China Science & Technology Forum

[Bussard Ramjet]

China Focus: China stepping closer to "innovative nation"
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-05 23:43:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan



BEIJING, May 5 (Xinhua) -- China's first home-grown large passenger jet C919 made its maiden flight on Friday.

In the same week, Chinese scientists announced they had built world's first quantum computing machine, paving the way for the ultimate realization of quantum computing overtaking classical computers. China's manned submersible Jiaolong conducted its fourth dive in the South China Sea.

In April, China launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier and the Tianzhou-1 cargo spacecraft docked with Tiangong-2 space lab and completed their first in-orbit refueling.

Such a string of achievements in science and technology shows the strategy of innovation-driven development beginning to pay off.

Innovation is at the core of the 13th five-year plan which has the objective of becoming an "innovative nation" by 2020, an international leader in innovation by 2030, and a world powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation by 2050.

PROGRESS AND HURDLES

The innovation strategy is key to supply-side structural reform which will shape China's economic policies in 2017 and beyond, but only once a major obstacle is surmounted.

Far too few of China's workforce are involved in research and development (R&D). Not enough money is spent on R&D and incentives are poor.

Of course. Chinese patenting applications have increased dramatically, but few are of any real quality. Most represent small improvements in existing products or mere design ideas. There are very few of the fully-fledged inventions which could inspire a whole generation of innovators. There is no Tesla, no transistor, no mousetrap.

While China is the world's largest consumer of computer chips, it imports most of them. To address the issue, universal chips were listed as a key scientific and technological project of national importance, but that was back in 2014.

The 13th five-year plan talks about breakthroughs in key areas by 2030, including aviation engines, quantum teleportation, intelligent manufacturing and robots, deep space and deep sea probes, new materials, brain science and health.

These projects are designed to break free from external dominance in these areas and create new directions and areas for development and growth.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE WORLD

As China makes advances in science and technology, other countries are seeking partnership.

Cisco Systems (China) invested 20 billion yuan in the Cisco (Guangzhou) Smart City project, aiming to build the largest platform of Internet R&D and intelligent operations, outside the United States.

"The project offers a great opportunity to present an innovative example to the world," said Chuck Robbins, Cisco Global CEO.

In addition to the Smart City project, hi-tech hubs in Shanghai, Beijing and many other cities are offering foreign investors ample opportunities of cooperation.

Honeywell Aerospace Asia-Pacific is one of the suppliers of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), manufacturer of the C919.

Michel Merluzeau, director of AirInsightResearch, an aerospace & defence market analysis and consulting group, anticipates that by the mid-2030s, COMAC will be an important partner in the global aerospace supply chains, owing to growth in China, partnerships and the size of the market.

"We are so proud that we have made and stuck to the right strategic choice," said Steven Lien, president of Honeywell Aerospace Asia-Pacific.

China is also attracting foreign personnel to grow its stock of high-quality workers. In 2016, 1,576 foreigners became permanent Chinese residents, an increase of 163 percent on the previous year, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-05/05/c_136260598.htm

@cirr @AndrewJin @wanglaokan

Just a reminder, this is not me saying it. This is Xinhua saying it.

And this is completely correct. Huawei despite its patents still has to pay huge sums of money on royalties to other companies.

 

[cirr]

05 May 2017

Petrol created from carbon dioxide

A catalytic process could help to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions.

Burning petrol makes carbon dioxide that can be converted back to petrol hydrocarbons when it is treated with hydrogen and catalysts. But current catalysts are inefficient and yield unwanted by-products such as methane. A team led by Jian Sun and Qingjie Ge of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China added sodium to an iron-based nanocatalyst, and combined it with a porous, nanocrystalline solid called a zeolite. This added hydrogen to CO2 to produce petrol directly, without creating intermediary products.

Under industrial conditions, the catalyst achieved a conversion rate of 22%. Nearly 80% of the resulting hydrocarbons were petrol — thought to be the highest reported rate so far — with only 4% ending up as methane.

http://www.nature.com/articles/n-12267180

@Bussard Ramjet You are a chemistry student, right?

