More Accomplishments for 973 Program
China's 973 Program has achieved a number of notable accomplishments. For example, important breakthroughs have been made in ultraviolet and deep ultraviolet non-linear optic crystals KBBF and KABO preparation, as well as in deep ultraviolet harmonic wave production. The development has resulted in a 20×10×1.8mm3 KBBF and a 50×20×17 mm3 KABO weighing 30g. The findings have filed for both Chinese and US patents.
China has also registered three world records in KBBF components development: Nd:YAG's 6x laser power output, Ti:Sapphire's tunable 4x laser harmonic waves (200nm-170nm), and tunable deep ultraviolet coherent light output (197nm-193nm) with a valid 4.5mW power output. All the three are their first kinds in the world.
Experts believe that the findings can contribute to the further development of related key technologies. For example, when being applied in sophisticated laser processing, a 177.3nm laser source can be used to replace the 193nm source as in current use, or a tunable light source ( 200nm-170nm) may become available for the deep ultraviolet laser spectrometer. The application of these findings will not only materialize a leaping development in deep ultraviolet laser spectroscopy, but will also promote the development of deep ultraviolet optic-electric spectroscopy. The new technology will provide a full-solid 193nm examining light source for China's 193nm optic etching system, an omen for the future sizable development of China's 193nm optic etching technology.
Under conditions of a full-solid Q-laser 1064nm quasi-consecutive output, QPM and PPLN, researchers have observed a multi-color laser output of multi-channel effects. Scientists also, through cycle and temperature tuning, realized the simultaneous output of tunable wavelengths from 0.34 to 1.7 vm. With the assistance of an infrared chamber, they also obtained a wideband output ranging from 2.77 to 4.04 ochm. Searching results show that these findings are the widest up-and-down conversion of QPM-OPO in the world. The laser machine used in the experiment makes the first domestic prototype for the same caliber technology. Designed with a computer based automatic wavelength turning system and an interactive operating system, the new technology promises a full practical application.
CAS Harvested in 2003
In the course of meeting national strategic needs, working on world scientific cutting edges, selecting new scientific targets, and improving S&T innovation capacity, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) had harvested numerous innovative findings in 2003.
Facing the unexpected rampant SARS epidemics, CAS organized expertise and advantageous resources to combat the disease. It, in collaboration with the Beijing Genetics Institute and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, completed the first full sequence chart of coronavirus in the country, and worked out an enzyme based immunity testing agent. CAS Institute of Biophysics separated the world first 3-D coronavirus protease, which is of importance to the SARS prevention and control.
CAS also achieved notable findings in basic study, life science and biotechnology, high technology development, and sustainable resources and social development. In 2003, CAS successfully developed the master application system for the Shenzhou V manned spacecraft, with required effective payloads, materials and components. It also obtained rich findings in space environment explorations. CAS has developed a Legend SHENTEN 6800 supercomputer, with a testing speed reaching 4.183 trillion times a second, ranked 14th among the world top 500 supercomputers. The pilot experiment of “industrial technology development for coal based synthesized fluid fuel bed” has made substantive progresses, marking China's preliminary technical capacity for constructing a demonstration factory, following its previous solutions to the core technology for producing coal based synthesized oil. The study of Qinghai-Tibet railroad's frozen earth bed has resulted in successful solutions to the problem. In addition, CAS has worked out railroad communication and lightening protection technologies, vegetation restoration techniques for damaged railroad sections, and an engineering stability monitoring system. The findings derived from these studies have found full applications in the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad system. The air-born high resolution radar imaging system, developed by CAS, fed the decision makers with accurate and detailed flood images and data in combating floods in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, a basin suffering the severest flood disasters in 2003.
70-odd Key Manned Space Flight Technologies Solved
According to a recent briefing, Chinese scientists have so far solved more than 70 core technologies in China's manned space flight applications. Vigorous applied studies have also created more than 100 proprietary technologies and processes, which in turn spurs up the development of related fields.
Since 1999, the China manned space engineering application system has accomplished 27 tasks, with 243 effective payloads for SHENZHOU I-V's launch and orbiting experiments. The orbiting engineering success rate reached 99.58%. The ground centers' application systems, including tracking and receiving, monitoring and control, and pre-processing, all work properly without failure.
