A Proposal for Responsible Conduct of GM Technology Research and Development

Genetically modified （GM） technology is an ＂inevitable result of the rapid development of modern science and technology. With broadapplication prospects in fields such as medicine, industry, agriculture, environmental protection, energy and new materials, it will certainly provide new development space for human society. However, as with other high technologies, its nonstandard R＆D activities and misuse might raise safety risks. For this reason, the Presidium of Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences （CASAD） calls on practitioners of GM technology research and development （including basic and applied research, and product development）, and those involved in the research and development of safety monitoring, evaluation, and detecting techniques to retain a high sense of responsibility and to widely promote professional ethics, conduct research properly, fulfill social responsibility, facilitate public communication and support the sound development of GM technology.     

Bio-manufacturing Innovation Enabled by Progress in Synthetic Biology

<正>The rapid growth of world economy is increasingly encountered by the limitations in the supply of food,energy and resources as well as the challenge of environmental protection.With an impressive economic growth rate over the past three decades,China is now facing these challenges even more seriously than other countries.Currently,China is striving to transform the traditional inefficient mode of production into a low-carbon,circular,and ecological economy for sustainable development based on technology innovation.As a novel interdisciplinary academic fi eld developed based on modern biology and systems science,Synthetic Biology integrates both knowledge and technology     

Green and Sustainable Chemistry

It is now a common opinion that sustainable development is a key issue to humanity. How to provide the population with sufficient clean water, food, chemicals, materials and energy without damaging our planet is an extremely important and     

Team for Research on Methanol-to-Olefins Technology

Olefins, traditionally derived from oil, are important basic materials for the modern chemical industry. To make olefins from coal rather than oil has been a dream and also a big challenge for scientists all over the world. The step from methanol to olefins is vital in the transformation from coal or natural gas to olefins, as technologies for turning coal into methanol and olefins into other chemicals have been well established. The team at the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical     

Synthesizing Our Future

Chemistry has a central role in science,and synthesis plays an essential role in chemistry. Synthetic substances and materials have demonstrated a significant impact in determining the quality of our life in the last century. Although chemical synthesis has now reached an extraordinary level of sophistication,there is still vast room for improvement. In this century,to be more tightly merged with other fields such as material and life sciences,to generate more interdisciplinary areas,is an inevitable trend in synthetic chemistry. Nowadays,synthetic chemistry should pursue "GREEN" process. In this context,the atom economy,the E-factor and 3Rs (reduction,recycling and reuse) of resources must be taken into account in synthetic industry. The greatest challenge of synthetic chemistry,not only,will be immense responsibility to tackle a range of existing or predicted social and global issues associated with resources,energy,materials,the environment,food and health,but also the redeeming the negative impression of synthetic chemistry in public.     

Efficient and Clean Utilization of Waste-generated Energy Gives Birth to an Emerging “Urban-mining” Industry

<正>1.Scientific connotation and significance The large amount of wastes on the earth makes a gigantic energy and resource bank,which can be used both directly for generating new energy and for saving resources through recycling and regeneration.Generally speaking,the efficient and clean utilization of wastegenerated energy refers to the recycling of a great amount of valuable substances from the solid materials that have quitted the production link or consumption field via certain technical,economical means and management measures,to achieve biosafety disposal,pollutant emission reduction and the comprehensive utilization of wastes for both economic and public welfare[1].At present,the effi cient and clean utilization of waste-generated energy is mainly implemented through the use of renewable energy,     

Promote Green Building, Facilitate Energy Effi ciency and Emissions Reduction, and Improve Habitat Environment

Green building here refers to the practice of creating structures able to best achieve effi cient and environmentally friendly use of resources (energy, land, water, materials) throughout the life-cycle so as to offer healthy, convenient and pleasant buildings for people to live and work in in harmony with nature. It has become a worldwide trend in the development of the     