PUBLIC RELEASE: 2-MAY-2017

Scientists develop efficient multifunctional catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to gasoline

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

IMAGE: THIS IS A CO2 HYDROGENATION TO GASOLINE-RANGE HYDROCARBONS OVER NA-FE3O4/ZEOLITE MULTIFUNCTIONAL CATALYST.view more

CREDIT: IMAGE BY WEI JIAN

Converting CO2 from a detrimental greenhouse gas into value-added liquid fuels not only contributes to mitigating CO2 emissions, but also reduces dependence on petrochemicals. However, since CO2 is a fully oxidized, thermodynamically stable and chemically inert molecule, the activation of CO2 and its hydrogenation to hydrocarbons or other alcohols are challenging tasks. Most research to date, not surprisingly, is focusing on selective hydrogenation of CO2 to short-chain products, while few studies on long-chain hydrocarbons, such as gasoline-range (C5-C11) hydrocarbons. The key to this process is to search for a high efficient catalyst.

The research team led by Dr. SUN Jian and Prof. GE Qingjie in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, has succeeded in preparing a high efficient, stable, and multifunctional Na-Fe3O4/HZSM-5 catalyst for the direct production of gasoline from CO2 hydrogenation. This catalyst exhibited 78% selectivity to C5-C11 as well as low CH4 and CO selectivity under industrial relevant conditions. And gasoline fractions are mainly isoparaffins and aromatics thus favoring the octane number. Moreover, the multifunctional catalyst exhibited a remarkable stability for 1,000 h on stream, which definitely has the potential to be a promising industrial catalyst for CO2 utilization to liquid fuels.

In-depth characterizations indicate that this catalyst enables RWGS over Fe3O4 sites, olefin synthesis over Fe5C2 sites and oligomerization/aromatization/isomerization over zeolite acid sites. The concerted action of the active sites calls for precise control of their structures and proximity. This study paves a new path for the synthesis of liquid fuels by utilizing CO2 and H2. Furthermore, it provides an important approach for dealing with the intermittency of renewable sources (sun, wind and so on) by storing energy in liquid fuels.

###

This work was recently published on Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15174). This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Hundred-Talent Program of DICP, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

[Han Patriot]

China Focus: China stepping closer to "innovative nation"
Source: Xinhua| 2017-05-05 23:43:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan


.

What's your point? Small improvement on existing technologies are innovations. Certain chips used by Huawei are imported, this is inevitable. You think the thousands of patents filed yearly are all revolutionary technologies? Panasonic filed thousands of patents too, it is mostly improvement in process and existing technology. The same goes for IBM and all MNCs. The key here is to safeguard ideas, innovations and technology.

However, this does not mean China should not improve on it's technological output. Patents does not equal technological output. It is a tool to safeguard interests.

 

[TaiShang]

Minor planet named after Chinese aerospace scientist
Xinhua, May 8, 2017

Minor Planet No. 456677 was named after Chinese aerospace scientist Ye Peijian at a ceremony on Monday.

Ye is active in the country's lunar probe and deep space missions, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The minor planet was discovered by a Chinese team at the Purple Mountain Observatory in east China's Nanjing on Sept. 11, 2007.

The naming suggestion was approved by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center on Jan. 12, 2017.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2017-05/08/content_40772035.htm

 

[Place Of Space]

Ye Peijian, What the letters stand for?

 

[TaiShang]

Ye Peijian, What the letters stand for?

叶培建，中国空间飞行器总体、信息处理专家。绕月探测工程、嫦娥一号卫星系统总指挥兼总设计师，他熟练掌握英语和法语，撰写过多份重要工程技术报告，在国内外发表论文60余篇，培养了一批博士生、硕士生。 江苏泰兴人。中国空间技术研究院研究员，中科院院士，瑞士科学博士学位。曾任我国第一代传输型侦察卫星系列总设计师兼总指挥，为我国第一代长寿命传输型对地观测卫星的研制，做出了系统的、创造性的成就和贡献，并任太阳同步轨道平台首席专家；任嫦娥一号卫星总设计师兼总指挥，为首次绕月探测工程的成功研制做出了重大贡献，现任嫦娥系列各型号总指挥、总设计师顾问，嫦娥三号首席科学家；总装国防973和探索项目顾问专家组成员，清华等高校兼职教授。荣获国家科技进步奖特等奖、一等奖等多项奖励和全国“五·一”劳动奖章。2014年作为团队带头人获得国家科技进步创新团队奖。



His full bio:

http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=KX1...DJEsXZkEOE2XwlNkZHE0IbVEjZOEXlD8u1fieuSozCXN0

 

[Place Of Space]

