SHARING IS CARING: Students at the Experimental Elementary School in Qianshan County, Jiangxi Province, donate extracurricular books on March 5 in response to a local initiative to assist school libraries in impoverished mountain areas (XINHUA)

Anti-Smog Aircraft

Tests of the first China-made parafoil aircraft in tackling recurring smog will be conducted later this month, its manufacturer announced on March 4.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which is equipped with gliding parachute, is manufactured by a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corp. of China and will perform its first test flights in airports or ports after discussion by industry experts.

The new plane has flexible wings with an aerodynamic structure, which affords ease of control as well as making it able to carry three times the cargo weight of common planes, according to Ma Yongsheng, CEO of the company.

It was also reported that China is considering building two outdoor facilities to help research smog.

On March 2, The Beijing News quoted He Hong, a researcher from the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as saying that the plan to build atmospheric simulation chambers has been submitted to the economic planning body for approval. He is in charge of the project's preparatory work.

The chambers, each with a volume of about 300 cubic meters, are part of a broader environmental project to be built in Beijing's outer Huairou District to study the formation of smog and develop techniques for controlling it, according to He.

Island Topography

Detailed topographic information and images of all China's islands have been collected using aerial remote sensing, a method allowing the capture of data from a distance.

The completion of the project marks the country's first "systematic and comprehensive" move to collect surveillance information on the more than 10,500 islands within its territory, said the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) on February 28.

The surveillance plan, which was mapped out by the SOA in 2011, requires China Marine Surveillance to conduct remote sensing and collect data on all reachable islands every three years, and also stipulated that such efforts should focus on islands listed for development, rehabilitation and protection.

Barley Genome

Chinese scientists revealed on March 3 that they have sequenced the entire genome of highland barley, an achievement that can help cultivate better breeds of Tibet's staple food and increase yields.

The genome-mapping project, which the scientists said has produced the world's first genetic map of highland barley, was launched in 2012 by researchers with Tibet's Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences and BGI Tech Solutions in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

Highland barley, known in Tibetan as ne, has been grown on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for nearly 4,000 years.

It makes up 70 percent of all cereal crops harvested in the autonomous region, home to the world's leading barley production base as well as a center for barley diversity research.

Space Shuttle Bus

China is expected to launch an upper-stage aircraft this year that can be used as a "space shuttle bus" to propel payloads into space, according to sources with the country's leading rocket research institute.

The Yuanzheng-1 (Expedition-1) upper-stage aircraft, which would be attached to a carrier rocket, can carry aircraft using its own power system after reaching an initial orbit, said Liang Xiaohong, an official with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, on March 3.

Yuanzheng-1, which will use liquid propellant, will be able to fulfill several missions while in space and operate as long as 6.5 hours in orbit, said Liang.

Yuanzheng-1 will play an important role in future space exploration as well as orbital transfer and clearing of space debris.