After concluding six-month stay at the China Space Station and completing first-ever direct handover in orbit in the country’s aerospace history, three taikonauts of the Shenzhou-14 manned spaceflight mission have safely returned to the Dongfeng landing site in the Gobi Desert, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Sunday. 

At 8:09 pm Sunday, the return capsule of the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft carrying three taikonauts conducted successful touchdown in the Dongfeng landing site. The medical personnel confirmed that the taikonauts were in good health, marking a complete success of the return mission, the Global Times has learned from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Sunday. 

The Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft successfully separated with the China Space Station combination at 11:01 am Sunday. Before their departure, the Shenzhou-14 crew, with the help of a local ground team, completed the handover with the Shenzhou-15 crew, and other tasks including downloading the experiment data, the CMSA said earlier. 

“It marked the first return mission after the completion of China Space Station’s T-shape basic structure assembly, the first after gathering of six taikonauts at the space station, and also a first that has taken place in the winter night at the Dongfeng site,” Peng Huakang, the person-in-charge of the manned spacecraft recovery team with the spacecraft developer China Academy of Spacecraft Technology (CAST,) told the Global Times.

The return of the Shenzhou-14 manned spacecraft consisted of five stages before the final touchdown, including the separation of spacecraft from the space station, the braking maneuver, the re-entry to atmosphere and decelerating before landing. 

Adopting a rapid return strategy similar to previous missions, the Shenzhou-14 craft rounded Earth only five times before making its re-entry. Then the orbiter capsule separated with the return capsule. And with the help of the propelling capsule in two braking maneuvers, the combination of the return capsule and propelling capsule then descended from 400-kilometer orbit to 100-kilometer one before their separation, the CAST explained in a statement provided to the Global Times.

The propelling capsule was burnt up during re-entry to the atmosphere and the return capsule took on a well-calculated trajectory to be headed back to Earth’s atmosphere and to the Dongfeng site.

Besides personal items, the "luggage" carried by the three taikonauts back also includes a batch of medical science experiment samples, mainly body fluid and cytology samples, which can allow the ground research team to better understand the changes inside human body during their life in space, the Global Times learned from the CMSA.

According to Li Yinghui, a researcher with the Chinese astronaut training system, the "luggage" includes astronauts' blood, urine, and saliva. Researchers can study human adaptability to the environment with in-depth, at the level of cells, molecules, and genes, which enables China to have its own genetic resource bank for environmental adaptation in orbit.

Search and rescue work for the Shenzhou-14 return capsule is of great significance in boosting China’s international image, as the task marks the conclusion to the construction stage of the China Space Station, Bian Hancheng, the deputy chief designer of the manned space project landing site system, told the Global Times.

China has signed agreements with more than a dozen countries and regions to carry out space experiment projects on the China Space Station, and this is the first time that space application system has participated in the search and rescue works at Dongfeng, according to Bian, who is also a senior engineer with the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China’s Gansu Province. The task has opened a new normal for the landing site to recover space application payload from domestic and foreign customers, he said.

The biggest challenges facing the search and rescue mission s extreme cold and night conditions that could lead to most complicated and difficult situations, according to the Dongfeng landing site authorities. 

Bian explained that it is more difficult to identify and locate the target craft at night than during daytime and it is also extra hard to arrive at the landing site, as landing a helicopter would be more difficult given the poor visibility of surroundings during the night time in remote Gobi Desert. 

Dubbed the China Space Station’s busiest crew to date, Shenzhou-14 mission commander Chen Dong and his fellow crewmembers Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe conducted three extravehicular activities or known as the spacewalks, delivered a new episode of the Tiangong Classroom space lecture sessions, carried out multiple space experiment and application projects, and above all, participated and witnessed the completion of the China Space Station’s three-module T-shape basic structure assembly.

They also greeted the incoming Shenzhou-15 crew on Wednesday, handing over the key to the China Space Station to the Shenzhou-15 taikonauts on Saturday, in addition to completing the country’s first-ever in-orbit work handover. 

Moreover, Chen Dong the mission’s commander also became the first taikonaut to have worked and lived in orbit for more than 200 days during the Shenzhou-14 mission that lasted more 183 days. He previously worked in orbit for 33 days during the Shenzhou-11 mission in 2016.

Verdant villages prospering in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, Yangtze finless porpoise, also called the "panda in the water" for its rarity, being spotted more often in rivers, scientific expedition team members seeing lakes on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau with clearer water… all these significant changes over the past decades have marked China's continuous efforts to achieve a core concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," which gave inspiration to the country's first National Ecology Day.

