Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On October 28, 2023 Tencent Science WE Conference was held in Beijing Exhibition Hall. This is the 11th consecutive session of the Scientific WE Conference, which has been held online for three years and returned offline. Two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences-- Zhao Zhongxian, one of the founders of China's high temperature superconductivity research, Qian Qian, director of the National crop Germplasm Bank, two Nobel laureates-- "Father of graphene" Andre Heim, and the first exoplanet discoverer Didier Quiluiao. Along with Omar subunit, a pioneer in the field of "reticular chemistry", Linda Partridge, the world authority on aging biology, and Jiang Lelun, a developer of magnetically controlled solid-liquid phase change materials, share with the public breakthroughs in physics, material science, agricultural science, life science and other fields.

With the theme of "seed", the conference pays tribute to the scientific explorers who have sowed seeds to change the future through the ages. At the meeting, Tencent released the Tencent Science and Technology Museum "Digital Germplasm Bank" under construction with the National crop Germplasm Bank of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and plans to use digital technologies such as 3D modeling to digitally scan the full range of germplasm resources of the National crop Germplasm Bank. Three-dimensional dynamic presentation. This commonweal work, which is dedicated to promoting agricultural scientific research and public science popularization, can not only enable the public to understand China's rich crop germplasm resources, safe preservation and cutting-edge technologies of biological breeding through zero-distance holographic interaction, but also enhance social awareness of agricultural science and attention to national food security. It restores the whole process of plant growth with high fidelity through digital technology, which is of scientific value for scientists to study the law of plant growth, optimize planting conditions and cultivate new varieties.

The conference was broadcast live on CCTV News, Learning Power, Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other clients and official video accounts, as well as nearly 50 platforms such as Tencent Video, bilibili and Zhihu. When QQ Browser, the official content search platform for the event, searches for keywords on "WE Conference" and related scientific topics, users can learn about the 11-year essence of WE Conference and expand popular science topics through encyclopedia and question-and-answer content in the form of text, videos, pictures, etc.

Tencent Science and Technology Museum "Digital seed Bank" released

"over the past 11 years, WE has been committed to exploring how to use science to help us better understand the world and formulate solutions to climate change and sustainable development." Dawei, Tencent's chief exploration official website, stressed in its opening speech that "human beings need to use technologies such as artificial intelligence to continuously improve productivity in all key areas and prevent waste." To meet the major challenges of the scarcity of basic resources such as' food, energy and water'. "

(photo: the opening speech on Tencent's chief exploration website)

Agricultural science has experienced more than a hundred years of innovation, maintaining the balance between man and nature, and the stability and prosperity of human society. Qian Qian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the National crop seed Bank, reviewed three technological leaps in rice breeding in China, which creatively led the scientific breakthrough in the improvement of rice yield per unit area. Among them, Academician Yuan Longping's team discovered the "wild failure" of rice germplasm with natural male sterility, and a group of scientists gathered their wisdom to solve the difficult problems of hybrid rice seed production and heterosis utilization, which significantly increased rice yield, led the "second green revolution" and made great contributions to solving the food problems in China and other developing countries. " Germplasm innovation is the soul of breeding, "Qian Qian believes." at present, the key to the development of the seed industry is to further improve the efficiency of provenance innovation, integrate biotechnology and information technology, and promote the development of breeding technology in the direction of digitalization, informationization, and intellectualization. "the advantages of germplasm resources in China will be further transformed into the advantages of breeding innovation."

(photo: Qian Qian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the National crop seed Bank)

Germplasm resources are known as the "chip" to promote the development of agriculture. The National crop Germplasm Resources Bank of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences is currently the largest national germplasm bank in the world. With the joint efforts of several generations of researchers, more than 460000 crop seeds have been preserved. The "Digital seed Bank" released this time will also display dynamic three-dimensional images of 10 kinds of crops, including space rice "Xiaowei", from germination to fruiting, so that the public can observe the whole life cycle of seed growth without the restriction of time and space, and carefully feel and explore the mysteries of seeds.

"Digital seed Bank" is the first extension of popular science products announced by Tencent after it announced the creation of a "science tree". In the future, it will be seen by the public as the core exhibition item of the permanent exhibition hall of "Agricultural Science" in Tencent Science and Technology Museum. At last year's WE conference, Guo Kaitian, senior vice president of Tencent Group, announced that Tencent is building a permanently open public science and technology hall at its headquarters in Qianhai, Shenzhen, and is working with top scientific research institutions to use artificial intelligence and all-true interconnection technology to create a "science and technology tree" with the integration of data and reality, systematically presenting the development context and breakthrough achievements of a century of human science. Based on the extension of the "Science and Technology Tree", Tencent Science and Technology Museum will build a permanent exhibition hall of science, engineering, agriculture and medicine, providing an open space for the public to immerse themselves in the scientific achievements of human civilization.

(photo: Tencent announces the concept poster of "Digital seed Bank" of Tencent Science and Technology Museum)

Material Research Breakthrough leads Revolutionary Application

Superconductivity, which has been studied for a hundred years, has attracted wide public attention this year. Zhao Zhongxian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former director of the State key Laboratory of Superconductor, gave the audience a systematic understanding of the characteristics and research value of superconductors at the conference. As one of the founders of high temperature superconductivity in China, Zhao Zhongxian's team independently discovered oxide superconductors in the liquid nitrogen temperature region and a series of iron-based superconductors with a critical temperature of 55K. It has promoted the study of global high critical temperature superconductors. Superconductor has been serving human beings in the fields of energy, information, health and so on since 1962. For example, superconducting nuclear magnetic resonance imaging has long become an important means of inspection. "continuously raising the critical temperature of superconductors and exploring new superconductor materials and new processes that are more suitable for application will bring profound changes to human production and life." Zhao Zhongxian said.

