'e-2.]

[Martian]

Chang'e-1's (and World's) first Microwave Map of entire Moon revealed



China microwaves the Moon

"China microwaves the Moon
By Duncan Geere |23 September 2010 |Categories: Wired Science

China has just become  the first country in the world to scan the entire surface of the Moon using microwave radiation and a lunar-orbiting satellite called Chang'E-1.
...
The survey was conducted using a device called the Lunar Microwave Radiometer, which scanned every inch of the surface at high resolution.

It measures microwave radiation in four channels, allowing it to measure the properties of different layers of rock just below the surface. One measures the rock a few centimetres down, whereas another can penetrate several metres. The idea is to try and work out how much helium-3 is buried in the crust.

Helium-3 is particularly interesting, because it's thought that it could be used as fuel in fusion reactors; potentially powering future moonbases. It's rare on Earth, but collects in greater quantities on the Moon due to its exposure to the solar wind over billions of years. On Earth, we're protected by the atmosphere and the planet's magnetic field, but the Moon has neither.

China plans to launch its next spacecraft, Chang'E-2, in October. It'll also orbit the Moon, scanning the surface with a camera with larger resolution in preparation for Chang'E-3, a lunar lander scheduled for launch in 2013, which will collect soil samples directly from the surface.

Photo Credit: Chang'E-1 | Online Editor: Olivia Solon"



Microwave map of entire moon revealed

"Microwave map of entire moon revealed
By Tannith Cattermole
23:41 September 20, 2010

The first complete microwave image of the Moon taken by Chinese lunar satellite Chang'E-1  has been revealed. Chang’E-1 is China’s first scientific mission to explore planetary bodies beyond Earth and the on-board Lunar Microwave Radiometer has made it possible for the first time to globally map the Moon in microwave frequencies. Radar observations of the Moon are unable to provide thermal information, and microwave observations taken from Earth cannot reach the far side of the moon. So Chang'E-1's (CE-1) orbit was conducted at an altitude of 200km (124 miles) and allowed it to observe every location of the moon with a nadir view and at high spatial resolution.

The Lunar Microwave Radiometer (MRM) was able to obtain brightness temperature data globally eight times from the surface and deeper layers of the Moon, revealing radiation and its variation during both lunar daytime and night-time periods. This allowed a valuable opportunity to study the lunar regolith – ‘dust’ and impact debris that covers almost the entire surface of the Moon.

The MRM measured microwaves in four frequency channels measuring layers a few centimeters below the surface to depths beyond a few meters. This allowed scientists to infer the thermo-physical properties of the lunar regolith as well as variation of its thickness. They hope this information will help them to estimate distribution and amount of helium 3 which has been suggested as a nuclear fuel for in-situ fusion energy production in possible future human settlements on the Moon. Furthermore a state-of the-art image with unprecedented image quality and positioning precision was produced by the stereo camera, and the Solar Wind Ion Detector (SWID) discovered acceleration of scattered solar wind protons close to the lunar polar terminator.

The results of the mission will be presented by Dr. Yong-Chun Zheng and Dr. Kwing L. Chan from the Hong Kong University of Science &Technology at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome from Monday 20th to Wednesday 22nd September. “No future mission, from any country, has been planned with a comparable program in microwave measurement”, says Dr. Zheng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A sister orbital probe to CE-1, Chang'E-2, is scheduled to be launched in October 2010."

[Martian]

Chang'e-1's (predecessor to Chang'e-2) four key goals and suite of instruments


Artistic rendition of Chang'e-1 above the Moon

Chang'e-1 launch to expand lunar exploration

"Chang'e-1 launch to expand lunar exploration
By Emily Clark
23:18 October 28, 2007

The Chang’e-1 spacecraft successfully blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, Sichuan, atop a Long March 3A rocket last week bound for lunar orbit. The launch by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), is China’s first step in a program that aims to land robotic explorers on the Moon before 2020.

The purpose of the Chang’e-1 (named after the Chinese goddess of the Moon) mission is to complete four key goals: making three-dimensional images of lunar landforms and outline maps of major lunar geological structures; analyzing up to 14 chemical elements and their distribution across the lunar surface; measuring the depth of the lunar soil; and exploring the space weather between the Earth and the Moon. To perform its mission objectives, Chang’e-1 carries a variety of instruments: a CCD stereo camera, a laser altimeter, an imaging interferometer, a gamma-ray/X-ray spectrometer, a microwave radiometer, a high-energy particle detector, and a solar wind particle detector.

