Targets for China's Key S&T Projects
Mr. Xu Guanhua, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology has recently publiciz ed the priority objectives of the National Key S&T Projects Program for the 10th Five-Year Plan period(2001-2005) as follows: surrounding the major S&T issues and calling for urgent attention in the current national economic and social development, gathering together the forces to attack on the critical and common technologies that will play major roles in promoting the technical upgrading and restructuring of industrial sectors or in stimulating the sustainable social development, accelerating the applications and industrialization of high tech results and improving the international competitiveness of the major industries and people's life quality.
In the field of agriculture, priorities will be placed on addressing the major a nd key technologies imposing extraordinary effects on promoting technological advances and increasing farmers' income. By 2005, China's overall S&T level in the agricultural sector shall see a narrowed gap from the internationally advanced level with some areas reaching the internationally advanced level in five years.
Priority efforts will be made on the development of key and integrated technolog ies of strong stimulus to the industrial upgrading with extensive coverage and relevance. By 2005, the overall technology and equipment level of major industrial sectors such as information, manufacturing and infrastructure construction shall reach or approach the world advanced level with improved international competitiveness.
The major and key technologies closely associate with the coordinated development of population, resources and environment and national security also sit on the priority list, aiming at improving the nation's sustainable social developm ent capacity, national security and people's life quality.
The Key S&T Projects Program shall become the one that will make the industrial enterprises the mainstream of technical innovation, nurture the capable S&T cont ingent and create technical innovation bases of international competitiveness.
Bumper Harvest for National High-tech Parks
During the 9th Five-Year Plan period, China's national high tech industrial de velopment parks have sustained a fast growth. As is shown by the statistics, in 20 00 the aggregate revenues of the national high tech development parks in the cou ntry had amounted to RMB 920.9 billion with a total industrial output value of R MB 794.2 billion, financial revenues RMB 46 billion and foreign exchanges from e xport USD 18.6 billion, landing a respective growth of 106 times, 112 times, 118 times and 103 times against 1991. The industrial additional values of these hig h tech parks have recorded RMB 197.9 billion in the year, or RMB 50.3 billion up against the previous year and 24% of the newly added portion in the nation's total industrial additional value. High tech parks have become important bases for China's high tech industrial development as well as new economic growth point.
As is briefed by Xu Guanhua, Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the number of China's national high tech parks has grown from 26 in 1991 when t he State Council granted its approval of the establishment of national high tech industrial parks to the current 53. In the course of the development, the natio nal high tech parks have long sustained a high growth with similar fast developm ent of their scales. As is shown by the statistics, at the end of last year, the re were 20,796 national high tech parks in the country, of which the ones that h ad been able to turn out an annual output over RMB 100 million reached 1,252 in number, the ones over RMB 1 billion 143 and over 10 billion 6. Furthermore, Chin a is witnessing the continuous uprising of such super enterprises. Compared with the previous decade, the enterprises in the parks whose output value went over RMB 100 million were only 7 in number.
Recent years have seen the industrial spin-off of 6,000 S&T results from nationa l high tech parks at provincial or ministerial level with the number of high tec h products of independent intellectual property rights or owned by enterprises r eaching 80% of the total products manufactured in the parks.
Ecological Plateau Railway
To build it into the first ecological plateau railway in the country, the Author ities of Tibetan Autonomous Region are now working together with the experts from the Ministry of Railway to address the technical and ecological difficulties encountered in the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway with the latest plateau railway construction technology in the world.
According to the plan, the said railway is supposed to run through three major e cological belts, namely the desert belt suffering extremely little precipitation , the permanent tundra belt at high sea level and the one of fine natural conditions. Obviously, only the last one is easier for ecological protection. Experts have worked out ecological plans by taking into account the special situations o f these ecological belts. They are planning to erect an extensive sand break forests along the desert so as to form a railway protection belt with both woods and grasses. Strict design procedures will be practised in the construction of the section over the tundra belt so as to keep the thermal equilibrium over there.
It is briefed that Qinghai-Tibet railway will run through a few national nature conservation zones such as Three River Origins and Qiangtang. In this context, the impacts of railway construction on wild animals constitute a major problem. Both the central and local authorities have organized experts to study the living habit and migration routes of the wild animals inhabiting there and make the ro om for their migration needs. When passing through the nature conservation zones , the construction of the railway will follow the principle 'avoid touching the nature conservation zone as much as possible'. The protection of the water bodie s over the Three River Origins is another priority for preventing the ecological disasters that could be caused by the construction.
