BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

LAND-OBSERVING SATELLITE

A Chinese remote-sensing satellite started to take pictures in its orbit, scientists in charge of the satellite said Friday.

China launched a Long March-4C rocket to place the L-SAR 01A satellite in space on Jan. 26. The satellite, equipped with L-band synthetic aperture radar, can monitor the geological environment, landslides, and earthquakes.

The radar is now capable of taking quality pictures from space, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the organization that designed the radar and received observing data.

SEQUENTIAL MEMORY

Chinese scientists have made a significant step in discovering how the human brain stores and processes sequential information, a natural capacity with a vast array of applications, from remembering lists to learning the steps of a new dance.

Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University and the Shanghai Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology, together with a team of international collaborators, made their discovery through experiments on macaques, with the findings published in the journal Science.

NEWLY FOUND TWISTED-WING PARASITE SPECIES

Chinese scientists have detected a new twisted-wing parasite species in the Gaoligong Mountains in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

Their findings have been published in the international journal ZooKeys.

The scientists confirmed that the parasites found on two wasp species (Vespa velutina and Vespa bicolor) were of the same species. After combining mitogenomic data and morphological traits, this species was identified to be a new species of the genus Xenos.