Graphic 2024 of“Chang’e vi returns samples to reveal volcanic activity 2.8 billion years ago on the far side of the Moon” in the top 10 scientific advances in China.
Concept map of“Nanolaser to realize atomic-scale characteristic scale and reconfigurable optical frequency phased array”. All photos are provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, National Innovation Index Report 2024,2024 Global Innovation Index Report
Source: National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, National Innovation Index Report 2024,2024 Global Innovation Index Report
The National Natural Science Foundation of China released the 2024“Top ten advances in Chinese science” at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum. These advances are the epitome and representative of the important achievements of our basic research, which have a good response in the scientific and technological circles and have been widely concerned by all sectors of society.
The 2024 of the“Top ten advances in Chinese science” are mainly distributed in the fields of mathematical astronomy and information, chemical materials and energy, earth environment and life medicine. It is very important to grasp the new round of scientific and technological revolution and the great opportunity of industrial transformation, and to understand and grasp the trend and characteristics of scientific research. 2024 what are the trends in China’s top 10 scientific advances and how will they serve high-quality economic and social development?
– editor
Scientific research constantly breaks through the boundary of human cognition
What did volcanic activity 2.8 billion years ago reveal about the moon? How do black holes affect the evolution and formation of galaxies? What does it mean to advance the characteristic scale of a laser to the atomic level? How does quantum computing merge Physics and Information Science? Scientific research has been expanding to the extreme macro, deepening to the extreme micro, marching to the extreme conditions, and making efforts to the extreme comprehensive cross, constantly breaking through the boundaries of human cognition.
Very Macro
2024 many of the“Top 10 advances in Chinese science” have made significant new discoveries in exploring the mysteries of the universe and revealing the secrets of the microscopic world, filling in scientific gaps and having an important impact around the world.
Man’s knowledge of the Moon is getting closer. The Chang’e VI mission, the first to return samples from the far side of the Moon, has provided unique material for studying volcanic activity on the far side of the Moon, li Qiuli of the Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences geology and geophysics, Xu Yigang of the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and National Astronomical Observatory of China Li Chunlai have jointly revealed volcanic activity on the far side of the moon 2.8 billion years ago, the beginning of a new phase in lunar research.
For a long time, there has been a lack of clear observational evidence on how black holes affect the formation and evolution of galaxies, which has become an important scientific problem to be solved urgently. Researchers such as Wang Tao, the Nanjing University, have innovatively explored the relationship between the mass of the central black hole and the amount of cold gas in galaxies, for the first time, it is revealed that the mass of the central black hole is the most critical physical quantity to modulate the content of cold gas in galaxies: the higher the mass of the central black hole, the lower the content of cold gas in galaxies. And cold gas is the raw material for star formation in galaxies, so this discovery provides important observational evidence for the influence of central black holes on the formation and evolution of galaxies, a solid step toward finally solving the mystery of the galaxy’s life-and-death transition.
Microscopic
The miniaturization of laser has opened a new era of photonic technology development, and profoundly changed the human science and Technology and life. Ma Renmin and his colleagues at Peking University have proposed the singular dispersion equation, established a theoretical framework for dielectric systems to break through the diffraction limit, and developed a laser with the smallest mode volume-a singular dielectric nano laser, advancing the characteristic scale of a laser to the atomic scale. In addition, they have also constructed a reconfigurable optical frequency phased array based on nanolasers, so that the nanolaser array can“Dance synchronously” to generate reconfigurable arbitrary coherent lasing patterns. This study provides a new light source for the field of information technology.
Extreme conditions
Extreme conditions usually refer to the single or comprehensive physical conditions that are artificially created in the laboratory and reach or are close to the current technical limits. Among the 2024“Top ten advances in Chinese science” are breakthroughs in this area.
Twenty years ago, on its 125th anniversary, science magazine published one of the world’s top 125 scientific questions, “Is superfluidity possible in solids and how?”. Now, our country scientific research personnel has obtained the significant breakthrough. Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Theoretical Physics University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Su Gang and Peric Lee, sun Peijie of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jin Wentao of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics have found that a triangular lattice prevents quantum magnets from achieving the magnetic correspondence of the supersolid state, i.e. , the spin supersolid state, this is the first time that reliable experimental evidence has been found for the existence of spin supersolid states in solid materials. The team also achieved an extremely low temperature of 94 milliampere Kelvin (-273.056 C) , breaking new ground in non-helium-3 extremely low-temperature solid refrigeration. With the continuous development of solid-state refrigeration technology of quantum materials, it is expected to provide important technical support for major national needs such as quantum science and Technology and space exploration.
