Latest news with #SunYat-senUniversity
Daily Mirror
11-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
Scientists drop cow carcass into ocean and are floored by creatures that appear
In an experiment conducted in the South China Sea, scientists plunged a cow carcass into the ocean to investigate what would happen and were left stunned by eight surprising visitors Scientists who dropped a cow carcass 1,600 metres into the ocean have been left stunned by a group of surprising visitors. It's estimated that only a quarter of the entire ocean seabed on Earth has been mapped. That often means there are weird and wonderful creatures lurking in the deep. And that's what a group of scientists found during an experiment in the South China Sea, which roughly spans from Singapore to the Strait of Taiwan. They plunged a cow carcass 1,629 meters into the depths near Hainan Island to investigate what would happen. To their astonishment, an elusive shark species, not previously recorded in this region, appeared on the scene. Eight Pacific sleeper sharks (otherwise known as Somniosus pacificus) were caught on camera enjoying the free meal. Another surprising aspect of the encounter was the sharks' behaviour, predation that appeared to involve a form of queuing. In the study that's been published in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research, it explained that the sharks up front would give up their spots to sharks coming to the carcass from behind. Han Tian, from the Sun Yat-sen University and Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory in China, said in a statement: "This behaviour suggests that feeding priority is determined by individual competitive intensity, even in deep-water environments, reflecting a survival strategy suitable for non-solitary foraging among Pacific sleeper sharks." The sluggish Pacific sleeper shark is thought to live in the North Pacific, spanning from Japan to Mexico and dwelling at depths of up to 2,000m near continental slopes and shelves. In terms of prey, Sleeper sharks eat a range of surface and bottom animals, such as crabs, salmon, octopus, rockfish, and squid, although it's unknown if they take seals live or as carrion. According to data gleaned from tagging in the Northeast Pacific, some sleeper sharks often ascend and descend at speeds of more than 200 meters per hour. In the day, they moved below the photic zone (the upper portion of the ocean where light can penetrate) and came up to the surface at night. The scientists in the latest experiment also discovered that sharks over 8.9 feet were most aggressive in their attacks on the carcass when compared to the smaller animals, the latter of which displayed circling behaviour. Han added that this aggression could indicate that the region contains "abundant food sources", but questions remain over what they could be, describing the conundrum as "intriguing". In the study, it was noted that the sharks demonstrated eye retraction while they were feeding. It posited that this was likely a "protective adaptation", as they don't have a nictitating membrane found in other species. Also noted was that some of the animals, which are related to Greenland sharks, had parasites (akin to copepods, although they were unidentified). Speaking about the sharks' habitat, Han added: "Although Pacific sleeper sharks have also been found in the deep waters of their typical distribution range in the North Pacific, their frequent occurrence in the southwestern region of the South China Sea suggests that our understanding of this population remains significantly limited."
Time of India
30-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
NIT research to improve weather prediction on Mars for better robotic, human mission planning
Researchers from NIT Rourkela and Sun Yat-sen University analysed over 20 years of Mars mission data to study how dust storms, dust devils, and water ice clouds shape the Martian climate. Their findings, published in New Astronomy Reviews, are expected to aid future human missions and deepen understanding of Mars' atmospheric dynamics. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Researchers from National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela and Sun Yat-sen University in China have examined how spinning dust devils, powerful dust storms and widespread water ice clouds can influence the atmosphere on examining information from more than 20 years of data collected by multiple Mars missions, including India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM), the team has studied how dust and water ice interact to shape the planet's climate and findings of this research have been published in the prestigious journal, New Astronomy to Jagabandhu Panda, professor, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, NIT Rourkela, understanding these processes will also help in preparing for human exploration missions."Mars, also known as the red planet, is home to some of the most dramatic weather systems in the solar system. Dust raised by local and regional storms can travel far and disturb wind patterns resulting in change of temperatures, and in some cases, reshape the Martian atmosphere in dramatic ways," he said."Knowing how Martian weather works can help protect spacecraft, support future astronauts, and improve our understanding of whether Mars may once have supported life," he explained that advancing the weather prediction on Mars is not just a scientific pursuit, it is the cornerstone of ensuring that future missions can sustain there and realise the past and future habitability of the red imaging data of more than 20 years, the researchers have traced how changing season on Mars evolve the dust and clouds formation and movement."These findings refine the human knowledge and understanding of Mars' climate system and may be useful for predicting future weather on the planet. As more missions head to the Red Planet, long-term studies like this one offer essential clues about its ever-changing skies," he said.