Changing Forestry Policy by Integrating Water Aspects into Forest/Vegetation Restoration in Dryland Areas in China

Restoration forestry (forest rehabilitation) or re-vegetation is one effective measure to solve environmental problems, notably soil erosion. It may be further stimulated by the Clean Development Mechanism for carbon sequestration. However, there is an intensive and on-going debate about the adverse effects arising from afforestation in dryland areas, such as soil drying up which may cause further damage to the success of forest restoration, and the water yield reduction from watershed which may harm the regional development. On other hand, some preliminary studies showed a possibility that these adverse effects may be diminished more or less by properly designing the system structure and spatial distribution of forest/vegetation in a watershed. However, it is urgent to develop an evidence-based and sustainable new forestry policy for harmonizing forest-water interrelation. As a leading country in afforestation, China is beginning to develop a more trans-disciplinary and cross-sectoral forestry policy for harmonizing forestry development with water management. The main points of the changing new forestry policy should include: (1) Establishing a regional development strategy focusing on harmonized forest-water relations; (2) Taking forest-water interactions as an important part of evaluation; (3) Reducing the ’eco-water’ quota of forests through technical advancement; (4) Developing and extending water-adaptive forest management practices; (5) Strengthening forest ecohydrological research and decision support ability.     

A Bottom-up Strategy to Prepare New Carbon Rich Materials

<正>Energy is the key to our future.Whether to the production,storage or use of energy,carbon materials could provide a good solution.They are closely related to people’s daily life and regarded as one of the most promising candidates for the flexible electrodes in energy storage devices.Recently,a research team from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology,Chinese Academy of Sciences prepared a well-defined     

Functional Inorganic Materials with Complex Form: Construction, Self-assembly Principles and Property

There is a rich and long history of gaining inspiration from the nature for the design of practical materials and systems.Biominerals are well-known composites of inorganic and organic materials in the form of fascinating shapes and highly ordered structures existing in the natural world, such as pearl, oyster shells, corals, ivory, sea urchin spines, cuttlefish bone, limpet teeth, magnetic crystals in bacteria and human bones that are created by living organisms.During the past few decades, it has become one of the most influencing subjects in materials proteins, which involve in all the processes of multicell organisms, such as fertilization, differentiation, development, immunity, infection, and cancer.chemistry to explore new bio-inspired strategies for selfassembling or surface-assembling molecules or colloids to generate materials with controlled morphologies,     

Breakthroughs in New Marine Technologies will Facilitate the Rapid Development of Blue Marine Economy

<正>With the rapid economic growth and the increasing pressures on land resources,energy and space,the ocean will become one of the main areas of social and economic activities in future.Coastal countries and regions have attached great importance to the development of marine economy,and many countries are developing strategies to build themselves into sea powers through the research and development of marine science and technology.The Chinese government has also made up a strategic decision to build strong marine power through independent technological breakthroughs and to boost the rapid development of its marine industry.     

Three-decade Devotion to Sino-Swedish Cooperation on Protein Purication—— An interview with Prof. Jan-Christer Janson

正Dr.Jan-Christer Janson is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Chemistry of Uppsala University,Sweden.He is a distinguished bio-separation scientist known for his contributions to modern protein chromatography on an industrial scale,in particular,for the development of cross-linked agarosegel chromatographic media and columns that have been widely used in the bio-pharmaceutical industry.     

