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No.370

 
 
 


CHINA  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China


N0.370 June 20,2004
 
IN THIS ISSUE

* Biotech Booms China's Bioeconomy

* China's Women Astronauts Debut in 2010

* First SARS Antigen Testing Kit

* China's Accurate Space Measurement

* Liver Cancer Metastasis Gene Found

* Hybrid Wheat Progresses

* World First Instance of Chromosome Nucleon Abnormality

 
 SPECIAL ISSUES
 

Biotech Booms China's Bioeconomy

China has, through its more than 2-decade efforts, established a well functioned biotech R&D system, which spurs the bioeconomic development in the country, said WANG Hongguang, director of the China Biotechnology Development Center, a part of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

According to Mr. WANG, China has currently had some 200 biotech labs financed by state, governmental agencies or local authorities, with a R&D contingent over 20,000 personnel. Many Chinese universities have life science or biotech majors. The number of industrial businesses involving in biotechnology reached 500, with a staff population of 50,000 and more. Each year the biotech industry witnesses an additional 100 businesses becoming the new blood of the industry. In addition, some 20 biotech industrial parks have been created in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other areas.

China's biotech breakthroughs harvested in recent years have laid a solid ground for biotech innovations and associated industrialization. China has achieved a world leading position in hybrid rice, corn, cotton and rape researches and applications. More than 20 countries in the world have introduced Chinese hybrid rice seeds, which contributes, on a cumulated basis, an additional 350 billion kg of grains to the world food production.

Incomplete statistics show that China possesses 260,000 animal, plant and microorganism species, becoming a nation having most bio-resources and biodiversities in the world. China has so far collected more than 3,000 Chinese family lines who are genetically related to major diseases, and stored 320,000 crop seed specimens in its agricultural seeds bank, the largest of its kind in the world.

China's Women Astronauts Debut in 2010

China will launch a nationwide selection of women astronauts in 2006, which will lead to the debut of China's first woman astronaut in 2010, reported by the latest issue of the journal Scientific Exploration. China will have a woman astronaut work at its permanent space station, who also serves as a payload expert in routine space flight.

An official responsible for astronauts screening and training told reporters that China's women astronauts will mainly work on payloads in space flight. The selection, though quite demanding for special skills and knowledge for future space research and experiment missions, will be made among ordinary women candidates.

According to the report, China plans to select its women astronauts in late 2005 or early 2006. The women astronauts to be will be trained for 3 to 4 years to grasp basic space flight skills, like their male counterparts, though some special trainings tailored to women's physiological reaction to space flight will be added. If China materializes its 3-phase manned space flight project as scheduled, China's first woman astronaut will make her debut in the Shenzhou spacecraft to be launched in 2010 to build China's permanent space station.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
 

First SARS Antigen Testing Kit

A testing kit able to identify SARS coronavirus antigen, developed by the Zhujiang Hospital, an  affiliate to the No. 1 Military Medical School, was recently granted with the national certificate for new drugs and an associated production approval. As the first of its kind in the nation obtaining the state approval for both new drug certification and production, the kit is also the first of its kind in the world to test SARS antigen.

With the merits such as simple operation and a per capita testing cost as low as RMB 100, the new testing kit will become an important tool in early and quick diagnose of the SARS disease, as well as in containing the spread of the disease. A 1,000-specimen based testing experiment has shown that the kit is able to pick out SARS viruses from patient's blood in day one attack, registered a sensitivity as high as 90% or above within 1-10 days of attack. The new testing technique also presents a 99% specificity. The findings, partially reported in the journal of Clinic Microorganism, mark a sensitivity and specificity both better than other testing techniques.

According to a briefing, the developer of the testing kit has inked a joint production contract with two manufacturers in Guangdong and Beijing respectively. Thanks to its simplified operation, the testing kit can be widely used at grassroots clinics without calling for special equipment, most desirable for screening the patients who have fever symptoms. The testing kit, in testing China's suspected cases of SARS patients appeared earlier this year, has once again proved its undoubted accuracy.

World First Fossilized Pterosaur Embryo

The world first fossilized pterosaur embryo was unearthed in the Re’he biological colony in the west Liaoning, reported WANG Xiaolin and ZHOU Zhonghe, researchers at Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the June 10 issue of the journal of Science. The finding confirms that pterosaur, like others reptile animals and birds, are egg layers.