叶培建，中国空间飞行器总体、信息处理专家。绕月探测工程、嫦娥一号卫星系统总指挥兼总设计师，他熟练掌握英语和法语，撰写过多份重要工程技术报告，在国内外发表论文60余篇，培养了一批博士生、硕士生。 江苏泰兴人。中国空间技术研究院研究员，中科院院士，瑞士科学博士学位。曾任我国第一代传输型侦察卫星系列总设计师兼总指挥，为我国第一代长寿命传输型对地观测卫星的研制，做出了系统的、创造性的成就和贡献，并任太阳同步轨道平台首席专家；任嫦娥一号卫星总设计师兼总指挥，为首次绕月探测工程的成功研制做出了重大贡献，现任嫦娥系列各型号总指挥、总设计师顾问，嫦娥三号首席科学家；总装国防973和探索项目顾问专家组成员，清华等高校兼职教授。荣获国家科技进步奖特等奖、一等奖等多项奖励和全国“五·一”劳动奖章。2014年作为团队带头人获得国家科技进步创新团队奖。



His full bio:

http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=KX1...DJEsXZkEOE2XwlNkZHE0IbVEjZOEXlD8u1fieuSozCXN0

Thanks, now I am capable of searching his story.

 

[F-22Raptor]

China frequently makes news for being at the forefront of peer-review scandals like this one and this one. And data appears to bear that out, showing China contributed well over half of the papers retracted for compromised peer review from 2012 to 2016, according to data obtained by Quartz.

Peer review by scientists in the same field as someone trying to publish research is supposed to help journals and their readers make sense of how credible and important the work is. Problems with peer review taint that process, and can extend the gamut from reviews that are carried out by someone affiliated with the researcher to entirely made-up reviews.

Over the past five years, a total of 498 papers have been retracted over peer-review issues, according to the US blog Retraction Watch (papers can also be retracted for other reasons, but those papers aren’t included here). The blog used the nationalities of corresponding authors to reach its tally, since they are responsible for paper submissions. The breakdown by country below totals 502, reflecting papers counted twice because of corresponding authors with affiliations in multiple countries.

Retracted papers for fake peer review by country from 2012 to 2016

While the blog’s co-founder Ivan Oransky notes that while list isn’t comprehensive, the blog does track scientific and medical publishing very closely, including with a researcher who “is constantly scanning those databases,” making the numbers a good indicator. “I am confident that we capture most retractions for fake peer review,” said Oransky.

China has the worst performance on peer-review integrity even when compared with the top five countries (see chart below) for scientific publishing in the last five years, using Nature Index, which tracks publications in nearly 70 journals as an indicator of a nation’s high-quality research output. The index’s data covers a 12-month rolling window, with the latest numbers covering February 2016 through January 2017.

Part of the problem is that Chinese researchers, who have been publishing in ever greater numbers—last year Nature Index showed China published 9,721 research articles, up from 6,587 in 2012—often rely on third-party companies to help translate, format and submit their work to journals, and sometimes this outsourcing results in efforts to game the system.

Last month, over 100 papers from Chinese researchers published between 2012 to 2016 in Tumor Biology, a cancer-research journal, were linked to review fabrications. Meanwhile, Germany had one retraction over peer review in the past five years, and Japan, which published some 4,000 papers last year, hasn’t seen any papers retracted for these problems.

“Many scientists in Japan write fluently in English, and those that don’t have help from university translation services,” says Oransky, “There doesn’t seem to be the demand for such services that created a market for unscrupulous third-party companies.”

https://qz.com/978037/china-publish...-peer-review-than-everyone-else-put-together/

 

[JSCh]

Build AI like the human brain, say experts in Beijing
By Zhang Zhihao | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-05-08 16:28

Brain specialists and experts in artificial intelligence should work together to create AI as complex as the human brain, a top scientist said at a Beijing seminar on Monday.

Poo Mu-ming, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Neuroscience, said AI should be able to learn quickly, be versatile and be energy efficient.

"The human brain is the most complex object in the universe," he said. "Both the brain and AI involve big data training, but the brain develops its neural network organically with significant structural changes over decades, whereas AI's learning structure is static and requires a huge amount of data and energy."

The brain's ability to rewire and adapt to changing environments is called plasticity, and this may hold the "key to overcoming the current limits of machine learning", he said.

Most AI research focuses on imitating and maximizing a small part of the brain's function, such as sensory recognition. However, higher cognitive functions like language and emotions are still too complex for computers, said Guo Aike, a biophysicist with the academy.

"Machines excel in activities that have clearly defined rules and straightforward goals, such as video or board games, but they struggle to perform tasks in environments that involve many changing variables," Guo said when talking about a match scheduled this month between world Go champion Ke Jie and AlphaGo, an AI program developed by Google.