Polar integrated crossover
Ma Yugang, an expert on interpreting the 2024“Top 10 scientific advances in China” and vice president of the Fudan University, said there was another striking feature of the scientific advances, that is, it fully reflects the scientific research to the pole comprehensive cross-force, interdisciplinary integration has become an important driving force to speed up scientific and technological innovation. The combination of artificial intelligence and life science, materials science, clinical neuroscience and engineering technology, quantum computing fusion physics and information science… . … during the selection process, they found that many of the scientific advances are the result of interdisciplinary research, which is expected to produce more disruptive technologies and pioneering original work.
Advanced experimental equipment, major science and technology infrastructure to provide strong support
Chang’e 6 brought back samples to fill the research gap, researchers to promote the innovation of photonic technology to develop new important scientific research tools, with the help of cryo-electron microscopy to unlock the mystery of a variety of key Neurotransmitter transporter… … major theoretical discoveries and scientific breakthroughs are increasingly dependent on the support of scientific research conditions such as advanced experimental equipment, major scientific and technological infrastructure, and major scientific projects.
Major scientific projects, programs and infrastructures
Before Chang’e VI, 10 lunar samples had been taken from the far side of the Moon. To learn more about the origin and evolution of the Moon, you have to go to the far side. In June, Chang’e vi 2024 a 1,935.3-gram sample from the far side of the Moon, setting a new standard for Chinese stargazing.
To improve the level of understanding of the Moon, from China’s moon exploration project independent innovation, bravely enter the“No man’s land” hard work. This also fully demonstrates the huge impetus of major scientific projects, scientific projects and scientific and technological infrastructure to scientific and technological innovation.
Last year, China’s“Heavenly Eye” FAST discovered six neutral hydrogen galaxies about 5 billion light-years away from earth, and China’s“Artificial sun” set a new world record of“Billion degrees, thousand seconds”. … advanced experimental equipment, major scientific and technological infrastructure and other scientific research conditions have become a strong support for major theoretical discoveries and new scientific breakthroughs.
New tools for scientific research
Nano-lasers such as Ma Renmin, which realize atomic scale and reconfigurable optical frequency phased array, are also important new scientific research tools to promote the innovation of photonic technology.
Experts say the transistor and the laser were important inventions of the 20th century. Transistors rely on electrons, lasers on photons. Since the 1960s, laser technology has expanded in two extreme directions, toward ultra-high power, such as lasers for controlled nuclear fusion, and toward ultra-high power, such as lasers for controlled nuclear fusion, the trend of laser miniaturization is accelerating. Compared with conventional lasers, nano-lasers have the characteristics of small size and low energy consumption, and have broad application prospects in the fields of information technology, sensing and detection.
With the deepening of the exploration of microstructure, scientists continue to improve the observation technology, and put forward higher and more extreme requirements for the microscope. The advent of super-resolution Fluorescence microscope and cryo-em has enabled scientists to observe subcellular structures at scales of tens to a few tenths of a nanometer, greatly expanding the cognitive horizon of life sciences. In the 2024“Top ten advances in Chinese Science”, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences team Zhao Yan, in the process of clarifying the mechanism of Monoamine neurotransmitter transport and the regulation mechanism of related psychiatric drugs, Jiang Daohua and his colleagues from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, by using cryo-em to uncover a variety of key Neurotransmitter transporter.
Major scientific projects and major scientific and technological infrastructures are not only the integration of cutting-edge scientific ideas and advanced technologies, but also the sharp tools for carrying out basic research and obtaining original results, and also have significant“Spillover” effects, can drive the related industry research and development ability and the manufacturing level substantial enhancement.
Write your thesis on the land of the motherland
It provides a new path for the development of artificial intelligence and other technologies, and is expected to open up a new field of physical applications, and provide a new theoretical basis for modern medicine and disease treatment. … scientific and technological innovation should be geared to the frontiers of Science and technology in the world, to the main battlefield of the economy, to major national needs and to the lives and health of the people.
