BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science news from the past week:
MARS EXPLORATION
China's first Mars exploration mission has been named Tianwen-1, announced the China National Space Administration (CNSA) Friday, China's Space Day.
The name comes from the long poem "Tianwen," meaning Heavenly Questions or Questions to Heaven, written by Qu Yuan (about 340-278 BC), one of the greatest poets of ancient China.
CNSA said all of China's planetary exploration missions in the future will be named Tianwen series, signifying the Chinese nation's perseverance in pursuing truth and science and exploring nature and the universe.
LARGE SCALE SURVEY TELESCOPE
Chinese experts will build a survey telescope with wide field and high resolution in Lenghu (Cold Lake) Town, in northwest China's Qinghai Province.
The Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST), featuring an advanced active zoom optical system and a 2.5-meter in diameter optical telescope, is expected to capture wide-field and high-resolution images of the sky.
NEW CANCER DRUG
Researchers from China's Central South University and Yale University have developed a new inhibitor that shows greater ability to suppress tumor growth than existing drugs, promising to prolong the survival time of patients with late-stage skin cancers.
In the study, recently published online in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers found that a new molecule inhibitor called NHWD-870 exhibited robust activity against tumors. It was between three times and 50 times more potent against skin cancer cells than other inhibitors in experiments done on mice.
COVID-19 PATIENTS WITH DIARRHEA
Researchers have found that more COVID-19 patients with diarrhea showed severe symptoms of pneumonia than those without diarrhea, according to a recently published research article in the journal Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
The researchers from the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and its Research Institute of Gastroenterology examined the intestinal symptoms of patients with COVID-19 from multiple medical centers in China.
NANOMATERIAL TO REMOVE ANTIBIOTICS
Chinese scientists have developed a kind of nanomaterial that can effectively remove antibiotics in water.
Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences used a hydrothermal synthesis method to fabricate the nanomaterial that can work as an absorbent to remove norfloxacin, a kind of antibiotics in water. The material has a high adsorption capacity and can be recycled. It can remove antibiotics without secondary pollution. Enditem
