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China has unveiled a bold road map for deep space exploration.
– outlining plans for missions to asteroids, Mars and even the Jupiter system.
The announcement was made by Bien Zhugang, Deputy Head of the China National Space Administration, highlighting China's growing ambitions in space research and its potential for international A central part of the plan is a trio of missions under the Tianwen banner.
The Tianwen 2, which is scheduled for launch around 2025, will set its sights on asteroids that hold clues to the formation of the solar system.
Then, the Tianwen -3, which is expected to be launched in 2030, will attempt to collect samples from Mars, similar to what China just did on the far side of the moon during the Chang 'e 6 mission.
Meanwhile, the Tianwen -4, also planned for 2030, will embark on a daring mission to explore the Jupiter system, venturing further into the outer reaches of the solar system.
These ambitious missions follow on the heels of the Tianwen -1 mission, which reached Mars in 2021.
Bian said that the missions will focus on scientific goals like researching the origin and evolution of the Solar System as well as the impact of small bodies and solar activities on Earth.
He also underscored China's commitment to international collaboration, saying that China will work with international counterparts to jointly build the International Lunar Research Station and share lunar discoveries.
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China has manufactured a carbon fiber metrotrain, which is significantly lighter and more energy efficient than traditional trains.
That is, according to its developer, CRRC, Qingdao -Sifang Corporation.
The train was unveiled in Qingdao, in East China's Shandong Province.
It features a carbon fibre composite body and frame, which reduces the weight of the car body and bogie frame by 25 % and 50%, respectively, making the overall vehicle weight 11 % lighter than conventional ones.
Liu Jintu, the train's chief designer, highlighted that each train's operational energy consumption engine would be cut by 7%, leading to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions of about 130 tons a year.
In addition, using carbon -fibre materials bolsters the vehicle's body strength, enhancing impact resistance and prolonging structural longevity.
It also improves the train's adaptability to various environmental conditions, while reducing maintenance costs.
The Metro train has completed in -factory testing and is scheduled to commence operations in Qingdao later this year.
Chinese researchers have developed a high density 1024 channel neural probe, achieving a full -depth recording of neuronal activities in the brain of a macaque monkey.
The research team led by Duane Shaojie at Peking University designed and produced the probe, named NeuroScroll, which isolates single neuronal activities simultaneously from 1024 densely spaced channels that are flexibly distributed across the shank of the probe.
probe. The probe length is tunable, from 1 cm to 10 cm, covering brain sizes ranging from those of rodent species to primates.
According to Duan, the team used the probes to achieve simultaneous monitoring of the activities of over 700 single neurons, covering the entire depth of the macaque monkey brain.
In addition, they have realised stable neural recording, in the rat brain, for up to two years, demonstrating the excellent biocompatibility and long -term recording stability of the probe.
The achievement has been published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Cheung Her Ping, director of the National Biomedical Imaging Centre at Peking University, said that the breakthrough provides a powerful tool for simultaneously monitoring neuronal activities across multiple brain regions and exploring the relationship between neural activities and behavioural studies.
Cheng added, that by implanting multiple probes, it will be possible to further achieve neural recordings from up to tens of thousands of channels, which will bring transformative impacts to basic neuroscience and translational neuroscience research such as brain -machine interfaces.
The 34th Hong Kong Book Fair organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council will be held from July 17th to 23rd at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
This year's book fair will stage more than 600 cultural events on site and offsite, including acclaimed writers' seminars and book launches, to help promote a stronger reading culture in Hong Kong.
Sophia Chong, deputy executive director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said that this year's Book Fair will be themed on film and television literature, with the tagline, Reading the World, Storytelling from Page to Screen.
Chong noted that this year's event is aimed at encouraging more locals and tourists to discover the joy of reading and appreciate the charm of Hong Kong's literary, film and television works, thus helping shape Hong Kong into an international cultural exchange centre.
The book fair will run concurrently with the snacks.
With a single ticket, visitors can immerse themselves in the worlds of literature, sports and leisure activities, and global snacks with some 760 exhibitors across the Three Fairs.
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Shennongjia Forestry District in central China's Hubei province, has reported population growth of golden monkeys, thanks to efforts in habitat protection.
According to the results of the fourth survey conducted by the district administration, Ocean, the area is now home to 1618 Golden Monkeys, 147 more than the previous survey five years ago.
As the easternmost habitat of Golden Monkeys, Shen Nong Jia saw only 501 Golden Monkeys within a habitat of 164 square kilometres in 1990.
More than 40 people contributed to the latest survey, carrying out field investigations and laboratory analysis for over two months.
During this process, they explored 240 Survey Roots, covering a total distance of 58 ,800 km.
Feng Wei, an official with Shennongjia Forestry District, said that the survey suggested 1 ,618 and 18 golden monkeys belonging to 11 groups now live in a habitat of 401 square kilometers in the district.
You're listening to Special English As you sip a cup of tea, particularly tea from East China's Fujian Province.
