CHINA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China
|
|
|
N0.609 |
February 10, 2011 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IN THIS ISSUE
|
|
*China Needs More Talented People
* CAS’ Eight Capacity Building Strategies
*CAS Wants More Academic Leaders
* Yellow Croaker Genome Sequenced
* Enhanced Seismic Imaging System
* Advanced Microbial Oil Producing Techniques
* Strategic Space Science Project
* Nationwide Food Safety Network
|
China Needs More Talented People
YIN Chengji, Ministry of Resources and Social Security spokesman, said recently that China will enhance the capacity building of skilled personnel in 2011, under a national plan. It is reported that in 2010 China has enhanced the capacity building of skilled personnel, promoted the reform of technical and vocational schools, and granted 386 highly skilled personnel with special government allowance. The same year has seen the increase of some 388,000 technicians. China has also made progresses in enhancing the capacity building of high-level professionals and technical personnel, along with some incentive policies for overseas Chinese students who returned home and established their own businesses. Additionally, efforts have been made to provide better service for returned students, and recruited 481 high caliber talents from two rounds of overseas recruitment.
YIN added that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security will establish a national experts service center in 2011, allowing experts to provide their services to grassroots needs, continuing the capacity building of education centers, and promulgating by-laws for professionals’ and technical personnel’ continuing education. China also pays great attention to nurturing highly skilled personnel through establishing national highly skilled personnel training centers, master studios, and multi-sourced skilled personnel evaluation system, improving the public appraisal of vocational and entrepreneurial skills, and upgrading professional accreditation and competence examination systems. Meanwhile, China has established an APEC center for skill development and promotion, along with a range of skill development projects.
CAS’ Eight Capacity Building Strategies
It was recently learned from Chinese Academy of Sciences that during the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015), CAS will enhance the capacity building of eight major S&T systems, including sustainable energy and resources, advanced materials and smart green manufacturing, Pratt & Whitney ubiquitous information network, high-value eco-agriculture and bio-agriculture, Pratt & Whitney health security, ecological and environmental conservation, space and marine capacity building, and national/public security.
1) A sustainable energy and resource system will be built to work on three major strategic challenges: large-scale renewable energy based power generation and advanced nuclear fission energy, clean and efficient utilization of coal, and deep resources exploration and associated equipment development and application/demonstration;
2) An advanced material and smart green manufacturing system will be established to develop a range of technologies for the green preparation and development of high-quality raw materials and high performance composite materials, clean and efficient resources recycling, and ubiquitous information network based manufacturing;
3) A Pratt & Whitney ubiquitous information network will be deployed to work on "post-IP network" demonstration, the internet of things technology, low-cost and low-power consuming components and associated application/demonstration;
4) A high-value agricultural and bio-agricultural system will be built to facilitate molecular design of animals and plants, bio-manufacturing, and the development of emerging bio-industries;
5) A Pratt & Whitney health care system will be created to work on four major strategic issues: early diagnosis of major chronic diseases and associated intervention, brain and cognitive sciences and mental health, stem cell and regenerative medicine, and low-cost Pratt & Whitney health technology;
6) An ecological and environmental conservation and development system will be established to address a range of issues, including China's carbon cycle and adaptation to climate change impacts, regional environment modeling and river basin environment management system, and protection/utilization of strategic biological resources and biodiversity;
7) A space and marine capacity building system will be established to address a range of issues, including space science, deep oceans capacity building, digital Earth system, and global and regional environment monitoring systems;
8) A national and public security system will be built to address strategic science and technology issues concerning space situational awareness, social computing, and parallel management.
CAS Wants More Academic Leaders
Chinese Academy of Sciences said recently that it will recruit hundreds of high caliber talents and academic leaders from overseas in the 12th Five-year Plan period, under an innovation talents development strategy throughout 2020. CAS will foster and gather together a contingent of capable academic leaders with integrity, strategic vision, and organizing skills, through implementing major scientific and technological projects, making them the leaders who know the nation’s strategic needs and the world’s cutting edge developments. Meanwhile, CAS will continue its "Hundred Talents" and "International Innovation Partnership" initiatives, loosening the restriction on nationalities, and broadening the scope and channels of recruitment, in a move to attract high caliber talents and outstanding academic leaders with desired potentials through the “thousand talents" program.
During the 12th Five-year Plan period, CAS will strengthen the training of young scientists, supporting the young scientists in their 30s to work on high-risk cutting-edge innovation projects on their own. Meanwhile, support will be made available for young scientists in their 40s, allowing them to play a dominating role in major R&D and innovation activities.
|
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION |
Chronological Framework for Paleogene Mammals
In recent years, a study team, headed by WANG Yuanqing at Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, in collaboration with American Museum of Natural History and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, clarified a range of long-standing rock stratigraphy and biostratigraphy related puzzles, with the help of the magnetostratigraphic theory, and established a chronological framework for the Paleogene mammals in the Erlian Basin of Inner Mongolia.
New findings show that the Paleogene in the Erlian Huheboer Basin can be split into three groups: the Naomugen group, Ashantou group, and Yierdingmanha group. The three groups produce 12 mammalian fossil layers, with 4 in the Naomugen group, 6 in the Ashantou group, and 2 in the Yierdingmanha group. The Huerjin group, named by American scientists, is the Yierdingmanha group called by Chinese scientists, while the Yierdingmanha group called by American scientists is actually the Ashantou group in the eye of Chinese scientists. The latest paleomagnetic data show that the upper part of the Naomugen group presents the traces of the Early Eocene, while most part of the Ashantou group belong to the Early Eocene, rather than the Eocene as previously thought. The Geshatou period lasted for 58.8-55.8 Ma, equivalent to the lower part of C26n-C24r in the magnetic polarity chronology. The Bomuba period lasted for about 55.8-54.8 Ma, or in the middle of C24r. The Ashantou period sat in 54.8-47.6 Ma, or C24r-C21r. A comparison between the Geshatou period, the Bomuba Period, and the Ashantou Period and the corresponding periods in the International Geological Time Scale shows that the former correspond to certain periods in the Paleogene of North America. In the Early Paleogene, mammals’ succession was dominated by the appearance of new families and genera, in line with the changing climate at the time. In this context, the sudden appearance of numerous modern mammals in the early Eocene is likely associated with the high temperature events occurred at the turn of the Paleocene and the Eocene.