In addition, the Tibetan Autonomous Region will collaborate with experts of the railway sector to impose strict regulations on the construction of the entire ra ilway so as to prevent the wanton development, unwanted tree felling and the activities damaging ecology. To protect the vegetation cover, the construction will be phased with migration of vegetation so as to minimize the damage. At the section south of Kunlun Mount. where a fine natural condition prevails, fine grass species suitable for the plateau will be selected to grow with the applications of numerous advanced technologies such as air-born seeding and film covering so as to restore the ground vegetation covering.
World First Full Sequencing for Mononuclear Polyhedron Virus
On the basis of their one year and more collaboration, the scientists of Wuhan I nstitute of Viruses under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Holland based Wach ningen University have recently completed the full sequencing of mononuclear pol yhedron virus of Chinese cotton worms. The result that has seen the first report in the world is not only of important theoretical value to the studies of genet ic composition of bacilliform viruses and their molecular evolution but has also created conditions for the development of new generation virus-restructuring based pesticides.
It is briefed that mononuclear polyhedron virus is a special pathogenic virus of the cotton worms separated by the Wuhan Institute in the first place. It was applied in the prevention and control of the cotton worms and registered as the first virus based pesticide in China in 1993. At present, the annual capacity of the pesticide production reach 200-400 tons with an applied area of 2 million mu/time.
Major Breakthroughs in Quantum Computer
Prof. Guo Guangcan of China S&T University and his research team have found thro ugh their experiments that quantum state may produce a collective effect under t he super radiation condition and maintain its coherence in a non-coherent envir o nment. The finding has been termed by international academic community as non-coherent sub-space theory. The coding of quantum computation has long been deemed a most effective means to overcome non-coherence. Equipped with their non-cohere nce sub-space theory, the research team headed by Prof. Guo have created the pr i nciple for no-mistake quantum coding, the first of its kind in the world, which has brought out a fundamental solution to the systematic computation errors caused by coding process in quantum computation.
Prof. Guo and his team have opened up a unique approach running against the prev ious study direction trying to show the non-cloning property of quantum, and ra t her proposed quantum probability cloning mechanism that has been repeatedly reco nfirmed by many internationally renowned labs and honored as Duan-Guo Probabili t y Cloning Mechanism. The efficiency formula for maximum probability cloning they have inferred is internationally referred to as Guo-Limit. Their findings have shown that the breakthrough in quantum computation theory will expect the replac ement of current prevailing computers by quantum mechanism, which will advance c omputer manufacturing in the direction of atomic level and has laid a theoretic foundation for the technological revolution in the information field.
New Technology Tapping Geothermal Resources
New Geothermal Tapping Technology and Products Development, a major S&T project for the 9th Five-Year-Plan period undertaken by the Geothermal Center of Tianjin University has recently passed the verification and appraisal check. It is briefed that made UP of three sub-projects, the project has turned out a new product and two new technologies for the geothermal applications and development in the country. Of them, the study on the applications of geothermal pump produces a new energy efficient technology that is able to make the geothermal tail water r anging from 40C-45C into the low temperature heat source with the newly developed geothermal pump and then produce the hot water of 60C-80C from the recover ed heat. As a result, the surplus heat can be utilized and the target of energy recycling reached. In addition, the new technologies tapping up geothermal resources developed by Tianjin University such as constant voltage based frequency conversion and controlled tuning have played critical roles of water and power efficiency in the geothermal applications. In a two-week trial running at a geother mal station in Tianjin, the said new technologies have shown that they can greatly save the water and power and reduce the unit running cost while finding the solutions to the real time monitoring of the eroding and its process on geothermal facilities. The geothermal high temperature submarine pump developed by Tianjin University can be used in the high temperature geothermal well ranging 100C-120C , a desirable substitute for imported products but with a price only one seventh that of the latter.
China's First S&T Activities Week
On May 14, 2001, China's first S&T Activities Week lifted its curtain at Beijing based Zhongshan Park. At the opening ceremony, Mr. Xu Guanhua, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology delivered the important instructions made by Jiang Zemin, President of the People's Republic of China and the congratulation letter honored by Mr. Li Lanqing, Vice Premier of the Chinese State Council. Approved by the State Council, China will run, starting from this year, S&T Activities Week in the third week of every May so as to let more people have the access to S&T activities.
