"Tianwen-1" fell into flames, "Tianhe" was successfully launched, carbon dioxide to starch to achieve artificial synthesis... In 2021, these 10 major scientific and technological advances were "passed" from 310 recommended scientific research progresses, and more than 3,500 well-known experts and scholars, such as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, directors of the State Key Laboratory, members of the overall expert group and project leaders of the relevant key special projects of the National Key Research and Development Program, experts of the former "973 Program" advisory group and advisory group, and chief scientists of the project, finally stood out and became the top ten progresses of Chinese science in 2021. It was released by the Center for High Technology Research and Development (Basic Research Management Center) of the Ministry of Science and Technology on February 28, 2022.
Scientific discoveries are like stars, why are they the brightest? Let's take a look.
Progress 1: The Mars exploration mission Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars
At 7:18 a.m. on May 15, 2021, the Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed in the pre-selected landing zone in the southern part of the Martian Utopian Plain, and the first Mars exploration mission on the mainland landed on Mars successfully. The task adopts the four-stage tandem deceleration technical route of "pneumatic deceleration - parachute deceleration - power deceleration - landing buffer", establishes a design iterative improvement process and multidisciplinary comprehensive optimization method, and improves the safe landing ability of the system to cope with fault conditions and enter the limit of the pull off.
Reasons for selection: The landing of the Tianwen-1 probe on Mars is the first time that the mainland has achieved the landing of extraterrestrial planets, taken an important step in the continental interstellar exploration journey, realized the leap from the Earth-Moon system to the interplanetary system, left a Chinese mark on Mars for the first time, and made the mainland the second country to successfully land on Mars, which is another milestone progress in the development of the continental space industry.
Tianwen-1 probe
Progress 2: The Successful Launch of the Tianhe Core Module of the Chinese Space Station, the successful launch of the Shenzhou 12th and 13th manned spacecraft and the successful docking with the Tianhe Core Module
On April 29, 2021, the Core Module of the Chinese Space Station was launched at the Wenchang Cosmodrome in Hainan, accurately entering the predetermined orbit and the mission was successful. On June 17, the Shenzhou XII manned spacecraft was successfully launched, and successfully docked with the Tianhe core module, successfully sending Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo into space, which was the first rendezvous and docking with the manned spacecraft after the Tianhe core module was launched into orbit. On October 16, the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft was successfully launched, and the independent rapid rendezvous and docking mode was successfully docked at the radial port of the Tianhe core module, successfully sending Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu into space, and realizing the first radial rendezvous and docking of the mainland manned spacecraft in space.
Reason for selection: The successful launch of the Tianhe core module marks that the construction of the continental space station has entered the full implementation stage, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent mission to be launched. The mainland's manned spacecraft have left the experimental stage and begun to normalize space round-trip, marking the mainland's official entry into the era of the space station.
Simulation of the Chinese space station
Progress 3: Synthesis from carbon dioxide to starch
Ma Yanhe et al. of the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported on the artificial starch synthesis pathway (ASAP) composed of 11-step core reactions, which realized artificial total synthesis from carbon dioxide and hydrogen to starch molecules in the laboratory. Under hydrogen drive, ASAP converts carbon dioxide into starch molecules 8.5 times faster than corn starch synthesis; the theoretical energy conversion efficiency of ASAP starch synthesis is 7%, which is 3.5 times that of crops such as corn, and can realize the controlled synthesis of straight chain and pullulan.
Reason for selection: Starch is the most important component of grain and an important industrial raw material. The results do not rely on plant photosynthesis, through the design of the unnatural pathway of carbon dioxide to starch synthesis from scratch, the modular reaction adaptation and protein engineering methods, solve the problems of computer pathway thermodynamic matching, metabolic flow balance and by-product inhibition, overcome the problems of artificial pathway assembly and cascade reaction evolution, and realize the artificial total synthesis of carbon dioxide to starch.
