On the morning of April 25, the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum opened, and 10 major scientific and technological achievements were released. The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that these 10 achievements include not only agriculture, industrial manufacturing, new materials, etc., but also quantum cloud, brain-computer interface, astronomy, etc. Some of the results have been published in international journals and journals, and some have been applied in practice.
Chinese scientists have revealed that the main alkali tolerance genes of crops can greatly increase crop yields
The research team of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute of Genetics and Development") cooperated with eight units, including China Agricultural University, Huazhong Agricultural University, and Syngenta Group, to discover the main alkali tolerance gene AT1 and its mechanism of action for the first time using saline-alkali tolerant crop sorghum as a material. Field experiments have shown that this gene can significantly improve the germplasm yield of saline-alkali tolerant crops such as sorghum, rice, millet and maize, and has a great application prospect in the comprehensive utilization of improved saline-alkali land. The study was published in Science on March 24, 2023.
According to reports, Xie Qi's research group has made a series of major breakthroughs in recent years with sorghum as the main research material, revealing for the first time in the world the mechanism of birds selectively feeding on different varieties of sorghum and the regulatory mechanism of sorghum seed enveloping, and using gene editing technology to cultivate the world's first new strain of rice flower-flavored sorghum. These results laid the foundation for molecular breeding of sorghum. So far, a total of 6 varieties of sweet sorghum have been cultivated for national registration, and strains of sweet sorghum and winemaking sorghum are being validated. More than 500,000 acres of saline-alkali tolerant sweet sorghum varieties have been promoted and planted in barren land such as the eastern, northern and western saline-alkali lands of the mainland, contributing to the decisive battle of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization in the mainland.
The large-scale quantum cloud computing power cluster was released and opened to global users for free
The Beijing Institute of Quantum Information Science, together with the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University, released its latest achievement "Large-scale Quantum Cloud Computing Power Cluster" at the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum. Five hundred-bit next-generation quantum computing systems can work together in clusters by fusing with classical computing. The number of available physical bits of the newly launched quantum cloud has reached more than 590, and the average two-bit gate fidelity has reached more than 97%, of which the "Baihua" system is close to 99%. The quantum cloud computing power cluster has made a comprehensive upgrade in the measurement and control, compilation optimization, user interaction and other software, supports advanced functions such as line weaving and variational line compilation, and the comprehensive indicators have entered the forefront of the world.
Compared with last year, the quantum cloud computing cluster released this time has greatly optimized and iterated on quantum computing software and hardware, especially in quantum hardware, using an adjustable coupling architecture, combined with the improvement of chip processing technology, the process stability and consistency have been greatly improved. A number of improvements have also been made to the measurement and control circuit and measurement and control electronics, which have greatly improved the signal quality, integration and reliability of the measurement and control system. In terms of software, the replacement of the quantum compilation optimizer and the development of Quarkstudio, a more convenient user interaction system, have been completed. It's a full-stack technological advancement.
The quantum cloud computing power cluster released this time is open to global users in a free form, and users can log in to the https://quafu.baqis.ac.cn website and apply for it according to the user guide.
The world's first general intelligent human "Tongtong" was unveiled
Launched by the Beijing Institute of General Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as the "General Research Institute"), the world's first general intelligent human "Tongtong" is an embodied AGI system prototype driven by value and causality.
The advent of "Tongtong" is not only an important leap forward in technology, but also a forward-looking exploration of the future development path of general artificial intelligence. The debut of "Tongtong" provides a new solution for the autonomy, explainability, and value alignment of agents. With the continuous iteration of "Tongtong", it can be used as a general base to support various vertical application scenarios, forming tens of millions of "general intelligent people" to empower thousands of industries. At the same time, "Tongtong" can also be combined with embodied intelligent robots to bring revolutionary changes to intelligent manufacturing, smart cities, medical and health and other fields.
The invasive acquisition of single-neuron electrical signals "Beibrain II" was released and has been stably implanted in the skull of monkeys for nearly a year
Brain-computer interface is the highland of scientific and technological competition in the field of brain science and brain-like research in developed countries, which requires the integration of complex systems across multiple disciplines, the upstream and downstream links of the industry are long, and the research and development process involves electrodes, chips, data, algorithms, analysis software, biocompatible materials and other links. Facing the international frontier development trend of implantable brain-computer interface, Beijing has made forward-looking plans and entrusted the Beijing Institute of Brain Science and Brain-like Research to take the lead in formulating the "Intelligent Brain-Computer System Enhancement Plan", established Beijing Xinzhida Neurotechnology Co., Ltd., integrated the interdisciplinary advantageous teams in Beijing in electrodes, chips, algorithms and clinics, and focused on the semi-invasive collection of cerebral cortex electrical signals "Bei Brain No. 1" and the invasive collection of single neuron electrical signals "North Brain No. 2", and carried out engineering development in the way of grasping models.
