Text |China Science Daily reporter Meng Lingxiao
At the end of the year, the 2023 domestic and international "year-end science and technology inventory" lists have been released recently.
In the brightest science and technology news of the year, there is a name that appears frequently: the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
You can look up and use the "China Sky Eye" to quickly explore the universe, and you can look down to increase grain production on saline-alkali land
In Zhiguang, it can support the national space laboratory, and in the smallest place, it can draw a map of the development of the human immune system.
This is the responsibility and responsibility of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a "national team" and "national person", concerned about "national affairs", shouldering "national responsibilities", and fulfilling the responsibilities and responsibilities of the main force of the national strategic scientific and technological forces.
1. On December 26, in the "This Year, Our Major Scientific and Technological Achievements (223 Special Report)" released by the People**, 5 achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were selected, of which 3 were completed independently, 1 was led and 1 was completed.
"Lasso" completely recorded the whole process of the explosion of "cosmic fireworks".
Accurate measurement of the high-energy radiation spectrum of the brightest gamma burst to date
Wide-angle Cherenkov Telescope Array (WFCTA) of the high-altitude cosmic ray observatory "Lasso". Photo by Ren Hui.
Editor's Testimonial. About 2 billion light-years away, in the depths of the universe, a "super-sun" collapses when it runs out of fuel**, emitting a brilliant "cosmic firework" that lasts for hundreds of seconds - gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A. For the first time, China's high-altitude cosmic ray observatory "Lasso" completely recorded the whole process of the trillion-electron volt gamma-ray burst of the brightest gamma ray burst so far, and on this basis, the "Lasso" international cooperation group accurately measured the high-energy radiation spectrum of the brightest gamma ray burst so far, and refreshed the understanding of gamma burst. (Chen Yuanyuan).
Said the witnesses. A series of major discoveries made Lasso the center of international cosmic ray research, opening a new era of "ultra-high-energy gamma astronomy". - Cao Zhen, Chief Scientist of the "Lasso" project.
China's space station has entered the stage of application and development
For the first time, a high-definition image of China's space station was released
A full view of China's space station complex. Courtesy of China Manned Space Engineering Office.
Editor's Testimonial. In the vast universe where hundreds of millions of years are often measured, more than 30 years of manned space flight may only be a snap of a finger, but it has marked a new height of scientific exploration in the boundless sky of an ancient civilization. In 2023, China's space station will enter the stage of application and development, and the high-definition image of China's space station will be released for the first time. (Guan Xuanyue).
Said the witnesses. The body can be weightless, but the mind can never be weightless, and only by going all out can we live up to the times and dreams. - Shenzhou 17 crew commander Tang Hongbo.
Said the witnesses. Build a quantum computing prototype "Chapter 9 No. 3".
A new world record for optical quantum information technology
Schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus of the quantum computing prototype "Jiuzhan No. 3" (partial). Courtesy of University of Science and Technology of China.
Editor's Testimonial. From "Chapter 9 Arithmetic" to today's "Chapter 9" quantum computer, thousands of years have engraved Chinese's quest for computing. The research team composed of Pan Jianwei and Lu Chaoyang of the University of Science and Technology of China, in cooperation with the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Parallel Computer Engineering Technology Research Center, successfully built a 255-photon quantum computing prototype "Jiuzhan No. 3", which once again set a new world record in optical quantum information technology and solved Gaussian boson sampling mathematical problems 100 million times faster than the fastest supercomputer at that time. (Chen Shihan).
Said the witnesses. To do scientific research that requires a lot of hard work to jump up and get it, and to do it to the extreme. ——Professor Lu Chaoyang, University of Science and Technology of China.
Said the witnesses. The Mozi Survey Telescope was officially put into operation
The world's most capable optical time-domain survey equipment
Mozi Survey Telescope. Courtesy of University of Science and Technology of China.
Editor's Testimonial. More than 2,000 years ago, Mozi was the first to record and explain the phenomenon of small hole imaging. Today, the large field of view survey telescope named after "Mozi" allows people to look up at the same sky. On September 17, the Mozi Survey Telescope, which has the strongest optical time-domain survey capability in the world, was officially put into observation at the Lenghu Astronomical Observation Base in Qinghai, and can survey the entire North Celestial Sphere once every three nights. Looking up at the vastness of the universe, exploring the bright stars, chasing the sky, human beings are constantly walking. (Cao Xuemeng).
Said the witnesses. We will use the Mozi Survey Telescope to carry out high-energy time-domain survey observations and monitoring and early warning of near-Earth small objects, so as to promote China's time-domain astronomical observation capability to reach the international advanced level. ——Kong Xu, chief designer of the Mozi Survey Telescope.
