The top ten scientific and technological progress news in China and the world in 2023, selected by academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was announced today. The annual competition has been held 30 times so far.
Top 10 news of China's scientific and technological progress in 2023
The world's first first-class nuclear power plant was put into commercial operation
China's major national science and technology project with completely independent intellectual property rights - Huaneng Shidaowan high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power plant demonstration project was put into commercial operation on December 6, 2023, becoming the world's first nuclear power plant to realize the commercial operation of modular nuclear power technology, marking that China has achieved a global leadership in the field of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power technology, and is of great significance to promoting China's realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance and building an energy power.
Shenzhou-16 returned to the first manned mission in the application and development stage of the space station
At 8:11 on October 31, 2023, Beijing time, the return capsule of the Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft successfully landed at the Dongfeng landing site, and the Shenzhou-16 manned mission was a complete success. The Shenzhou-16 manned spacecraft was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on May 30, 2023, and then docked with the Tianhe core module to form a combination.
Two-dimensional transistors that surpass the limits of silicon-based are introduced
The team of academician Peng Lianmao and researcher Qiu Chenguang of Peking University has built a 10nm ultra-short channel ballistic two-dimensional indium selenide transistor, which for the first time makes the actual performance of the two-dimensional transistor exceed the silicon limit of the industry's silicon-based 10-nanometer node FIN transistor and the international semiconductor roadmap**, and reduces the operating voltage of the two-dimensional transistor to 0At 5V, the ballistic rate at room temperature was increased to 83%, the highest record of all transistors, and the fastest and lowest energy consumption two-dimensional transistor in the world was developed.
Chinese scientists have found that alkali tolerance genes can increase crop yields
After years of research, the research team of researcher Xie Qi of the Institute of Genetics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has cooperated with a number of domestic scientific research institutions and universities, and found that the main alkali tolerance gene AT1 can significantly improve the yield of sorghum, rice, wheat, corn, millet and other crops on saline-alkali land, and has a significant application prospect in the comprehensive utilization of improved saline-alkali land, which is expected to play an important supporting role for China's food security.
The results of Tianwen-1 reveal the climate change of Mars
The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with the Institute of Geology and Earth Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Brown University and the Tianwen-1 mission engineering team, aimed at the abundant aeolian and sandy landforms in the southern part of the Martian Utopia Plain, revealing that the Zhurong landing area may have undergone two major climatic phases marked by changes in wind direction.
China's first 10,000-meter deep exploration well was drilled
On the morning of May 30, 2023, PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Company's deep Taco 1 well was drilled. The deep Taco 1 well is located in Shaya County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, close to the 1 billion ton ultra-deep oil and gas area buried at a depth of 8,000 meters. This well is designed to be 1 well deep110,000 meters, with a design drilling and completion period of 457 days, will set a record for the fastest drilling time of 10,000 meters of deep wells in the world.
The first discovery of nickel oxide superconductors in the liquid nitrogen temperature zone
On July 12, 2023, the journal Nature published the results of the collaboration between Professor Wang Meng's team at Sun Yat-sen University and Tsinghua University, South China University of Technology and other units: the first discovery of nickel oxide superconductors that reached the temperature region of liquid nitrogen at a pressure of 14 gpa. This is a new high-temperature superconducting system first discovered by Chinese scientists, and it is the second unconventional superconducting material in the liquid nitrogen temperature region discovered by mankind, which is an important breakthrough in the field of basic research.
FAST detects evidence of the presence of nanohertz gravitational waves
The China Pulsar Timing Array research team, composed of researchers from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units, used the China Sky Eye FAST to detect the key evidence of the existence of nanohertz gravitational waves, indicating that China's nanohertz gravitational wave research has reached the leading level in sync with the world.
The world's first full-link, full-system space solar power station ground verification system was completed and put into use
Space Solar Power Plants (SSPS) are one of the ultimate answers to the energy crisis and sustainable development. On November 30, 2023, the Journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (Engineering) systematically reported the day-by-day project completed by the team of Academician Duan Baoyan of Xidian University, the world's first full-link, full-system SSPS ground verification system.
