Month: August 2020

(Xinhua)14:36, August 04, 2020

A gene transcriptome database, consisting of reference transcripts from over 100,000 rapeseed genes, was released by Chinese researchers, according to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).

A research team from the Oil Crops Research Institute under the CAAS has decoded the transcription information of the rapeseed genome and constructed a landscape of the whole transcriptome of rapeseed genes with an advanced sequencing technique and its self-developed bioinformatics tools.

Containing about 1.2 billion bases and over 100,000 genes, the rapeseed genome lacked a reference transcriptome database owing to the technical restrictions previously, which restricted the research on the functional genes of rapeseed, said the team.

The database is expected to strengthen the understanding of the rapeseed transcriptome and be applied for further functional genomic research, according to the study published in The Plant Journal.

(Xinhua)08:43, August 05, 2020

Martian meteorites, seen as gifts from Mars and also a way to study the red planet, have attracted increasing interest from Chinese scientists in the past decades.

Recently, researchers from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) discovered coesite, a form of silicon dioxide, in a Martian meteorite for the first time, said a report by the Science and Technology Daily.

In the countrys first Mars exploration mission, China launched its Tianwen-1 probe, heading for the red planet, on July 23. The study on the precious stones has been moving forward since the first known Martian meteorite landed on Earth in 1815.

As of Aug. 2, a total of 276 pieces of Martian meteorites have been discovered on Earth, according to the meteorite database of the Meteoritical Society. However, more than 70,000 named meteorites in the world are contained in the database.

In all, the number of Martian meteorites found on Earth is very small and the total weight is only over 200 kg, said Xu Weibiao with the Purple Mountain Observatory under the CAS, adding that a Martian meteorite is less likely to fall to Earth than other asteroid meteorites.

In the database, the heaviest Martian meteorite, which landed in Nigeria in 1962, has a weight of 18 kg, and the lightest only weighs about 0.48 g.

Methods for identifying Martian meteorites are also constantly being updated with scientific and technological advances.

Initially, one method of identification was to measure whether the gas in the meteorite glass was consistent with the composition of the Martian atmosphere, said Zhang Aicheng, a professor from Nanjing University.

Asteroids landing on Mars at high temperatures would form molten glass, which would contain Martian gases. Consisting of gases like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, neon and krypton, the composition of the Martian atmosphere was analyzed by a U.S. Mars exploration rover in 1975.

Another method is to confirm the meteorites age by measuring its radioisotopic composition, Xu said.

Mars was volcanically active even 200 million years ago. Therefore, Martian meteorites are generally between 200 million and 2 billion years old, whereas the age of meteorites from asteroids or the Moon are much older.

In addition, the content of specific elements in Martian meteorites also provides support for identification. For example, a Martian meteorite has a different composition of oxygen isotopes from that of the Moon and Earth, Xu added.

At present, Martian meteorites are mostly found in deserts and the Antarctic region, said Zhang, adding that with a thick ice sheet, Antarctica can bury the fallen meteorites, and preserve them well for a long time.

Also, meteorites can be preserved in deserts owing to a dry environment for hundreds of thousands of years. But compared to the Antarctic region, where solid ice holds meteorites in place, they will not be concentrated in one area, said Lin Yangting with the IGG .

For years, Chinese scientists have devoted themselves to exploring clues about Martian life and evolution with the meteorites as a medium.

In 2014, Lins team discovered that the Martian mantle contained about a tenth as much water as Earths mantle, indicating that Mars is a very dry planet.

About 3 billion years ago, there was running water on the surface of Mars. As it gradually cooled, some of the water escaped from the red planet and some turned into underground glaciers and frozen soil, according to their research results.

We always wish to know what major geological changes took place on Mars and whether it is habitable for human beings, and we are expected to find more answers from Martian meteorites, said Xu.

(Xinhua)08:56, August 05, 2020

China has succeeded in completing the first integrated typhoon observation based on a large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

The UAV-based typhoon observation was conducted on Aug. 2 during Typhoon Sinlaku, the third typhoon this year, sweeping the coastal waters of south Chinas Hainan Province, said the CMA.

INTEGRATED OBSERVATION

Chinas independently-developed Wing Loong-10 UAV carried out this mission. During the flight, the UAV dropped 30 sondes, which conducted a stereoscopic scan of the outer cloud system together with the millimeter-wave radar.

Then the ground control center received real-time data on the outer cloud systems conditions, including the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, hydrometeor, etc.

It marked the success of Chinas first marine and typhoon integrated observation carried by a large UAV, also filling in a blank the country had in this field, according to the CMA.

Before this mission, the test team had conducted four observation tests in various meteorological environments, with different payloads carried by the UAV.

Professionals also used multiple detection means, such as the Fengyun meteorological satellite and an unmanned ship, to realize the stereoscopic observation.

Various numerical prediction results showed that typhoon forecasts can be improved by using observation data of aircraft dropsondes.

Qian Chuanhai, an official from the CMA, said although China has improved its typhoon forecasting capability in recent years, a lack of offshore observation data has limited the research on the generation mechanisms of typhoons, and the improvement of forecasting techniques.

