Year-end review: Interpretation of the top ten domestic technology news in 2021

The year of 2021, with its climaxes one after another, will be particularly brilliant in the history of Chinese science and technology.

This year coincides with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. In order to realize the dream of building a strong country in science and technology, countless researchers worked day and night to meet challenges head-on; this year, countless workers devoted themselves to the cause of national rejuvenation and worked hard.

With confident steps, we stretch out our arms and embrace the dawn. The challenges of the new era make life burst with extraordinary energy.

In 2021, struggle will bring glory.

1

Breakthrough in rapid domestication of allotetraploid wild rice

It takes 7,000 to 10,000 years for a wild rice plant to become a food for farmers. The team led by Li Jiayang, an academician at the Institute of Seed Innovation/Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has proposed a new strategy for the rapid de novo domestication of allotetraploid wild rice for the first time in the world, which may shorten the domestication process to a few decades or even shorter. The research results were published in the journal Cell on February 4.

Li Jiayang (right) discusses with students in the laboratory. Photo by Wang Zhikang, a reporter from China Science Daily

Currently, the cultivated rice in the field is the result of thousands of years of artificial domestication of its "ancestor" diploid wild rice. While the domestication process has improved its important agronomic traits, it has also caused a significant reduction in genetic diversity and the loss of superior gene resources.

In addition to diploid cultivated rice, there are 25 other wild plants in the genus Oryza, which can be divided into 11 categories according to genome characteristics, including 6 diploid genomes and 5 tetraploid genomes. Among them, allotetraploid wild rice has the characteristics of large biomass, inherent hybrid vigor, and strong environmental adaptability, but it also has the characteristics of non-domestication and cannot be used for agricultural production.

In order to overcome the difficulty of cultivating new polyploid rice crops, researchers proposed for the first time a new strategy for rapid de novo domestication of allotetraploid wild rice. Following this technical route, they successfully created various genome-edited allotetraploid wild rice materials with reduced grain shattering, shorter awn length, lower plant height, longer grain length, thicker stems, and shorter heading time to varying degrees. This research has opened up a new direction for crop breeding and is a major breakthrough in this field.

2

The "Zu Chongzhi" and "Jiu Zhang II" quantum computing prototypes were successfully developed

On May 8, the Zu Chongzhi built by the USTC team broke the world record for the largest number of quantum bits in a quantum computer. It achieved programmable two-dimensional quantum walks with a 62-bit superconducting quantum computing prototype. In October, it was upgraded to the Zu Chongzhi II, which can manipulate 66 bits.

On September 18, participants at the 2021 Quantum Industry Conference visited the miniature model of the "Zu Chongzhi" quantum computing prototype. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Han Xu

In October, the University of Science and Technology of China, the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and others built the 113-photon "Jiuzhang-2", which processes "Gaussian boson sampling" 1024 times faster than the fastest supercomputer currently available, providing further experimental evidence of quantum computing acceleration. This also marks that my country has become the only country that has achieved "quantum supremacy" in both physical systems at the same time.

To realize the use of photons as computing carriers, many difficulties must be overcome, including the manufacture of high-quality photon sources, high-precision phase locking and large-scale interference. For example, the photon source only emits one photon at a time, and each photon is exactly the same, which is a huge challenge. At the same time, the accuracy of phase locking is equivalent to the transmission error of 100 kilometers cannot exceed the diameter of a hair. High-quality optical quantum bits and logic devices cannot last for 100 milliseconds, so we must seize this moment to allow quantum computers to complete tasks. Related technologies must reach the extreme of manipulating light.

In recent years, China has achieved many world firsts in the field of quantum technology. Chinese scientists are further improving the stability and error correction capabilities of quantum computers, allowing them to demonstrate their capabilities in physical and chemical simulations, molecular simulation construction, and artificial intelligence.

3

my country's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, lands on Mars

After a long journey of more than nine months and the thrilling "black nine minutes" of landing on Mars, on May 15, my country's first Mars exploration mission, the Tianwen-1 probe, touched down in the pre-selected landing area in the southern part of Utopia Plain on Mars, leaving the first Chinese footprints on Mars and taking an important step in my country's interstellar exploration journey.