One of the major achievements released by the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum, "Beinao-2", is composed of self-developed high-throughput flexible microwire electrodes, thousand-channel electrophysiological recording systems, real-time codec algorithms and other key technologies to complete the construction of a full-link system, and realize the brain-controlled interception of two-dimensional motion targets by macaques through mind control for the first time in the world, solving the international frontier problem of long-term stable recording and real-time decoding of large-scale single-cell signals.
The 300 MW Class F heavy-duty gas turbine has been assembled and rolled off the assembly line to ensure energy security and green development
With the strong support of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, Shanghai, Beijing and other departments, on February 28, 2024, the largest power and highest technical level heavy-duty gas turbine independently developed by mainland China - The first prototype of the 300 MW F-class heavy-duty gas turbine rolled off the assembly line in Shanghai Lingang, which is an important milestone in the independent innovation and development process of the heavy-duty gas turbine in mainland China, marking the first time that the high-power heavy-duty gas turbine in mainland China has completed the whole manufacturing process based on forward design and has fully entered the final stage of the whole machine test and verification.
The 300 MW F-class heavy-duty gas turbine is composed of 5 major systems and more than 50,000 parts, which is the largest power and highest-tech heavy-duty gas turbine independently developed by the mainland for the first time, and will become an important force driving the development of high-end equipment manufacturing industry. Our heavy-duty gas turbines adopt a series of new technologies, new materials and new processes, which have a significant role in driving the progress of basic disciplines and industrial technology development of gas turbines in mainland China, and are of great significance to ensure the energy security and green development of mainland China, accelerate the formation of new quality productivity, promote new industrialization and build a manufacturing power.
The performance level of the third-generation "Xiangshan" open-source high-performance RISC-V processor core has entered the first echelon in the world
The third-generation "Xiangshan" open source high-performance RISC-V processor core released by the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Open Source Chip Research Institute adopts the world's first joint development of processor chips based on the open source model, and forms a joint development team with a number of domestic and foreign enterprises, and uses the new method of agile development of global advanced chips selected as 12 global highlight achievements in the architecture field in 2022, and the development was completed in only one and a half years. With a frequency of 3GHz@7nm and a SPECINT2006 score of 15 points/GHz, the performance level has entered the first echelon in the world, which can be widely used in high-end chip fields such as server chips, AI chips, GPUs, and DPUs, providing open source and shared common base technologies for the advanced computing industry.
At present, a number of enterprises are developing high-end chips such as data center AI chips, ultra-large computing power RISC-V server chips, fully independent RISC-V cloud computing chips for the open market, and domestic GPU chips based on RISC-V based on "Xiangshan", which are expected to form a collective breakthrough in high-end RISC-V computing chips in 2025. At that time, mainland enterprises are expected to gain a leading edge in the new global RISC-V ecosystem, open up the domestic and foreign dual circulation in the chip field, and realize the self-reliance and self-improvement of the mainland's high-end processor chip industry.
Corner boron nitride optical crystal Successfully developed a new generation of all-fiber lasers
After 10 years of accumulation and precipitation, in 2023, the research team of Professor Liu Kaihui and Academician Wang Enge of the School of Physics of Peking University finally overcame the super problem of the preparation of light element single crystal materials - the regulation of growth stacking orientation, and realized the large-area preparation of rhombinoid boron nitride crystal materials (published in the journal Advanced Materials). Rhombodicular boron nitride has extremely strong optical nonlinear properties, but the configuration is a substable phase that does not exist in nature. The team innovatively proposed a step-by-step control strategy for the substrate surface to overcome the thermodynamic limitations of the growth process, and finally obtained a rhombic boron nitride crystal material with an in-plane size of centimeters and a thickness of microns.
At the same time, the research team pioneered the third phase matching theory, the phase matching theory of interface rotation angle, and prepared a new type of optical crystal, the angle rhombic boron nitride optical crystal (published in the journal Physical Review Letters). The research team found that the angular rhobizoboron nitride optical crystals prepared by rotating and stacking rhomboid crystal materials at specific angles have super optical nonlinear effects. The crystal is only micron thick, "as thin as a cicada's wings", and is the thinnest optical crystal known in the world, and the energy efficiency is 100 to 10,000 times higher than that of traditional crystals. This research result is an important original breakthrough in the field of optical crystals in China, and opens up a new design model and material system in the field of optical crystals. At present, the research team has cooperated with domestic laser companies and successfully developed a new generation of all-fiber lasers, and at the same time cooperated with user units to actively promote the research and development and application of this technology in the fields of optical chips, quantum technology, aerospace special uses, etc.