He said computer scientists can learn from neuroscientists about how the brain stores and processes information, to develop AI that can learn dynamically, transferring skills learned from one task to new ones, while keeping its energy requirement low.

There should be more platforms and opportunities for computer scientists and brain specialists to work together and share their findings, Guo said.

One application of a brain-inspired AI technology is self-driving cars, which rely heavily on sensors and a massive quantity of live and preprogrammed data, according to Li Deyi, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

No matter how meticulously programmed, "self-driving cars still encounter problems when faced with challenging road conditions", Li said. One solution, he added, is to materialize a human driver's cognition by mimicking human brain activities, and to build this "mechanical driving brain" into self-driving cars.

 

[JSCh]

Chinese scientist plans mass experiment of sea-rice
(People's Daily Online) 17:20, May 08, 2017

Yuan Longping, China’s “father of hybrid rice,” is planning experiments on expanding the production of sea-rice to 300 kilograms per mu at the newly-founded Sea-Rice Research and Development Center in Qingdao, China News reported. The center was established and opened on May 7.

Sea-rice, sometimes found in saline-alkaline soil, is resistant to pests, diseases, salt, and alkali; and does not need fertilizer. The Qingdao research center will use gene sequencing to cultivate new strains of sea-rice that will yield more rice and grow with saline water.

Mr. Yuan expects the yield of such sea-rice to reach at least 300 kilograms per mu (0.07 hectares) by 2020. China would gain another 30 billion kilograms of grains if the country gains 100 million mu of fertile land on mud flats. This would meet the need of about 80 million people on a yearly basis.

According to the center, the sea-rice to be developed has several advantages, including high yield, good quality, and tolerance to saline-alkaline conditions. The first generation of sea-rice is projected to be available this November.

The rice research and development center was established in 2016 by Yuan Longping, the Qingdao Municipal Government, and the China National Hybrid Rice Engineering Technology Research Center. The field trial is underway and the labs will be put into use in June or July this year.

 

[JSCh]

This Chinese telescope team is making a 7,000 mile journey to the eclipse
An optical telescope built by the Chinese researchers starts its journey to 2017’s Great American Solar Eclipse

By Cici Zhang | Published: Tuesday, May 9, 2017

​

It is only during total solar eclipses that the Sun’s corona and its highly ionized iron lines can be observed.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr, CC BY 2.0

On August 21, 2017, the town of Lincoln City, Oregon, like many locales in the path of that date's total solar eclipse, will have its big day in the Sun, then in the Sun's shadow, and then back in the Sun again.

Eclipse-chasing tourists are expected to flood in. But one team of Sun-watchers and their telescope might stand out: They will have traveled near seven thousand miles from China to do science here.

“Our telescope is the most advanced in the world regarding solar eclipse observation, especially looking at the corona (the Sun’s outmost layer),” says team leader Zhongquan Qu. Qu is a professor of solar physics at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Yunnan Observatory in Kunming, and a member of the IAU Working Group on Solar Eclipses.

The Sun’s corona is usually visible only during solar eclipses, so this summer’s event affords many heliophysicists a rare observational opportunity, one that Qu’s team refuses to miss. They decided against Oregon’s capital Salem — which is also on the totality path — because many tourists there might be taking photos with their flashes turned on nearby, creating scattered and stray light that can ruin scientific observations. Lincoln is off the beaten path, and should draw smaller crowds.

THE TOTAL ECLIPSE CHASER

What makes Qu’s telescope special lies in its name: Fiber Arrayed Solar Optical Telescope, or FASOT for short. Using the innovative design of an optical fiber array, FASOT can not only obtain spectrographs from individual fibers but it can also re-construct images of the corona using the spectral signal and location information in each fiber. In an initial evaluation for a funding application to the National Natural Science Foundation of China, FASOT was also described as “the first major instrument that introduces the use of optical fibers for high-precision field spectro-polarimetry.” Spectro-polarimetry measures the polarization property of light, which enables scientists to obtain additional information about the source of that light (i.e. the corona), such as its magnetic field and geometry.

The imaging and spectrograph data from FASOT, says Qu, will allow researchers to know more about the detailed structure of corona, its magnetic field, and the formation of coronal mass ejection (solar flares). Together this set of knowledge will ultimately contribute to the understanding of solar mysteries like why the corona is so much hotter than the Sun’s photosphere and other areas closer to the center of the Sun.

