Chinese scientists have experimentally observed the quantum friction phenomenon at solid-solid interfaces for the first time, making a significant breakthrough in quantum friction research. The study was conducted by a research team led by Professor Zhang Junyan and Associate Professor Gong Zhenbin at the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, a part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

The High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), China's flagship synchrotron radiation facility, is set to begin trial operations by the end of 2025, according to the project team. A synchrotron radiation light source is a source of electromagnetic radiation usually produced by a storage ring.

Scientists have recently announced the successful production of pure white sugar using methanol derived from industrial waste gases, a breakthrough that could reduce reliance on traditional sugar crops such as sugarcane and sugar beet. The team, based at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed what they call a "molecular production line" to synthesize sucrose from carbon dioxide.

China had more than 1.12 billion internet users as of June 2025, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Monday. The report also noted that internet penetration in China reached 79.7 percent by June 2025, an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared with December 2024.

China's Synergetic Extreme Condition User Facility is opening its doors to more foreign scientists as it seeks to boost global collaboration in fundamental science and expand international experiment time at the site in Beijing over the next five years, experts said.

Chinese researchers have found that the chemical energy instantaneously released by crustal activities like earthquakes can serve as an "alternative fuel" to sunlight for subterranean microorganisms. This latest finding reveals an important energy source for deep-Earth ecosystems and also aids in the search for potential subterranean life on planets like Mars and Europa.

Chinese archaeologists have investigated the lives of nobles from the Qin state during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, providing new insights into ancient Chinese social hierarchy, dietary customs and cultural integration. Details of the study have been published in Heritage Science, an international journal.

In recent years, Xining Wildlife Park has gained national attention for its charismatic wildlife, including snow leopards, Pallas's cats and Chinese desert cats. But less known is its long-running work in rescuing and breeding black-necked cranes. Thanks to such efforts, the protection of black-necked cranes has made significant progress. In 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has downgraded its status from vulnerable to near threatened.

Yangtze sturgeon have managed successful natural spawning in China's Chishui River, a tributary of the country's longest waterway -- the Yangtze River, after the removal of over 300 small hydropower stations in the river basin, marking a breakthrough for the conservation of this critically endangered species.

High on a ridge 5,250 meters above sea level in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, a new eye onto the infant universe has blinked open. Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced Sunday that their AliCPT-1 telescope has captured its first crisp images of the moon and Jupiter at 150 GHz, a milestone that marks the formal opening of China's first hunt for primordial gravitational waves.

China's Chang'e-7 lunar mission, expected to launch around 2026, will be equipped with a seismograph to study moonquakes and probe the lunar interior, according to Wu Fuyuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and a leading researcher with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics under CAS.

Chinese researchers have developed an innovative electrified catalysis strategy that removes more greenhouse gases than it generates, achieving net-negative emissions, according to a research article published in the journal Science Advances on Saturday.

Researchers from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have proposed a new method for high-precision soil moisture estimation using the technique of blind source separation (BSS).

A team of Chinese scientists, in collaboration with international researchers, has achieved a breakthrough in brain mapping, with ten seminal studies on mesoscale brain atlases published as a featured collection of papers in Cell Press journals on Thursday.