The 2025 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) opened Thursday in Beijing, China, with a spotlight on innovation and scientific advances. During the forum’s opening ceremony, China’s top 10 scientific advances of 2024 were officially announced.
The list was selected by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and organized by the NSFC’s High Technology Research and Development Center.
Themed “New Quality Productive Forces and Global Technology Cooperation,” this year’s ZGC Forum runs through March 31.
Chinese researchers discovered that galaxies hosting larger supermassive black holes tend to have significantly less cold gas—an essential ingredient for star formation. This evidence supports the theory that supermassive black holes influence the transition of galaxies from star-forming to dormant phases, providing new insights into cosmic evolution.
Scientists developed a radio photovoltaic micronuclear battery using actinide materials, achieving an 8,000-fold increase in energy conversion efficiency. The breakthrough includes a coalescent energy transducer, offering a promising solution for power generation and radioactive waste recovery in compact systems.
Researchers experimentally identified graviton modes—hypothetical particles associated with gravity—in gallium arsenide (GaAs) quantum wells.
These spin-2 low-energy excitations, found in the fractional quantum Hall effect, offer valuable insight into quantum gravity and may support advancements in topological quantum computing.
A study revealed that an additional X chromosome in male germ cells disrupts development starting in the fetal stage. The inability to inactivate the extra chromosome impairs gene regulation and cell differentiation, contributing to infertility and shedding light on chromosomal disorder mechanisms.
Researchers achieved a global first by treating severe autoimmune disease patients using allogeneic CAR-T cells derived from healthy donors.
This innovative therapy not only demonstrated clinical efficacy but also paves the way for more accessible and cost-effective immune treatments.
A cobalt-based material exhibiting spin supersolid characteristics was found to produce a giant magnetocaloric effect. This quantum state enables refrigeration to -273.056°C without the use of helium-3, presenting a revolutionary method for ultra-low temperature cryogenic applications.
Chinese scientists developed nanolasers with atomic-scale features using a new dispersion equation. These reconfigurable phased arrays displayed coherent light patterns—including Chinese characters—and promise advancements in information technology, material science, and bioimaging thanks to low power consumption and high-speed modulation.
Investigations into monoamine neurotransmitter transporters like DAT, NET, and VMAT2 revealed how psychiatric drugs interact at the molecular level.
The research identified new binding sites that reduce addiction risk, supporting the development of safer treatments for mental health disorders.
Researchers introduced “Taichi,” a photonic chiplet architecture that delivers 160-Tera Operations per Joule—boosting energy efficiency by two orders of magnitude. The chiplet enables in-situ photonic training, removing reliance on traditional electronic systems, and is expected to propel artificial general intelligence and unmanned technologies forward.
The Chang’e-6 mission returned lunar samples that show that volcanic activity occurred 2.8 billion years ago on the moon’s far side. The materials—basalt, breccia, and glass—indicate a complex formation history. Evidence of even older activity, dating back 4.2 billion years, offers groundbreaking insight into the moon’s volcanic evolution and geological diversity.
