Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Bai Guolong

The "Huiyan" satellite travels in space, the C919 large passenger aircraft flies into the blue sky, the quantum computer is successfully developed, the first domestic aircraft carrier is launched, the "Haiyi" deep-sea glider completes deep-sea observation, the first sea area combustible ice test is successful, and the "Fuxing" runs across the vast land of the motherland... In the past 2017, scientific and technological innovation has been reported frequently, fully demonstrating China's innovative vitality and creative power.

The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to accelerate the construction of an innovative country, promote new progress in major scientific and technological innovation, and promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation to a higher level. In 2018, what kind of surprises will the vast number of scientific researchers create? What major scientific and technological innovation achievements are worth looking forward to? Please pay attention to this edition.

--Editor

Lunar Exploration Project--

First exploration of the back of the moon

Our reporter Feng Hua

In 2018, China's lunar exploration project will achieve new breakthroughs. The Chang'e-4 mission will carry out two launch missions this year, achieving the world's first soft landing and patrol survey on the far side of the moon, and writing a new chapter in the history of lunar exploration.

Liu Jizhong, director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and deputy commander-in-chief of the lunar exploration project, introduced that the Chang'e-4 launch mission this year will be implemented at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in May and December respectively. It is planned to launch a relay satellite in May, place a satellite at the Earth-Moon Langrange L2 point for the first time, and realize the measurement and control communication between the far side of the moon and the ground station; launch a lander and a rover in December, realize a soft landing on the far side of the moon with the support of relay measurement and control, carry out in-situ and patrol exploration, and forward the scientific exploration data to the ground receiving station through the relay satellite to carry out relevant scientific research.

The back of the moon always faces away from the earth, shielding the interference signals of the earth such as radio, lightning and aurora. Under the unique electromagnetic environment conditions on the back of the moon, low-frequency radio observation and research will fill the gap of 100KHz-10MHz radio astronomy observation, and it is expected to obtain original results in interplanetary shock waves, coronal mass ejections and space propagation mechanisms. Liu Jizhong introduced that there are great differences in the geological characteristics of the back and front of the moon. The in-situ and patrol comprehensive exploration of the morphology, material composition, lunar soil and shallow structure of the lunar surface on the back of the moon by Chang'e-4 will promote new understanding of the early evolution history of the moon.

The Chang'e-4 mission shoulders the important mission of human exploration of unknown areas. It will break through a series of extremely challenging high-tech technologies and achieve international leadership. It is the prelude to the subsequent lunar exploration and will also promote human exploration to a deeper space.

China's lunar exploration project began in 2004. It is planned to be organized and implemented in three phases according to the development idea of "orbiting, landing and returning" before 2020 to achieve the established goals of the lunar exploration project.

Beidou Satellites--

Intensive Launches for Global Networking

Reporter Yu Jianbin

In 2018, Beidou satellites ushered in a year of high-density launches. At the same time, China's independently developed and built Beidou satellite navigation system has also entered a new stage of development: system performance, satellite life, and service accuracy have been greatly improved, and the service area has become wider, further approaching the role of a global satellite navigation system.

"By the end of 2018, more than 10 Beidou-3 networking satellites will be launched to build a basic system covering the countries participating in the "Belt and Road" construction; by 2020, more than 30 satellites will be launched to provide services to the world." Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office and spokesman for the Beidou Satellite Navigation System, introduced.

On November 5, 2017, the first two Beidou-3 global networking satellites were successfully launched, and the Beidou-3 system, which is more advanced than Beidou-2, has entered the global networking stage since then. By the end of last year, China's Beidou had been in service for five years. The Beidou-2 system was completed and provided services in China and surrounding areas. The Beidou-3 system was under comprehensive construction and steadily advanced, with the goal of providing services worldwide.

"Easy to use in the sky and on the ground." Beidou has achieved a historic leap in the past five years and has become more and more popular. GPS, the name of the US global positioning system, is no longer the only synonym for satellite navigation. Beidou is gradually becoming a standard feature in the smartphones used by ordinary people.

China's Beidou is fulfilling its promise to serve the world and benefit mankind with a new attitude, stronger capabilities and better services.

Deep-sea scientific research--

"Qilong" explores the sea deeper and farther

Our reporter Liu Shiyao

"The deep sea is rich in resources. It is a blue space for the future development of mankind and a new strategic frontier for the long-term development of the country." Liu Feng, director of the office of the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association, said that 2018 is a very critical year for the country's deep-sea cause.

In 2018, China will work hard on both "hard power" and "soft power" to strive to gain a first-mover advantage in deep-sea exploration.

