On October 3, 2020, the flower bed of "Science and Technology Power" in Xidankou, Beijing. Photo courtesy of vision china
Wu Zunyou
Xu ying
Xue Qikun
Hu weiwu
Zhu dingzhen
Yongchun Zheng
editorial comment/note
2020 is an extraordinary year. The global epidemic of COVID-19 has not stopped the development of science and technology in China. Fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic highlights China’s scientific and technological strength, the successful first flight of the Long March V B carrier rocket, the successful summit survey of Mount Everest by the China survey team, the official opening of the Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system, the launch of Tianwen-1 to Mars, the record of manned deep diving by Endeavor, and the successful return of Chang ‘e V with lunar soil … … Good news spread frequently, and good news continued.
Today, we launch a special topic to take stock of the big country science and technology in 2020. Let’s review the major scientific and technological events in 2020, look forward to the future innovation and development trend, and March into 2021.
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Fighting the epidemic leads to four scientific discoveries.
As the most important public health event in the world in 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic affects everyone’s nerves. According to Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in scientific research, isolating Covid-19, deciphering virus gene sequence, determining average incubation period and determining transmission mode will become the most important scientific discovery in 2020.
"These four scientific discoveries have laid the foundation for understanding a new type of infectious disease, and also laid the foundation for us to formulate scientific prevention and control strategies. These four scientific discoveries are also the most important contributions made by China scientists to fight the global COVID-19 epidemic. " Wu Zunyou said.
Some people don’t understand, what’s the point of cracking the virus gene sequence? Wu Zunyou said that in fact, the virus gene sequence is the most important biological characteristic index for people to know a pathogen — — With the gene sequence, diagnostic reagents can be produced; With the gene sequence, a preventive vaccine can be developed. Therefore, the above four scientific discoveries have laid the scientific foundation for controlling the COVID-19 epidemic in China and even the world, and are also the most important contribution made by China scientists to controlling the COVID-19 epidemic in the world.
In Wu Zunyou’s view, in this battle against the epidemic that must be won, China scientists ran out of China speed. After the Wuhan epidemic was brought under control, several clustered epidemics appeared in China, such as Beijing Xinfadi Market, Dalian, Qingdao, Kashgar, Xinjiang and other places.
"In the process of controlling this series of epidemics, the main measures we have taken include four aspects. The first is early detection, early isolation and early treatment; Second, according to the spread law of infectious diseases, after the infected people are found, epidemiological investigation is carried out to determine close contacts and manage close contacts; Thirdly, the method of nucleic acid detection is used to determine the scale of the epidemic and find the early infected people. Fourth, treat patients. " Wu Zunyou said.
Recently, sporadic cases have occurred in many places in China. Wu Zunyou said that after the COVID-19 epidemic in China has been controlled, if there is another epidemic, the virus must have a "source". Viruses should generally have the following sources — —
First of all, there may be infected people among those returning from overseas. By controlling these infected people, the epidemic situation can be controlled to a certain extent.
Second, the patients currently receiving treatment in the hospital.
Third, articles imported from abroad. In summer, these items are mainly transported by cold chain. After entering winter, all items imported from abroad may carry viruses, which may cause human infection.
Fourth, there are viruses in some laboratories that study viruses. If the laboratory safety measures are not in place, it will cause the staff to be infected, and it will also cause the spread of the epidemic.
Wu Zunyou said that from these aspects, it can be seen that the recurrence of the COVID-19 epidemic is either caused by "person-to-person" or "person-to-person". In view of the "person-to-person" situation, China has established a whole set of systems. At present, the relevant measures have been very perfect, and the risk caused by this method is relatively small.
"I believe that in 2021, we will defeat the COVID-19 epidemic." Wu Zunyou said that in the past 2020 years, China has demonstrated China’s strength to the world. China scientists live up to expectations, using science and technology to understand COVID-19, and using science and technology to guide COVID-19’s prevention and control, making China the best country in the world to control the COVID-19 epidemic. In 2021, I believe China will continue to lead the world in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic.
On the last day of 2020, people were greeted with good news: the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council was released, and the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine of Sinopharm China Bio-has been approved by National Medical Products Administration for conditional marketing. The existing data show that the protection rate is 79.34%, which realizes the unification of safety, effectiveness, accessibility and affordability and meets the requirements of relevant standards of the World Health Organization and National Medical Products Administration. In the follow-up, the persistence and protective effect of vaccine immunization need to be observed continuously.
In 2021, there may be more such good news.
Beidou No.3 closed
It is said that 2020 will be the year of China’s space flight. In this year, China’s space flight has made many solid steps: Beidou, Tianwen and Chang ‘e, and so on. One of the most striking is the final battle of Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system.
