Category: Science

(Xinhua)09:57, March 10, 2021

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The Hainan delegation to the ongoing fourth session of the 13th National Peoples Congress has put forward a proposal to establish a national laboratory that would boost innovation and development of the countrys seed industry at Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City in Hainan province.

The proposal touted Hainans unique advantages and conditions making it an ideal place to establish a national laboratory having seed research as its core business.

Thanks to Hainans tropical climate, more than 80 percent of the new plant varieties in China have been bred there. It attracts some 8,000 scientists and experts from around the country every year during winter and spring.

The Hainan provincial government has provided large areas of farmland as bases for scientific seed research and breeding. In addition, a number of important platforms 鈥?such as the National Tropical Agricultural Science Center and the Global Animal and Plant Germplasm Resources Introduction and Transfer Base 鈥?are being developed at Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City.

The central government released a master plan in June outlining a series of measures to turn all of Hainan Island into a high-level free trade port with strong international influence.

The proposal suggested that the Hainan FTPs preferential policies be fully leveraged to attract outstanding scientists from around the world, expand international cooperation and support exchanges in pursuit of breakthroughs in the seed industry.

(Xinhua)13:54, March 10, 2021

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) — China actively promoted international space cooperation in 2020, offering satellite exports and launches, cooperative research and application services to the world, according to a recent report on Chinas aerospace industry.

By the end of last year, 51 Chinese rockets had launched 59 foreign commercial satellites into space, said the 2020 Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology.

In January and November, Chinas Long March rockets took 12 commercial remote sensing satellites developed by Argentinas Satellogic into orbit. The company has agreed with the China Great Wall Industry Cooperation on plans to launch 90 satellites on Long March rockets.

In December, Ethiopia launched its second Chinese-backed satellite from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south Chinas Hainan Province. The preliminary design of the satellite was done in Ethiopia, while a joint Ethiopian-Chinese engineering team did the technical and detailed design.

The report said it set a new example of international aid on climate change.

At the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2015, the Chinese government pledged to provide satellite television for 10,000 African villages.

The report said 19 African countries completed project acceptance in 2020, covering 8,162 villages. The project also rolled out educational videos for primary and middle school students in countries like Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

(Ecns.cn)14:01, March 11, 2021

Chinese researchers have developed display textile made of smart electronic fabric. (Photo provided to China News Serivce)

(ECNS) — Chinese researchers have integrated the fabrication of display devices with the fabric weaving process, taking wearable technology a step further.

Made of smart electronic fabric, the display textile can function like a display through which people can browse information, send and receive messages.

The textile weaves conductive weft and luminescent warp fibers to form micrometer-scale electroluminescent units at the weft鈥搘arp contact points.

People with speech difficulties can communicate and express themselves efficiently and conveniently with clothes made of the textiles.

During polar scientific expeditions or geological exploration, a tap on the soft clothing will display the location information in real time, and mapped navigation can be guided by it.

The display textile is flexible and breathable and withstands repeated machine-washing, making it suitable for practical applications, said Professor Peng Huisheng from Fudan University, who led the research team.

This fabric is expected to promote rapid integration and development of traditional textile manufacturing and Internet of Things, human-computer interaction, big data and artificial intelligence, said Peng.

The research results were published online in the journal Nature on Thursday.

Chinese researchers have developed display textile made of smart electronic fabric. (Photo provided to China News Serivce)

(Xinhua)17:53, March 11, 2021

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) — China will increase spending on basic research, which is key to enhancing the countrys innovation capacity, Premier Li Keqiang said Thursday.

(Xinhua)15:36, March 08, 2021

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) — Chinas top legislature will revise the Law on Scientific and Technological Progress in 2021 to stimulate scientific and technological innovation, according to a work report.

The annual work report of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) Standing Committee was submitted Monday to the ongoing fourth session of the 13th NPC for deliberation.

(Xinhua)16:47, March 08, 2021

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XINING, March 8 (Xinhua) — The total power generation of northwest Chinas Qinghai Province hit about 6.55 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in February, with more than 40 percent from new energy, the provinces new biggest source of electricity, local authorities said.

It is the provinces first time to see power from new energy exceed that generated by hydropower in a single month. Qinghais previous biggest power source, hydropower, generated around 2.3 billion kWh, following the 2.63 billion kWh created by new energy during the same period, according to the State Grid Qinghai Electric Power Company.

The change marks the provinces march toward a new development stage of its new energy resources, as Qinghai becomes Chinas first province to see new energy represent its biggest source of monthly electricity generation, the company said.

