On January 26, 2003, a total of 568 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering voted on China's 10 major accomplishments in science and technology in 2002. They were:
1. Completion of a refined map of the rice genome and detailed sequencing map of rice chromosome 4. Completed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Genomics and Bioinformatics Center and other units, the refined map of indica rice genome covers 97 percent of its genetic sequences, among which 97 percent of gene are accurately positioned on the chromosome, and the accuracy rate of 94 percent of the single bases in the sequence is up to 99.99 percent, reaching the world acknowledged standards for refined genetic map. As part of an international rice genome program, the CAS National Center for Gene Research and other units jointly completed the detailed sequencing map of rice chromosome 4, making a crucial contribution to unveiling the mystery of the rice's genetic code.
2. Successful launching of "Shenzhou III" and "Shenzhou IV" spaceships. On March 25, the "Shenzhou III" spacecraft was successfully launched. This was an unmanned spaceship with its technical conditions identical to a manned spacecraft. On December 30, the "Shenzhou IV" blasted itself into space successfully. It marks an "all up" test of a manned space flight. During the period of its automatic and on-orbit flight, the spacecraft conducted experiments of multimode microwave remote sensor's earth survey, comprehensive precise orbital determination, separation and purification of large biological molecule and cell in space, micro-gravity fluid physics, and other space scientific and technological research projects.
3. Discovery of the first world-class large gas field. After more than two years' exploration, a massive natural gas deposit was brought to light from Ih Ju League in Inner Mongolia. The proven reserves of its natural gas trove is as high as 602.5 billion cu m, equivalent to a super-large oil field up to 600 million tons in recoverable reserves. It is the most plentiful reservoir of natural gas so far found in China and the first natural gas bonanza up to the world grade. The gas field features a large area of gas-bearing strata, fecundity in proven reserves, excellent yields and high output for a single well.
4. Completion of the diversion canal of the Three Gorges Dam. On November 6, a 3.7-km-long and 350-m-wide diversion canal was stemmed for the ongoing Three Gorges Dam project. The channel is a sector of the man-made water route for navigational traffic and passage of the Yangtze mainstream when the dam is under the second phase of construction. The current cut-off operation is the hardest one in the world in terms of water conservation and hydropower engineering. The comprehensive hydraulic norms for the cut-off are higher than those for stemming the Yangtze mainstream in the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam in its downstream section of the Yangtze River.
5. Success of the third-generation mobile telecommunication system. The development of the third-generation mobile telecommunication system, one of the key national R&D projects, was checked and accepted by a panel of experts on February 7. The successful development of the TD-SCDMA standards is the first of its kind proposed by China and accepted by the International Telecommunications Union.
6. Initial mastery of the up-to-date technology of CPU design and manufacture. China's first high-performance general microchip-"Godson I" was developed by the CAS Institute of Computing Technology. The chip and the server using the chip "Dragon Flying" end China's IT history without its own chips. The CPU chip contains nearly four million transistors. Both of its fixed-point and double-precision floating-point operation speeds are measured as high as 200 million times per second.
7. Cultivation of a new species of rapeseed. By using the up-to-date gene-engineering technology, scientists with the Zhejiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Science have invented a technology to regulate the oil contents of colza, raising the oil contents by big margins. The "Chaoyou-I" and "Chaoyou-II," two new species of rapeseed bred by them, have increased the contents by the biggest margins compared with other research of its kind. The "Chaoyou II" yields the oil contents as high as 52.82 percent, which is the highest of species of colza so far cultivated in the world.
8. Success of mega-laser device "Shenguang-II." A novel laser facility, named "Shenguang-II," has been developed by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Institute of Engineering Physics. Built at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, the new facility, an ICF (inertial confinement fusion) driver with eight beams, can produce electric power as high as several times the global total output in one billionth second to induce a fusion. This marks China has entered the world advanced level in the high-power laser and laser fusion research.
9. Progress in the studies into the aging process of human cells. After many years of research, scientists from the Peking University Medical Science Center has singled out the gene P16 as the major link in the genetic program of cell aging, thus deciphering the secret to growing old. This is an original contribution to the research on the mechanism of aging, opening a new route to explicating the aging process of human cells.
10. A supercomputer developed by the Legend Group. A supercomputer, with a computing speed of 1,027 billion floating operations per second has been developed by China's Legend Group. According to the top 500 supercomputer ranking, the computing speed of the Legend's supercomputer ranks 24th among the top 500 high-performance computers in the world. The supercomputers ranking 1st to 23rd are all manufactured by Japan and the United States.
