Global Science News | Nuclear power heating! Shandong Haiyang becomes the first "zero-carbon" heating city in China

Nuclear energy

Shandong Haiyang starts nuclear energy heating, becoming the first "zero-carbon" heating city in China

Image source: Haiyang Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department

Recently, the second phase of the 4.5 million square meter project of the State Energy Nuclear Heating Commercial Demonstration Project of the State Power Investment Corporation "Nuanhe No. 1" was officially put into operation in Haiyang, Shandong Province, covering 200,000 residents in the entire urban area of ​​Haiyang, making Haiyang the first "zero-carbon" heating city in the country. At the same time, the heating fee for Haiyang residents' houses has been reduced by one yuan per square meter compared with previous years.

Nuclear energy heating refers to extracting steam from nuclear power units as a heat source, passing through a heat exchange station, and exchanging heat five times under physical isolation, and finally delivering heat to users' homes through the municipal heating network. In this process, only heat is transferred, and there is no water exchange, which can ensure that nuclear energy heating is safe and reliable. According to Qian Zhimin, chairman of the State Power Investment Corporation, after the "Nuanhe No. 1" project was put into operation, Haiyang Nuclear Power Unit 1 became the world's largest cogeneration unit, replacing 12 local coal-fired boilers. It is expected to save 100,000 tons of raw coal each heating season, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 180,000 tons, smoke by 691 tons, nitrogen oxides by 1,123 tons, and sulfur dioxide by 1,188 tons, which is equivalent to planting 1,000 hectares of broad-leaved forests. At the same time, it reduces the heat emitted to the environment by 1.3 million gigajoules, effectively improving the atmospheric environment and marine ecological environment during the regional heating season. (People's Daily Online, CCTV News)

Virology

How the herpes virus enters the nervous system

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) can be transmitted through the respiratory tract and close skin contact, lurking in the human peripheral nervous system and can never be eradicated. Some HSV-1 carriers will experience symptoms such as blindness, encephalitis and dementia, and in severe cases, even life-threatening. The latest paper published in Nature reveals the way HSV-1 invades the nervous system.

Scientists at Northwestern University in the United States have discovered that, like many other viruses, HSV-1 attaches to microtubule structures in cells and uses motor proteins and kinesins to move along microtubules. In addition, HSV-1 can use the motor proteins carried by epithelial cells to transport itself to the host's neuronal nuclei. In this process, the motor proteins of epithelial cells become "traitors" and help the virus enter the peripheral nervous system. Subsequently, HSV-1 will place genetic material into the nuclei of host neurons and reprogram the cells, turning them into virus production factories. This research result provides a new way to develop vaccines for HSV-1 and another herpes simplex virus (HSV-2).

Physics​

New holographic technology can image obscured objects

Schematic diagram of synthetic wavelength holography (Image source: original paper)

Non-line-of-sight (NLoS) imaging uses multiple diffusely reflected light to image obstructed objects, and has been a research hotspot in recent years. However, traditional NLoS imaging not only has low resolution, long time consumption, and extremely small viewing angle, but also requires a large detection area. Recently, in a new study published in Nature Communications, scientists invented a synthetic wavelength holography that can quickly capture full-field images of larger areas in a smaller detection area, with sub-millimeter accuracy.

The researchers performed holographic imaging by synthesizing light waves from two lasers as a light source. Light is emitted from the sensor, scattered at the blocking barrier, and illuminates the object hidden at the corner. The light is then reflected from the barrier and then reflected back to the sensor. The returned object light interferes with the reference light to obtain a holographic image of the object. The researchers said that this technology can turn the barrier into a mirror, allowing the driver to see vehicles or animals appearing around the bend when driving in a valley or forest. In addition, this imaging technology can also replace endoscopes in medicine and industry, and can image the inside of industrial equipment while it is running.

· Aerospace ·

Iodine-powered spacecraft completes on-orbit testing

A flight model of the NPT30-I2 iodine electric propulsion system ignites inside a vacuum chamber. (Image credit: TrustMe)

The propulsion system is an important part of many spacecraft. Among them, the electric propulsion system uses electron bombardment to ionize the gas propellant and accelerate the ions in the electrostatic field to convert them into thrust. At present, xenon is the mainstream spacecraft propellant, but xenon is very rare, has high production costs, and requires pressurized storage, which makes it difficult to ensure the long-term sustainable development of the aerospace industry. Iodine is a propellant that is expected to replace xenon. It is cheap, has abundant production, and can be stored in a solid state. Iodine has achieved higher efficiency than xenon in ground tests, but there has been no report of a spacecraft that has completed in-orbit operation using a full iodine electric propulsion system.