Xu Ying, a researcher at the Institute of Aerospace Information Innovation of China Academy of Sciences and a Beidou navigation system scientist, said that from 1983, when Academician Chen Fangyun put forward the idea of double-star positioning, to 2020, when the last networked satellite of Beidou-3 was launched, the Beidou system had completed its own construction and gained many applications in people’s lives.
She cited some examples: people use mobile phones to take a taxi and determine the position between themselves and their master, in fact, they will use Beidou system. In addition, in fishing boat shipping, Beidou can also provide fishermen who go out to sea with a way to send text messages to report their safety. If they are in danger, fishermen can also use this to ask the marine police for help in time.
According to the statistics of China Satellite Navigation System Management Office, in the first quarter of 2020, more than 70% of smartphones connected to the Internet in China have provided Beidou service. Bike-sharing is equipped with Beidou terminal to realize fine management. Herdsmen can graze cattle and sheep through Beidou collar when sitting at home, and support Beidou system watches, bracelets and student cards, which is more convenient and protects people’s daily life. Through "Beidou+Payment", hundreds of stock and ticket purchase applications can be accurately queued in one second and processed in sequence.
"There is a saying in the industry that the application of Beidou satellite navigation system is only subject to people’s imagination." Xu Ying said, it can be expected that with the completion of Beidou system, Beidou system will shine brilliantly in application and promotion in the new year, so that every Chinese can really use our own Beidou.
How does Beidou system realize navigation, positioning and time service? According to Xu Ying, the basic principle of Beidou is called "three-ball positioning". The so-called "three-ball positioning" means that scientists first measure the distance between the user and the satellite, from which we can know that the user is on a sphere with the satellite as the center and a certain distance as the radius. After that, you can continue to measure the distance between it and satellites 2 and 3, and these three balls will meet at one point, which is the user’s position. This is also the basic principle of all satellite navigation and positioning systems in the world.
Xu Ying said that during the construction of Beidou satellite navigation system, there was a very core key component called the on-board atomic clock, which was once controlled by people, but now it has been localized through the unremitting efforts of scientific and technological personnel.
In fact, up to now, Beidou-3 has achieved 100% localization, including the core components of the on-board atomic clock, such as hydrogen clock, cesium clock, rubidium clock, calcium clock, cold atomic clock and so on. This is what scientists often say, the demand of major national scientific research projects is driving the breakthrough of national basic technology.
Xu Ying said that the Beidou system also has a hidden ability — — Timing is what scientists call time synchronization. She said that since Beidou has such a high-precision clock, it can also do accurate time synchronization for other systems in China, and provide them with accurate time services in industries related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, such as electricity, finance and communications.
"In 2021, Beidou system will make greater breakthroughs in its application and promotion. Let’s look forward to it and work together." Xu Ying said.
Quantum technology is hot.
In the second half of 2020, the concept of "quantum technology" became hot again, but what is quantum technology, few people can make it clear.
According to Xue Qikun, an academician of China Academy of Sciences, vice chairman of Beijing Science and Technology Association and president of south university of science and technology of china, many people are speculating quantum products, such as "quantum insoles" and "quantum cups", and these concepts are obviously incorrect — — Because quantum mechanics is a science that describes microscopic particles such as atoms and electrons.
So, is there no real quantum technology and quantum products in the world at present?
Xue Qikun said, in fact, in the information society, many quantum products have been applied, but we didn’t label them quantum, and people may not know their connection with quantum science. For example, the hard disk used by computers to store information, the laser used for optical fiber communication, and the atomic clock used in satellite positioning systems all belong to quantum technology and quantum products.
According to Xue Qikun, quantum is a concept put forward by scientists at the beginning of the last century to describe the state of the micro-world and the law of its movement. It is a copy. Just as people often say "one person" and "two people" when describing people, instead of "one and a half people" or "1.3 people", what quantum describes is an inseparable smallest unit.
At the end of 2012, Xue Qikun’s team discovered the quantum anomalous Hall effect. This is an effect that describes the law of electron motion in materials. In the state of quantum anomalous Hall effect, the electrons in the material move in line and orderly like cars on the highway. Therefore, this effect can be applied to electronic devices and computer chips in the future. Once it is used, the consumed electricity will be greatly reduced and the running speed of electronic devices will be accelerated.
"What does the discovery of quantum anomalous Hall effect give us?" Xue Qikun said that an important revelation is that it is very important to build sophisticated experimental technology, which is also a very important point of scientific innovation. With Jin Gangzuan, we can do porcelain work. With the development of modern science and technology, it is very important to build this sophisticated experimental technology, just like building Jin Gangzuan.