The S&T Activities Week running from May 14 to 20 this year was dominated with a main theme “science and technology at my side”. During the period, governmental agencies such as the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Associations on Science and Technology had in collaboration with other social organizations launched a series of theme based activities all over the country such as teenagers' involvement in the science world, technical competition of industrial staff, S&T diffusion in rural areas, the opening of research institutions and university labs to the public, popular science exhibitions, China-foreign S&T movie shows, S&T lectures and popular science awareness at household communities, S&T tours and etc.
China's First Expedition for No-Man's Land in Tibet
On May 14, 2001, a scientific expedition team membered of 30 and more people started to head for the northern section of Tibet. The expedition makes the first of its kind in the country. Nicknamed the back ridge of the world, the northern section of Tibet sits on an altitude of 5,000 m above sea level with scarce oxygen and poor natural conditions. As is briefed by Zheng Mianping, head of the expedition team and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the no-man's swampland in the northwest section of Tibet is intermingled with lakes and streams and rich in salt minerals, salt lake living creatures. The chirus, the wild animal under the national first class protection also make their reproduction here. The investigations will aim at the salt mineral resources, salt lake and associated living creatures and ecological system, geothermal resources and associated mines. The expedition will travel about 8,000 km and cover an area of 100,000 km2 in one and half months.
Wild Camel Expedition Completed
China Luobupo Wild Dual-peak Camel Scientific Expedition jointly sponsored by Chinese Central TV Station, Xinjiang Ecological and Geographic Institute under Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang Institute of Environmental Protection, Peking University and Beijing Zoo has not long ago completed its investigations in Luobupo area of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, a major habitat of the wild camels. It is briefed that the expansion of man's economic activities with excessive farming, the drought of Luobupo lake, the attack of wolves and man's killing has made wild camel's activities confined to a limited area with a descending trend for both its species and number. At present, there are about 300 to 500 wild camels in China.
During the expedition, the investigators have witnessed wild camels for four times with once having more than a dozen of camels in sight. The said expedition is the first of its kind in the country in terms of the advanced techniques it applied, scale, in-depth and live TV coverage, though in the 1980s, Chinese scientists had already made investigations on wild camels.
Successful Introduction of Taiwania Flousiana
It is reported that the local forestry authorities of Yunnan Province has successfully grown the world rare tree species Taiwania flousiana in the origin area of Red River and made them into exuberant forest. Weishan County is the origin of Red River. To improve the ecological environment of the origin, rescue the endangered rare tress species and protect forestry resources, the local forestry department has introduced Taiwania flousiana, a rare tree species under class one national protection, in 1987 for the experimental growing. On the basis of their hard working on seeding and bag based seedling breeding, the local for estry authorities have planted 12,000 Taiwania flousiana trees in one year and secured a survival rate of 85% and above. So far the tallest Taiwania flousiana trees grown in Weibaoshan National Forest Park and Fuqing Water Reservoir has reached 8.5m with a width of 0.16m, landing an annualized height growth of 0.7m.
Being a rare species in the world, Taiwania flousiana tree is able to grow to a height of 75m, or equal to a height of a 20-storied building. It has habitually grown in a limited areas such as Burma, China's Taiwan, Guizhou and Yunnan. Having stood the weathered tests of four glacier periods, Taiwania flousiana is one of the few remaining plants proud of a 110-million-year history, though others in the same family all went extinct. It has an honorable name conferred by the academic community ‘living fossil’.
Hepatitis B Diagnosing Chip
Applied with the existing genetic research findings and DNA chip technologies, Nankai University and Nankai Genetics Co. Ltd. have turned out a genetic diagnosing chip for hepatitis B. Pre-recorded with 21 pieces of quality control information and 429 genetic types of hepatitis virus, the chip is able to test the different areas of hepatitis B virus genes in a drop of blood through 400 and more probes on a multiple-point basis. Through providing a large information flow for the testing and securing a super accuracy of 100%, the testing is not only able to identify the sub-types of virus genes but also able to track the result of genetic changes, which provides the information for the medical prescriptions and lower the costs for clinic diffusion. Up to date, the said technique is positioned at the leading rank in the world.
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