Weighing in at 2350 kg (more than 5000 pounds), Chang’e-1 will operate from a low, circular lunar orbit, just 200 km (124 miles) above the surface of the Moon. It will perform its science mission for a full year and represents the first phase in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Programme (CLEP). The next step next will involve a lunar lander and associated rover and plans are also being drawn up for a sample return mission to bring lunar rocks to Earth for analysis."

[Martian]

Three moon craters named after Chinese scientists


Cai Lun - Lat: 80.3°N, Long: 113.5°E, Diam: 43 km, Depth: , Rükl: (farside)


Bi Sheng - Lat: 78.4°N, Long: 148.6°E, Diam: 55 km, Depth: , Rükl: (farside)


Zhang Yuzhe - Lat: 69.1°S, Long: 137.8°W, Diam: 35 km, Depth: , Rükl: (farside)

Three moon craters named after Chinese scientists

"Three moon craters named after Chinese scientists
English.news.cn   2010-09-20 18:19:52

BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- The International Astronomic Union (IAU) has named three impact craters on the moon after Chinese scientists Cai Lun, Bi Sheng and Zhang Yuzhe, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced Monday.

The announcement came more than one month after the IAU approved China's application for the naming on Aug. 2 this year.

Located at 80.3 degrees north latitude and 113.5 degrees east longitude with a diameter of 43 km, the Cai Lun crater is partially visible from the Earth when the librations are favorable. It was named after Cai Lun (57 BC-121 BC), a Chinese inventor credited with the invention of paper.

Located at 78.4 degrees north latitude and 148.6 degrees east longitude with a diameter of 55 km, the Bi Sheng crater was named after Bi Sheng (990 BC-1051 BC), a Chinese inventor credited with the invention of movable type.

Located at 69.1 degrees south latitude and 148.6 degrees west longitude on the moon with a diameter of 55 km, Zhang Yuzhe the impact crater was named after a Chinese astronomer who lived between 1902 and 1986.

With the IAU's recent namings, a total of 14 geological entities on the moon have been named after Chinese. The IAU has approved the namings of 1,993 geological entities on the moon since it was founded in 1935.

Liu Xiaoqun, an engineer of China's moon mission project, said the IAU naming is partly a reflection of a country's moon exploration capability and its scientific strength.

China is set to launch the Chang'e-2 lunar probe at the end of the year.

The country launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, named after China's mythical Moon Goddess, on Oct. 24, 2007, from southwest China's Sichuan Province. The probe ended its 16-month mission on March 1, 2009, when it crashed into the moon's surface.

Editor: An"

[Martian]

Telemetry, tracking, and command systems for Chang'e-2


This undated photo shows a radio telescope at Kunming station of the National Astronomical Observatories; affiliated with Chinese Academy of Sciences in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.  China successfully launched Chang'e II, China's second unmanned lunar probe, on Oct. 1, 2010.  The TT&C (telemetry, track & command) system for Chang'e II, mainly designed by Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecom Technology (BITTT), was co-developed by Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), Xi'an Satellite Control Center, China Satellite Maritime Tracking & Control Department, and Shanghai Observatory, etc..  The ground application system for Chang'e II was mainly developed by the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Xinhua Photo)


This undated photo shows staff members working at the China Science and Technology Network, which offers technology support for the Chang'e II lunar exploration program. (Xinhua Photo)


File photo taken on April 29, 2009 shows the Yuanwang 6 Space Tracking Ship.  Yuanwang Space Tracking Ships numbered #3,5, and 6 undertake the telemetry, tracking, and command missions for Chang'e II. (Xinhua Photo)


File photo taken on Nov. 23, 2005 shows the Yuanwang 3 Space Tracking Ship.  Yuanwang Space Tracking Ships numbered #3,5, and 6 undertake the telemetry, tracking, and command missions for Chang'e II. (Xinhua Photo)

Newslink:  TT&C, ground application systems for Chang'e-2

[Martian]

Chemical sensing: Collapsing for chirality

Chemical sensing: Collapsing for chirality : featured highlight : NPG Asia Materials

"Chemical sensing: Collapsing for chirality
NPG Asia Materials featured highlight | doi:10.1038/asiamat.2010.147
Published online 13 September 2010

An organometallic gel undergoes a dramatic change in structure in the presence of molecules with specific structural configurations.