Said the witnesses. China's Tianyan sees "ripples in time and space".
Discover the key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves
China Sky Eye. Source: National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Editor's Testimonial. Gravitational waves are called "ripples of time and space" and carry the mysteries of the universe. The Chinese Pulsar Temporal Array research team used the Chinese Sky Eye FAST to detect the key evidence of the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, which is an important breakthrough in the search for nanohertz gravitational waves and helps to understand the origin of the structure of the universe. China's Tianyan has made frequent achievements, constantly expanding the limits of human observation of the universe. (Chen Yuanyuan).
Said the witnesses. The development of large-scale scientific research facilities in China has brought great opportunities and challenges to the scientific community, and we will work harder to explore in the future and live up to the mission of the times. ——Li Kejia, researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Said the witnesses. 2. **In the top ten domestic and international science and technology news in 2023 released by Radio and Television Station, 6 scientific research achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were selected, of which 2 were completed independently, 2 were led and 2 were participated.
[5 items selected in China].
[1 international selection].
3. On December 25, the top ten domestic and international science and technology news in 2023 were announced, sponsored by the Science and Technology Society and jointly selected by some academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Six scientific research achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were selected, of which 1 was completed independently, 2 were led and 3 were participated.
[5 items selected in China].
The main alkali tolerance genes and their mechanism of action in crops were revealed for the first time
Saline-alkali land has become fertile land, this is the dream of human beings for thousands of years. Now, the latest achievements of Chinese scientists have brought mankind one step closer to this goal - they have discovered the main alkali tolerance gene AT1 and its mechanism of action for the first time using sorghum, a saline-alkali tolerant crop. Field experiments have proved that this gene can significantly increase the yield of sorghum, rice, wheat, corn and millet in saline-alkali land, and is expected to greatly improve the comprehensive utilization level of saline-alkali land.
The research was completed by a scientific research team led by Xie Qi, a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yu Feifei, a professor at China Agricultural University, and Ouyang Yidan, a professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, and a number of cooperative units. The results were published in Science and National Science Review on March 24.
Baicheng, Jilin Province, an experimental field planted with AT1 GS3 improved rice (aerial photo). *Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
There are hundreds of millions of hectares of saline-alkali land in the world, and the cultivation and promotion of high-quality saline-alkali tolerant crop varieties will effectively improve the production capacity of saline-alkali land, which is of great significance to ensure food security. Xie Qi introduced. At present, a lot of research has been made in the research of crop salt tolerance, but the mechanism of crop alkali tolerance is still poorly understood.
The research team conducted genome-wide big data association analysis on sorghum genetic resources and found a major alkali tolerance gene, AT1. This gene is homologous to GS3, a grain shape regulator gene in rice, and the research team also revealed the molecular mechanism of crop salinity tolerance. Subsequent studies found that the regulatory mechanism of AT1 GS3 gene in rice, wheat, maize, and millet was also highly similar.
"China's Sky Eye" found key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves
The search for nanohertz gravitational waves is one of the most important issues in the field of international physics and astronomy. Using the 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope, known as the "eye of China's sky", China's pulsar time measurement array (CPTA) research team found key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves. This is an important breakthrough in the search for nanohertz gravitational waves, which shows that China's nanohertz gravitational wave research has reached the leading level in sync with the world. The research results were published in Astronomical and Astrophysical Research on June 29.
China Sky Eye. **National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
As a low-frequency gravitational wave, nanohertz gravitational waves, with wavelengths of several light-years, are an eternal background noise in the universe. Compared to the high-frequency gravitational waves, which were first discovered in 2016, they are more difficult to "listen to" and require years of data collection.
Long-term time-measuring observations of a group of millisecond pulsars with extremely regular rotation using large radio telescopes are the only known nanohertz gravitational wave detection methods.
Using the 'China Sky Eye', we carried out long-term systematic monitoring of 57 millisecond pulsars, and formed these millisecond pulsars into a galactic-scale gravitational wave detector to search for nanohertz gravitational waves. *Corresponding author Li Kejia, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at Peking University, said that the hard work paid off, and after an in-depth analysis of the data collected by the "China Sky Eye" for three years and five months, the CPTA team found key evidence for the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves.
He Zishan, chair professor at Peking University and academician of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, believes that this major scientific breakthrough has a profound impact on the evolution of galaxies and the study of supermassive black holes, and also opens a new window for gravitational wave astrophysics.
The preparation of 51 superconducting qubits in clusters set a new world record
Following the preparation of 10-bit, 12-bit, and 18-bit truly entangled states, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China and other institutions have made an important breakthrough - successfully realizing the preparation and verification of 51 superconducting qubit cluster states, setting a new world record for the number of truly entangled bits in all quantum systems. The results were published in the journal Nature on July 12.
