China Scientist Awards Blog

  The exterior design of China's moon-landing spacesuit is unveiled on Saturday at the third Spacesuit Technology Forum in Chongqing.  The China Manned Space Agency has unveiled the exterior design of the country's moon-landing space­suit for the first time, soliciting its name from members of the public The white spacesuit with red stripes debuted on Saturday at the third Spacesuit Technology Forum in Chongqing. The design incorporates exquisite traditional art and represents the spirit of bravery and exploration of the Chinese people, according to the agency. The red stripes on the upper limbs are inspired by ribbons from the famous " flying apsaras" of Dun­huang art, while those on the lower limbs resemble rocket launch flames. The agency said the spacesuit is made from protective materials that can effectively shield astronauts from complex environmental factors on the moon such as vacuum, extreme temperature, radiation and lunar dust. The suit is equipped with ...

  Chinese scientists have created an energy generator that harnesses the transpiration of plants to create electricity, which could transform almost all leaves on Earth into a sustainable and continuous  energy source .The team said its leaf transpiration generator – which they demonstrated using a lotus leaf – was able to power small electronic devices, and could be used to create plant-powered electricity networks. “This study not only uncovers the unprecedented hydrovoltaic effect of leaf transpiration but also provides a fresh perspective for advancing green energy technologies,” the team wrote in a paper published in peer reviewed journal Nature Water on September 16. Hydrovoltaic electricity relies on the movement and interaction of water with solid surfaces. Current devices often require a consistent water supply, creating geographic limits as devices must be near bodies of water, such as rivers or dams.  “However, the natural transpiration of plant leaves, as t...

  Chinese scientists say they have discovered the world’s oldest known cheese, dating back around 3,500 years, buried alongside mummies in the Tarim Basin in far west China. The team found the DNA of goats and fermenting microbes from Bronze Age dairy samples scattered around the necks of mummies in coffins at the Xiaohe cemetery in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region .“It appears that the Xiaohe population actively adopted animal husbandry from steppe culture and that the related fermented milk product, kefir cheese, became an important part of the Xiaohe culture and subsequently spread further in inland East Asia,” they said in a new study. The researchers from the C hinese Academy of Sciences , the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University Third Hospital, the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute and Xinjiang University published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on Wednesday.  Kefir is a fermented drink made with milk and k...

  Chinese scientists have created a type of self-renewing  stem cell  from  giant pandas  for the first time, an important step for the conservation and preservation of the animals and possibly other endangered species. The researchers from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding and Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health said their technique could overcome constraints on safeguarding the genetic diversity of pandas, and allow for more advanced research, including into their diseases. There are an estimated 2,000 giant pandas in the wild, and like many other endangered species, they face threats to their survival through human activities such as logging and the creation of roads. Although efforts to conserve the population through habitat protection and captive breeding have been effective, research has warned that some panda populations face an extinction risk of over 90 per cen t, making it “ imperative ” to preserve panda genetic resourc...

  China is rapidly narrowing the gap with the United States in medical research publications, a trend fuelled by both government policies and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a top scientific publisher. Marie Souliere, head of editorial ethics and quality assurance at Frontiers, one of the biggest academic publishers in the world, said she had seen China’s overall research output slowly overtake that of the US, and the lead was most striking in the field of medicine. “China overtook the US in share of medicine-related articles in 2019, with 22 per cent of our published content in those fields, versus 19 per cent for the US. Since then, the China share has grown, and maintains around 40 per cent,” Souliere said in an interview with the Post this month. “At Frontiers alone, 15,158 medicine articles by Chinese researchers were published in 2023, almost eight times more than … in 2019.” “China’s rise in cancer research, particularly in oncology and immunol...

  The Second Frontier Forum of Space Medicine kicks off in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in East China,  HANGZHOU -- China is working on serving a more diverse range of food options for future deep-space exploration missions, according to the Second Frontier Forum of Space Medicine held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in East China. During the recently concluded Mid-Autumn Festival, a cherished tradition symbolizing family reunion, the Shenzhou XVIII crew aboard China's orbiting space station enjoyed "space mooncakes " stuffed with lotus paste as well as their personal favourites such as spicy lamb and braised pork chops, which had been prepared in advance by the ground support team. "We have developed technologies to bring Chinese cuisine to the 'space dining table', allowing astronauts to enjoy ' home-cooked flavors '," said Li Yinghui, a researcher at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center. Li added that China has advanced precision ...