Fig. 1: Electron microscopy images of the dried gel (left) and solution (right) forms of binaphthol–copper.

From Ref. 1. Reproduced with permission. © 2010 ACS

One of the fastest ways to qualitatively analyze chemical reactions is visually; it’s hard to mistake an abrupt color change or the appearance of new precipitates in a solution. These methods, however, are restricted to only a few processes, and normally do not provide an understanding of advanced phenomena such as chirality — the tendency for certain compounds to occur in mirror-image forms. The two chiral forms, called left- and right-handed enantiomers, can have very different properties, such as pharmaceutical effects. Yet physically, the two forms can only be distinguished through specialized and time-consuming techniques.

Researchers led by Xiao-Qi Yu from Sichuan University in China and Lin Pu from the University of Virginia in the USA[1] have now discovered an innovative system that allows chirality to be detected visually. Their method involves a gel that collapses when it interacts with enantiomers of opposite ‘handedness’.

Molecular gels have recently gained attention as sensing platforms because their structures at the boundary between liquid and solid states are extremely responsive to changes in their environment. Originally, Yu, Pu and their colleagues had been studying the reaction between a derivative of binaphthol — a chiral aromatic compound — and copper to develop a fluorescent sensor. But when the binaphthol derivative was mixed with copper ions in an ultrasonic bath, an opaque green gel quickly formed. The formation of such a gel was unexpected because ultrasound usually breaks up gel networks.

The team found that their gel consisted of a stabilized three-dimensional network (Fig. 1). Because chiral compounds such as binaphthol act differently when mixed with other chiral substances, the researchers decided to investigate the gel’s stability towards chiral amino alcohols — molecules known to displace copper from aromatic binding sites.

Pu and his colleagues found that the binaphthol–copper gel was particularly sensitive to enantiomer type. When the gel and the amino alcohol had the same chirality, the gel remained stable even after ultrasonication. If the chiral sites were different, however, the gel collapsed as soon as it was agitated.

The researchers are now working on fully understanding the mechanism behind their collapsible detection system. “This will allow us to develop new gel materials for recognition of diverse chiral molecules with rapid assays,” says Pu.

Reference

   1. Chen, X.,1 Huang, Z.,1 Chen, S.-Y.,1 Li, K.,1 Yu, X.-Q.1 & Pu, L.2* Enantioselective gel collapsing: A new means of visual chiral sensing. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 7297 (2010). | article

Author affiliation

1. Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
2. Department of Chemistry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4319, USA
*Email: lp6n@virginia.edu

This research highlight has been approved by the author of the original article and all empirical data contained within has been provided by said author."


Color-change in a chemical reaction is a very useful tool in chemistry.  Scientists rely on color-change in titration experiments all of the time.  The latest discovery, from Chinese scientists in visually detecting the "handedness" of an enantiomer through "chemical sensing: collapsing for chirality," is a great boon to all scientists.


Titration endpoint color change

[Martian]

China has six Yuanwang space tracking ships


"Zhai Zhigang waves the Chinese flag after emerging from the Shenzhou 7 spaceship."

China has a total of 6 Yuanwang space tracking ships.  For manned spaceflights, China deploys at least four Yuanwang ships.  For unmanned space programs like Chang'e II, China deploys only three Yuanwang ships.

Yuan Wang class tracking ship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Another two Yuanwang-class vessels were launched in Shanghai in early 2007.[1]

Pictures of Yuanwang 6 were published as it has been revealed that both Yuanwang 5 and the newly commissioned ship would be on duty for the Shenzhou 7 mission.[2]

During the Shenzhou spacecraft flights, the four ships are positioned with:[3]

    * Yuanwang 1 in the Yellow Sea
    * Yuanwang 2 about 1500 km (about 900 statute miles) southwest of French Polynesia
    * Yuanwang 3 off the Namibian coast
    * Yuanwang 4 off the coast of Western Australia in the Indian Ocean"

-----

I watched the Mandarin interview with the director and another important program manager of Chang'e II.  They both look like they are in their early to mid-30s.

[Martian]

The First Chinese- Nobel- Prize Winner: Yang Zhenning - China culture

"The First Chinese- Nobel- Prize Winner: Yang Zhenning


Yang Zhenning (Chen-Ning Yang) is the first Chinese-born physicist to win the Nobel Prize.