Scientists elucidate the molecular mechanisms of olfactory perception
The team of Prof. Sun Jinpeng of Shandong University and Prof. Li Qian of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine used cryo-electron microscopy to analyze the structure of the mouse TaAr9 (MtaAr9) receptor, a member of the trace amine associated receptor (TaAr) family, and the structure of the Gs Golf (olfaction-specific G) protein trimer complex under four different ligand binding conditions, and further combined with pharmacological analysis to reveal the molecular mechanism of the activation of the MtaAr9 receptor after sensing ligands.
Top 10 news of the world's scientific and technological progress in 2023
Scientists have created the most complete atlas of human brain cells to date
On October 13, 2023, 21 articles** published in the American journals Science, Science Advances, and Science-Translational Medicine published and explained the most complete atlas of human brain cells to date. The series of studies involving scientists from multiple countries revealed the characteristics of more than 3,000 brain cell types, which will help to better understand the uniqueness of the human brain and advance research on brain diseases and cognitive abilities. This study provides valuable information for understanding the structure and function of the human brain and will contribute to further research and clinical applications.
For the first time, artificial intelligence has succeeded in generating raw proteins from scratch
On January 26, 2023, Salesforce Research, Profluent Bio and other institutions in the United States published a research result in Nature Biotechnology, which created an artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of generating enzymes from scratch. In laboratory tests, some of these enzymes are as effective as those found in nature, despite the fact that the artificially generated amino acid sequences differ significantly from any known natural protein.
The world's largest experimental nuclear fusion reactor is put into operation
On December 1, 2023, the European Fusion Energy Organization (F4E) announced that the nuclear fusion reactor JT-60SA, jointly built and operated by Europe and Japan, was officially put into operation. The reactor is a tokamak unit that began in 2007, completed assembly in 2020, and was successfully ignited on October 23, 2023. The launch of the device, located at the Naka Research Institute of Japan's Quantum Science and Technology Research Agency (QST), is considered the most advanced tokamak in the world, and its start-up is a milestone in the history of nuclear fusion.
OpenAI officially released GPT-4
On March 15, 2023, OpenAI released the multimodal pre-trained large model GPT-4, which is the latest version of its large language model. Compared with the previous version, GPT-4 has a powerful image reading ability, and the text input limit has also been increased to 250,000 words; GPT-4 also significantly improves the accuracy of its answers, and is also able to generate lyrics and creative text for stylistic changes. At the same time, GPT-4 also performs well in various professional tests and academic benchmarks.
For the first time, a satellite has successfully transmitted solar energy to the Earth, proving the credibility of space-based energy
On June 1, 2023, the California Institute of Technology announced that a satellite launched in January 2023 has directed the energy of a microwave beam to a target in space, and even sent some of the energy to Earth's probe. As a clean, renewable energy technology, space-based solar energy utilization technology is considered a reliable way to achieve zero carbon emissions.
The first human eye was successfully transplanted
The surgical team at NYU Langone Medical Center announced on November 9, 2023, that they have successfully completed the world's first eye transplant. The operation, done by a team led by Eduardo RodrÃguez, restored part of the vision to Aaron James, who suffered a severe eye injury. It is reported that the transplant was carried out in May 2023 and took about 21 hours.
The smallest particle accelerator to date has been created
On October 18, 2023, a research team at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany succeeded in creating the world's smallest particle accelerator with a length of only 02 mm and can be mounted on the nib. The device is the first fast, well-focused electron-generating miniature accelerator capable of accelerating electrons to 100,000 kilometers per second. This new technology is expected to be applied in the medical field, providing doctors with new tools or small disinfection tools for biological laboratories.
For the first time, scientists have achieved single-atom X-ray detection
Scientists from Ohio University, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago and other institutions have photographed single-atom X-ray signals for the first time. The research team stressed that this breakthrough will open up new horizons in the field of X-ray and nanoscience. The use of X-ray detection and characterization of individual atoms may lead to new technologies in areas such as quantum information, environmental and medical research, and trace element detection.
The world's first insect brain "map" has been completed
Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Johns Hopkins University in the United States have reconstructed the brain connectome of "Drosophila larvae" for the first time and drawn the first complete map of the insect brain, including all neurons and synapses. This is a milestone achievement in understanding how the brain processes sensory information flows and translates them into action.
The first sketch of the human pan-genome was released
On May 10, 2023, the journal Nature published the "first draft" of the human pangenome reference, and in the collection of 3 articles, the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium released the first human pangenome reference sketch, as well as two new genetic findings based on this reference map.
**: Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Science News
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