Recognizing top 10 domestic scientific advances of 2021
China's Ministry of Science and Technology has issued a list of the top 10 domestic scientific advances of 2021.
These achievements, selected from a total of 310 candidates, range from deep space exploration and deep sea challenges to those closely related to our daily life such as agricultural production and antiviral drugs.
Let's take a look.
Tianwen-1 probe's successful landing on Mars
The mission was the first step in China's planetary exploration of the solar system.
At 7:18am on May 15, 2021, the Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft successfully landed on Utopia Planitia in Mars' northern hemisphere, carrying its orbitor, lander and rover.
The rover Zhurong, named after a Chinese god of fire, carried six scientific payloads, including cameras and detectors, and provided first-hand materials for research of the red planet's space environment, surface topography and soil structure.
On June 27, 2021, video clips captured by Zhurong were released to the public, enabling people to see the surface of Mars and hear its ambient sound.
A photo of the rover Zhurong (left) with the lander on the surface of Mars.
Major progress in the construction of Tiangong space station
China sent the core module, Tianhe, of its space station into space at 11:23am on April 29, 2021. It began a series of key launch missions aiming to complete the construction of China's first long-term space station Tiangong by the end of this year.
It marks the full implementation stage of China's space station construction.
On June 17, 2021, China's Shenzhou-12 manned spaceship successfully docked with the Tianhe module, with three astronauts Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo entering the module.
It was a first for Tianhe to dock with a Shenzhou spaceship.
On October 16, 2021, China's Shenzhou-13, carrying another three taikonauts, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, also successfully docked with the Tianhe module, becoming the second crew to be stationed there.
The trio is still in the space for their six-month in-orbit stay.
Astronauts Ye Guangfu (left), Wang Yaping and Zhai Zhigang at a ceremony ahead of the launch of the Long March-2F Y13 rocket, carrying the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on October 15, 2021.
The starch synthesis from carbon dioxide
The research achievement, published in Science by the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology under Chinese Academy of Sciences in September 2021, was the first time to artificially make starch synthesis from carbon dioxide in the world.
It is believed it will have a revolutionary influence on future agricultural production and industrial bio-manufacturing of starch. It opens a way to future chemo-biohybrid starch synthesis from CO2.
According to the paper, the team reports an artificial starch anabolic pathway (ASAP), consisting of 11 core reactions, converts CO2 to starch at a rate of 22 nanomoles of CO2 per minute per milligram of total catalyst. It is about 8.5 fold higher rate than starch synthesis in maize.
The theoretical solar-to-starch efficiency via ASAP is adjusted to 7 percent, 3.5 fold of the estimated theoretical solar-to-starch efficiency for plants (2 percent) in a natural environment.
Design and modular assembly of an artificial starch anabolic pathway.
Secrets behind lunar samples
China's researchers have dated the age of the basalt clasts, about 1.73 kilograms returned by China's Chang'e-5 lunar probe from the moon's Oceanus Procellarum in December 2020.
It was China's first attempt to bring a sample back, and there has been a 40-year gap in lunar samples.
Scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that these samples formed some 2.03 billion years ago, instead of around 2.9 to 2.8 billion years ago according to previous dating of samples from the the Apollo and Luna missions.
The findings were published in Science in October 2021.
The samples provided a new clue to figuring out the exact starting and ending timing of volcanism.
Based on the findings, scientists have updated lunar cratering chronology modelling published in Nature Astronomy last month, providing a more precise time ruler for studying the evolution of the moon and other planetary bodies in the inner solar system.
Lunar samples exhibited in Guangdong Province in September 2021.
Hopes raised for coronavirus antiviral drugs
The capping of mRNA and the proofreading, play essential roles in replication and transcription of SARS-CoV-2 causing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research group led by Lou Zhiyong and Rao Zihe from the School of Medicine of Tsinghua University found not only a structural basis for understanding co-transcriptional modification of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA but also how replication fidelity in SARS-CoV-2 is maintained.
These findings give an explanation of an intermediate state of the replication and transcription complex toward mRNA synthesis and help to understand the RTC architecture. The results also provide a new target and key scientific basis for antiviral development against SARS-CoV-2.
The model for mRNA Synthesis by SARS-CoV-2 RTC.
Largest fast radio bursts sample detected by FAST
A research team from the National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) detected an extreme episode of cosmic explosions from the Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) 121102 through the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, within 47 days starting August 29, 2019.
This burst enabled astronomers to find the characteristic energy and its distribution of any FRB for the first time and study the central engine powering FRBs.
It discovered 1,652 independent burst events. The highest cadence during the burst was a peak of 122 FRBs over the span of an hour. It has been the largest set of FRB events so far.
FRBs are very short but intense pulses of radio waves and have been one of the greatest cosmic mysteries since the first one was observed in 2007. FRB 121102 is the first known repeater detected in 2012.
The result was published in Nature on October 13, 2021.
FAST catches a real pulse from FRB 121102.
The scalable production of high-performing fiber lithium-ion batteries
Researchers from Fudan University have established the first production line of fiber lithium-ion batteries in the world.
It has been difficult to produce fiber lithium-ion batteries in lengths of more than a few centimeters because of higher internal resistances.
Fudan has realized the scalable production of high-performing woven lithium-ion fiber batteries, and increased the possibility of wireless charging electronic devices through clothes.
The research team is able to produce meters of high-performing fiber lithium-ion batteries.
The capacity retention reaches 90.5 percent after 500 charge-discharge cycles and over 80 percent capacity can be maintained after bending the fiber for 100,000 cycles.
The study was published in Nature in September 2021.
A diagram of fiber lithium-ion batteries.
Quantum walks of 'Zu Chongzhi'
A research team from the University of Science and Technology of China has successfully designed a 62-qubit programmable superconducting quantum processor.
It is named Zu Chongzhi, after the Chinese mathematician and astronomer.
It makes China the first country to achieve a quantum computational advantage in two mainstream technical routes – photonics quantum computing technology and superconducting quantum computing technology.
The processor has realized two-dimensional programmable quantum walks on the system.
The team writes, in the article published in Science in May 2021, that the study increases the possibility of universal quantum computing. It also brings future larger scale quantum applications closer to realization on noisy intermediate-scale quantum processors.
The 62-qubit programmable superconducting quantum processor Zu Chongzhi.
Self-powered soft robot diving in the Mariana Trench
A team from Zhejiang University has developed a silicone robot for deep-sea exploration, where water pressure is extreme.
It has survived a journey to 10,900 meters below the ocean's surface in the Mariana Trench.
The research achievement largely reduces the economic cost and weight of deep-sea robots and promotes the application of soft robots in deep sea.
The team members managed to improve the pressure resilience of the electronic components and soft actuators, enabling the system to adapt to the deep sea environment without any rigid vessel.
The robot's design is based on snailfish, one of the deepest-living creatures which has relatively delicate and soft bodies. It looks like a manta ray at 22 centimeters in length and 28 centimeters in wingspan.
The silicone robot dived to 10,900 meters below the ocean's surface in the Mariana Trench.
Secrets behind birds' long-distance migration
A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Cardiff University has identified a single gene associated with migration in peregrine falcons. The study was published in Nature in March 2021.
Their findings not only add further evidence that genetics plays a strong role in migrations, but also observed the predicted effect of climate change on migration.
With the help of satellites, the team found a gene ADCY8 associated with differences in migratory distance. ADCY8 is believed to increase powers of long-term memory and is essential for long-distance migration.
The satellite system charting the migration of peregrine falcons.