Two remote sensing satellites in orbit are monitoring the tea planting and maintenance.
The two satellites, both launched in 2022, can obtain images, with a resolution higher than 0 .5 meters, and a width of 15 kilometres.
They serve the tea -producing area in Anxi County, in Fujian province, which is famous for its tea industry.
The output value of the province's whole tea industry chain exceeded $150 billion, about US $21 billion in 2022, while its T -exports reached US $531 million, both ranking first in the country at the time.
In order to drive the intelligent progress of tea production.
The province applied remote sensing to provide accurate data analysis for tea planting, processing, and sales.
Using remote sensing images, technicians humans combined the information, such as meteorology, soil, agriculture and hydrology, to build a digital database.
That is according to Wei Lechen, vice general manager of satellite analysis of the image data.
Technicians obtained the index data of soil moisture and organic matter content from the Tea Garden.
Tea farmers have been offered fertilization guidelines suitable for tea plots based on the abundance of soil nutritional elements and different climatic conditions, as well as tea tree varieties and ages.
Gao Shui -Lian, associate professor of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, noted that the emissions of the tea industry mainly come from tea gardens, especially excessive nitrogen, fertiliser, and soil acidification, product processing, distribution, and consumption.
The province has implemented precise fertilization on its tea fields.
Besides, Anxi County has built a carbon footprint monitoring system of Tie Guan Yin, an oolong tea variety, Lin Li -yen, head of the Science and Technology Bureau of Anshi County, noted that the green development mode with low energy consumption, low pollution and low emissions humans has taken shape in the county's tea industry.
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As the most popular drink of the Chinese people, tea boasts a history almost as long as that of Chinese civilization.
It is something like coffee to Westerners that could never be absent or replaced in one's daily life.
In China, there is an old saying that can prove this point which says, there are seven necessities for starting one's day, namely firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.
And the love of the Chinese people towards tea all started with a man in ancient times named Shen Nong or the Divine Farmer in the ancient Chinese myth.
Shen Nong was one of the founding fathers of Chinese culture.
He is believed to have lived some 4500 years ago and is credited with inventing tea.
One day, a wild leaf happened to fall into the water he was boiling.
He just thought, Why not give it a try?
Supposedly, the new Alexia helped him feel energized and refreshed.
So, from then on, tea began to enter the lives of the Chinese people.
And, in the following centuries, tea culture experienced various stages with different forms.
In the very beginning, the tea leaves were simply freshly boiled and taken as a kind of soup.
loop. Then, in the Tang Dynasty, the tea leaves were ground and processed into powders, and were mixed with water to drink.
Then came the stage of dried and preserved tea leaves, which continues to the present day.
Now, there are several major kinds of tea popular among Chinese people.
Roughly green tea, black tea, oolong tea, dark tea and white tea.
Each is distinguished mainly by different methods of production.
The amount of time the leaves are processed determines whether one ends up with a cup of green, black or oolong tea, and so on.
Interestingly, some Chinese people relate each type of tea to certain human characteristics.
It is said that Black Tea, mild and reserved, is regarded as rather ladylike.
Oolong tea, warm and persistent, resembles the perseverance of philosophers.
offers. Dark tea, with its lingering aftertaste, symbolizes the wisdom of the elderly.
Although tea can be characterised with different types, they all share a common feature that is, although tea is bitter, upon the first taste, it offers an aftertaste of sweetness.
So that's why Chinese people believe achieved, that drinking tea is like tasting one's own life—the mixture of bitterness and sweetness that one tastes in the tea, symbolizes the ups and downs, the happiness and the sorrow of life.
Moreover, both traditional Chinese medicine and modern scientific research much, state that drinking tea has many benefits to one's health.
Such benefits go far beyond refreshment.
At the very least, it is a good way of getting enough fluid into one's body each day.
Because we know that drinking enough water is beneficial to one's health.
Sometimes, people think that plain water has no taste.
So tea can solve this problem.
On top of that, studies have shown that tea can help protect our teeth and heart.
That's why tea is getting even more popular throughout the world.
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That is the end of this edition of Special English.
To recap, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed.
Please listen carefully.
The 34th Hong Kong Book Fair, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, will be held from July 17th to 23rd at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
This year's book fair will stage more than 600 cultural events on -site and off -site, including acclaimed writers seminars and book launches, to help promote a stronger reading culture in Hong Kong.
Sophia Chong, Deputy Executive Director of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, said that this year's book fair will be themed on film and television literature with the tagline, Reading the World – Storytelling from Page to views green.
Chong noted that this year's event is aimed at encouraging more locals and tourists to discover the joy of reading and appreciate the charm of Hong Kong's literary, film and television works, thus helping shape Hong Kong into an international cultural exchange centre.
The book fair will run concurrently with the Trade Development Council's Sports and Leisure Expo and World of Snacks.
With a single ticket, visitors can immerse themselves in the worlds of literature sports and leisure activities and global snacks with some 760 exhibitors across the three fairs.
That is the end of today's programme.
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