Synthetic pathway of artificial starch
Progress 4: Lunar samples from Chang'e-5 reveal the mysteries of lunar evolution
Li Xianhua, Yang Wei, Hu Sen, Lin Yangting of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Li Chunlai of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences used the ultra-high spatial resolution dating and isotopic analysis techniques established over the past decade to conduct accurate chronology, rock geochemistry and magma water content of the Chang'e-5 lunar sample basalt. The results show that the Chang'e-5 basalt was formed in 2.03 ± 0.04 billion years, confirming that the volcanic activity of the Moon can continue until 2 billion years ago, about 800 million years longer than the volcanic activity previously defined by lunar samples.
Reason for selection: This result provides a key anchor point for impact crater dating, which will greatly improve the accuracy of impact crater dating on the surface of the inner solar system. The study also revealed that the lunar mantle source area of the Chang'e-5 basalt is not rich in radioactive thermogenic elements and water, excluding the two mantle melting mechanisms provided by radioactive elements or rich in water to reduce the melting point, which proposes a new direction for future lunar exploration and research.
Microscopic image of a sample of the Chang'e-5 lunar soil (basalt chips).
Progress 5: Mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 escape antiviral drugs revealed
In the life cycle, a series of transcriptional replication enzymes of the new crown virus are assembled into a "transcriptional replication complex" supramolecular machine, which is responsible for the whole process of viral transcriptional replication, and is highly conserved in various mutant strains, which is the core target for the development of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs. Zhiyong Lou, Zi Rao, and Gao Yan of ShanghaiTech University of Tsinghua University discovered and reconstructed the virus "caped intermediate complex", "mRNA cap compound" and "mismatch correction complex" and elucidated their working mechanisms. The complete composition of the transcriptional replication machine of the new coronavirus was revealed; the nucleoside transferase domain of the viral polymerase was found to be the key enzyme that catalyzed the maturation of mRNA "capping", and the synthesis process of the cap structure was clarified.
Reasons for selection: The emerging mutations of the new crown virus pose a serious challenge to the existing antiviral means such as vaccines and neutralizing antibodies, and it is urgent to develop broad-spectrum drugs that can effectively deal with various types of mutant strains. This scientific advance provides a new target for the development of new and safe broad-spectrum antiviral drugs, and finds that viruses "eliminate" mismatch bases and antiviral drugs in a "trans-retrospective" manner, elucidating the molecular mechanism of poor efficacy of remdesivir and other drugs, and providing a key scientific basis for optimizing antiviral drugs against polymerase.
The replication correction mechanism of the "trans-retrospective" of the new crown virus
Progress Six: FAST Captures Samples of the World's Largest Rapid Radio Burst
FRB 121102 is the first repeated fast radio burst known to mankind, li Jing of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and others used the "Chinese Sky Eye" FAST to successfully capture the extreme activity period of FRB 121102, the most intense period reached 122 outbreaks per hour, and the cumulative acquisition of 1652 high signal-to-noise ratio burst signals, constituting the largest set of FRB outbreak events. The FAST sample ruled out periodicity or quasi-periodicity of FRB 121102 bursts between milliseconds and one hour, severely limiting the possibility of repeated fast radio bursts originating from a single dense object.
Why: Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are the brightest explosive phenomena in the radio band universe. This study presents for the first time the complete energy spectrum of FRBs, revealing the underlying physical mechanisms of FRBs.
FAST captures a fast radio burst sample schematic
Progress 7: Realize the large-scale preparation of high-performance fiber lithium-ion batteries
How to meet the requirements of highly integrated and flexible development of electronic products by designing new structures (such as creating fiber lithium-ion batteries) is a major challenge facing the field of lithium-ion batteries. Fudan University Peng Huisheng, Chen Peining, etc. found a unique hyperbolic cotangent function relationship between the internal resistance and length of fiber lithium-ion batteries, that is, the internal resistance does not increase with the increase of length, but first declines and then tends to stabilize.