Yang Zhenning (Chen-Ning Yang) is a Chinese-American physicist, who has worked on statistical mechanics and symmetry principles. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 at the age of 35, with Li Zhengdao (Tsung-Dao Lee), to become the first two Chinese Nobel-Prize winners.

Yang is also well known for his collaboration with Robert Mills in developing a gauge theory of a new class. Such "Yang-Mills theories" are now a fundamental part of the Standard Model of particle physics.

Yang Zhenning's Life

Yang Zhenning was born on September 22, 1922, in Hefei of East China's Anhui Province. Yang was brought up in a peaceful and academically inclined atmosphere of the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, where his father was a Professor of Mathematics.

When Yang was very young, he demonstrated a talent for mathematics. However, his father didn't give him any special training in mathematics, instead, he employed a history teacher for Yang. From this teacher, Yang gained much knowledge of Chinese history. As a middle school student, Yang could recite all the texts of Mencius, a famous Confucian scholar who was second only to Confucius himself.

In 1937, when the Anti-Japanese War began (known as WWII in the West), Yang and his family went back to their hometown of Hefei. After the Japanese troops entered Nanjing, Yang and his family spent time in Hankow and Hong Kong (both in East China), and Hanoi (today's Hainan Provincein South China); before finally arriving at Kunming of Southwest China's Yunnan Province in March 1938, where Yang furthered his study.

In 1942, Yang Zhenning received his Bachelor of Science degree from Kunming's National Southwest Associated University. Two years later, he studied for his Master of Science degree with a full scholarship at Tsinghua University.

Yang Zhenning attended the University of Chicago on a Tsinghua University Fellowship in January 1946. There he studied for his Ph.D. with Edward Teller and after receiving it in 1948, remained for a year as an assistant to Enrico Fermi, a famous physicist. In 1949 he moved to the Harvard-affiliated Radcliffe's Institute for Advanced Study and in 1965 to New York's Stony Brook University, where he worked until 1999.

He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Academia Sinica, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Princeton University in 1958.

In 1950, Yang Zhenning married Du Zhili, a former student of his, and had two sons and a daughter.

In 1999 Yang Zhenning returned to Tsinghua University following his retirement from Stony Brook University. His wife died in the winter of 2003. In 2005, at the age of 82, Yang Zhenning married a 28-year old woman, who is studying for a master degree at Guangdong University.

Great Contributions

Since from almost his earliest days as a physicist, Yang Zhenning has made significant contributions to the theory of the weak interactions--the forces long thought to cause elementary particles to disintegrate.



By 1953 it was recognized that there was a fundamental paradox in this field since one of the newly discovered mesons--the so-called K meson--seemed to exhibit decay modes into configurations of differing parity. Since it was believed that parity had to be conserved, this led to a severe paradox.

After exploring every conceivable alternative, Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning were forced to examine the experimental foundations of parity conservation itself. In early 1956, they discovered that, contrary to what had been assumed, there was no experimental evidence against parity non-conservation in the weak interactions. The experiments that had been done, it turned out, simply had no bearing on the question.

They suggested a set of experiments that would settle the matter, and, when these experiments were carried out by several groups of people over the next year, large parity-violating effects were discovered. In addition, the experiments also showed that the symmetry between particle and antiparticle, known as charge conjugation symmetry, is also broken by the weak decays.

In addition to his work on weak interactions, Yang Zhenning, in collaboration with Li Zhengdao and others, carried out important work in statistical mechanics -- the study of systems with large numbers of particles -- and later investigated the nature of elementary particle reactions at extremely high energies.

Starting from 1965, Yang Zhenning was the Albert Einstein professor at the Institute of Science, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Long Island. During the 1970s he was a member of the board of Rockefeller University and the American Association for the Advancement of Science respectively, and from 1978, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in San Diego, California.

He was also on the board of Ben-Gurion University, in Beersheba, Israel. He received the Einstein Award in 1957 and the Rumford Prize in 1980. In 1986 he received the Liberty Award and the National Medal of Science."

Chinese state councilor visits Chinese-American Nobel laureate - People's Daily Online

"Chinese state councilor visits Chinese-American Nobel laureate
10:37, October 02, 2010

Chinese State Councilor Liu Yandong visited Chinese-American Nobel physics laureate Yang Chen-ning at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Friday.

