CHINA-XINJIANG-TAKLIMAKAN DESERT-QIRA COUNTY-SAND PREVENTION-SCIENTIST (CN)

CHINA-XINJIANG-TAKLIMAKAN DESERT-QIRA COUNTY-SAND PREVENTION-SCIENTIST (CN)

(230803) -- URUMQI, Aug. 3, 2023 (Xinhua) -- This photo taken on June 12, 2023 shows Merdan Keyum and his apprentice preparing to take samples from the ground at the natural experimental fields of the Qira station under the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Merdan Keyum was born in 1987 in what is today Gaochang District of the city of Turpan. Located only dozens of kilometers from the Kumtag Desert, the city is frequently plagued by sandstorms that often cause power outages and halt farmwork in springtime. He is now based in the Qira station under the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, located in Qira County, on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, China's largest desert, also known as the "Sea of Death." The Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography established its Qira station in 1983 to tackle sandstorms and fight desertification. Scientists have since started to use scienc

Axiom's private astronauts mission docks to space station

STORY: Axiom's private astronauts mission docks to space station DATELINE: May 24, 2023 LENGTH: 00:03:26 LOCATION: Washington D.C. CATEGORY: TECHNOLOGY SHOTLIST: 1. various of crew of private astronauts 2. various of the launch 3. various of the spacecraft docking to the International Space Station STORYLINE: SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft carrying four private astronauts docked to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday. The spacecraft lifted from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:37 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday. The crew docked to the ISS at 9:12 a.m. Monday. The mission, codenamed Ax-2, is Axiom Space's second all-private astronaut mission to the ISS following the first mission in 2022. The four-member crew includes mission commander Peggy Whitson, pilot John Shoffner from the United States and two mission specialists Ali Alqarni and Rayyanah Barnawi from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The crew is scheduled to spend about eight days on the ISS, performing over 20 scienc

CHINA-SHANDONG-PAKISTANI STUDENT-VEGETABLE RESEARCH (CN)

CHINA-SHANDONG-PAKISTANI STUDENT-VEGETABLE RESEARCH (CN)

(220107) -- SHANDONG, Jan. 7, 2022 (Xinhua) -- Dr. Anwar Ali (R) checks the growth of tomatoes with a researcher at the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 7, 2022. In 2016, Ali, a Pakistani student at that time, came to China and got his doctor's degree at the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In 2021, he came to Jinan for further study, conducting his post-doctoral research here. "Shandong is a major agricultural province in China, which also has the edge on agricultural technology," said Ali. He hopes to bring the advanced vegetable planting technology he has learned here back to Pakistan to help develop the agricultural industry of his homeland. Ali is glad that he can witness and disseminate China-Pakistan friendship with vegetable scienc.....