On August 15, China's first National Ecology Day, Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the whole society to vigorously promote and act as role models in practicing the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.

Ecological conservation is of vital importance for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, Xi said.

On the new journey of building a modern socialist country in all aspects, efforts should be made to maintain strategic resolve in advancing ecological progress and promote high-quality development in sync with high-standard protection, Xi said.

With a focus on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the country should facilitate the gradual transition from dual control over the amount and intensity of energy consumption to dual control over the amount and intensity of carbon emissions, Xi noted.

The country has already set ambitious goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

Observers believe that the National Ecology Day will not only help raise ecological awareness across society, but also provide an opportunity to share China's story of ecological civilization construction with the international community, allowing better participation in global environmental and climate governance.

Today marks the inaugural National Ecology Day, a pioneering and symbolic commemoration, reflecting the significant position of ecological civilization construction in the new era, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a press conference on Tuesday. It embodies the steadfast determination to promote the construction of a Beautiful China and also demonstrates China's firm stance in actively participating in global environmental and climate governance, as well as its commitment to fostering a shared future for humanity.

Vigorous efforts

According to a bluebook on China's ecological conservation red lines released by the Ministry of Natural Resources on Tuesday, the red line of ecological conservation is approximately 3.19 million square kilometers, covering all 35 priority areas for biodiversity conservation in China and over 90 percent of typical ecological system types.

The ecological conservation red line refers to areas within an ecological space that have particularly important ecological functions and must be strictly protected on a mandatory basis, including water conservation, biodiversity maintenance, soil and water conservation, windbreak and sand fixation, and coastal ecological stability, as well as environmentally sensitive and fragile areas prone to soil erosion, land desertification, rock desertification and salinization.

China is a mega-diverse country in terms of biodiversity. The protection of biodiversity has been elevated to a national strategy and has become a consensus and action for the entire society, Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"Over the past years, China has actively promoted biodiversity conservation, taking a series of robust measures, including the innovative establishment of the ecological conservation red line system," Ma said.

"Based on what we have observed, the demarcation of the ecological red line has been essentially completed across the entire country," he added.

Besides drawing the red lines, Chinese authorities make full use of resources such as satellites, manned and unmanned aircraft, fixed ground and mobile patrol monitoring to construct an integrated ecological quality monitoring network from "sky to ground," according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Those monitoring measures focus on natural reserves, ecological conservation red lines and key ecological function areas, Huang Runqiu, head of the ministry, told a press conference on July 27.

More than over 5,000 key issues were identified in national nature reserves, and 79 ecological damage issues were found in five pilot provinces with ecological conservation red lines up to July 27.

Currently, China has over 30 laws on ecological and environmental protection, more than 100 administrative regulations, and over 1,000 local regulations, the National People's Congress said in a post on Tuesday. They lay a solid foundation for establishing and improving the system of ecological civilization.

Chinese authorities released a guideline on Tuesday to enhance the integration of law enforcement and administering justice in forestry and grassland affairs.

Jointly issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the guideline is centered on building a coordination mechanism for administrative law enforcement and prosecutorial public interest litigation in forestry and grassland affairs.

In the past decade, the national forest coverage rate increased from 21.63 percent to 24.02 percent, according to a statement sent by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration to the Global Times on Tuesday.

China has contributed one quarter, the most in the world, to the increase in global green coverage. Grasslands have an overall vegetation coverage of 50.32 percent and their status has transformed from production to ecological purposes, the authority said.

Core concept

As the birthplace and first demonstration site of the concept that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," residents in East China's Zhejiang Province, especially Huzhou, have a more vivid experience of the concept.

Huzhou's Yucun village, previously the largest limestone mining area in Anji county, is an example as it transformed the local economy from mining to greener industries.

The air in the village used to be shrouded with coal dust and the green bamboo leaves on the mountains were covered in soot. Miners who came out of the mines looked all the same - all covered in black.

The change started in 2002 when Yucun village began shutting down the mines. The momentum of green development became stronger after Xi, then Party Chief of Zhejiang, raised the "two mountains" concept on August 15, 2005 during his inspection trip to the county.

Nowadays, former miners are able to wake up breathing fresh air every day and have sought out ways to make a living in industries related to eco-tourism, such as running guest houses and shops, as well as high-tech agriculture.

The "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" concept for local people is that they are able to enjoy beautiful and green ecology and at the same time live an abundant life, Chen Guangju, the deputy head of the "Two Mountains" Concept Research Institute affiliated with Huzhou University, told the Global Times.

What other places can learn from the Zhejiang experience is that the practice should first prioritize ecology and seek a development path that fits local conditions so as to reach the goal of common prosperity, Chen said.

