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28 Li Jiangang “As a result of the past 30 years’ effort, we have taken the leading role among steady- state, long-pulse tokamak facilities in the world.” Wang Chen one hybrid magnets, says CHMFL Director Kuang, and its aim is to generate a 40-tesla steady-state magnetic field. Already, Kuang says, the facility is unique in China, and access to it is vital for researchers working at the cutting edge of materials science, bioscience, chemistry, and condensed matter physics. Like the SSRF, the facility is open to users from other institutions who submit compelling proposals; the CHMFL also has an in-house team of more than 50 scientists who study physics, bioscience, and medicine. Last year, research at the laboratory generated over 80 peer-reviewed publications. In addition to its scientific research mission, the CHMFL also serves as a test bed for new semiconductor, superconductor, and materials technology, Kuang says. Techniques developed there have already been applied to other large-scale scientific projects, such as the SSRF. Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) is a step toward an extraordinarily ambitious goal: solving the world’s energy problems. That solution, says Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) Director Li Jiangang, would come from nuclear fusion, a potentially inexhaustible energy source that would be safe and pollutionfree. But to be viable, he explains, fusion plants would need to withstand temperatures in the hundreds of millions of degrees as well as high-energy neutron bombardment—feats that are well beyond the limits of today’s materials. The purpose of EAST, which went online in 2006, is to push those limits, developing components and techniques that can be used in the ITER fusion reactor, an international research project scheduled to begin operations in France in 2019. Li estimates that commercially viable fusion power may still be 50 years off. For the IPP, which, like the CHMFL, is part of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, EAST represents the latest generation in a string of experimental tokamak (that is, high-temperature plasma-based) fusion devices going back several decades. “As a result of the past 30 years’ effort, we have taken the leading role among steady-state, long-pulse tokamak facilities in the world,” Li says. This has been possible because China’s growing energy consumption means it needs fusion more urgently than any other country, he explains, adding, “Also, Chinese leaders take the long view. Fifty years in China is nothing.” National Center for Nanoscience and Technology Rather than exploring frontiers at extreme energies or high magnetic fields, the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) in Beijing is looking to disciplinary boundaries for new discoveries. “Our mission is to create interdisciplinary collaborations, and also serve as a platform for technology transfer from basic to applied, as well as for translational research in nanoscience,” says NCNST Director Wang Chen. Founded in 2003 as a joint venture of CAS and two top Chinese universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, NCNST invites both domestic and international scientists to use its facilities to conduct research with colleagues from other disciplines and institutions. It also has its own researchers, who have backgrounds ranging from biochemistry to physical chemistry to condensed matter physics. NCNST facilities include various specialized laboratories for developing and testing nanomaterials; it also manages a database and publishes an SCI-indexed journal, Nanoscale. Wang says the center is succeeding so far in nurturing interdisciplinary collaborations, and is also working with companies on technology transfer. The furthest advanced of these collaborations, with the State Grid Corporation of China, has put an NCNSTdeveloped nanocoating on the company’s power lines that prevents ice formation and sparking. Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth At the headquarters of the Center for Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE), visitors won’t find any gleaming, expensive scientific instruments. Instead, what’s on display is the Earth itself. This is appropriate, since CE- ODE’s major mission is to gather vast stores of high-quality data on our planet and make it available for research. The Center was born from a consolidation of three more specialized CAS units in 2007, and appropriately, it integrates a range of methods to fulfill its mission. It manages two satellites and three satellite receiving stations, operates four remote-sensing aircraft, and is developing new software for image processing and databases to store information and make it available. The three satellite receiving stations collect data on all of China and much of Asia, and research within the institute covers questions such as the impact of climate change on the country’s land, atmosphere, and water, and monitoring of natural disaster areas and subsequent recovery, says CEODE Director-General Guo Huadong. But, in keeping with its name, CEODE’s work does not stop at China’s borders. The aim of the Digital Earth project, of which it is a key part, is to compile remote sensing data from around the planet onto a platform that will enable researchers everywhere to make sense of the information and perform simulations. The first International Symposium on Digital Earth was held in Beijing in 1999, and international interest in the idea has only grown since then. In 2009, the sixth symposium, also held in Beijing, drew participants from more than 40 countries. CEODE’s headquarters house offices of six international organizations, including the International Society CREDIT: PHOTOS BY RICKY WONG
CREDIT: PHOTOS BY RICKY WONG High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Hefei. for Digital Earth, UNESCO’s International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage, and the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk program. Chinese Ecosystem Research Network The Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), founded in 1988, is a terrestrial version of CEODE, collecting and processing data from ecological stations across the country. One of the oldest long-term ecological research networks in the world and a key member of International Long-term Ecological Research Network, it now comprises 42 field stations covering every type of ecosystem in China, five disciplinary sub-centers, and one synthesis center, says Yu Guirui, who directs the synthesis center. Its mission is three-fold: Long-term monitoring of 280 ecological indicators in the atmosphere, soil, water, flora, and fauna at field station sites; research on the structures, functions, and dynamics of China’s major ecosystems; and outreach, or demonstration, to disseminate best practices in ecosystem management to farmers and others. The 42 field stations belong to different institutes within CAS, Yu explains, so one important task of the synthesis center has been to standardize data collection processes and integrate information from various sources. The data can then be shared with other researchers and the public and used by CERN scientists to develop scientific publications, reports, and policy recommendations. The major research areas for the network have changed with available technologies and the needs of the country; hot topics at present include the structures, functions, and services of ecosystems; ecosystem cycle and carbon budget assessment; ecosystem responses to climate change and adaptation; and biodiversity features and maintenance. One 10-year-old project within CERN, ChinaFLUX, focuses on the movement over time of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere. Both ChinaFLUX and CERN as a whole have close ties with other national and international networks that carry out ecological monitoring. Third Pole Environment The Plateau and its surrounding mountains sit astride a dozen countries and together hold more than 100,000 km 2 of glaciers. More than one billion people rely on water from its ice and snowmelt, which fuels rivers such as the Indus and the Yangtze. The area appears to be responding particularly acutely to global climate change, and it in turn exerts a far-reaching effect on climate through its effects on the Asian Monsoon and the Westerlies that blow in from Europe. Yet compared with those other large expanses of ice and snow, the North and South Poles, little research has been done on the Tibetan Plateau region, which is why in 2009 researchers from 15 countries Yu Guirui Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research gathered to launch a new program, the Third Pole Environment (TPE). The program was initiated by the CAS Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, which saw that in order to truly understand conditions on the third pole, a trans-national network of field stations would be needed. Today, says institute Director Yao Tandong, “We have more than 20 stations, but that’s still not enough.” Researchers use the stations to collect data on processes ranging from geological uplift to changes in the mass balance of glaciers to wind speed, and use it to answer an array of questions about the TPE. “Among all these studies, we think water problems are the key,” says Yao, since “water processes will also influence ecosystems, soil systems, and human activities.” Museums and Botanical Gardens CAS’s many museums and botanical gardens are multipurpose facilities that house collections, enable taxonomy and other basic research, and serve as a platform for science education. The 13 CAS botanical gardens, scattered all over mainland China, contain thousands of plant species, while its 18 museums showcase everything from dinosaurs to marine biota to insects. The latter includes Asia’s largest herbarium, the Institute of Botany’s National Herbarium, which dates back to 1929 and boasts more than 2.6 million specimens. “Among all these studies, we think water problems are the key. Water processes will also influence ecosystems, soil systems, and human activities.” Editorial News Report 29
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