Friday is Yang's 88th birthday and Liu extended her congratulations to Yang and praised his years of efforts in promoting China's education.

Yang had made important contributions in fostering young Chinese talent and promoting the country's educational development as well as academic exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States.

His efforts were even more remarkable after 2003 when he returned and settled in China.

Liu discussed with Yang about China's education reform and the Outline of the National Plan for Medium-and Long-term Educational Reform and Development.

Education Minister Yuan Guiren accompanied Liu on the visit.

Source: Xinhua"

[Martian]

Carbon nanotubes: The domino effect : research highlight : NPG Asia Materials

"Carbon nanotubes: The domino effect
NPG Asia Materials research highlight | doi:10.1038/asiamat.2010.158
Published online 27 September 2010

Carbon nanotube structures can be mechanically oscillated via a temperature-induced ‘domino’ process.


Fig. 1: Temperature changes induce waves of domino-like, reversible structural transformations in carbon nanotubes.

Adapted from Ref. 1. Reproduced with permission. © 2010 ACS

Ultra-tiny heat engines that convert thermal energy into mechanical energy may soon be on the horizon according to a computer simulation study from China[1]. Tienchong Chang and Zhengrong Guo from Shanghai University report that carbon nanotubes can be changed from their usual circular shapes into collapsed, flattened structures through a domino-like wave that propagates along the length of the tube. This transformation can be reversed by raising the temperature; setting the stage for multifunctional oscillators that operate at molecular levels.

Calculations by Chang previously showed that the circular structures of large single-walled carbon nanotubes are only meta-stable: energetically, the tube is most stable when it collapses and lies flat. Transitioning to this fallen state, however, requires overcoming a significant energy barrier. “If we view each carbon ring along the nanotube as a domino, then the stable state corresponds to a fallen-down system, while the meta-stable circular state is when the domino is standing up,” says Chang. “A standing domino cannot fall down by itself — it needs an external stimulus.”

The researchers found that clamping down on one end of the nanotube provided the necessary impetus to release the material’s potential energy; sequentially knocking the carbon structure down like a wave of tumbling dominoes. The next challenge facing the team was how to control this effect.

Molecular dynamic simulations on a 4.3 nm-wide tube with one end shut and the other propped open revealed that temperature could modify the material’s stable state. After the tube structure toppled over at room temperature, raising the temperature to over 600 °C reversed the transformation: the collapsed zone shrank along the tube as the carbon rings returned to their upright, circular shapes (Fig. 1).

Additional simulations showed that the critical temperature needed to induce the conversion between the two states was a linear function of tube diameter, with larger tubes needing higher temperatures to leave the collapsed state. The speed of the propagating domino waves, which can reach 800 m/s, could also be adjusted through subtle temperature variations.  

Chang notes that the highly tunable nature of the temperature-induced domino effect opens the door to many novel applications, including rechargeable ‘nanoguns’ that can controllably expel molecules or particles from the tubes.

Reference

   1. Chang, T.* & Guo, Z. Temperature-induced reversible dominoes in carbon nanotubes. Nano Lett. 10, 3490 (2010). | article

Author affiliation

Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Institute of Low Dimensional Carbon and Device Physics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China
*Email: tchang@staff.shu.edu.cn

This research highlight has been approved by the author of the original article and all empirical data contained within has been provided by said author."

[Martian]

Electrochemistry: Long live the lithium battery : Article : Nature China

"Electrochemistry: Long live the lithium battery
Published online: 1 September 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.99
Felix Cheung

Eliminating oxygen in the electrolyte prolongs the life of a lithium-ion battery

Original article citation
Luo, J. Y., Cui, W. J., He, P. & Xia, Y. Y. Raising the cycling stability of aqueous lithium-ion batteries by eliminating oxygen in the electrolyte. Nature Chem. doi:10.1038/nchem.763 (2010).

© (2010) istockphoto.com/Ingenui

Non-aqueous electrolytes of traditional lithium-ion batteries use highly toxic and flammable organic solvents, which can be dangerous if used improperly. Using aqueous electrolytes can avoid this problem, but an aqueous lithium-ion battery typically loses half of its battery capacity after 100 charge–discharge cycles. Yongyao Xia and co-workers at Fudan University in Shanghai[1] have now devised several strategies to prolong the lifetimes of such aqueous batteries.

