Lesson 18: Achievements in Science and Technology

From "two bombs and one star" to walking in space

On October 16, 1964, a huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky with a thunderous bang in the western Gobi, announcing the successful explosion of China's first atomic bomb.

In 1966, China's first ground-to-ground missile with a nuclear warhead was successfully tested in flight. In 1967, China's first hydrogen bomb was successfully exploded.

As early as the 1950s, Mao Zedong issued a call for "we should also develop artificial satellites", and China's space technology developed from scratch, from small to large. It became the fifth country in the world to independently launch an artificial earth satellite.

The success of the "Two Bombs and One Star" was a great achievement made by a large number of Chinese scientists under the leadership of the Party and the State, with Qian Xuesen and Deng Jiaxian as representatives, who were self-reliant and overcame many difficulties, which greatly boosted the aspirations of the Chinese people and lifted the spirit of the Chinese nation. It broke the nuclear monopoly of the major nuclear powers at that time, strengthened China's national defense strength and greatly improved our international status.

In the 1990s, China began to implement the manned space program. In November 1999, Shenzhou-1 unmanned spacecraft successfully completed the first flight test of the manned space project, which started China's journey to the sky. In October 2003, astronaut Yang Liwei ascended into space on Shenzhou V and successfully returned to the ground. In September 2008, Shenzhou VII manned spacecraft was launched into space, and astronaut Zhai Zhigang successfully completed the mission and realized the space walk.

Hybrid Rice and Artemisinin

In the 1970s, Yuan Longping, an agricultural scientist, successfully cultivated glazed hybrid rice after years of repeated experiments. This hybrid rice can increase the yield by about 20% compared with conventional rice. Yuan is not only the first person to successfully breed hybrid rice, but also always at the forefront of the development of hybrid rice technology. Yuan and his hybrid rice have made great contributions to solving the problem of feeding a country with such a large population and ensuring food security in China. China awarded the first highest science and technology award to Yuan Longping. At the same time, he was also the first recipient of the Grand Invention Award in China.

Yuan's hybrid rice technology has also made an important contribution to solving the problem of world hunger. in the 1990s, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations listed the promotion of hybrid rice as a strategic measure to solve the problem of food shortage in developing countries. China's hybrid rice has been promoted to many countries and regions such as India, Vietnam and the Philippines, with significant yield increases. Yuan Longping has won many international awards and enjoys a high international reputation, and is known as the "Father of Hybrid Rice".

In the 1960s, in order to find new and effective drugs for malaria, many countries organized research forces to conduct research. Chinese pharmacologist Tu Youyou led a team of researchers to discover artemisinin, an effective anti-malaria drug, in the early 1970s, after hundreds of experiments under extremely difficult scientific conditions, inspired by the classical literature of Chinese medicine and creating a new treatment for malaria. The high cure rate of artemisinin-based drugs for malaria has been recognized and vigorously promoted by the World Health Organization, benefiting hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Tu Youyou was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her contributions to human life and health.

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