Highlights of China's science news

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BEIJING, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's science news from the past week:

AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS STRUCTURE

Chinese scientists have unraveled the three-dimensional structure of the African swine fever virus, laying a solid foundation for developing effective and safe vaccines against the disease.

Scientists successfully isolated the epidemic strain of the African swine fever virus, which is spreading in China. It took the research team four months to collect over 100 TB of high-quality data.

The research showed the virus has a unique structure of five layers: the outer membrane, capsid, double-layer inner membrane, core-shell and genome.

It contains more than 30,000 protein subunits, forming a spherical particle with a diameter of about 260 nanometers.

NEW SATELLITE

China sent a new communication technology experiment satellite into planned orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province late Thursday.

The satellite, launched by a Long March-3B carrier rocket at 23:21 (Beijing Time), will be mainly used for multi-band and high-speed communication technology experiments.

XUELONG 2 SETS OFF

China's first domestically made polar icebreaker Xuelong 2, or Snow Dragon 2, set off on its maiden voyage for the country's 36th Antarctic expedition from Shenzhen on Tuesday afternoon.

Icebreaker Xuelong will also join the expedition, making it the first time that two polar icebreakers work together on China's Antarctic expedition.

REUSABLE CARRIER ROCKET

A Chinese reusable carrier rocket that uses liquid oxygen-methane propellants made its first public appearance Friday at the ongoing 2019 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing.

The rocket named the Hyperbola-2 will be launched for the first time in 2021. It may make up for China's lack of reusable liquid-propellant rockets.

DNA DATABASE FOR MISSING SOLDIERS

Chinese researchers have established a DNA database of Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War and their relatives, providing reliable technical and data support to help more families find their missing kin.

The military medical research institute under the Academy of Military Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army started building the database in 2015 and completed DNA analysis of 494 remains this year.

"POWER BANK"

China's domestically-made unattended power supply system will provide power for the first time to Taishan station in the Antarctic inland ice sheet, its developer said.

Developed by Southeast University, the giant "power bank" left Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Tuesday to join the country's 36th Antarctic expedition. Enditem

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