A battery loses capacity when its electrodes oxidize and internal resistance increases. The researchers analysed the stability of electrode materials in aqueous electrolytes and found that negative electrodes react with water and oxygen during discharge, which causes capacity fading upon charge–discharge cycling. They improved the stability of aqueous lithium-ion batteries by eliminating oxygen, adjusting the pH of the electrolyte and using carbon-coated electrode materials. The capacity retention of their batteries was over 90% after 1,000 cycles.

By implementing these strategies, aqueous lithium-ion batteries may offer an energy-storage system with high safety, low cost and long lifetime.

The authors of this work are from:
Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Institute of New Energy, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Reference

   1. Luo, J. Y., Cui, W. J., He, P. & Xia, Y. Y. Raising the cycling stability of aqueous lithium-ion batteries by eliminating oxygen in the electrolyte. Nature Chem. doi:10.1038/nchem.763 (2010). | Article"

[Martian]

Construction starts on new nuclear generator in east China's Fujian


Map of nuclear power reactors in China

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/.../c_13541459.htm

"Construction starts on new nuclear generator in east China's Fujian
English.news.cn   2010-10-03 22:08:06

FUZHOU, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Ningde Nuclear Power Plant in southeast China's Fujian Province has begun building its fourth generator, the company said Sunday.

It is the last of the four generators in the first phase of construction.

The nuclear power plant will begin operating in 2012; making it the first of its kind in the province.

The nuclear plant is expected to generate 30 billion kWhs of electricity every year; guaranteeing to provide a quarter of the province's annual power consumption, when all four generators are in full operation by 2015.

The nuclear plant will also save 12 million tons of coal every year or the equivalent of about 30 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Ningde nuclear power plant, co-funded and jointly run by Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd., and Fujian Energy Group Co. Ltd, started the construction of its first generator in 2008.

Another nuclear power plant in the province, Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant, is also expected to commence construction of its fifth and sixth generators before the end of this year. It is expected to start operating in 2013.

Editor: Fang Yang"

[marchpole]

China's Leap in Supercomputer Rankings

In merely a decade, China has become the world's third-greatest power in high-performance computing. Will it soon boast the fastest computer?

By Rachael King

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/con...0104_720766.htm

When a list of the world's 500 fastest computers is revealed on Nov. 15, it may contain a surprise. China, currently known to own the second-fastest computer, may reach the top spot. "Of the Top 10 machines today, China has two," says Jack Dongarra, director of the innovative computing laboratory at the University of Tennessee. "I know for sure they're going to have a third one in November." Dongarra has overseen the semiannual Top 500 list since it first appeared in 1993. "There's a great belief that the Chinese will be No.1," he says, adding that he has yet to see the data for next month's list.

Having the world's speediest computer carries more than bragging rights. "It means that China is taking computing seriously," says Dongarra. It's a sign that China is taking steps to spur innovation, he says.

"China gets it. These machines are useful for industry and it will help them maintain and continue on the current track of industrial growth," Dongarra says. More than half of the world's fastest computers are used by industry. Known as supercomputers, they are critical for research and simulation in areas such as climate modeling, genomics, alternative energy, and seismic imaging. Countries also use them for advanced defense. Because of the nuclear testing ban, most countries with nuclear weapons now test them virtually, on supercomputers, says Earl Joseph, an analyst at IDC. They're also used to design better tanks, submarines, aircraft, and body armor, he says.

The U.S. still dominates the Top 500. As of June, when it was last released, the U.S. accounted for more than 50 percent of the world's supercomputers, including the fastest. Yet as supercomputers become more affordable, other countries are able to narrow the U.S. lead. "Back in 2002, the Japanese became No. 1, with the Earth Simulator, and it shook things up in the U.S.," says Dongarra, who is also a professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee.

Trailing the U.S. and European Union

Today, the fastest computer on the list is Jaguar, built by Seattle-based Cray (CRAY), with a theoretical peak speed of 2.33 petaflops, or more than 2 quadrillion calculations per second. Jaguar is installed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. In testing, the system clocked in at 1.759 petaflops. In June, China's Nebulae, at the National Supercomputing Centre in Shenzhen, took the No. 2 spot with a measured speed of 1.271 petaflops, although its theoretical peak speed is higher, at 2.984 petaflops. The system was built by Dawning Information Industry Co. with components from Intel (INTC) and Nvidia (NVDA).