He also specifically mentioned that scientific communication is not only the spread of scientific knowledge, but also the spread of scientific spirit, scientific ideas and scientific methods. “‘ If a teenager is strong, the country will be strong ’ I sincerely hope that the vast number of young people love and pursue science, become scientists in the future and make your contribution to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. " Xue Qikun said.
Core technology is self-reliant and self-reliant
In the past 2020, many people are concerned about the chip and how to develop the core technology of the chip.
Hu Weiwu, a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences and chairman of Zhongke Technology Co., Ltd., was called "the father of Godson" by the media. In his view, developing his own chips still needs to take the road of "market-driven technology" — — Based on the self-reliance of science and technology, we have mastered the core technology through independent research and development, and then developed under the drive of the internal market, and moved towards open market competition.
"Some products are like ‘ Raising pigs ’ , really can come out in a year; Some products are like ‘ Raising cattle ’ You can plow the land in three years; And some core technology products are like raising children: we have never seen anyone whose child can earn money at the age of five, and you have to raise him for twenty or thirty years — — Core technology products include ‘ The heart of industry ’ Engine, including ‘ The Heart of Information Industry ’ CPU, these all need to spend twenty or thirty years or even more time to master. We have to go this way. " Hu Weiwu said.
He took "Godson" as an example. The Godson team began preparations in 2000, and in 2001, it began to develop Godson CPU at the Institute of Computing Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"China do you want to do your own CPU? We didn’t reach an agreement at first. Some people say: we can obviously buy things that are very cheap and easy to use. Why do you waste money on this? Hu Weiwu said.
In 2010, Hu Weiwu’s team began to transform into an enterprise, let the market test it and move towards the industry. On the whole, they have done two things: one is to turn the scientific research results (samples) calculated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences into products; One is to "try it" in the market — — Up to now, they have done three iterations.
According to him, the first round of trial and error took five years. In 2015, Godson CPU was shipped, and tens of thousands of pieces were shipped every year, which solved thousands of problems. The second round is from 2016 to 2019, which can sell hundreds of thousands of films every year and solve thousands of problems in the same period; Now is the beginning of the third round of trial and error. In the past 2020, their CPU has sold millions of pieces.
"We believe that by 2022, after being driven by the market within the system for three rounds of iterations, Loongson CPU has the ability to go to the open market." Hu Weiwu said that in the process of trial and error for many years, the technical level of Loongson has been continuously improved. Now Loongson Ecology has included thousands of enterprises, forming an industrial chain, and its software ecology has been continuously enriched, and the CPU performance has been improved by 12 times.
In his view, people who do core technology should not only "roll up their sleeves and work hard", but also "sit patiently and stick to it". The core technology industry has a cycle of 30 years. He believes that in another 10 years, a new godson ecology can be made.
"Some things can’t be tricky. If we compare scientific and technological innovation to a mathematical function, we often pay attention to three variables: the improvement of institutional mechanisms, the investment of funds, and talents. But the function of innovation needs a fourth variable, which is time and patience. " Hu Weiwu said that the ancestors of "two bombs and one satellite" also relied on "5+2" and "white plus black" to catch up. As long as they rely on the style of seeking truth from facts, the spirit of self-reliance and the spirit of foolish men moving mountains, they can do it well.
The weather forecast is not 100% accurate.
Whether the weather forecast is accurate or not is a question that people may think of every time they go out. In 2020, heavy rains occurred frequently, which made people pay attention to it again.
Some people think that the country has invested a lot of money, and there are so many scientists studying the weather. It seems that people should have mastered the principles and forecasts of the weather long ago and can make 100% accurate forecasts. However, according to Zhu Dingzhen, the chief meteorological service officer of the Public Meteorological Service Center of China Meteorological Administration, the weather is a very complicated process, and scientifically speaking, it is still impossible to achieve 100% forecast accuracy.
According to him, the so-called climate is a big background. The interaction of hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and atmosphere forms a unique climate. Coupled with the changeable atmospheric circulation, the whole process is extremely complicated. And the weather, it is in the context of climate.
For this reason, almost all countries have come up with their fastest and largest computers to calculate meteorological problems — — It involves too much information and too many influencing factors, and it is simply not enough to deal with it without the fastest and largest computer.
"In addition to improving observation means, comprehensive data processing ability and fast calculation ability, we need to re-understand the understanding of the weather." Zhu Dingzhen said.
He took a rainstorm during the Meiyu in June, 2020 as an example. This kind of convex convective cloud cluster on the meteorological map is called small and medium-sized convective cloud cluster by meteorologists. This kind of weather is the most difficult to report in the field of weather forecast, and it belongs to a particularly typical sudden weather.