Photo of the patrol team. Provided by the National Space Administration

On June 11, the National Space Administration held a ceremony to unveil the first batch of scientific images of the Tianwen-1 probe landing on Mars, and announced the images taken by the Zhurong Mars rover. The release of the first batch of scientific images marks the complete success of my country's first Mars exploration mission.

my country's first Mars exploration mission was launched in 2016. It plans to achieve Mars orbit, landing and patrol exploration in one mission. Its scientific goals are mainly to study the morphology and geological structure of Mars, the characteristics of the soil on the Martian surface and the distribution of water ice, the composition of the Martian surface material, the Martian atmosphere and ionosphere and surface climate and environmental characteristics, the Martian physical field and internal structure.

The Tianwen-1 probe was successfully launched by the Long March 5 carrier rocket in Wenchang, Hainan on July 23, 2020. It successfully captured Mars on February 10, 2021, becoming my country's first artificial Martian satellite. On February 24, the probe entered the Martian parking orbit and carried out approximately three months of orbiting exploration, laying the foundation for a smooth landing on Mars.

The Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars, marking my country's first landing on an extraterrestrial planet, making my country the second country to successfully land on Mars.

4

Lasso discovers highest energy photon yet

On May 17, a latest result published in Nature changed people's traditional understanding of the Milky Way: LHAASO, a high-altitude cosmic ray observatory located in Daocheng, Sichuan, discovered two photons with energies exceeding 1 petaelectronvolt (PeV, 100 trillion electronvolts) in the Milky Way. These two ultra-high-energy photons came from Cygnus and the Crab Nebula, respectively, and one of the photons had an energy of up to 1.4PeV.

Image source: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

"This is the highest energy photon ever observed by humans. It breaks through the traditional understanding of the acceleration of galactic particles and opens the era of ultra-high energy gamma astronomy," said Cao Zhen, a researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of Lasso.

Previously, it was common knowledge that there was an energy limit for cosmic ray acceleration sources in the Milky Way, and the limit predicted in the past was around 1PeV, resulting in a "truncation" of the gamma-ray energy spectrum above 0.1PeV. The discovery of "Laso" completely broke through this "limit" and confirmed that there are natural high-energy accelerators widely existing in the Milky Way that can accelerate cosmic rays to more than PeV, or even more than 10PeV.

High-altitude cosmic ray observatory "Laso". Image source: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

On July 9, Science reported that Lasso had accurately measured the brightness of a high-energy astronomical standard candle. Scientists confirmed that this standard candle was the famous celestial body, the Crab Nebula, which was formed by the "Guest Star of Tianguan" recorded in the Song Dynasty after thousands of years of evolution. Lasso measured the brightness of the standard candle in an energy range of 2,400 times, and especially determined a new standard in the highest energy ultra-high energy gamma band.

5

Shenzhou was successfully launched twice, and Chinese people have been stationed in space for a long time

Looking up at winter nights, you can often see a bright star passing through the sky. That is the "Tiangong" that orbits the earth every 90 minutes, and there are three Chinese sons and daughters who stick to their posts.

This was taken at the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center on November 8, showing the Shenzhou 13 astronaut Zhai Zhigang completing his extravehicular mission. Xinhua News Agency, photo by Guo Zhongzheng

On June 17, the Shenzhou XII manned spacecraft was successfully launched and docked with the Tianhe core module. On September 17, the three astronauts returned to Earth. On October 16, the Shenzhou XIII sent another three astronauts into space. They will stay for half a year, which is also the general stay period of the astronauts of the space station. This means that China's manned space flight has passed the test stage and has achieved normalization of space travel. China's space station is about to become the main base for human exploration of the universe.

Remember decades ago, the United States refused to allow Chinese people to participate in the International Space Station? Now, China has built its own space station from scratch, and in three years it will become the only space outpost for mankind. The existence of Tiangong has led more than a dozen countries to apply to China to cooperate in exploring outer space. Tiangong proudly proclaims the wisdom and strength of earthlings.

In the past two years, the space industry has made great progress, including the establishment of the Beidou network, Mars exploration, and permanent space station. The pace of the work is so intense and exciting that it is inseparable from the decades of hard work and efforts of Chinese astronauts. The successful execution of the two Shenzhou spacecraft this year has made many young people excited and applauded. As one netizen commented, "I just want to shout 666!" Everyone is looking forward to more scientific achievements and interesting explorations on Tiangong-1, and to writing a more glorious Chinese story.