China's rise in supercomputing power has been swift. At the beginning of the decade, it had few, if any, supercomputers. By 2002, the country had begun to invest in them. In June, China surpassed Japan in computing power. It is currently third, behind the U.S. and second-ranked European Union. "China is poised to overtake the EU countries. The real question is when they overtake the U.S.," says Dongarra.

"We call it rolling thunder," says Joseph, IDC's vice-president of high-performance computing, who recently toured various supercomputing centers in China. The Chinese aren't just producing a few computers, he says. "They're building gigantic research facilities in Shanghai and in other places, spreading them all around the country," he says. "They want to have half of the Top 10 within a year or so, as well."

Supercomputers, also known as high-performance computers, are now feasible for more countries because prices have dropped. Several years ago, a supercomputer was defined as one that cost at least several million dollars. Now it's any system over $500,000, according to IDC. Part of the trend in making them more affordable is the ability to link thousands of standard servers with special software to create one supercomputer, a technique known as clustering. In past decades, supercomputers were only built from costly proprietary technology.

"If you wanted to build a Top 5 supercomputer in the past it would be tens of millions or hundreds of millions," says Ed Turkel, manager of high-performance computing marketing at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). China and India are investing in supercomputers to develop their economies, he says.

"No. 1 or No. 2 is only one machine"

"Countries are realizing that if they want to get into the game as a worldwide innovator in science or industry, they need to get into high-performance computing to do it," Turkel says.

"There are going to be a lot of new entries on the next list." HP is working on a supercomputer for the Tokyo Institute of Technology called Tsubame 2.0. "It's slightly larger than the Jaguar at peak performance" and is made of more than 1,400 servers combined, says Turkel.

"A lot of supercomputer centers have been built in recent years" in China, says Sha Chaoqun, manager of the product division at Dawning. Sha estimates that there are at least 50 such facilities now. Dawning has centers in Chengdu and Wuxi, where the company rents infrastructure, software, and services to companies that need computing power for tasks including design, modeling, and simulations, says Sha.

Sha declined to speculate on whether a Chinese supercomputer would top the list of the world's fastest machines, saying such measures are unimportant. The most significant measure is total computing power for the nation, Sha says. "No. 1 or No. 2 is only one machine."

"China is still a developing country," Sha says. "Maybe one day, China's total computing power can be greater than that of the U.S., but there is still a long time to go before we get there."

With Edmond Lococo

King is a writer for Bloomberg Businessweek in San Francisco.

[Martian]

Molecular biology: Eliminate to survive

http://www.nature.com/nchina/2010/100804/f...na.2010.87.html

"Molecular biology: Eliminate to survive
Published online: 4 August 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.87
Felix Cheung

A protein that induces autophagy may help to suppress tumour growth

Original article citation
Zhao, Y. et al. Cytosolic FoxO1 is essential for the induction of autophagy and tumour suppressor activity. Nature Cell Biol. doi:10.1038/ncb2069 (2010).

© (2010) Nature Cell Biology

Although previous studies have highlighted the possible link between autophagy — the cellular process for eliminating damaged proteins and organelles in the cytosol — and tumour suppression, the exact mechanism that connects them is still unknown. Weiguo Zhu and co-workers at Peking University in Beijing[1] have now identified a protein that induces both autophagy and tumour suppressor activity.

Recent reports have suggested that FoxO proteins are involved in the induction of autophagy. The researchers found that in response to stress, human cancer cell lines increased their cytosolic FoxO1 expression, p62 degradation and LC3-II accumulation (the latter two being the markers of autophagy). Importantly, they found that FoxO1 underwent acetylation to trigger autophagy.

Further investigation revealed that during the process of acetylation, FoxO1 detaches from SIRT2, a histone deacetylase, and binds to Atg7, an E1-like protein involved in autophagosome formation.

Human cancer cells expressing FoxO1 stopped growing in mice (pictured right), but those expressing an empty vector continued to grow (pictured left). The researchers also compared tissue samples from normal patients and patients with colon cancer. They found that the FoxO1 expression and p62 degradation levels were much lower in cancerous tissues.

The results clearly demonstrate a connection between autophagy and tumour suppressor activity. The researchers believe that autophagy could offer a method of suppressing tumour growth, but more work is required to understand how autophagy achieves this.

