BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.
FIRST STARS
Chinese scientists have revealed the origin of calcium in first stars by using the world's deepest underground laboratory in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to a study published online Wednesday in the journal Nature.
In 2014, Australian astronomers observed the oldest star ever known by human beings, a K-type red giant star named SMSS0313-6708, on which lithium, carbon, magnesium and calcium were observed. However, the origin of calcium in the star remained a mystery.
Chinese researchers carried out relevant experiments in the laboratory. They successfully verified the hypothesis that calcium comes from a key breakout reaction of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen cycle (CNO cycle), revealing the origin of calcium in the star.
AI APPLICATIONS
At a logistics center belonging to a healthcare group in China, autonomous mobile robots carry shelves and containers out of the warehouse, a task that previously required human workers to take about 30,000 steps each day.
The artificial intelligence (AI) robots, developed by Chinese AI company Megvii, helped this logistics center reduce labor difficulties and costs, improve working efficiency, and promote its transformation from automation to intelligence.
Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, has been a trial ground for several categories of smart vehicles, including self-driving buses running on China's first open-road smart-bus demonstration line.
ANTI-DEPRESSION
Chinese researchers have developed a new antidepressant compound that can work way faster than current depression treatments in animal tests.
In the latest issue of the journal Science, researchers from China's Nanjing Medical University reported that increasing the interaction between the SERT and an enzyme named nNOS can lead to depressive behavior among mice. Stress-induced depressive mice also have an enhanced level of SERT-nNOS interaction.
They designed and synthesized a small-molecule compound named ZZL-7 to target the SERT-nNOS interaction. It had an antidepressant effect two hours after treatment without undesirable side effects in mice. ■