The "two mountains" concept is and will lead to a new form of human civilization, Chen said.

China's ecological governance approach not only addresses domestic environmental issues but also has a positive impact on global sustainable development and climate management, Sun Shao, a senior researcher at Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China's practices in ecological restoration and sustainable development can offer insights and lessons for other countries, propelling worldwide environmental conservation efforts, Sun said.

"Through collaborative initiatives, technology sharing and international cooperation, China plays a vital role in global environmental management, contributing to addressing global challenges such as climate change," he added.

BALTIMORE — Metamaterials, among the most intricate and skillfully designed configurations of matter ever devised by science, could be improved with the help of Legos.

Famous for their use in cloaking devices, metamaterials are artificial structures that play unnatural tricks with light and sound and other vibrations. Scientists have investigated the use of such materials for soundproofing rooms or protecting buildings from the shaking of earthquakes, among other things. But to do their jobs, metamaterials must be properly designed and fabricated using precisely manufactured components. Testing ideas for new metamaterials is therefore time-consuming and expensive.
So Paolo Celli and colleagues at the University of Minnesota sought alternatives. They considered 3-D printing, Celli said March 15 at a meeting of the American Physical Society. But the printing process can be slow and the “ink” isn’t cheap, so they rejected that idea. “That’s when we thought, ‘Why don’t we use Lego bricks?’” he said. Legos are relatively cheap and can rapidly be rearranged into all sorts of configurations.

Celli and colleagues arranged Lego bricks on a base plate attached to a wooden frame and investigated how the arrangements influenced the way vibrations traveled through the plate. For some arrangements, certain vibration wavelengths could not be transmitted. Manipulation of the Legos allowed the scientists to determine what processes created the forbidden wavelength zones (known as bandgaps), providing valuable data for future designs of real metamaterials.

Further experiments showed how Lego arrangements could identify metamaterial architectures that might provide a shield for buildings at risk from earthquake waves. “We might be able to design a metamaterial shield that might block some frequencies that can be harmful to that structure,” Celli said.

Ahmed Elbanna, a materials researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, called the work with Legos exciting and said in principle it could be applicable to designing metamaterials for some applications. He said he was “a little bit more skeptical” that it could result in useful earthquake protection.

Celli emphasized that the motivation behind the work was not solely to produce better metamaterials. “We’ve been looking for an agile and versatile experimental platform,” he said, “but we were also looking for something that people can relate to…. We think that this platform is probably very powerful” for promoting this branch of physics to a broader community.

Asked if he played with Legos as a child, Celli replied, “a lot.”

A year ago, researchers in two small submarines were exploring a seamount — an underwater, flat-topped mountain — off the Pacific coast of Panama when they noticed a dense cloud of sediment extending 4 to 10 meters above the seafloor. One of the submarines approached closer, and the scientists could soon see what was kicking up the cloud: thousands of small, red crabs that were swarming together like insects.

“The encounter was unexpected and mesmerizing,” Jesús Pineda of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and colleagues write in a paper published April 12 in Peer J.

The team decided to investigate further. They sent an autonomous underwater vehicle to pass over the swarm several times, capturing images and video of the crabs. At the densest points in the swarm, there were more than 70 crabs in a square meter of ocean bottom, and this occurred consistently in a water depth of 350 to 390 meters. The crabs, all 2.3 centimeters in carapace length and larger, were moving together in the same general direction. Some would jump and swim for about 10 centimeters or so before landing back in the pack.
Using one of the submarines, the researchers collected some crabs from the swarm. Back in the lab in Woods Hole, they used DNA barcoding to identify the species: Pleuroncodes planipes. This is the same species of crab that has sometimes washed up in mass stranding events on California beaches, which the team confirmed by comparing the DNA barcodes to those of crabs from a stranding event in La Jolla, Calif., in June 2015.

For reasons that scientists still don’t fully understand, seamounts are ecological hot spots where plankton get trapped and feed a wide array of fish and marine mammals higher up in the food web. Fishermen have figured out that they can take advantage of this, but scientists are just now getting into the game and exploring these sites. Because of this, less than one percent of the world’s seamounts have been checked out by researchers. That probably explains why no one had seen a crab swarm like this before on a seamount.
But this is not the first time crabs have been seen swarming. Scientists have previously documented large aggregations of king crabs, spider crabs, tanner crabs and lyre crabs on the seafloor. Such behavior may be linked to reproduction.

And then there are the red crabs of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, which swarm in the millions during the wet season, coming out of the forests and making a long trek to the beach for a massive mating party.