In a recent study published in Nature, scientists from France reported a successful case of a small cube satellite (CubeSat) using an iodine propellant propulsion system to achieve in-orbit operation. The satellite was launched on November 6, 2020 by the Long March 6 rocket and weighs 20 kilograms. The results showed that iodine has a higher ionization efficiency as a propellant than xenon. The authors pointed out that this achievement shows that iodine has a wide range of application potential in the aerospace industry. For example, iodine can significantly promote the development of spacecraft systems towards miniaturization and structural simplification, which will help deploy new small satellites and satellite constellations in the future, and enhance the ability of these spacecraft to avoid collisions and improve scrapping and disposal.

Chemical Industry

my country's crude oil steam cracking technology was successfully applied in industry for the first time

On November 17, 2021, China Petrochemical Corporation announced that their key research project "Technology Development and Industrial Application of Light Crude Oil Cracking to Produce Ethylene" was successfully tested in its Tianjin Petrochemical Industry, realizing the first industrial application of crude oil steam cracking technology in China. Traditionally, the raw material for industrial production of ethylene and propylene is naphtha, which is refined and processed from crude oil. Therefore, the industrial production process of olefins is long, and only about 30% of crude oil is used to produce chemical raw materials. The new cracking technology can directly convert crude oil into chemicals such as ethylene and propylene (ie "oil conversion"), and the yield of chemicals is nearly 50%, which greatly shortens the production process, reduces production costs, and reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

Ethylene is the basic raw material for chemical products and is one of the important indicators of a country's petrochemical development level. Moreover, downstream products of ethylene include synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, synthetic plastics, etc. According to calculations, the new cracking technology can convert every 1 million tons of crude oil into nearly 500,000 tons of chemicals, of which high-value products such as ethylene, propylene, light aromatics and hydrogen reach nearly 400,000 tons. Therefore, this technology has huge economic value. Next, Sinopec plans to build an "oil conversion" industrial demonstration unit at Xinjiang Tahe Refinery. (Xinhua News Agency)

· healthy ·

Exercise produces endocannabinoids that relieve chronic inflammation

Image source: Pixabay

Exercise helps treat chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, cancer, and heart disease, but the specific mechanism by which exercise reduces inflammation is not clear. A recent study published in Gut Microbes found that after exercise intervention in arthritis patients, the level of endocannabinoids in the patients' blood increased, which may reduce the inflammatory response by changing the intestinal flora.

The researchers organized 78 arthritis patients for a 6-week exercise intervention experiment. Among them, 38 people performed 15 minutes of muscle strengthening exercises every day, and the other 40 people did not do any exercises. At the end of the study, the pain of arthritis patients who underwent exercise intervention was significantly reduced. Tests found that these patients had increased levels of endogenous cannabinoids, more microorganisms that produce anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids appeared in the intestines, and lower levels of cellular inflammatory factors in the blood. The study suggests that exercise can stimulate the production of cannabinoids in the body as a simple lifestyle, combined with the action of intestinal flora, and has many positive effects on the control of chronic inflammatory-related diseases.

COVID - 19

As of 10:00 Beijing time on November 18, according to the latest statistics from Johns Hopkins University, the global cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 was 254,918,475, with 5,122,823 deaths.

According to the official website of the National Health Commission, from 0:00 to 24:00 on November 17, 35 new confirmed cases were reported in 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Among them, 29 cases were imported from abroad (8 in Tianjin, 6 in Shanghai, 4 in Guangdong, 4 in Guangxi, 3 in Beijing, 2 in Sichuan, 1 in Henan, and 1 in Yunnan), including 6 cases converted from asymptomatic infections to confirmed cases (3 in Guangdong, 2 in Sichuan, and 1 in Guangxi); 6 local cases (5 in Liaoning, all in Dalian; 1 in Yunnan, in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture), including 1 case converted from asymptomatic infections to confirmed cases (in Liaoning). No new deaths were reported. No new suspected cases were reported.

31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps reported 27 new asymptomatic infections (all imported from abroad); 7 cases were converted to confirmed cases on the same day (6 imported from abroad); 26 cases were released from medical observation on the same day (all imported from abroad); 494 asymptomatic infections are still under medical observation (347 imported from abroad).

As of November 16, 2021, 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have reported a total of 240,289,700 doses of new coronavirus vaccine administered.

Text: Li Zi, Xie Ruyu, Zeng Xinxin, Shi Mi, Wang Yibo, Zhang Chu

Editors: Clefable, Bai Defan, Sun Linyu, Wang Yu

Source: Global Science