The integrated marine and typhoon observation provided a reference for locating the center of Typhoon Sinlaku, and is of great significance to improve Chinas typhoon forecast accuracy, which is key to meteorological disaster prevention and reduction, Qian said.

CHINA-DEVELOPED LARGE UAV

According to Li Liangxu, director of the Meteorological Observation Center under the CMA, they will further improve the technical system by conducting large-scale UAV full-chain observation and providing typhoon detection services.

In 2018 the CMA initiated the project of the large UAV-based marine and typhoon integrated observation by using the Wing Loong-10 UAV, which was developed by the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

To meet requirements for the typhoon observation, the UAV developing team made adaptive improvements and conducted many tests, according to Zhang Zhijian, deputy designer of the Wing Loong-10 project of the AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Group Co., Ltd.

The Wing Loong-10 is a member of the China-developed Wing Loong UAV family with independent intellectual property rights.

In June, the AVIC announced that the Wing Loong-1, the other member of the Wing Loong family, had successfully passed a series of tests in an airfield in northwest China.

The successful tests showed that the Wing Loong-1 universal platform is capable of providing space-air-ground emergency communication support amid communication interruptions under emergency conditions.

The design and development of this large UAV platform reflects Chinas pledge to boost the construction of new infrastructure for high-end aviation technologies, according to the AVIC.

(Xinhua)17:16, July 31, 2020

China declared the official commissioning of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) on Friday, marking the formal opening of the newly completed BDS-3 system for global users.

The BDS system involves efforts of more than 400 agencies and 300,000 research personnel and technicians. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), developer of the satellites, has gathered leading experts and manufacturers from around the country, and integrated the most advanced technologies and high-quality materials and products for the project.

Under the mechanism, the Xian branch of the CAST undertook the development of rubidium atomic clocks.

Dubbed the heart of the navigation system, rubidium atomic clocks provide time and frequency standards for BDS satellites, and are key to the systems positioning, speed measurement and timing accuracy.

In the past two decades, the Xian branch has delivered more than 100 rubidium atomic clocks, including 70 high-precision rubidium clocks, to the BDS program.

China started to develop atomic clocks as early as the 1960s and 1970s. However, most of the research at that time was theoretical and ground-based.

As China decided to build its own satellite navigation system, self-developed rubidium atomic clocks proved to be of great significance to the autonomous control of the whole system.

The Xian branch developed the first rubidium atomic clock between 1996 and 2000, but there was still a long way to go before it could work in space as the clock had to stand the test of the vacuum environment, the impact of the launch and long-term irradiation.

In order to overcome the difficulties in developing rubidium atomic clocks for space, younger members of the research team have spent day and night in the lab and worked around the clock to carry out experiments.

I was touched by their dedication, said Lei Wenqi, a former leader of the rubidium atomic clock project at the Xian branch.

Chinas first self-developed rubidium clock was successfully tested on a satellite in 2006. Since 2012, Chinas self-developed rubidium clocks have fully replaced imported rubidium clocks in some of the BDS-2 satellites. In 2016, the Xian branch was capable of producing up to 50 satellite rubidium clocks a year.

In the future, our goal is to enhance the performance of rubidium clocks, and improve their daily timing accuracy from one billionth of a second to one 10-billionth of a second, Lei said.

(Xinhua)09:29, August 01, 2020

HANGZHOU, July 31 (Xinhua) — Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, announced on Friday that it has completed the construction of three super data centers with over 1 million servers.

The centers are located in east Chinas provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The company now has five super data centers, with the other two in north Chinas Hebei Province and south Chinas Guangdong Province. It plans to build more than 10 data centers of this kind in the future.

Energy-saving technologies such as liquid cooling are widely used at the centers. The liquid cooling technologies used at the newly built data center in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, can save more than 70 percent of energy.

Automatic operation and maintenance robots are also deployed at the centers, guaranteeing the safe operation of the centers 24/7.

In April, Alibaba Cloud announced that it would invest 200 billion yuan (about 28.66 billion U.S. dollars) in the research and development of core technologies such as cloud operating systems and servers, as well as the construction of data centers in three years.

(Xinhua)09:30, August 01, 2020

BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) — Astronomers have confirmed Antarcticas Dome A, where Chinas Kunlun Station is located, as an observatory site with optimal seeing.

Seeing is one of the important parameters for selecting an observatory site. Astronomers can obtain clearer star photos at sites where the seeing value is smaller.

A research team from the National Astronomical Observatories, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, measured the night-time seeing at Dome A in Antarctica with a median value of 0.31 arcseconds, with optimal seeing reaching 0.13 arcseconds.

Generally, the median values at the best sites in Hawaii and northern Chile are in the range of 0.6 to 0.8 arcseconds, which indicates that the Kunlun Station is a superior astronomical observatory site. The results lay a scientific foundation for Chinas further astronomical research in Antarctica.

Kunlun Station is located in Dome A, the highest point of the Antarctic inland ice sheet with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. Built in 2009, it is Chinas first Antarctic expedition station.

The study was published in the journal Nature. Researchers from Australia and Canada also contributed to the research.