6

Baihetan Hydropower Station on Jinsha River starts generating electricity

The world's second largest hydropower station has started operation! On June 28, the first batch of units of the Baihetan Hydropower Station officially started generating electricity. The Baihetan Hydropower Station is located on the main stream of the Jinsha River at the junction of Yunnan and Sichuan. It is the largest and most difficult hydropower project under construction in the world today. Its maximum dam height is 289 meters, ranking third in the world; its total installed capacity is 16 million kilowatts, second only to the Three Gorges Hydropower Station.

Overlooking the Baihetan Hydropower Station (drone photo, taken on June 27). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Wenyao

Baihetan Hydropower Station has 16 of the world's largest 1 million kilowatt hydroelectric generators, all of which are domestically produced. On December 19, the last unit's generator runner was hoisted. The runner is called the "heart" of the hydroelectric generator set. The flow capacity, hydraulic efficiency and operating stability can reflect the level of technology. The runner of unit 9, weighing 338.2 tons, innovatively uses a combination of 15 long blades and 15 short blades to achieve the best in all aspects.

The total storage capacity and flood control storage capacity of the Baihetan Dam are the largest among the four cascade hydropower stations in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River. It can improve the flood control standards of Yibin, Luzhou and Chongqing, and support the flood control of cities along the Yangtze River below the Three Gorges. It can also achieve uniform discharge during the dry season, making the downstream section of the river navigable all year round, which was originally inaccessible for half a year.

In his congratulatory letter, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "The Baihetan Hydropower Station is a major national project for the implementation of West-to-East Power Transmission. It is the largest and most technically difficult hydropower project under construction in the world today. The world's largest single-unit capacity and power of a million-kilowatt hydropower generator unit has achieved a major breakthrough in my country's high-end equipment manufacturing."

7

In the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, a large number of reform measures for the science and technology system were introduced

2021 is of great significance in the history of science and technology in China. General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the conferences of academicians of the two academies, the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, and visited the National "13th Five-Year Plan" Science and Technology Innovation Achievement Exhibition, fully affirming the major achievements in scientific and technological innovation. In the past year, the Party Central Committee and the State Council deployed a series of science and technology reform tasks, including science and technology development plans, science and technology action plans in various fields, and work plans for major reform measures, and comprehensively formed the opening deployment of the "14th Five-Year Plan".

The reform of the science and technology system in 2021 is comprehensive and profound. Relevant government departments continue to reform and improve the management of scientific research funds, loosen the constraints, reduce the burden, and empower scientific researchers, serve people's creativity, and let scientific researchers feel a real sense of achievement and gain; explore new mechanisms in strategic project management and implement the "unveiling the list and taking charge" mechanism; support parallel research on different technical routes, and arrange "horse racing" research projects in key emergency major tasks. Launch a special project on disruptive technologies, actively explore the chief scientist responsibility system, and set up a large-scale young scientist project.

In August, the General Office of the State Council successively issued documents such as "Guiding Opinions on Improving the Evaluation Mechanism of Scientific and Technological Achievements" and "Several Opinions on Reforming and Improving the Management of Central Government Scientific Research Funds", which attracted widespread attention from the scientific and technological community.

The starting point and end point of scientific and technological reform is to focus on scientific and technological innovation teams, scientific researchers, and scientific research institutions, truly allocate superior scientific and technological resources to the most urgent and needed areas, effectively improve the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation, effectively stimulate the innovation vitality of the whole society, and strengthen the support and guidance of science and technology for economic and social development.

8

The first artificial synthesis of starch

Using carbon dioxide as raw material and without relying on plant photosynthesis, starch can be directly synthesized artificially - a seemingly sci-fi scene actually happened in the laboratory.

In the laboratory of Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers show samples of artificially synthesized starch (photo taken on September 16). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jin Liwang

Researchers from the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have proposed a disruptive starch preparation method that does not rely on plant photosynthesis. Instead, they use carbon dioxide and hydrogen produced by electrolysis as raw materials to successfully produce starch. This is the first time in the world that de novo synthesis of starch from carbon dioxide has been achieved in a laboratory, making it possible to transform starch production from the traditional agricultural planting model to the industrial workshop production model, achieving an original breakthrough. The relevant research results were published online in the journal Science on September 24.