South China Morning Post
10-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Microsoft abruptly cuts services to Chinese university, genomics firm
US technology giant Microsoft has abruptly suspended some services for a number of clients in mainland China, fuelling speculation about accelerating technological decoupling between the world's two largest economies. Advertisement Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University sent a notice to faculty and students on Tuesday night stating that Microsoft 365 services – including OneDrive, OneNote, and SharePoint – will cease operations on Thursday afternoon. 'Please log in to Microsoft 365 as soon as possible to retrieve personal data and files,' the university's network and information centre said in its email, which was seen by the South China Morning Post. A staff member on the university's IT help desk said it was Microsoft's choice to terminate the school's business account. The move comes just days after BGI Group, a leading Chinese genomics company, suddenly lost access to its own Microsoft services, including the Outlook email system and OneDrive cloud storage platform. Two employees of the company noted that the company was caught off guard by the sudden service suspension, which forced it to scramble for alternatives, including the emergency use of the WPS Office suite, from Beijing-based Kingsoft. The termination of service was first reported by Nikkei Asia. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. It has not made any public statements explaining the reason for the suspensions. Advertisement BGI Group has been a target of US authorities. Several of its subsidiaries have been added to the US Commerce Department's trade blacklist in recent years.
South China Morning Post
05-04-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
China's molecular ‘elevator' boosts immunity 150-fold against cancer, viruses: scientists
China has unveiled its latest weapon in the battle against cancer – the world's most powerful vaccine booster , capable of amplifying immune responses to tumours and infections up to 150-fold, according to researchers. Advertisement The advance promises two potential benefits: enhanced treatments for malignancies such as melanoma and liver cancer and improved vaccine effectiveness against rapidly mutating coronaviruses, such as the one that led to Covid-19 This research was jointly conducted by researchers from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-sen University, Fudan University and Liaoning University, and published in the journal Nature on March 27. 'Delivering vaccine antigens to CD8+ T cells [which are important to immune defences] requires three critical steps: cytoplasmic entry into antigen-presenting cells (APCs), APC activation and endoplasmic reticulum targeting,' said Wang Ji, a researcher with the Institute of Precision Medicine at the First Affiliated Hospital of SYSU, who is the corresponding author of the study. Wang made the remarks in an interview with China Science Daily on March 28. The endoplasmic reticulum is often termed the cellular 'highway' that links sub-cellular structures such as the nucleus and cytoplasm. Advertisement Traditional vaccine delivery resembles something akin to guiding hikers to a mountain base. But the team's system SABER – which stands for STING Agonist-Based ER-Targeting Molecules – acts as a molecular 'elevator', bypassing cellular barriers to transport antigens directly to the ER, resolving the 'last-mile' delivery challenge. Experiments have shown that it functions like a dedicated 'courier', capable of accurately and effectively delivering antigens from the cytoplasm to the endoplasmic reticulum.
South China Morning Post
12-03-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
China urged to prepare students for challenges of AI and ageing population
Chinese lawmakers and political advisers have urged the country's education system to make quick changes to cope with challenges brought by artificial intelligence and a rapidly greying population Advertisement These suggestions echoed remarks made by President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the ' two sessions ', the annual meetings of China's top legislature and political advisory body. Xi said on Thursday that China's education system must change to produce the scientific talent needed for the country's grand technological ambitions. Gao Song, president of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said Chinese universities, like their global peers, were teaching students based on outdated knowledge that could not solve the problems of the future in the AI era . Gao is also a deputy of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature. 'China and other countries in the world are still using past knowledge to teach current students to solve future problems. Cultivating students' creativity to deal with an uncertain future is the core challenge facing the current education system now,' Gao said in an interview published by Shanghai-based news site The Paper on Tuesday. He noted that three graduates of Sun Yat-sen University's school of computer science and philosophy department were on the core research and development (R&D) team of Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek Advertisement Gao, a chemist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said his university encouraged cooperation between departments to encourage interdisciplinary projects while strengthening offerings in core general courses such as AI and logic. He said the university would carry out AI-enabled R&D on low-altitude aircraft, intelligent deep-sea exploration, mining, transport equipment, and intelligent medical diagnosis and treatment.
