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Dec 15

Chang’e-3 lunar lander and rover beamed back portraits of one another snapped from the Moon’s surface

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For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan

Now, researchers from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine have discovered the molecular secrets behind this herbal extract's power.

recent studies suggest that halofuginone, a compound derived from this extract's bioactive ingredient, could be used to treat many autoimmune disorders

China said foreign embassies were acting illegally in issuing their own air quality readings and that only the government could release data on the nation's heavy pollution.

until recently, official air quality measurements regularly rated their air quality as good

data from the US embassy in Beijing showed off-the-chart pollution

Morocco in 2011, and report that it is a new type of Mars rock with an unusually high water content.[8][9][10] American researchers state that a gene associated with active personality traits is also linked to

Astronomers affiliated with the Kepler space observatory announce the discovery of KOI-172.02, an Earth-like exoplanet candidate which orbits a star similar to the Sun in the habitable zone

13 January – Massachusetts doctors invent a pill-sized medical scanner that can be safely swallowed by patients, allowing the esophagus to be more easily scanned for disease

First Chinese satellite

In 1970, the People's Republic of China became the fifth nation with a satellite in orbit with the launch of DFH-1, from Jiuquab Satellite Launch Center. It had a design life of 15 days, and for propaganda, it transmitted the Communist China national anthem, The East is Red (in Chinese "Dongfanghong," hence the initials DFH). It had a 72-face polyhedral shape, 1-m diam., mass 173-kg. It was followed by on 3 Mar 1971 by a second DFH named SJ-1 (Practice-1). The first four nations with satellites in space were the USSR (Sputnik on 4 Oct 1957), the U.S. (Explorer-I on 31 Jan 1958), France (Astrix-1 on 26 Nov 1965 and Japan (Osumi 5, 11 Feb 1970). After China, Britain launched its Prospero satellite on 28 Oct 1972)

Supernova

In 1006, Chinese and Arabic astronomers noted a supernova. The speed of the still-expanding shock wave was measured nearly a millenium later.* This is was history's brightest "new star" ever recorded, at first seen to be brighter than the planet Venus. It occurred in our Milky Way galaxy, appearing in the southern constellation Lupus, near the star Beta Lupi. It was also recorded by observers in Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Egypt and Iraq. From the careful descriptions of the Chinese astronomers of how the light varied, that it was of apparently yellow color and visible for over a year, it is possible that the supernova reached a magnitude of up to -9. Modern measurements of the speed of the shock wave have been used to estimate its distance

Earliest Record Solar Eclipse

In 709 BC, the earliest record of a confirmed total solar eclipse was written in China. From: Ch'un-ch'iu, book I: "Duke Huan, 3rd year, 7th month, day jen-ch'en, the first day (of the month). The Sun was eclipsed and it was total." This is the earliest direct allusion to a complete obscuration of the Sun in any civilisation. The recorded date, when reduced to the Julian calendar, agrees exactly with that of a computed solar eclipse. Reference to the same eclipse appears in the Han-shu ('History of the Former Han Dynasty') (Chinese, 1st century AD): "...the eclipse threaded centrally through the Sun; above and below it was yellow." Earlier Chinese writings that refer to an eclipse do so without noting totality.

China's robotic Chang'e 3 mission, reportedly slated to blast off toward the end of 2013

Chang'e 3 will become China's first craft to attempt a soft landing and rover deployment on the surface of the moon

the nation's manned spaceflight program continues to move forward. Three "taikonauts" arrived at China's Tiangong 1 space module on June 13, beginning a 12-day stint aboard the orbiting laboratory

less than half a second to capture these incredible shots of the Shenzhou-10 module docked to Tiangong-1 Chinese station transiting across the Sun

The Tiangong-1 space station is just 10.4 meters (34.1 ft) in length, while the Shenzou 10 is 9.25 meters (30.35 ft) long

The transit duration was just 0.46 seconds

application for NTT DoCoMo subscribers will give two-way voice and text readouts of conversations between Japanese speakers and those talking in English, Chinese or Korean with a several-second delay

a free application that can be used on smartphones and tablet computers with the Android operating system

Customers will also be able to call landlines using the service, it said, adding that voice-to-text readouts will soon be available in French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai

named after Pan Gu, the giant from ancient Chinese mythology who established the world by separating yin from yang to create the earth and the sky

nanomineralogy investigation of primitive meteorites—which Ma has been leading since 2007—nine new minerals, including panguite, have been found in the Allende meteorite

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a method for building complex nanostructures out of short synthetic strands of DNA

interlocking DNA "building blocks," akin to Legos, can be programmed to assemble themselves into precisely designed shapes, such as letters and emoticons

Further development of the technology could enable the creation of new nanoscale devices, such as those that deliver drugs directly to disease sites.

team of American and Chinese researchers

color and detailed feather pattern

Microraptor, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 130 million years ago