The primary key technologies solved by the China manned space engineering application system include: the medium resolution imaging spectrograph, a payload on SHENZHOU III and the second of its kind in the world working in space, following the US MODIS-N. With a fine image quality and spectrum resolution, the new spectrograph has been used in application studies, marking China's world advanced ranking in visible and infrared remote sensing technologies. Three onboard high accuracy earth environment measuring devices allow China to make its first measurement of major absolute earth environment data, with measuring results in agreement with internationally acknowledged results.
The multi-mode microwave remote sensors, part of SHENZHOU IV's payload, have collected rich scientific data of application values. New onboard instruments, including microwave radiometer, microwave altimeter, and microwave scatterometer, all called success in their first orbiting trial applications, which marks a major breakthrough in China's space remote sensing technology. Meanwhile, the accuracy orbiting technique enables the flying vehicle to be positioned at a 2-meter radial accuracy in lower orbit.
In the field of space science, China's space experiments and theoretical study of drip thermoca pillarity have reached an international leading level, with abundant findings harvested in space environment exploration, cell cultivation, cell electrofusion, protein crystallizing, space biological effects, and space metals.
The China space environmental prediction center made accurate forecasts for meteor storm incidents and other space environmental hazards that may endanger spacecraft launch and astronaut and spacecraft safety.
CAS Expect More Talents
In implementing the socalled S&T innovation personnel strategy, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) plans to place more emphasis on inter-generation shifting within its researcher contingent, paying more attention to cultivating and making strategic scientists and high caliber research personnel. The expected efforts will lead to an overall improvement of CAS researcher contingents and associated strength. CAS Vice President Mr. BAI Chunli told reporters that CAS will soon kick off a number of initiatives involving human resource development.
“Einstein Lecture Professors”. Internationally renowned science giants will be invited, under the project, to give lectures in China. And accomplished Chinese scientists will be selected to make academic visits in return. The project emphasizes communications and exchanges between CAS scientists and world top scientists, producing more China's own top notch scientists.
“The Spring of the Northeast”. CAS will, in line with the national strategy for rejuvenating traditional industrial bases in the northeast section, take full advantage of CAS personnel's strength in the region, and produce academic leaders and young talented scientists from there, through granting topic based researches, on-the-job doctorate study and localized training.
“Light of the West”. Made for scholar exchanging and forging a closer tie among researchers, the project has sub-projects dedicated to visiting scholars and joint research. The project will, in collaboration with the Ministry of Organization, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology, select young scientists from the west part of the country to be trained at CAS. At the same time, CAS will encourage its branches that are physically located in the east section to be part of the project, facilitating interactions between the eastern and western S&T personnel.
“Talents Caring”. The project will lead to steadily improved conditions for young scientists, including research budget, lab conditions, supporting staff and living conditions. In an effort to create a system environment favoring both personnel and career development, the project will stage an arena where S&T personnel can fully play their roles, encouraging innovations and allowing failures. The project will also address logistic issues concerning children's schooling and spouses' employment.
Zhumulangma Peak's First Weather Station
According to a statement released by the Tibet Autonomous Weather Bureau, an unmanned automatic atmospheric observation station will be erected, within the year, at a site as high as 5300m on the Zhumulangma Peak. The station will collect the Peak area's major weather data, including temperature, humidity, air pressure, precipitation, wind velocity, ultraviolet radiation and ground temperature. The establishment of a permanent weather station at this altitude will make up insufficient weather data on the area, and be a platform to accumulate weather data for studying the local climate variations.
With a total investment of RMB 27.35 million from the state treasury, the Project plans to construct 41 automatic weather stations in Tibet, including an unmanned automatic weather station in both the Zhumulangma Peak and Naqunima county. The Project expects to be competed at the end of the year. So far China has more than 1,600 automatic weather stations in operation.
The construction of 41 automatic weather stations will make the Tibet Autonomous Region fully automatic in weather monitoring, As a result, all weather information will be collected automatically, and be transmitted via satellite or cable network, without calling for manual data reading. These automatic weather stations will form up a surface automatic weather station network, automatically transmitting and utilizing weather data, and controlling weather stations' operation in a distant manner. When the project completes, the Tibet Autonomous Region's weather monitoring network will attain a domestic advanced level.