Development Strategy for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Technology

<正>The nuclear fuel cycle(NFC)is the"main artery"of the nuclear power system.To ensure the safety and sustainable development of China's nuclear power industry,it is necessary to build an independent,complete and advanced research and industrial system appropriate for national circumstances.A consultative team of the CAS Academic Divisions     

Regional High-voltage DC Grid Will Be Established in China

<正>1.High-voltage DC transmission technology is the key to interconnecting large-scale power generation from renewable energy China has plentiful renewable energy sources,which will serve as the dominant energy sources in the future.Statistics show that each year,all land in China receives a total solar radiation equivalent to the energy of 2,400billion tons of standard coal.China’s total reserve of wind energy at ten meters above the earth amounts to about3.226 billion kW,of which one billion kW is available for development and utilization.The theoretical reserve of China’s hydraulic power is nearly 700 million kW,accounting for 40%of the total conventional energy sources of the nation.By the end of 2011,the installed capacity of the gridconnected renewable-energy-based power generation in China had reached 51.59 million kW,accounting for 4.89%     

Independent Research and Development of Key Technologies and Equipment for Deep Earth Exploration

<正>1.Scientific connotation and significance As a system engineering technology for the exploration and rheology studies of continental lithosphere,deep Earth exploration uses the most advanced science and technologies to obtain the basic information about the Earth’s interior and serve the sustainable supply of energy and resources as well as the early warning of natural disasters.Today,deep Earth exploration has become one of the forefronts of earth sciences[1].Deep Earth exploration requires a core and integrated technique system for the development of key detecting technologies and facilities which can penetrate different depths to precisely extract the internal structure and physical properties of the Earth,together with a technology platform for the processing,imaging and explanation of data[2].By detecting the planet’s deep interior in typical regions and by cutting open the     

Fundamental Research and Application Exploration of Optoelectronic Materials and Nanocomposite Materials of Rare Earth

This project is set in one of the international frontier research fields in inorganic solid chemistry.At present, the research in organic/inorganic hybrid materials and nanocomposite optoelectronic functional materials is under the spotlight in the realm of materials science; there remain quite a few difficulties hiding in the traditional synthesis methods.For instance, the reaction cycle is generally too long, rare earth luminescence components are covalently grafted onto the matrix network, and the stability and luminescence properties are quite poor.Hence, Prof.Zhang and his colleagues proposed a series of new methods and technologies through systematic studies to prepare organic/inorganic hybrid materials and nanocomposite optoelectronic functional materials, striving to solve those kinds of problems.Through many years' efforts, a scientific basis was established by the scientists for the design and performance of the materials, which is recognized of great practical significance.     

First Helical Structure in the Nano-world

Although a commonplace structure in nature, the helix remains a mystery to scientific researchers. In biology,the structure is important as DNA is helical and so does the substructure of many proteins. Since its discovery more than 50 years ago, the double helix has offered an important approach to interpret and make use of bio-organic structures. Yet, it is seldom to see a helical structure formed by inorganic crystalstate materials.     

Energy-rich Plant Research in China: Overview and Prospect

The energy crisis is an enormous challenge to the human race.Consequently, the technology development and utilization of biomass energy have become a new "hot spot"in the international arena.This article gives an overview on the current status of the research on energy plants and puts forward several suggestions on how to reasonably develop them in China.     

Developmcnt Trends and Measures to Promotc China＇s Solar Cell Technology and the PV Industry

The energy demands of socioeconomic development keep growing. Like other major countries, China is also facing an increasing shortage of conventional energy supplies. The large-scale exploitation of fossil fuels is a major contributor to environmental pollution. Economic development under the dual constraints of limited energy sources and the need for environmental protection has become a matter of global concern. Therefore, developing diverse new energy sources is a strategic priority of governments around the world.     

Human Brain Neural Connection Diagram is Expected to be Mapped

<正>Human brain is one of the most complicated systems existing in nature.It is estimated that approximately 1011neurons structure a highly complicated network in an adult brain through interconnection via 1015 synapses,thus research breakthroughs in visualization of the whole brain neural networks with the resolution level of individual neurons could serve as the base for understanding of brain functions and diseases.The Human Connectome is a study designed to run comprehensive analysis,as well as simulation of the neural connections and network structures of brain functions so as to unravel the secrets of how human brains work.The project seeks to,on all levels varying from macro view(encephalic region)to micro angle(individual neurons),present a thorough depiction of the frame network of human