Zhu Dingzhen made an analogy: if you want to predict it, it is equivalent to people cooking milk or cereal at home. When the current one is about to boil, people all know that it will bubble, but who can guess where the first one is and where the second one is? In the weather forecast, where there is bubbling, there is local convection, which is uncertain and sudden in a short time, and the scale of the spread is also very small.
"Meteorologists can only tell clearly what kind of weather background it will appear, but it is very difficult to say when and where it will appear." Zhu Dingzhen said.
He also said that it is difficult to make longer-term forecasts, such as weather forecasts for more than 7 days, more than 10 days or even one month and two months. In this process, there are too many interference factors, and its accuracy will inevitably decline. Therefore, "one short and one long" is still the difficulty of meteorological prediction.
Someone once asked Zhu Dingzhen what he thought about the future of weather forecast or what he expected in 2021.
The most important thing he thought was that meteorologists must continue to uphold the scientific spirit and do a good job in meteorological services. But at the same time, he also hopes that the public can look at meteorological services with a more scientific attitude to support meteorological undertakings, and with the joint efforts of people, let meteorology make more wonderful services for life safety, production development, affluent life and good ecology.
From the moon to Mars, towards the sea of stars.
On December 19th, 2020, the National Space Administration handed over 1,731 grams of lunar soil and rock samples collected from the moon by Chang ‘e V to China Academy of Sciences. The National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has specially built a lunar sample laboratory to preserve and distribute these lunar soils and rocks, and organized scientists to carry out scientific research.
Some people say that 1731 grams of lunar soil is a little less? After all, the United States has collected two or three hundred kilograms of lunar soil. According to Yongchun Zheng, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, weight is not the most critical factor for lunar samples. Today’s sophisticated analytical instruments, needless to say, even 1731g samples can meet many analytical needs. Compared with the sample weight, scientists prefer to collect diverse lunar soil from different parts of the moon — — It contains more information. Chang ‘e V did it.
After 16 years’ efforts, China’s lunar exploration project "winding, setting and returning" has come to a successful conclusion. Next, "landing" and "staying" in "exploring, boarding and staying" will also be on the way. According to Yongchun Zheng, after the lunar exploration stage is completed, the work of landing on the moon and staying on the moon will be carried out.
"The moon is an outpost and transit station for human beings to go deep into space. Since the lunar exploration has been successful, then landing on the moon and landing on the moon are coming soon. " Yongchun Zheng said that this is a cause that can last for decades or even hundreds of years, and people can make continuous efforts for it.
In 2020, there will be another spacecraft in China that attracts great attention. It is Tianwen-1, and now it is flying to Mars. As of January 3, 2021, Tianwen-1 has been in orbit for 163 days, with a flight mileage of over 400 million kilometers, about 130 million kilometers from the Earth and about 8.3 million kilometers from Mars.
Tianwen-1’s mission is the first step for China to independently carry out interplanetary exploration. It will realize the "circling, landing and patrolling" of Mars through one launch, that is, Mars circling, landing and patrolling the fire surface.
On July 23rd, 2020, Yongchun Zheng was at Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China, and witnessed the Long March V rocket carrying the Tianwen-1 probe into space. On the National Day of 2020, this Mars probe sent back a "selfie" of it hundreds of millions of kilometers away — —
In the dark space, the bright five-star red flag makes every Chinese surge with emotion. In the spring of 2021, the rover from China will land on Mars. According to the plan, Tianwen-1 will implement near-fire braking in more than one month, enter the ring fire orbit, and prepare to land on Mars.
"At that time, the red planet will welcome China’s probe for the first time, and China will become another country in the world where the probe landed on Mars. I am very much looking forward to this day. " Yongchun Zheng said.
According to him, Mars is a terrestrial planet, with North Pole, South Pole and Equator, Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere, and the Grand Canyon. Even on Mars, there is the highest mountain in the whole solar system, called Olympus, which is two or three times as high as Mount Everest.
More interestingly, there used to be large-scale liquid water on Mars. Even now, there are signs of glaciers and brine lakes under it.
"Mars is the planet most similar to the earth’s environment in the entire solar system, and it is also the only planet where human beings can start from the earth and realize large-scale immigration." Yongchun Zheng said that although the earth seems to be all right now, if we look at the historical records of the earth, we will know that life on the earth will inevitably face the fate of mass extinction in the future. Therefore, human beings must be prepared for danger in times of peace.
"In the future, mankind will start from the earth, go to the moon first, and then to Mars. Only when humans come and go freely between the earth and the moon can they go further to Mars. " Yongchun Zheng said.
Zhongqingbao Zhongqingwang reporter Qiu Chenhui