The history of the development of the number of bits in quantum true entanglement. University of Science and Technology of China.
Superconducting quantum computing is widely regarded as one of the most likely solutions to be the first to realize practical quantum computing, so it has attracted much attention. As the basic unit of quantum computing, qubits are different from classical bits that are not 0 or 1 in that they can be in a superposition state of 0 and 1 "at the same time", that is, a quantum coherent superposition state.
When people extended quantum superposition to multi-qubit systems, it naturally led to the concept of quantum entanglement. Once multiple qubits are coherently superimposed, the state space represented by them will grow exponentially as the number of qubits increases. This is thought to be the root cause of the accelerating effects of quantum computing. For many years, the realization of large-scale multi-qubit entanglement has been a goal that scientists around the world have been striving for.
However, due to the larger-scale preparation of true-entangled states requiring high-connectivity quantum systems, high-fidelity multi-bit quantum gates, and efficient and accurate quantum state fidelity characterization methods, the scale of true-entangled bits has not exceeded 24 qubits.
This study greatly breaks the record of the number of truly entangled bits in a quantum system from 24 to 51, which fully demonstrates the excellent scalability of superconducting quantum computing systems, and is of great significance for the study of many-body quantum entanglement, the realization of large-scale quantum algorithms, and measurement-based quantum computing.
The National Space Laboratory was officially put into operation
The "Tiangong Classroom" has brought us wonderful and interesting space experiments, and more exploration of the mysteries of space is being carried out in an orderly manner in the National Space Laboratory.
At the briefing on the space application and development of the manned space program held on August 18, Lin Xiqiang, spokesman of the China Manned Space Program and deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said that China's National Space Laboratory has been officially put into operation and has established a near-Earth space science and application system with unique Chinese characteristics.
Shenzhou-16 astronauts take panoramic images of the space station assembly. **China Manned Space Engineering Office.
At the end of 2022, China's space station completed full construction and entered a stage of application and development that lasted for more than 10 years. At this stage, China will carry out manned flights on a regular basis, and astronauts will fly in orbit for a long time, carrying out large-scale space science experiments and technological experiments in many fields. China's fully completed space station is China's national space laboratory with the most comprehensive coverage of space science-related disciplines, the strongest on-orbit support capacity, and unique advantages such as manned participation and uplink and downlink transportation.
On June 4, Shenzhou 15 successfully returned to Earth. In this "space business trip", the three astronauts of Shenzhou 15 successfully entered the Chinese space station, and the astronaut crew of Shenzhou 14 achieved a "space rendezvous" for the first time. On October 29, a "space rendezvous" was staged again, and the two crews of Shenzhou 17 and Shenzhou 16 met successfully on the Chinese space station. This is the 20th anniversary of the realization of the Chinese nation's thousand-year-old dream of flying in the sky by China's first manned spacecraft, Shenzhou 5, and the first time, the second and third batches of astronauts in China are in the same frame at the Chinese space station.
Mapping the development of the human immune system
As "guards" against the invasion of pathogens such as viruses and bacteria, immune cells are an indispensable part of the body's immune system. It is of great significance to clarify the type, differentiation and functional status of immune cells to understand immunity and reveal the occurrence and development mechanism of immune-related diseases.
On September 12, Cell** published an important advance on immune cells. Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units have successfully drawn a map of the development of the human immune system with the widest coverage of tissues, the longest time span and the highest sampling density, which is expected to promote the development of the field of immunology and developmental biology in the world.
Construct a spatiotemporal map of the development of the human immune system. **Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In this study, researchers used an automated, high-throughput synthetic biology research big scientific device to build a single-cell transcriptome sequencing platform to "decode" developing immune cells, and draw a map of the development of the human immune system based on such massive data.
At the same time, they also discovered two new types of immune cells: macrophages, which are widely present in multiple tissues and organs, promote angiogenesis, and microglia, which are present outside the central nervous system.
For this research, Han Jiahuai, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Xiamen University, spoke highly of it. "This study expands our understanding of human immune development, especially the diversity, differentiation and function of macrophages, and contributes to a deeper understanding of the function and regulatory mechanisms of the immune system, providing an important foundation for disease diagnosis, immunity and new development," he said. ”
[1 international selection].
China's National Space Laboratory was officially put into operation
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the success of China's first manned mission. On August 18, the China Manned Space Engineering Office received good news: China's National Space Laboratory was officially put into operation, and space applications are being carried out in an orderly manner with frequent results.
The Wentian experimental module of the Chinese space station assembly display module photographed at the 14th Airshow China. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei.
