China Science & Technology Digest:
December 1-15, 2003

ATIP

This digest summarizes S&T-related articles that appeared in the media ATIP monitored in the first half of December 2003. Some articles reference a relevant website to assist readers in obtaining further information. For questions or to request additional information, please send email to ChinaST@atip.or.jp. The exchange rate used for this issue is RMB8.287 against the U.S. dollar.

Supercomputer to Work for National Grid
The supercomputer, Lenovo DeepComp 6800, ranked 14th in terms of its Linpack performance on a recently published rating of top 500 global superservers. It will be equipped with a trunk node in the proposed Chinese national grid. The grid combines several high-performance servers, large-scale databases, expensive laboratory equipment, communication equipment, and other components into a giant network, which supports nationwide scientific research. DeepComp 6800 can perform a maximum of 5.324 trillion floating-point operations per second. Measured by the Linpack benchmark, performance is 4.183TFLOPS.
Source: Xinhuanews Agency 12/09/2003

Legend Launches Handheld Computers
Chinese PC maker Legend Group Ltd. launched two Chinese-language handheld computers powered by PalmSource Inc. software to be sold early next year in China. Both models feature text in simplified Chinese characters and are built around Palm OS 5 software. The retail price of the P100 model, with black and white screens, will be between US$120 and US$240, and the P300, with color screens, will sell at a price ranging from US$240 to US$360.
Source: Xinhuanews Agency 12/09/2003

China-Made CPU Commercialized
A kind of advanced central processor unit (CPU), MPRC-863 CPU, has been created by Beijing University's Micro-processor Research and Development Center (MPRC) and has now entered the market. The CPU research and development project at Beijing University was mandated by the government as the first of its 12 projects to promote high technology. It is said that every CPU developed by the project is comprised of at least 8 million transistors, the largest of its kind ever designed by Chinese.
Source: People's Daily 12/08/2003

China Develops E-Paper Prototype
Researchers with the Southwest China Normal University have built the country's first e-paper prototype, which combined organic transistors with an e-ink that can be sprayed on all kinds of materials. E-paper, a small, ultra-thin, radiation-free screen is designed to imitate the advantages of conventional paper and ink: flexibility, low cost, and the ability to be read using ambient light. E-paper technology was first developed by the US-based Xerox Corp. in the 1970s. In 2000, the American E-Ink Corp. developed the world's first e-paper prototype in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. More than ten e-paper prototypes are now available in the world, and are used mainly in the advertising sector.
Source: People's Daily 12/07/2003

Glial Cells Play Larger Role Than Most People Think
Scientists with the Institute of Neuroscience at the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have found that glial cells, which make up 90 percent of the human brain, prevent excessive nerve cell activity, whose overexcitement can lead to brain damage including epilepsy and stroke. It was found that when nerve cells get overexcited, nearby glial cells release ATP, a nucleotide that supplies large amounts of energy to cells for various biochemical processes-—including muscle contraction and sugar metabolism—to protect the nerve cells. Chinese scientists have also found that glial cells can help improve a person's memory by releasing D-serine, a common component of many proteins, which can enhance the learning and memorizing capacity of the human brain. Both findings are published in the latest issues of Neuron and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Source: China Daily 12/11/2003

Moon Probe to Blast off in Three Years
China is on its way to sending an unmanned space probe to fly to the moon, with the first orbiter spacecraft expected to take off within three years. China plans to send a probe which will land and return from the moon with lunar soil and rock samples by 2010. Chinese scientists are developing China's first lunar exploration craft, which, weighing around two tons, is projected to orbit the moon for at least 12 months.
Source: China Daily 12/09/2003

Scientists Developed Genetically Modified Product Detector
Chinese scientists have developed a device that can detect in 50 minutes if a farm produce has been genetically modified. The reagent box, developed by a biotechnology center under the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, can screen out transgenic soybean, rape, corn, and other agricultural products. The device is very close to similar products on the global market in terms of sensitivity and accuracy. It has been put into mass production, and 1,000 to 2,000 pieces are being produced each month. The State Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine has been one of the product detector's first users. Currently, genetically modified crop growing areas in China exceed 650,000 hectares. Genetically modified crops in China include soybean, corn, cotton, potato, rape (canola), bell peppers (capsicum), tomato, tobacco, petunias, and rice; the largest GM crops being those of cotton and tobacco.
Source: Xinhuanews Agency 12/09/2003

Two Scientists Granted One Million HK Dollar Prize
Two Chinese scientists, botanist Wu Zhengyi and biochemist Zou Chenglu, were each awarded a lifetime achievement prize and one million Hong Kong dollars (approx. 128,200 US dollars) by the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation. Wu has specialized in botanic taxonomy, geobotany, and diversity research in the past six decades. Zou helped initiate the research on artificially synthesized insulin. His pioneering research on protein structure and functions was recognized by global biochemists. The Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, which was launched in 1994, is designed to award outstanding Chinese scientists.
Source: People's Daily 12/05/2003

Forum on Biometric Authentications Held in Beijing
The Forum of Development Strategy of Biometric Authentications was held at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), on November 25, 2003. The Forum was sponsored by the High-Tech Development Bureau of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the S&T Bureau of Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and the High-Tech Development Bureau of CAS. The following issues were discussed in the forum: governmental policy-making guidelines and national development trends; technology development and case studies of biometrics by technical personnel in the field of biometrics; potential applications by officials and technical experts in closely related fields; and the movement toward commercialization as viewed by industrial experts.
Source: ATIP Report: Biometrics in China

Delphi to Establish New Technical Centre in Shanghai
Delphi, the world's largest automotive components supplier will open two new technical centers in China and South Korea to further facilitate its expansion in Asia Pacific. The initial investment in the two new technical centers will be US$40 million. The new center in China will be located in Shanghai and will begin operating with 500 employees in June 2005. In China, Delphi has reported a growth rate of nearly 40 percent in sales so far this year, up from 30 per cent last year. The company has ten fully owned and joint venture plants in China.
Source: Xinhuanews Agency 12/06/2003

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