Qinghai is known for its rich water, solar and wind power resources. In 2020, clean energy generation accounted for 89 percent of the provinces total power generation.

(Xinhua)13:56, March 09, 2021

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BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) — The 12th China Satellite Navigation Conference in 2021 (CSNC2021) will be held in May in Nanchang, east Chinas Jiangxi Province, highlighting the role of spatiotemporal data, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.

The CSNC2021 will focus on the most recent technological and industrial application achievements of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and development trends of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), the office said.

The three-day conference, held from May 26 to 28, will feature high-level forums, academic exchanges and exhibitions.

It will invite top experts and industry insiders from both home and abroad in the GNSS sector to exchange ideas on frontier topics and explore breakthroughs in industrial applications.

Since 2010, the annual China Satellite Navigation Conference played key roles in boosting technological breakthroughs and sustaining the BDS construction and application, as well as enhancing the competitiveness of the BDS.

China officially commissioned BDS on July 31, 2020, opening the new BDS-3 system to global users.

Along with positioning, navigation and timing services, the BDS-3 system can provide a variety of value-added services like global search and rescue assistance, short message communication, ground- and satellite-based augmentation, as well as precise point positioning.

(Xinhua)13:54, March 06, 2021

GENEVA, March 5 (Xinhua) — World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Friday that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more mass trauma than World War II and warned of its lasting consequences.

The world has experienced mass trauma because World War Two affected many, many lives, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a virtual press conference.

And now, even with this COVID pandemic, with bigger magnitude, more lives have been affected, almost the whole world is affected, he said, adding that the pandemic induced mass trauma is beyond proportion and even bigger than what the world experienced after the Second World War.

Countries have to see it as such, and prepare for that, he warned.

Evidence of mass trauma has been presented by other organizations, such as the International Council of Nurses, which warned on Jan. 13 of the effects of the pandemic on nurses mental health.

Mass trauma could even affect transmissibility, as it would be very difficult to sustain behaviors that stop the epidemic for affected communities, said Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHOs Health Emergencies Programme, at the press conference.

The mental health and psychosocial support to individuals and communities must be central to all recovery plans and must be costed in to those plans, he said.

According to Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead for the WHO, there needs to be a lot more emphasis by governments, by communities, by families, by individuals to look after our well-being.

(Xinhua)13:54, March 06, 2021

GENEVA, March 5 (Xinhua) — COVAX, the international vaccine campaign co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, had delivered more than 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 20 countries, the WHO chief said on Friday.

Earlier this week, the first COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Africa using doses provided by COVAX began in Ghana and Cote dIvoire, which were later followed by shipment to another 18 countries, mostly in Africa.

In the next week, COVAX will deliver 14.4 million doses to a further 31 countries,WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.

However, the volume of doses being distributed through COVAX is still relatively small, only covering between two and three percent of the population of the countries receiving the vaccines through COVAX, he said.

Tedros said his organization is working on efforts to connect companies who are producing vaccines with others who have excess capacity to fill and finish, as as to help speed up production and increase volumes.

He also reiterated the call for vaccine technology transfer from companies owning patents on vaccines to those who can produce them.

A good example of this approach is AstraZeneca, which has transferred the technology for its vaccine to SKBio in the Republic of Korea and the Serum Institute of India, which is producing AstraZeneca vaccines for COVAX, he said.

COVAX aims at ensuring that no participating economy will be left behind in accessing COVID-19 vaccines. Its core target is to deliver two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021.

(Xinhua)09:02, March 08, 2021

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SKOPJE, March 7 (Xinhua) — The first batch of 3,000 doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V against COVID-19 arrived in North Macedonia on Sunday, Health Minister Venko Filipce said via a Facebook post.

The minister said that the first shipment of 3,000 doses of Sputnik V, which arrived at Skopje International Airport on Sunday, will ensure the continuation of the immunization process that has already started in the country.

A total of 200,000 doses of vaccines have been ordered, according to Filipce.

These vaccines will be used to vaccinate the elderly with chronic diseases and elderly citizens in the nursing houses, Filipce added.

Vaccination against COVID-19 started in North Macedonia on Feb. 17.

On Sunday, the Health Ministry reported 333 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally of confirmed coronavirus cases in North Macedonia to 107,163, with 94,729 recoveries and 3,195 fatalities.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 261 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide — 79 of them in clinical trials — in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Friday.