Deep-sea equipment is a powerful guarantee for deep-sea ocean surveys. This year, the "Three Dragons" deep-sea equipment system consisting of the "Jiaolong" manned submersible, the "Hailong" unmanned cabled submersible, and the "Qianlong" unmanned cableless submersible will be used as a starting point to promote innovative breakthroughs in deep-sea technology. For example, the technical upgrade and application of the "Jiaolong" and "Qianlong II" will be continuously promoted, and the research and development and sea trials of the 11,000-meter ROV system will be accelerated.

The marine survey ship team is also a key construction focus. 2018 is a tough year for the construction of two new types of ships, the ocean exploration engineering ship and the deep-sea efficient comprehensive survey ship. We will strive to complete the main tasks of ship construction as planned and lay a solid foundation for the delivery of the ship in early 2019.

This year is a critical year for the first phase of the "Jiaolong Exploration of the Sea" project. We will vigorously promote the transformation of "three dragons" into "seven dragons", adding "Shenlong" for deep-sea drilling, "Kunlong" for deep-sea development, "Yunlong" for cloud computing of ocean data, and "Dragon Palace" for support on the sea surface on the original basis, laying a solid foundation for the stable and sustainable development of ocean work.

In terms of soft power, we will continue to work hard to build a supporting system for the "Deep Sea Law", and at the same time vigorously strengthen the training of deep-sea compound talents.

In addition, we must increase the frequency of deep-sea scientific expeditions and improve the level of deep-sea scientific expeditions. This year, we will further improve the organizational model, coordination mechanism, and results management model of marine survey business work, and plan to coordinate and organize 6 voyages, about 650 days, covering the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean key sea areas, and multiple fields of comprehensive survey work. Surveys on marine hypoxia, ocean microplastics, marine radioactivity, etc., will become the business and routine survey content of ocean surveys together with deep-sea resource surveys and deep-sea environmental surveys.

"In the new year, we are full of expectations, and our goal is to explore the deep sea deeper, wider and farther. By conducting more and better marine scientific expeditions, we will promote new breakthroughs in the deep sea industry." Liu Feng said.

Immunotherapy--

Treat cancer to benefit patients

Reporter Zhao Yongxin

Immunotherapy, which has been used for many years abroad, is expected to benefit Chinese patients this year: just last November and December, the Drug Evaluation Center of the State Food and Drug Administration (hereinafter referred to as CDE) successively accepted the listing applications of two new immunotherapy drugs, namely Nivolumab developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb in the United States and Sindizumab developed by Innovent Biologics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., with the main indications being relapsed/refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma. If nothing unexpected happens, these two new anti-cancer drugs are expected to be listed in 2018 to benefit patients.

The principle of immunotherapy is to regulate and activate the human immune system to treat diseases through various means. This new cancer therapy, following surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, was selected as the top of the top ten scientific breakthroughs of the year by Science magazine in 2013.

Experts said that our body is composed of countless cells. If everyone lives in peace, the body can stay healthy. T cells in the immune system are like a "guard" to help people resist foreign invasion. It has specific protein receptors on its surface, patrolling everywhere in the body, identifying specific proteins on the surface of other cells, and determining whether they are tumor cells. However, some tumor cells are very "cunning", and some proteins on their surface are like camouflaged "masks" that make T cells unable to recognize them, so the tumor can continue to grow.

In response to this mechanism, immunotherapy treats tumors in two ways. One is to transform T cells and enhance the ability of the "guard"; the other is to expose the enemy's "mask" so that the "guard" T cells can normally identify tumor cells. PD-L1 is one of the "masks" of tumor cells.

In recent years, the development of tumor immunotherapy drugs in China has been in full swing. According to the statistics of public clinical information of CDE, as of the end of November last year, there were 80 PD-(L)1 trials conducted in China, including 37 foreign drugs and 43 Chinese drugs; 49 trials have entered clinical phase II or III.

Among the first batch of advanced melanoma patients who tried immunotherapy in the world, some have survived for 15 years. We have every reason to believe that with the development of new technologies such as immunotherapy, cancer, which is considered a "terminal illness", is expected to gradually become a controllable and treatable chronic disease.

Quantum technology--

Communication computing continues to lead

Our reporter Wu Yuehui

In the early morning of December 19, 2017, the international authoritative academic journal Nature magazine released the top ten scientific figures who changed the world in 2017. Pan Jianwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and the chief scientist of the "Mozi" quantum science experimental satellite, was selected. "Nature" magazine made a news feature for each of the selected persons, including a report on Pan Jianwei under the title "Father of Quantum".

There is no doubt that Pan Jianwei is one of the best scientists in the world in the field of quantum technology. Under his leadership, China's quantum communication research has rapidly gone from "following" to "leading", and is currently 5 to 10 years ahead of the world; China's quantum computing research has also entered the ranks of world-class levels.