FASOT’s last eclipse-chasing adventure landed the team in Gabon, Africa in November 2013. Qu and his colleagues have analyzed the data collected there and are about to publish the results in the journal Solar Physics. Highlights of that trip include the first green coronal line Fe XIV 530.3nm that has ever been observed since the 1930s, according to Qu. That line is the strongest one in coronal spectral lines.

For the upcoming total solar eclipse in the U.S., Qu’s team will focus on more coronal lines, such as a red coronal line, which is 637.4nm in wavelength. They also plan to use FASOT to see the most observed line in the solar spectrum, hydrogen-alpha 656.3nm.

Nevertheless, at least one scientist has reservations about FASOT the solar telescope, especially its reliability.

Having supported FASOT in its funding proposal — a quote from his written evaluation notes that “[it] may open the door to a new class of telescope facilities in solar physics” — Jan Olof Stenflo, a retired professor at the ETH and the University of Zurich, now expresses disappointment over the slow development of this instrument.

MORE TESTING NEEDED

Stenflo is an expert in solar magnetic fields and high-precision spectro-polarimetry. During a lecturing tour in China in 2011, he met Qu and offered a positive written assessment of FASOT to support its funding application. “More than five years later, I still have not seen any concrete demonstrations that the prototype can achieve its goals and be able to map solar magnetic fields (the reported eclipse observations are unsuited to serve that purpose),” says Stenflo in an email.

Stenflo suggests that the team still needs to prove the reliability of observations made by FASOT. He has doubts over the reliability “because the corona during a solar eclipse is much more difficult to observe than the million times brighter spectrum from the solar disk outside an eclipse, and it has never been demonstrated by disk observations that FASOT has been able to eliminate the various spurious polarization effects that can arise.”

Among the established telescopes in the solar physics field, FASOT is still new in town. When the final model — a 60 cm $1-million-dollar telescope upgraded from the current 30 cm $5000 version — is built in western China in five years, FASOT’s job will be to watch the Sun’s photosphere and chromosphere all year long: no more globetrotting to chase solar eclipses for corona observations. But the total solar eclipse in 2017 is on the horizon. If you happen to be in Lincoln City, Oregon on August 21, you might get a glimpse of the solar corona, and maybe you’ll also run into a telescope team from China trying to make the most out of the 116-second total solar eclipse.


This Chinese telescope team is making a 7,000 mile journey to the eclipse | Astronomy.com

 

[JSCh]

Asia’s first automated container terminal, at Port of Qingdao, China
New China TV
Streamed live 7 hours ago
Live: You can see machines here and there, and no man ever appears! Join us to explore Asia’s first fully automated container terminal at the Port of Qingdao in east China’s Shandong Province. Questions and comments are welcome.

 

[JSCh]

Antiproton count hints at dark matter annihilation
New analyses of data from Space Station’s AMS experiment show signs of elusive cosmic mass

By Emily Conover 5:27pm, May 11, 2017

ANTIPROTON ODDITY Two teams of researchers report possible signs of dark matter in data from the AMS experiment on the International Space Station (shown). Some of the antiprotons detected by AMS could have come from dark matter particles annihilating one another in space.

NASA​

Whiffs of dark matter may be blowing in on a cosmic ray breeze. Antiprotons streaming down on Earth from space could be hinting at the existence of the invisible substance, two teams of researchers suggest.

Particles known as cosmic rays are constantly whizzing through space. These particles include protons and their antimatter partners, antiprotons. While antiprotons are produced in run-of-the-mill processes like particle collisions, additional ones could theoretically be birthed when dark matter particles annihilate one another.

In two papers in the May 12 Physical Review Letters, the two teams — one from Germany; the other from China and Taiwan — analyzed antiprotons detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, located on the International Space Station. When dark matter’s contribution was included in predictions of the numbers of antiprotons expected, the calculations better matched the data, hinting that some of the antiprotons might come from dark matter annihilation.

The results agree with another potential glimmer of dark matter: a glut of high-energy radiation, known as gamma rays, seen in the center of the Milky Way. “That could just be a coincidence,” says theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper of Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., who was not involved with the new analyses. But “it does look pretty encouraging to me for that reason." Other physicists, however, have recently questioned the gamma rays’ link to dark matter (SN Online: 4/24/17).

AMS previously spotted another potential dark matter hint: an overabundance of positrons, or antimatter electrons (SN: 5/4/13, p. 14). But some physicists believe that excess can be explained by more mundane sources, like spinning stars called pulsars.