China's Super-Rice Remains a World Lead
Under the National 863 Program's support, China's super hybrid rice research, chaired by internationally renowned rice expert Prof. YUAN Longping, has advanced to a new stage. 16 new hybrid combinations, including Liangyoupeijiu, Liangyou E32, P88S/0293, Dyou 527, Yueza 889, have recently passed verification checks. Some widely growing new combinations have attained an average per-mu yield of 800 kg. For example, Dyou 527, growing widely in Sichuan, recorded a 931 kg per mu yield in 2002. The super hybrid rice combination, developed by the National Hybrid Rice Engineering Center, produced a per-mu yield of 826.27 kg, a record confirmed by the experts' check organized by the Hainan Agriculture Department in March 2003. A more important development is the Dyou 527 developed by the Sichuan Agriculture University, and the Liangyou E32 by the Jiangsu Academy of Agriculture Sciences have passed the export approval by the Vietnamese government. As a result, the export of Dyou 527 amounted to 3.2 million kg with a USD 4 million revenue. In 2003, the bilinear hybrid rice has claimed a 82.41 million mu growing area on a combined basis, producing an increased yield of 8.1 billion kg, and farmers' extra income of RMB 10 billion.
Up to date, China has remained a world leader in hybrid rice breeding, with both its techniques and products exporting to other nations.
Drip Irrigation Go Wider
China's proprietary under-film cotton drip irrigation technique, a successful combination of both film covering and drip irrigation on a cost reducing basis, has attained the dual targets of water efficiency and yield increase. It only takes a cost of RMB 500/mu(1mu=0.0667ha.) to diffuse the new technique. A low annual technical update cost of RMB 100 can produce a save of 50% of water, 20% of fertilizer, 10% of pesticide, and a yield increase of 20%, as compared with conventional irrigation techniques. With an integrated economic return as high as 40%, the increased per-mu yield alone may produce an extra income of RMB 175, and saved water of 250 m3.
The technique has been extensively applied in Xinjiang area. Statistics show that there are 2 million mu of cotton fields currently using the new drip irrigation technique, which makes China the largest country using the technique in the world.
Major Progress for Copper-Indium-Selenium Solar Battery
The Experiment Platform and Pilot Study of Copper-Indium-Selenium Solar Film Battery, a major project under the National 863 Program contracted to Prof. SUN Yun's study team at the Nankai University, has recently claimed a substantive progress with a photo-electric conversion rate as high as 12.1%.
The study team has achieved important progresses in understanding the genesis and dynamics of film materials, and the interactions between components and different material layers. The breakthroughs in key technologies have resulted in two invention patents. Meanwhile, researchers have raised the photo-electric conversion rate of copper-indium-selenium cells from the original 8%-10% to 12.1%, and the 3.5×3.6cm integrated cell's conversion rate to 6.6%.
SARS Data be Shared
To enhance China's public health emergency capacity, and to improve associated medical innovation capacity and international competitiveness, a SARS data sharing project, contracted to the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army, has recently been kicked off.
As a major component in the Medical and Health Data Management and Sharing Service System, the SARS data sharing project is designed to consolidate SARS related data sources, create four SARS databases involving medical basics, clinic study, preventive study, and Chinese traditional medicines, establish a SARS data searching system, construct a coordinated SARS online study environment, conduct SARS related geoenvironmental and epidemic studies, establish an authoritative and multi-lingual SARS prevention and control website, and place a comprehensive information service network and a comprehensive fever diagnosing information service platform in place.
China's Patents Over 2 Million
The China State Intellectual Property Office announced that as of March 17, China's patent filing volume has exceeded the milestone of 2 million applications.
Since the enforcement of the Patent Law on April 1st, 1985, China has witnessed a sustained growth for patent applications. On January 11, 2000, China's patent filing reached 1 million applications, for the combined total of both domestic and international filings. The 15-year average growth is 17.3%, with a 19.2% growth for domestic filing, or 5% higher than international filing. In last 4 and more years, the rapid S&T development, and notably enhanced public awareness of IP protection, has made China's patent filing enjoy a 23.1% annual growth. It is worth mentioning that both the total foreign filing and associated average growth in the 15 years before 2000 are higher than domestic filing. In last 4 and odd years, however, domestic filing sustained a 38.1% annual growth, at 152,000 applications on a combined basis, with both filing volume and growth exceeding foreign filing. Of the first million patent applications, invention filling took 27.6%. While in the second million, invention went up to 32.1%.
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