China’s Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) was designed to try to fill that gap, by looking for an indirect decay signal of a hypothetical dark matter candidate called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Researchers launched the spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, about 1600 kilometers west of Beijing, in December 2015.
China's Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) has detected unexpected and mysterious signals in its measurement of high-energy cosmic rays, which might bring scientists a step closer to shedding light on invisible dark matter. The satellite, also called Wukong, or Monkey King, has measured more than 3.5 billion cosmic ray particles with the highest energy up to 100 tera-electron-volts (TeV for short, corresponding to 1 trillion times the energy of visible light), including 20 million electrons and positrons, with unprecedentedly high energy resolution.
Archaeologists in China have discovered a fossilized sea creature that they describe as "strange beyond measure", with long spines along its worm-like body and a shell that covers its head, like a helmet. The 515-million-year-old specimen was unearthed last year by a fossil collector in the hills of the Maotianshan Shales, an archaeological hotspot in Southwest China's Yunnan province.
Foreign academicians elected to China's top think tanks have pledged to bring world-class excellence to Chinese institutions and research. "If I can contribute to produce world leading young Chinese researchers with global perspectives, it is my great pleasure," said Japanese wind engineer Professor Yukio Tamura in an email interview with Xinhua.
Scientists recently discovered 32 million-year-old fossil of a Dipteronia tree in southwest China's Yunnan Province. It was the first time that this kind of fossil from the early Oligocene epoch has been found in East Asia. The finding has been published in the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has elected 16 foreign scientists－the largest number ever－to receive China's highest academic honor as foreign academicians in 2017, the academy announced on Tuesday. Poland, the Netherlands and Uzbekistan each have one scientist being accepted into the academy. It is the first time scientists from these countries are joining the CAS, China's top science think tank.
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