The authors of this work are from:
Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research, Ministry of Education, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Peking University, Peking University, Beijing, China; Department of Surgery, Secondary Affiliated Hospital, Peking University Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing, China; Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; School of Oncology, Peking University Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Reference

   1. Zhao, Y. et al. Cytosolic FoxO1 is essential for the induction of autophagy and tumour suppressor activity. Nature Cell Biol. doi:10.1038/ncb2069 (2010). | Article"

[aziqbal]

the thing I like about China is that they take advantage of the scientific breakthroughs they make

if they make something they use it to better future projects making full use of the achievment

[Martian]

Condensed matter physics: Mind the gap

http://www.nature.com/nchina/2010/100804/f...na.2010.94.html

"Condensed matter physics: Mind the gap
Published online: 4 August 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.94
Felix Cheung

The energy gap of a topological insulator widens in films below a certain thickness

Original article citation
He, K., Xue, Q. K. et al. Crossover of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3 to the two-dimensional limit. Nature Phys. doi:10.1038/nphys1689 (2010).

© Nature Physics

Topological insulators are special insulators with conductive surfaces. Their electronic band structure exhibits an energy gap — the optical signature of insulators — only in the bulk region, and not on the conductive surfaces. A team of researchers led by Ke He at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qikun Xue at Tsinghua University, both in Beijing[1], have discovered that the surfaces develop an energy gap when the thickness of the topological insulator is reduced below a certain level.

The researchers used a highly precise technique called molecular beam epitaxy to grow the topological insulator — a bismuth selenide thin film — layer by layer, and then used angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study the electronic band structure of the topological insulator surfaces. They observed an energy gap (see images) for a thickness below six quintuple layers (a quintuple layer being the smallest thickness achievable through molecular beam epitaxy). The energy gap became smaller as the film thickness was increased.

The results suggest that gapless states exist on both the upper and lower surfaces of thick topological insulator films. These gapless states could be useful for low-power electronics and quantum computing.

The authors of this work are from:
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical and Computational Physics, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA; Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.

Reference

   1. He, K., Xue, Q. K. et al. Crossover of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3 to the two-dimensional limit. Nature Phys. doi:10.1038/nphys1689 (2010). | Article"

[Martian]

Virology: Influenza virus has a new weak spot

http://www.nature.com/nchina/2010/100707/f...na.2010.76.html

"Virology: Influenza virus has a new weak spot
Published online: 7 July 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.76
Felix Cheung

Nucleozin treats influenza by inhibiting nuclear protein accumulation in viruses

Original article citation
Kao, R. Y. et al. Identification of influenza A nucleoprotein as an antiviral target. Nature Biotechnol. doi:10.1038/nbt.1638 (2010).

© (2010) istockphoto.com/Ping Han

Experts are concerned about the potential emergence of a 'super flu' that no drug can treat, owing to the ability of influenza viruses to constantly evolve and become resistant to particular drugs. For this reason, scientists have been looking for drugs that can attack targets on the influenza virus. Using forward chemical genetics, Kwok Yung Yuen and Richard Yi Tsun Kao at the University of Hong Kong and co-workers[1] have established influenza virus nucleoprotein as a viable target and nucleozin as a drug that treats influenza by inhibiting nucleoprotein accumulation.

The influenza virus nucleoprotein is the most abundantly expressed protein during the course of infection. It accumulates in the nucleus in the early phases of infection and spreads in the cytoplasm during viral assembly and maturation.

The researchers screened a chemical library of 50,240 compounds with diverse structures on cell-based influenza virus assays and selected 950 compounds that showed protective effects. They then tested the selected compounds using a cytopathic effect assay and identified 39 compounds that were particularly potent.

When the researchers used fluorescence microscopy to examine the effects of these 39 compounds on nucleoprotein trafficking, they found five compounds that blocked the accumulation of nucleoprotein in the nucleus. Nucleozin, in particular, was deadly against influenza viruses at submicromolar levels and protected mice subjected to lethal doses of the avian influenza virus H5N1.

The study will further the development of small-molecule therapies in treating influenza.

The authors of this work are from:
Department of Microbiology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Research Center of Infection and Immunology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Biochemistry, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Computing Sciences, Capilano University, British Columbia, Canada.

Reference

   1. Kao, R. Y. et al. Identification of influenza A nucleoprotein as an antiviral target. Nature Biotechnol. doi:10.1038/nbt.1638 (2010). | Article"