Latest Research Achievement on World Earliest Noodles Published on Nature

A recent study by research fellows of CAS and their collaborators from home and abroad revealed that the preparation of boiled noodles was invented in China about 4,000 years ago. The work was reported in Nature on Oct. 13, 2005.

They described the discovery in China about a bowl of beautifully preserved, thin yellow noodles that were half a meter long and about 4,000 years old. The researchers discovered the noodles inside an overturned sealed bowl under 3 meters of floodplain sediment in Lajia, an archaeological site by the Yellow River in northwestern China.

The site harbors a settlement that was probably destroyed 4,000 years ago by a major earthquake and flood. To identify the plants, the noodles were made from, the team looked at the shape and patterning of starch grains and so-called seed-husk 'phytoliths' in the bowl containing the noodles, and compared them with modern crops. They concluded that the noodles had been prepared using grains from millet grass. This is different from modern noodles, which are made with wheat flour.

Supper Mass Black Hole is Found to be in Center of Milky Way Galaxy

An international astronomical research group and their partners headed by Research Fellow Shen Zhiqiang of the Shanghai Observatory, CAS through observation of a mysterious radio transmission resource (Sagittarius A) with high resolution in high space, found an evidence of the existence of super mass black hole in Milky Way Galaxy. This was the first time for an astronomer to find an area so close to the center of a black hole. The observation was published on Nature , on Nov. 3 rd .

Systematic Progress Made in Super Density Information Storage Materials

Gao Hongjun research group of the Nano-scale Physics and Devices Lab of the Institute of Physics, CAS and collaborators have recently realized molecular conduction conversion and super density information storage in Rotaxane molecular solid membrane, providing a new material for the super density information storage material research. Their research appeared on J.Am.Chem.Soc .[127, 15338(2005)]. In their research, they designed and synthesized a kind of organic molecule that was stable physical-chemically and had strong electronic suppliers and receivers, providing a new idea for the design of electronic parts and structure controlling. The result was published on Advanced Materials [17, 2170(2005)].

Sino-German Symposium on Quantum Engineering Held in Beijing

To commemorate Einstein's creative contributions to modern physics and optics and in memory of the World Year of Physics, a Sino-German Symposium on Quantum Engineering was held from Nov. 23 rd to 27 th at the Institute of Physic, CAS in Beijing. The event attracted more than 30 top-level scientists in the field from the two counties, discussing the new fields of quantum engineering and their recent progress. Dr. Herbert Walther, Academician and Director of the Institute of Quantum Optics of the German Max-Planck Institute, chaired the meeting on Nov. 23 rd .