Lin Xiqiang, spokesman for China's manned space program and deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said that the current space station scientific experiment facilities have basically completed in-orbit tests, operate in orbit stably and reliably, and have the ability to carry out space scientific research on a large scale. Up to now, the space station has carried out more than 60 experimental projects, tens of thousands of in-orbit experiments, obtained nearly 60TB of original experimental data, and sent down more than 300 scientific experiment samples.
As the largest and long-term manned space experiment platform in China's space history, the National Space Laboratory will take advantage of the environmental advantages in space to carry out scientific research, most of which cannot be simulated on Earth. The multiple experimental cabinets deployed in the Wentian experimental module, Mengtian experimental module, and Tianhe core module will carry out thousands of scientific experiments, explore the mysteries of the universe, and transform the incubated scientific and technological achievements into practical applications to benefit the lives of ordinary people on the earth.
4. On December 26, the Communist Youth League released the selection of the "Top Ten National Weapons", of which 3 achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences were selected, of which 1 was completed independently, 1 was led and 1 was participated.
"Celestial Artifact" +1
On September 27, the annular array solar radio imaging telescope in Daocheng, Sichuan Province successfully passed the process test and was officially completed. The whole telescope is shaped like a huge "thousand-eyed dzi", which is currently the world's largest integrated aperture radio telescope.
As a "celestial artifact", the project is led by the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is one of the landmark equipment of the second phase of the Meridian Project of major national scientific and technological infrastructure, which will carry out continuous monitoring of the sun and forecast and warn of space weather.
In the future, this "sky-watching artifact" will also be jointly monitored with Guizhou's FAST China Sky Eye, as well as China's compound eye and Sanya's incoherent scattering radar, and play an important role in the monitoring, defense and early warning of low-frequency radio, pulsars and asteroids.
Independent research and development of new !
A new generation of domestic CPUs was released
On November 28, a new generation of domestic CPUs, Loongson 3A6000, was released in Beijing. Loongson 3A6000 adopts China's self-designed instruction system and architecture, without relying on any foreign authorized technology, and is a new generation of general-purpose processor independently developed and controllable in China, which can run a variety of cross-platform applications.
Loongson 3A6000 can meet all kinds of large-scale and complex desktop application scenarios, and its launch marks that China's self-developed CPU has reached a new height in terms of independent controllability and product performance, and its performance has reached the international mainstream product level.
For the first time!Chinese space station "family portrait".
On November 28, the China Manned Space Engineering Office released a panoramic view of the space station assembly taken by the Shenzhou-16 crew with a high-definition camera around the spacecraft before returning to the ground. This is the first time that China has obtained a full picture of the space station assembly with the earth as the background in orbit, and it is also the first set of full-configuration working photos of China's space station.
5. On December 14, the journal Science announced the top ten scientific breakthroughs of 2023 selected by the editorial team, and the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences participated in the completion of the selected "Interstellar Signals Generated by the Merger of Large-scale Black Holes".
Interstellar signals generated by large-scale black hole mergers
aurore simonnet/nanogr** collaboration
This year, astrophysicists discovered a faint, long-sought cosmic roar. These are gravitational waves produced by supermassive black holes in the universe rubbing against each other. This observation is the strongest support for their existence to date and a strong demonstration of a method of detecting gravitational waves using the signals of distant stars.
Supermassive black holes are located at the center of galaxies and are millions or billions of times more massive than the Sun. When galaxies merge, the black holes at their centers may eventually be gravitationally locked in a shrinking orbit. In this initial phase, known as the "death spiral," ground-based instruments are unable to detect the signals, but as black holes get closer to each other within light-years, their mutual motion releases gravitational waves.
These gravitational waves cannot be detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which detected for the first time in 2015 the gravitational waves produced by the merger of two star-sized black holes. To sense these millisecond waves, Ligo measured the distance traveled by the laser beam along a 4-kilometer-long vacuum tube. But capturing the waves produced by supermassive black holes requires measuring longer distances.
As a result, astronomers turned to pulsars, which burn out stars that rotate hundreds of times per second while ejecting jets of particles carrying radio waves. As lighthouse-like waves pass across the Earth, radio telescopes record pulses that are as regular as atomic clocks. Over the past 20 years, astronomers have regularly monitored dozens of the most rhythmic pulsars to look for small changes in pulse rhythms. Passing gravitational waves compress or stretch the space between the pulsar and Earth, subtly altering the time it takes for the pulse to reach Earth.
In June, five teams from around the world jointly announced that after 15 years of observation, they had reduced the noise in the data to a low enough level, and the rest of the data reflected the roar caused by the merger of supermassive black holes in the universe.
Facts**:1