BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

LOESS PLATEAU PRECIPITATION

Chinese researchers found that the precipitation on the Loess Plateau in northern China may continue to increase in the next few years.

Researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences used tree-ring width data obtained from central and northern Lyuliang Mountains on the Loess Plateau to reconstruct the precipitation change database from 1773 to 2020, successfully capturing hydroclimate changes on the plateau.

QUANTUM METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK

The city of Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, launched a quantum metropolitan area network (MAN) on Friday that leads the country in scale, number of users and applications.

With eight core sites, 159 access sites and a 1,147-km-long optical fiber, the MAN allows encrypted transmission of data in the e-government’s extranet, providing services to the government, banks and enterprises.

MAMMAL CHROMOSOME ENGINEERING

Chinese scientists have genetically engineered a kind of house mouse with 19 chromosomal pairs, one pair less than what is standard in this species, and part of these genetic changes can be passed to offspring.

The study published on Friday in the journal Science revealed that chromosome level engineering had been achieved in a mammal for the first time, a result that offered insight into how rearrangements of chromosomes can influence evolution.