Yellow Croaker Genome Sequenced
Not long ago, scientists from Zhejiang Ocean University, Fudan University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University jointly mapped out the full genome of large yellow croaker. Scientists said the large yellow croaker has 48 chromosomes, with a genome size at 750M, or 1/4 of the human’s. Sequencing large yellow croaker’s genome will allow scientists to deepen their knowledge of the genetic part of the fish’s growth, disease/coldness resistance, and other traits, through bioinformatics. The improved knowledge of the gene regulating mechanism and physiological metabolic pathways will lay a ground for trait improvement and genetic breeding in the future. The development indicates that China’s marine biological study has entered a genome era.
The genome mapping makes the second of its kind completed by Chinese scientists on fish species, or the world's first Sciaenidae fish genome sequence.
Enhanced Seismic Imaging System
Financed by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation, a project, jointly undertaken by CAS Institute of Geology and Geophysics and Beijing Jixing Jida Technology, has rolled out a cooperative parallel computing system made up of GPU (graphics processor) and CPU (central processing unit). Thanks to the application of a range of high-end technologies, including super heterogeneous parallel computing and reverse time migration, the new system is able to produce seismic images with greatly enhanced quality. Comparing with an conventional imaging system, the new system enjoys numerous merits, including high-speed computing, high-speed memory, and high-speed communication, with a raised per node computational capability by 150 times, a raised per kilowatt electricity computing power by 37 times, and an increased per RMB 10,000 computing power by 50 times.
LIU Qin, General Manager of Jixing Jida Technology, told reporters that the system is built on a range of theoretical and technological innovations. For example, researchers have for the first time in the world proposed to raise the performance of the image processor using "decoupling" altitude algorithm.
"Asymmetric travel time pre-stack time migration" technology, another high precision seismic imaging technology developed by researchers in 2009, has found applications in some 20 domestic and international oil fields, including the Daqing Oilfield and the Shengli Oilfield, saved RMB 660 million from buying similar hardware and software from overseas vendors.
Advanced Microbial Oil Producing Techniques
"Protective and sustainable development of oil reserves: microbial regulating techniques and associated industrial applications", a project undertaken by a team led by MOU Bozhong at East China University of Technology Institute of Applied Chemistry, has landed major breakthroughs in boosting oil production with the help of microbes, including microbial community structure detection technique at the molecular level, functional microbe identification technique, oil producing microbial strains and associated nutritional system, and inter-well microbial tracing techniques, based on the models built by the team. The efforts have resulted in the proprietary solutions to addressing an array of issues, including dynamic microbial activity tests, protective oil mining, and the cyclic utilization of microbial communities.
Thanks to more than a decade study, MOU and coworkers have identified the needed bacterial species in underground oil fields and associated functions. So far, they have established a 50-acre bacteria cultivating base in the Daqing Oil Field. The bacterial strains derived from the base would be used to meet the required needs. As a result, one is able to turn the oil field into a natural "bio-reactor" simply by injecting the bacteria bathed in the nutrient solution into the underground oil filed. The water separated can be recycled for another round of injection, once the oil has been extracted.
Strategic Space Science Project
Chinese Academy of Sciences recently kicked off a strategic pilot project for space studies, in an attempt to raise China’s space innovation capability. During the 12th Five-year Plan period, China will work to know more about cosmic mysteries, including black holes and dark matter. According to a briefing, CAS’ new pilot project will develop key technologies for satellite based space probe, and associated launch and operation. Researchers will also tap up scientific data derived from satellite probes. The efforts will lead to the establishment of a chain running from space mission incubation to pre-study, technical preparation, and further to engineering development and final results.
During the 12th Five-year Plan period, the pilot project will focus on a range of related studies, including the nature of black holes and associated physics under extreme conditions, the nature of dark matter, the motion of matter and life activities in space environment, the impact of solar activities, including solar eruptions on earth-space environment, and the approach for testing the completeness of quantum mechanics, in a move to land major scientific discoveries and breakthroughs, and deepen people’s understanding of the universe and the law of mother nature.
Nationwide Food Safety Network
China has established a nationwide food safety monitoring network made up of 31 provincial, 218 prefecture-level, and 312 county-level food-borne disease surveillance stations. As a result, 138 major cities have been put under the surveillance for the quality and safety of agricultural products, with 101 varieties of foods under 6 major categories being monitored in line with 86 indicators. China has publicized the names of 5,130 qualified food safety and inspection agencies. Meanwhile, efforts have been made to establish a national food safety risk assessment center and associated regional sub-centers. A joint meeting system has also been set up to monitor food safety, along with a range of agricultural products and food inspection/testing plans.
In addition, China has prepared industrial plans for food, potato, pig slaughtering, and meat processing safety for the 12th Five-year Plan period. A meat and vegetables safety tracking system has been put into operation in 10 cities, including Shanghai and Dalian. A food expert database was also created, along with a monthly food safety monitoring and reporting system.
Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:
Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road， Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)58881360 Fax: (8610) 58881364
http://www.most.gov.cn