China's Sky Eye FAST is the first to detect the shortest orbital period pulsar binary star system to date
The astronomical community has only detected pulsar binary systems in the "redback" and "black widow" states respectively, and has not understood the intermediate state of the evolution of the two. With the help of the ultra-high sensitivity of China's Tianyan FAST, the evolution path of "red back" and "black widow" has been confirmed. The research team used FAST to detect a pulsar binary system called M71E, and after long-term observations, it was determined that the two stars of this system orbited for only 53 minutes, which is the shortest pulsar binary system ever discovered. It is determined to be in the middle of the evolution process from the "red back" system to the "black widow" system, which fills the missing link in the evolution theory of spider pulsars. At the same time, the binary star system is almost pointing to the Earth on its axis, which is extremely rare, and more discoveries are expected from further research.
The results were published online on June 20, 2023 by the international academic journal Nature, and the reviewers of the journal commented that the results have discovered a very interesting pulsar binary star system, which has significantly shortened the record of the shortest orbital period of the pulsar binary system by about 30%, indicating that there is a new unknown process in the evolution of spider pulsars.
"Lasso" discovered the brightest gamma burst in history with 10 trillion electron volts photons
The High Altitude Cosmic Ray Observatory (LHAASO) (Lasso), a major national scientific and technological infrastructure, has officially released the precise spectrum of high-energy gamma radiation from the brightest gamma-ray burst ("gamma burst", number GRB 221009A) to date, with a maximum energy of more than 10 trillion electron volts, which challenges the traditional standard radiation model of gamma burst afterglow and reveals that the cosmic background light is less intense than expected in the infrared band. At the same time, the energy spectrum provides important information for new physics research such as testing the application range of Einstein's theory of relativity and exploring the candidate particle of dark matter, the axon. The results were published in Science Advances on November 15, 2023, and were completed by the Lasso International Cooperation Group led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Based on the accurate energy spectrum measured by Lasso, it is estimated that the absorption of high-energy gamma light by the cosmic background light is lower than expected, and the intensity of the cosmic background light in the infrared band is only about 40% of what the existing cosmological model expects. This result will prompt a reconsideration of the formation and evolution of galaxies in the universe. On the other hand, if the standard model of cosmic evolution is correct, the absorption of high-energy gamma photons by cosmic background light is lower than theoretically expected may also imply the existence of some new physical mechanism beyond the current Standard Model of particle physics.
Lasso is a major national scientific and technological infrastructure, located in Daocheng County, Sichuan Province, at an altitude of 4,410 meters above sea level, is a one-square-kilometer ground cluster particle detector array composed of 5,216 electromagnetic particle detectors and 1,188 Muzi detectors, a 78,000-square-meter water Cherenkov detector array and a composite array composed of 18 wide-angle Cherenkov telescopes. Completed in July 2021 and starting high-quality and stable operation, Lasso is the world's most sensitive ultra-high-energy gamma-ray detection device, with a large field of view and all-weather characteristics, which can monitor 2/3 of the celestial range every day.
EAST enables the world's longest repeatable, highly confined mode plasma operation
At 21 o'clock on the evening of April 12, the world's first fully superconducting tokamak EAST device in operation achieved significant results, successfully realizing 403 seconds of steady-state long-pulse high-confinement mode plasma operation, creating a new world record for high-confinement mode operation of tokamak devices. At 19 p.m. on April 13, the 403-second steady-state long-pulse high-confinement mode plasma operation was repeated, marking the reliable ability of the EAST fully superconducting tokamak device to operate at a steady-state time with high parameters and long pulses.
The EAST scientific team has solved a series of cutting-edge physical and technical integration problems, such as plasma confinement on a long time scale, high-power RF wave heating and current drive, plasma-wall interaction, and real-time diagnosis of key distribution parameters, and repeatedly realized the operation of long-pulse high-confinement mode plasma. A series of major breakthroughs in the EAST physics experiment have further verified the feasibility of steady-state operation of the high-confinement mode of future fusion experiments. At the same time, it is also of great significance to explore the frontier physical problems of future fusion reactors, improve the economy and efficiency of nuclear fusion energy, and accelerate the application of fusion energy. A series of major innovations made by the EAST facility have provided an important experimental basis for the operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and the independent construction and operation of fusion reactors on the mainland.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Wen Jing
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