BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

SOUTH CHINA SEA’S DEEP STRUCTURE

Researchers from a Chinese university have made breakthroughs in the study of the deep structure of the South China Sea.

Over the past 100 million years, a large number of Earth plates have subducted to the deep part of the South China Sea. However, due to the limitations on seabed observation, the deep structure of the South China Sea has been poorly understood, according to researchers from the Shenzhen-based Southern University of Science and Technology.

The research team from the university used the data from a passive seismic experiment using ocean bottom seismometers, together with the land stations, to determine the high-resolution, three-dimensional seismic structure of the southwest sub-basin of the South China Sea.

CHINA’S BDS

China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has served more than 200 countries and regions to date, according to a commendation ceremony for the construction of BDS-3 held in Beijing on Wednesday.

China successfully launched 30 BDS-3 satellites in two and a half years, completing BDS-3 six months ahead of schedule in 2020.

BDS-3 is a giant, complex space system with the largest scale, widest coverage, highest service performance requirements and closest connection with daily life that China has built so far, according to the ceremony.

INTRAVITAL IMAGING

Imagine tens of millions of table tennis balls spinning, bouncing, and even colliding with each other in a gigantic gymnasium. It is almost impossible to track every movement with human eyes.

A similar challenge had once shrouded the imaging of large-scale intercellular behaviors, but Chinese scientist Wu Jiamin and his colleagues, under the leadership of Prof. Dai Qionghai, addressed the problem by devising a series of computational mesoscale fluorescence microscopes.

In a laboratory at Tsinghua University, there lies the one-and-only microscope in the world that can realize 3D imaging of brain-wide subcellular dynamics in mice.