In the past 2017, the research team led by Pan Jianwei successfully completed all the scientific experimental tasks pre-set by the "Mozi" quantum science experimental satellite, and took the lead in the world to achieve 1,000-kilometer-level satellite-to-ground bidirectional quantum entanglement distribution; took the lead in the world to open the first 1,000-kilometer-level quantum secure communication "Beijing-Shanghai Trunk Line"; developed the world's first multi-photon programmable quantum computing prototype, which runs 10 to 100 times faster than the first vacuum tube computer and the first transistor computer in human history; for the first time, a quantum computing chip with 10 superconducting quantum bits entangled was realized, taking an important step towards ultimately surpassing the capabilities of classical supercomputers.

For the future research and application of quantum technology, Chinese scientists led by Pan Jianwei have a clear plan: in quantum communication research, they will start from the initial realization of long-distance quantum communication network to the realization of a global quantum communication network integrating the earth and the sky; in quantum computing research, they hope to realize the manipulation of more optical quantum bits and superconducting quantum bits, provide solutions to large-scale computing problems, and realize effective information mining in the era of big data; in quantum precision measurement research, they can realize a new generation of positioning navigation, laser guidance, underwater positioning, medical testing, etc.

Artificial intelligence--

There is a broad space for domestic chips

Our reporter Gu Yekai

Speech recognition that can listen and speak, safe and convenient face-swiping services, stable and comfortable unmanned driving, and profound medical machine reading... 2017 is considered to be a crucial year for the development of artificial intelligence in China. In the same year, the world's first commercial deep learning dedicated processor "Cambrian 1A" made a stunning appearance at the World Internet Conference, and a number of new-generation artificial intelligence chips came out one after another, and artificial intelligence used "Chinese chips"!

It can be expected that in 2018, the artificial intelligence "Chinese core" will beat more powerfully!

How to make machines "think" like humans? In the view of Chen Yunji, a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, if the chip of artificial intelligence can simulate the neurons and synapses of the brain, and complete the processing of a group of neurons with one instruction, the efficiency of this computing mode will far exceed that of traditional chips when doing intelligent processing.

Chen Yunji believes that artificial intelligence will continue to usher in rapid development in the new year, and the artificial intelligence "Chinese core" will also enter a broader application world-artificial intelligence chips will move from terminals to the cloud, and will provide powerful computing support for the online reasoning business of servers. The basic research of the main control chip of intelligent service robots is also moving forward steadily. And the artificial intelligence applications developed around the Cambrian chip "ecosystem" are in the ascendant. The leap in the computing power of terminal chips is expected to break through the bottleneck of front-end computing power in more artificial intelligence application scenarios, promote the performance optimization of related products, and form a virtuous cycle of resonance between industry, academia and research.

Nuclear power technology--

High temperature and low temperature are fully exerted

Reporter Jiang Jianke

Nuclear technology, as an important field of science and technology, has attracted much attention from the society. At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the continuous independent innovation of nuclear technology has yielded fruitful results, showing a gratifying phenomenon of new reactor types gathering together.

China National Nuclear Corporation recently officially released its independently developed "Yanlong" swimming pool-type low-temperature heating reactor in Beijing. According to estimates, a 400-megawatt "Yanlong" low-temperature heating reactor can provide heating for a building area of about 20 million square meters, equivalent to 200,000 three-bedroom families.

At the same time, China's independently developed fourth-generation nuclear power high-temperature gas-cooled reactor also received good news. The top cover of the pressure vessel of the No. 2 reactor of the Shidao Bay high-temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration project in Rongcheng, Shandong Province was successfully buckled. This means that China has taken a big step towards building the world's first commercial demonstration project of pebble bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor.

High temperature gas-cooled reactor technology is China's fourth-generation nuclear power technology with completely independent intellectual property rights. It has the characteristics of safety, high equipment localization rate, modular design to adapt to small and medium-sized power grids, and wide application, and has attracted widespread attention from the international community.

China maintains an international leading position in the field of high temperature gas-cooled reactor technology.

In 2006, the world's first 200,000-kilowatt high temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration project was included in the national major science and technology projects. At present, China Nuclear Industry Construction Group and Tsinghua University have developed and designed a 600,000-kilowatt commercial high temperature gas-cooled reactor through a series of optimization and improvement work, based on improving economic efficiency.

In addition, the preliminary feasibility study of the 600,000-kilowatt high temperature gas-cooled reactor project in Sanmen, Zhejiang, which is a follow-up commercialization project that China is focusing on, has been completed. Under the "Belt and Road" initiative, the high temperature gas-cooled reactor, as the "national business card" of China's nuclear power going global, has received great attention from the international community. With the strong support of the country, a joint team composed of China Nuclear Engineering Group and Tsinghua University has started the feasibility study of the Saudi high temperature gas-cooled reactor project and signed cooperation memorandums with Indonesia and other countries and regions to start the early stage of the project.

Innovation is endless. With the smooth progress of the demonstration project construction, China's high temperature gas-cooled reactor will continue to lead the world.

Layout design: Zhang Fangman

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