"For a long time, researchers have been working hard to improve the life process of photosynthesis, hoping to increase the conversion rate of carbon dioxide and the utilization efficiency of light energy, and ultimately improve the production efficiency of starch." Ma Yanhe, the corresponding author of the paper and director of the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said bluntly.

To solve this problem, researchers from the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology designed from scratch a new pathway for unnatural carbon dioxide fixation and artificial starch synthesis with 11 main reactions, achieving for the first time the full synthesis from carbon dioxide to starch molecules in the laboratory.

This major original breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology is expected to have a revolutionary impact on food production and is of milestone significance for the development of the biomanufacturing industry.

9

Two core conjectures of Kähler geometry have been proved

In early November, the media reported that the Journal of the American Mathematical Society published the "milestone results" achieved by Professor Chen Xiuxiong, founding director of the Center for Geometric Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China, and his collaborator Cheng Jingrui in the field of partial differential equations and complex geometry.

Professor Chen Xiuxiong (center), founding director of the Center for Geometric Physics, and Cheng Jingrui (left). Image source: Photo by Tao Dongqing of the University of Science and Technology of China

They solved a fourth-order fully nonlinear elliptic equation and successfully proved the "compulsory conjecture" and the "geodesic stability conjecture", two core conjectures that have been pending in the international mathematics community for more than 60 years, and solved several famous problems related to the constant scalar curvature metric and the Calabi extreme metric on Kähler manifolds.

The existence of a constant scalar curvature metric on a Kähler manifold has been one of the core problems in geometry for the past 60 years. There are three famous conjectures about its existence - the stability conjecture, the coercion conjecture, and the geodesic stability conjecture. After nearly 20 years of work by many famous mathematicians, the necessity of the coercion conjecture and the geodesic stability conjecture has become completely clear, but the proof of their sufficiency was considered out of reach before Chen-Cheng's work.

Solving a class of fourth-order fully nonlinear elliptic equations can prove the existence of a constant scalar curvature metric. Chen-Cheng's work proves the existence of solutions to this class of equations under the assumption of K-energy coercion or geodesic stability. The study of this class of equations is extremely difficult, and previously, there were almost no suitable tools for processing this class of equations. Chen-Cheng's most important breakthrough was to provide a priori estimates for this class of equations and to successfully implement the new continuous parameter strategy proposed by Chen Xiuxiong.

10

my country's first special medicine against the new coronavirus is approved for marketing

On December 8, the National Medical Products Administration announced that it had approved the registration application for ambavir monoclonal antibody injection and romisvir monoclonal antibody injection, a combination treatment drug for the new coronavirus neutralizing antibody, developed by Tengsheng Huachuang Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. This is the first new coronavirus neutralizing antibody combination treatment drug approved in my country with independent intellectual property rights.

The picture shows the first Chinese patent approved for the novel coronavirus neutralizing antibody combined treatment drug, Ambavirin injection and Romivir injection. Source: China News Service

This approval marks that China has its first fully independently developed anti-new coronavirus drug that has been proven effective through rigorous randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.

The uses of this drug include: people who cannot produce neutralizing antibodies even after vaccination, such as some elderly people and immunocompromised groups; patients infected with new mutant strains that bypass the vaccine; and close contacts who need prevention.

Image source: Tsinghua University

The combination of ambavir and romisvir has performed very well in the experiment. Compared with placebo, the domestic new drug treatment can reduce the risk of mild and moderate COVID-19 patients turning into severe cases and death by 80%. The effectiveness of the domestic new drug against COVID-19 variants was taken into consideration at the beginning of its design. This pair of antibodies has the greatest possible chance of preventing variants from escaping neutralizing antibodies.

This year, the support of science and technology in the fight against the epidemic has ensured the smooth operation of China's economy. The national elite scientific research forces have focused on five major directions, including vaccines, drugs, and testing reagents, and continued to carry out emergency research, providing "hard-core scientific and technological power" for normalized epidemic prevention and control and ensuring the smooth operation of the economy. With science and technology as a safeguard, the fight against the epidemic is more confident!

◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Lu Chengkuan

Source: Science and Technology Daily

Editor: Liu Yiyang

Reviewer: Wang Xiaolong

Final review: Liu Haiying