The fossilized pterosaur embryo, found in a dark gray rock layer located in the Yi County, Jinzhou Municipality, Liaoning Province, has an age of 121 million years. The embryo skeleton was literally kept intact within an oval eggshell. Having a maximum length of 53 mm and a width of 41 mm, the fossilized egg presents a smooth and clearly cut edge, with a dark brown interior, in sharp contrast against its surrounding grayish yellow rocks. The embryo's body is partially squeezed by the back, while the head is buried under the abdomen. Partial skeletons are in a wrong position, as the result of squeezing. The embryo's spinal cord extends basically in line with the long axis of the eggshell, with its head bending backwards to one side, in a U shape against the spinal cord. The said shape may suggest the pterosaur embryo's original development state, namely asymmetric sides of the spinal cord with closely folded front limbs.

ZHOU Zhonghe writes that the pterosaur fossil discovered in the west Liaoning is unambiguously a pterosaur. The extended 4th finger and a quite developed triangular humerus, together with other structural features, all indicate that the embryonic skeleton belongs to the pterosaur family.

Researchers believe that the unearthed embryonic skeleton may represent the final development phase of the pterosaur, as it has come to a point with a complete skeleton and wing membranes, in addition to many other features usually seen in an infant pterosaur. These features suggest the embryo will soon break out the shell and fly to the blue sky of the Early Cretaceous period.

China's Accurate Space Measurement

A briefing, issued on June 22, 2004 by the China Xi’an Satellite Control Center, shows that some 20 findings and results produced by the Center, including the joint accurate orbiting, and a simulation system for manned space flight control, have not only played a role in the construction and improvement of China's space control network, but has also created valuable technical lines for future in-depth space probes.

The Center, according to the briefing, has reached an orbiting accuracy at the meter level, which makes the flawless control and management of 85 orbiting vehicles possible. In recent years, the Center has established a land based space traffic control center in line with international standards, and upgraded its mainstream facilities and core systems. The introduction of advanced technical systems, including internationally compatible S-band control system, distributive calculation model, and space vehicle control language based satellite measuring technique, has further expanded and optimized the space traffic control network's functions. Along with technical breakthroughs, a control network, that was only able to work for a dozen satellites in the past, is now able to deal with several dozen, or even a hundred space vehicles.

China has established a land and sea based modern space control and measurement network, with the Xi’an Satellite Control Center as the core, supported by a dozen permanent ground stations, mobile measuring stations, and measuring boats like the Yuanwang measuring boat. These improvements have made China able to provide measuring and control services for varieties of domestic and foreign satellites at different orbiting levels, and under different frequencies.  

Liver Cancer Metastasis Gene Found

A research team of Xiangya Medical School, a part of Zhongnan University, has spotted, for the first time in the world, a gene named Rhoc, which plays a key role in liver cancer metastasis. The finding was published in the June 14 issue of the British Journal of Cancer.

In 2003, this research team made a successful operation on a liver tumor as large as 10cm, which had long been deemed a forbidden zone for liver cancer operation. Researchers developed and refined key techniques desirable for removal of complicated liver cancers. They also created a theoretical system for studying large isolated liver cancers.

Researchers have found, in studying large isolated liver cancers, the pathogenesis and development features of such cancers, and clinically overthrown the traditional barrier for operation on large isolated liver cancers. Researchers come up with a conclusion that, liver cancers cannot be judged of their development phases, either early or advanced, by a mere look at the sizes. They have confirmed the fact that, the majority of their clinic patients diagnosed with large isolated liver cancers are luckily at an early stage, safe for a removal operation. Up to date, they have successfully performed liver cancer removing operation for some 270 patients.

Researchers, at the same time, screened over 8,000 genes involving liver cancer metastasis and recurrences. Using molecular biological means, they spotted the gene named RhoC and confirmed that it plays a critical role in liver cancer metastasis and recurrences. The finding, creating a new thinking line for liver cancer metastasis prevention and control, will become a valuable tool in diagnosing and treating liver cancers and even other cancers.

MRI for Landslide Monitoring

Dr. LI Zhenyu, a research fellow at the China Geology University, uses Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique to monitor landslides, the first of its kind in the world, and has achieved desirable results.