Reasons for selection: The fiber lithium-ion battery built under the guidance of this theory has excellent and stable electrochemical properties, the energy density is increased by nearly 2 orders of magnitude compared with the past, and the capacity retention rate after bending 100,000 times exceeds 80%; the world's first fiber lithium-ion battery production line has achieved its large-scale continuous preparation; the fiber lithium-ion battery system obtained by weaving integration has electrochemical properties comparable to that of commercial lithium-ion batteries, and the stability and safety are more excellent.
Schematic diagram of the integrated assembly of a fiber polymer lithium-ion battery
Progress Eight: Quantum walking of the programmable two-dimensional 62-bit superconducting processor "Zu Chong No."
Quantum walking is a quantum mechanical simulation of classical random walking, which is a tool to realize quantum simulation, quantum search algorithm and even general quantum computing. Zhu Xiaobo and Pan Jianwei of the University of Science and Technology of China have realized the expansion of the qubit structure from one-dimensional to two-dimensional through the development of three-dimensional lead technology compatible with the planar process, designed and produced a two-dimensional superconducting qubit array of 8×8 composed of 62 bits, built the "Zu Chong Zhi" quantum computing prototype, and demonstrated the high-fidelity single and double particle continuous time quantum walk through the device.
Reason for selection: This work is the world's first published achievement in the field of superconducting quantum computing with a bit count of more than 60, which has laid the foundation for the development of Zuchong-2 and the realization of "quantum computing superiority".
Zu Chong's trumpet
Progress 9: Self-powered soft robot successfully challenges the Mariana Trench
Deep-sea robots and equipment require high-strength metal pressure-resistant housings or pressure compensation systems to protect internal electromechanical systems. Li Tiefeng of Zhejiang University and others extracted bionic inspiration from the physiological characteristics of "head bone dispersion and fusion in soft tissue" of deep-sea lionfish, revealed the internal mechanism of soft robot functional device failure and drive failure under extreme pressure conditions in the deep sea, proposed the method of dispersion of hard devices into soft matrix to achieve internal stress regulation, and the method of electric drive artificial muscle fusion manufacturing method adapted to the low temperature and high pressure environment of the deep sea, and established the system construction method and driving theory of 10,000 meters deep-sea soft robot. The self-powered soft robot developed successfully challenged the Mariana Trench, realized 10,900 meters of seabed diving and driving, and achieved deep-sea navigation at 3224 meters below the sea level in the South China Sea.
Reason for selection: The study has significantly reduced the weight and economic cost of deep-sea robots, and promoted the application of soft robots in the field of deep-sea engineering.
Soft robot in the Mariana Trench 10,000 meters deep sea drive experiment
Progress 10: Revealing key genes for bird migration routes and long-distance migration
Zhan Xiangjiang, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and others lasted 12 years, using satellite tracking data and genomic information, established a set of Arctic peregrine falcon migration research system, and found that peregrine falcons mainly used 5 routes to cross the Eurasian continent, with the western peregrine falcon showing short-distance migration and the eastern part migrating long-distance migration. During the transition from the last glacial peak to the Holocene, the reproduction and wintering grounds caused by the retreat of glaciers may be the main historical reasons for the formation of migration routes. The study also found that peregrine falcons with longer migratory distances carry the ADCY8 dominance allele, which is associated with long-term memory formation, suggesting that long-term memory may be an important basis for long-distance migration of birds.
Why: "How migratory organisms discover their migration routes" has been a topic of widespread concern in society and academia, and is one of the 125 most challenging scientific questions raised by Science magazine. Combined with remote sensing satellite tracking, genomics, neurobiology and other research methods, the study elucidated the causes and genetic basis of bird migration routes through multidisciplinary integrated analysis methods.
Key genes for the origin of Arctic peregrine falcon migration routes and long-distance migration
(Guangming Daily all-media reporter Yang Shu)
Source: Guangming Daily all-media reporter Yang Shu
Editor-in-charge: Wang Yuanfang
Editor: Chang Ying, Zhu Xiaofan