(photo: Zhao Zhongxian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former director of the State key Laboratory of Superconductivity)

"people in the desert can use solar-powered water collectors at home to extract enough water from the air for their daily needs and get rid of their dependence on tap water networks." Omar subunit, a pioneer in the field of reticular chemistry, has continued to promote the innovation and landing of technologies such as access to drinking water from the air after sharing his own invention of the metal-organic framework (MOF) (1995) and covalent organic framework (COF) (2005), which are currently the most porous materials. Based on MOF, he and his team designed the first device in human history that could capture drinking water from low humidity, release and transport drinking water at low temperatures, and produced 1 liter of water per kilogram of MOF per day in field tests in the Mojave Desert. At present, a ton of MOF material can produce 750 litres of water per cycle. This device has been applied on the ground and is used to relieve the pressure on water resources around the world.

(photo: speech by Omar Yaki, member of the American Academy of Sciences and winner of the 2018 Wolf Prize in Chemistry)

Graphene is known as "the most important material in the 21st century", which also makes scientists and the public around the world have unlimited imagination of application. Andre Heim, the 2010 Nobel laureate in physics and the "father of graphene", tells how he and his colleagues obtained the single-atom-thick material through "tearing tape" stripping technology, and gave the audience a glimpse into its magical properties. Graphene is only a few millionths of the thickness of a piece of paper, but it has a nanometer strength 200 times stronger than iron, making it the thinnest and strongest material known in the world, but it is also similar to flexible rubber and has strong flexibility; it is highly impervious to gases and liquids and has better thermal conductivity than copper. "this material can revolutionize many industries in the next 10 to 20 years." Andre Heim said his team worked with researchers from Shenzhen, China, to successfully use graphene as a "touchstone" to extract gold from a waste solution containing only a few billionths of gold. Andre Heim's early experimental videos on graphene, magnetic levitation and gecko tape were intelligently restored by Tencent multimedia laboratory light and shadow refurbishment technology, with high-definition picture quality tape for the audience to immerse the magic of science.

(speech by Andre Heim, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Sciences, Royal Society and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics)

Professor Jiang Lelun, School of Biological Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, demonstrated the magnetically controlled solid-liquid phase change materials developed by the team. The material combines the advantages of solid and liquid metal, which has high stiffness and high load capacity in solid state, and can deform as freely as water in liquid state. Based on the inspiration of the Magneto character in the sci-fi movie, the material can control not only the morphological phase transition through alloying, but also its motion, deformation, splitting, healing and other morphological changes through external magnetic field. "We have proved the possibility of the application of magnetically controlled solid-liquid phase change materials and robots in biological, industrial manufacturing and other fields." Jiang Lelun gave an example: "the miniature magnetically controlled solid-liquid phase change robot can enter the human body under the control of a wireless magnetic field to complete targeted drug delivery, foreign body removal and other tasks."

(photo: Jiang Lelun, a professor at the School of Biological Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University)

Exploring the Origin of Life and the methods of delaying Aging

"there is no longer the origin of life on earth, only life thrives." Didier Queiroz, who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for the detection of the first exoplanet Pegasus 51b, shared at the conference the team's continued development of astronomical instruments and technologies to discover thousands of planets. "We find and detect terrestrial planetary systems suitable for remote study of life by measuring planetary volume, mass, temperature, and studying the atmosphere." Combined with the major evolution of the Earth, he leads the audience to understand the value of planetary exploration in exploring the origin of life. "4 billion years ago, chemical reactions on the earth's surface produced substances that could induce the origin of life. When life appeared, the chemical functions and reactions of life itself began to influence and change the earth. Today's earth no longer has the conditions to transform from matter to life." Studying celestial bodies in the universe and exploring the origin of life on other planets can help us find the answer to the origin of life on Earth.

(photo: Didier Quillova, director of the Alliance of Origins and winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics)

With the continuous extension of human life expectancy, the prevalence rate caused by aging is getting higher and higher, so the aging biology of looking for ways to postpone aging has become a hot subject. Linda Partridge, the world authority on aging biology, said, "drugs can be used to protect people from age-related diseases, rather than waiting for these age-related diseases to appear first and then treat them one by one." Through animal dietary restriction experiments, she explores the basic mechanisms and complex processes of aging, that is, the degradation of genetic material, cells, tissues and their interactions, and studies how to limit the expression of related genes to delay aging. She proposes targeted prevention with rapamycin combinations to delay the occurrence of more than one geriatric disease or even stop them completely. "We are not trying to extend the duration of life, but to solve the health problems at the end of life," Partridge stressed. "

(photo: Linda Partridge, vice president of the Royal Society and member of the British and Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Germany)

The WE conference is dedicated to sharing the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries and cutting-edge ideas with the public. Over the past decade, 94 of the world's top scientific researchers, including Hawking, Penrose, Pan Jianwei, Yao Qizhi, have stepped onto the stage of the WE conference to share basic scientific research and cutting-edge science and technology applications in more than 10 fields, including cosmology, theoretical physics, life sciences, geosciences, space science and technology, information technology, and intelligent manufacturing. The public attended nearly 100 million people online and offline.

At the beginning of the new decade of the WE Conference, while Tencent continues to pay attention to basic scientific research, it also guides the public and industry to pay attention to the great potential of science and technology to improve productivity. On October 29, the first Tencent Industry Science and Technology Conference was held in Beijing Exhibition Hall, where representatives of outstanding enterprises from intelligent manufacturing, aerospace, intelligent agriculture and other fields shared the breakthroughs and landing of industrial science and technology, showing the cutting-edge practice of the integration and transformation of China's industry and science and technology.

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