According to Dr. LI, MRI is currently the sole geophysical method able to find water in a direct manner. The damage free technique is able to, without digging into earth, confirm if there is underground water, the water level, water volume at each level, and average porosity, The technique can also produce other information, including the position of landslide surface, depth, and distribution, providing scientific evidences for landslide body stability assessment and control.

During the period of 2001-2003, Dr. LI and others used MRI to monitor potential landslides across Zhaoshulin Mount in Badong County, Hubei Province. The MRI results showed that the landslide body was currently in a stable condition, which was later reconfirmed by the boring results. The costs of new landslide monitoring technique account for only 1/10th of the conventional techniques.

According to Dr. LI, this is the first instance of MRI application in geophysics, though it has been extensively used in clinic diagnosis. The technique can  also be applied in ground water pollution monitoring, river bank leakage detecting and groundwater prospecting.

Hybrid Wheat Progresses

A study of the temperature sensitive infertile YS wheat and its genetic features, chaired by Prof. HE Beiru at the Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry, has recently passed the verification check.

The research team headed by Prof. HE started the study of bilinear temperature sensitive infertile YS wheat in 1990. Thanks to their 13-year long tireless efforts, researchers successfully located in the short arm of a wild wheat's chromosomes, a gene involving temperature sensitive male infertility. They also developed a simple method to introduce the gene into ordinary wheat, which produces the temperature sensitive male infertile YS wheat able to grow in the Yellow River and Huaihe River valleys. According to researchers, the technique can turn any regular wheat into a temperature sensitive male infertile species. The trial growing in the nation's seven different latitudes shows that the new hybrid presents a stable male infertility over the winter wheat growing belts in Yellow River and Huaihe River valleys, Yunnan and Guizhou area, as well as over the spring wheat belts in northwest and northeast sections. The hybrid has proved desirable for spring and summer sowing in the Yellow River and Huaihe River valleys, as well as in Yunnan and Guizhou areas, with a self produced seeds rate from 40%-70% under required conditions. The self produced seeds, when sown in autumn, may present a complete infertility, with an adaptation range wider than other domestic or overseas temperature sensitive infertile hybrids in current applications.  

 NEWS BRIEFS

World First Instance of Chromosome Nucleon Abnormality

Researchers at the Xinxiang Medical Institute have recently identified a female patient with an inter-misplaced No. 3 and No. 6 chromosomes in her peripheral nucleon G.. Found in a routine cellular chromosome examination, the unusual nucleon type makes itself the first reported incidence in the world.

The young lady, 26 years old, had her chromosome examined at the Institute's cytobiology lab in early March 2004. Researchers found from the examinee's body a G chromosome nucleon with inter-misplaced No. 3 and No. 6 chromosomes. Upon the confirmation by the National Training Center for Cellular Genetics at the Xiangya Medical School, a part of the Zhongnan University, the finding becomes the world first reported instance of chromosome nucleon abnormality. While helping researchers to understand the possible genetic causes behind the examinee's habitual miscarriages, the finding also adds a precious element to China's genetic information database.

Power Storage Technology Helps

Recent years have witnessed the fast spread of electric power storage technology in China. As of the end of 2003, some 20 provinces or municipalities in the country have used power storage technology to offset peak power consumption by as much as 800,000 kw. Calculating on RMB 1,500/kw and RMB 900/kw for a make-up power source for peak cooling and heating power consumption, the power storage technology has saved a power infrastructure investment over RMB 5 billion. Up to date, there are some 300 projects, operational or under construction, using stored electric power for cooling. The technologies and equipment used in the projects have partially reached an internationally advanced level.

For example, Jiangsu Province, claimed a peak power consumption cutting capacity for 50,000 kw last year extensively using the power storage technology, has added a new cutting capacity of 70,000 kw this year. Zhejiang Province has become one of the areas having most ice energy saving projects. In Shaan’xi Province, government authorities has played a demonstrating role in transforming coal burning boilers into heat storage electric boiler for heating and hot water supply. The Beijing municipality has introduced 338 heat storage boiler projects, with a power consumption volume of 320,000 kw and a shifted peak power consumption over 200,000 kw, which saved some RMB 1 billion for constructing new power plants.


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