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Highlights of China's science and technology news

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E-mail Xinhua, February 24, 2019

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BEIJING, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science and technology news from the past week:

-- Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) giant Baidu has partnered with the country's leading online travel agency Ctrip to make travel services smarter.

Baidu Cloud, the cloud unit of Baidu, will leverage its cloud computing and AI capabilities to help Ctrip improve operational efficiency and customer experience as well as reducing costs.

-- An indoor 5G network will be installed in the Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station by the end of this year.

China Mobile Shanghai and Huawei jointly made the announcement on building the 5G digital indoor system at the station, a major railway hub that handles 60 million passengers every year.

-- South China's technological powerhouse Shenzhen will launch pilot project for 5G commercial use in 2019, with 1,955 5G base stations to be installed in the city this year.

-- East China's Jiangxi Province plans to cover its major cities and towns with 5G networks by 2023.

According to a recently-passed plan by the local government, the province will step up its efforts in constructing and expanding 5G networks in the following five years.

-- The Shenyang general aviation industry base in Liaoning Province launched a 5G base station on Feb. 19, making it the first 5G-covered general aviation airport in northeast China.

-- China's first trial 5G wireless network on a college campus has been established in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

The network will enable applications of technologies such as online distant learning featuring augmented reality and virtual reality and campus patrolling with night-vision drones, according to the university which is located in central China's Hubei Province.

-- Southwest China's Sichuan Province tested a subway with the highest level of automation at its provincial capital Chengdu on Feb. 19.

The metro is the country's first Grade-of-Automation 4 (GoA4) subway with eight carriages.

-- An international team recently reported two new species of the extant family Clambidae of polyphagan beetles from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, offering important evolutionary and biogeographic implications.

Led by Cai Chenyang, a researcher with the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the team discovered five well-preserved fossils representing the two new species, Acalyptomerus thayerae and Sphaerothorax uenoi.

-- Alibaba emerged as the leader in China's smart speaker market with 2.7 million units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2018, accounting for 31 percent of the market.

Xiaomi and Baidu both shipped around 2.5 million units to place second and third, retaining their positions from the previous quarter, according to data from global technology market analyst firm Canalys.

-- Shanghai has started a trial project to install superconducting cables in the city's power grids.

The project, expected to be put into operation by the end of the year, aims to test the reliability, stability and economics of implementing high-temperature superconducting technology in the power grids of a mega-city like Shanghai.

-- Chinese scientists have developed an implantable nanogenerator that can be used to establish a precise drug delivery system for cancer therapy.

-- With the fast development of China's neuroscience research, Chinese researchers are also working on a framework to identify and assess ethical challenges in this research area.

-- Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has rolled out its latest flagship smartphone capable of 20W wireless charging, the first of its kind worldwide.

-- Beijing has launched a pilot zone to develop new-generation AI technology.

The zone will focus on exploring an innovative system to develop the AI technology through coordinating efforts of the government, academia and the industry, aiming to develop Beijing into a major producer of AI-related theories, ideas and talent.

-- Chinese researchers have developed a biomaterial that can accelerate bone healing with the help of near-infrared light irradiation. Enditem