Major needs of the country
The 2024“Top 10 advances in Chinese science” includes innovations such as deep space exploration and quantum technology that are at the forefront of World Science and technology, as well as major national needs, making great efforts to break through the scientific exploration of“Neck-blocking” technology, actively facing the main battlefield of the economy, and focusing on the urgent needs of economic development and improvement of People’s livelihood, fully embodies the scientific research adhere to the“Four-face” strategic orientation, highlighting the full creative scientific research workers, papers written in the motherland.
Breakthroughs in basic research in the field of optoelectronics provide a new path for the development of artificial intelligence and other technologies. Aiming at the double shackles of computational power and energy efficiency in artificial intelligence reasoning and training, Fang Lu and Dai Qionghai of Tsinghua University proposed a wide-range optical computing architecture, and established a joint propagation model of photon interference and diffraction, the universal intelligent optical computing chip“Taiji” is developed, and the system-level energy efficiency is 160 trillion operations per joule. The all-forward intelligent optical training architecture is proposed, and the photon propagation symmetry model is created, enabling efficient and accurate light training. The“Taiji” intelligent optical computing chip realizes the reasoning and training of large-scale optical neural networks, which is expected to reduce the resource consumption and marginal cost, it explores a new path for the high-speed and high-efficiency calculation of artificial intelligence large models, general artificial intelligence, and complex intelligent systems.
New discoveries have been made in physical science, which are expected to open up new fields of application. Important experimental discoveries of gravitational submodules in condensed matter by our researchers. A Nanjing University inelastic polarized light scattering system with extremely low temperature and strong magnetic field has been designed and assembled, and gravitational submodes have been observed in the fractional quantum Hall effect. The experimental discovery of graviton-like particles reveals that the quantum of metric perturbation is the low-energy excitation of Spin-2 from the perspective of two-dimensional space, which provides a new idea for the study of quantum gravity in condensed matter, it is also helpful to understand the quantum laws of Graviton Physics.
Micro-nuclear batteries have unique advantages in extreme environments and long-term operational requirements due to their long-term and stable power supply characteristics. Actinides are ideal“Fuels” for such batteries. However, the serious self-absorption in conventional micronuclear cell designs hinders the efficient conversion of actinide decay energy. Wang Shuwa, Wang Yaxing and Ouyang Xiaoping, Xiangtan University of the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology of Suzhou University, have proposed a actinide micro nuclear battery architecture based on“Coalescence type energy converter”, the development of new actinide radiation photovoltaic micronuclear cells has achieved the highest energy efficiency of its kind. This study provides a theoretical basis for the development of high-efficiency miniature nuclear batteries, and also provides a new idea for the resource utilization of radioactive waste.
The life and health of the people
Facing People’s life and health, more and more scientific research focuses on major livelihood issues such as disease treatment and drug research and development, and escorts People’s life and health with scientific and technological innovation. Many of the 2024“Top ten advances in Chinese science” are related to life and health, revealing new mechanisms in the life sciences and providing a new theoretical basis for modern medicine and disease treatment.
Zhao and his Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences team, together with Jiang Daohua of the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have elucidated the mechanisms of Monoamine neurotransmitter transport and the regulation of psychiatric drugs. This series of studies deepen the understanding of neurotransmitter circulation, provide a structural basis for the design of psychiatric drugs with low side effects and low addiction, and will promote the process of research and development of psychiatric drugs in our country.
For a long time, curing autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus, scleroderma and multiple sclerosis has been a global medical problem. Car? T cell therapy has brought new hope to alleviate and cure autoimmune diseases, but traditional autologous car? T cell therapy has limitations such as long production cycle and high cost. The Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Shanghai Changzheng Hospital) , Xu Huji, East China Normal University du Bing, Wu Huaxiang and East China Normal University Liu Mingyao conducted clinical research using self-developed allogeneic CAR-t cells, successfully treated the patient. The development and clinical application of universal car? T can not only improve the accessibility of the technology and realize the industrialization of cell therapy, but also bring new methods for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
The amount of gene expression on the X chromosome is essential for reproductive development. The XXY sex chromosome in Klinefelter’s syndrome is one of the most common genetic causes of male infertility, but the molecular mechanisms by which its extra X chromosome impairs male germ cell development have remained unexplained for decades. Qiao Jie, Yuan Peng, Yan Liying and Wei Yuan of Peking University have revealed the mechanism from multiple dimensions and provided an important basis for the pathogenesis and early treatment of infertility in Klinefelter’s syndrome patients.