Citations
M.-Y. Cui et al. Possible dark matter annihilation signal in the AMS-02 antiproton data. Physical Review Letters. Vol. 118, May 12, 2017, p. 191101.

A. Cuoco, M. Krämer, and M. Korsmeier. Novel dark matter constraints from antiprotons in light of AMS-02. Physical Review Letters. Vol. 118, May 12, 2017, p. 191102.


Antiproton count hints at dark matter annihilation | Science News

 

[JSCh]

China racing ahead to beat cancer with CRISPR
Joshua Barlow@DCdeBoerlo
Published May 11, 2017 at 11:10 AM
Updated May 11, 2017 at 11:39 AM

For the second time in a year, doctors in China have used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique for treating cancer. It is also only the second time that researchers have used it on human subjects anywhere in the world.

The latest round of trials took place April 28 at Nanjing University’s Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. The patient, who remains anonymous, suffers from late-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a form of head and neck cancer.

CRISPR stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” It’s a snippet of DNA that helps bacteria protect themselves from viral attack. Cas9 is a protein that turns CRISPR into a low-cost and highly precise tool to hack DNA, the code of life.

The technology has enabled scientists to slice and dice the genome of all living things, from bacteria to humans.

WATCH: CRISPR-Cas9 explained

A visualization from the McGovern Institute at MIT explains the science and approach of CRISPR-Cas9.

Here in the U.S., its potential has invited flights of hyperbolic language. The magazine, Wired, called CRISPR-Cas9 the “Genesis Engine” because it promises to confer almost God-like power to improve the human condition. Chinese scientists have already used it to repair genetic mutations in human embryos.

They didn’t stop there. China has already pressed ahead with human trials to cure cancer. Using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique, Chinese doctors injected the patient with his own modified cells. The modifications instruct new cells to snip out pieces of the patient’s DNA that interfere with the body’s ability to fight cancer.

Dr. Jia Wei, who is a leader on the project and serves as vice-director of Nanjing University’s Clinical Cancer Institute, told the Wall Street Journal “The first patient has received cell infusion just now, and it’s going well”.

An additional 20 patients with lymphoma, gastric cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma will participate in this clinical trial, which is scheduled to conclude sometime in 2018. China reports a high incidence of these types of cancer.

As CRISPR-Cas9 technology advances, scientists hope they will be able to someday snip out genes from genetically inherited diseases, such as cancer, sickle-cell anemia, Parkinson’s disease before they have the chance to manifest in the body.

The first human trials using CRISPR-Cas9 took place last fall at West China Hospital in Chengdu. In that trial a team led by oncologist Lu You used the technology to inject gene altered cells into a patient with highly aggressive lung cancer.

Chinese scientists first to use CRISPR gene-editing in humans

A Chinese team has become the first to use gene splicing technology on a human being with lung cancer. If successful, it may unlock powerful options in the fight against genetically inherited disea…​

Last year, scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School were able to use CRISPR-Cas9 to isolate proteins in human cells that enable the Zika virus to replicate.

CRISPR-Cas9 has also been used for more dramatic – sometimes controversial – research, such as Salk Institute’s recent creation of a human/pig hybrid by introducing human genes into the DNA of a pig embryo. The aim is to one day grow spare human organs in pigs for transplant.

In 2016, the University of Pennsylvania received approval to be the first U.S. based hospital to get approval for human trials using CRISPR-Cas9. Those trials, which are focused on patient T cells for immunity, are due to begin sometime this year.

Dr Lu You, who led the very first human CRISPR-Cas9 trials at West China Hospital last fall, told the Wall Street Journal results from those treatments should be available sometime in 2017.

 

[JSCh]

A holey graphene electrode framework that enables highly efficient charge delivery
May 12, 2017 by Bob Yirka

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers affiliated with institutions in the U.S., China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed a new type of porous graphene electrode framework that is capable of highly efficient charge delivery. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes how they overcame traditional conflicts arising between tradeoffs involving density and speed to produce an electrode capable of facilitating rapid ion transport. Hui-Ming Cheng and Feng Li with the Chinese Academy of Sciences offer a Perspective piece on the work done by the team in the same journal issue, and include some opinions of their own regarding where such work is likely heading.

--> A holey graphene electrode framework that enables highly efficient charge delivery

More information: Hongtao Sun et al. Three-dimensional holey-graphene/niobia composite architectures for ultrahigh-rate energy storage, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aam5852