Chinese Journal of Nature

OU Yang-Zi-Yuan

2013, 35(6): 391-395.

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Chang’E-2 (CE-2) was intended to test a new direct lunar entry orbit, and to test and verify key technologies related to soft landing on the Moon. CE-2 obtained 7 m resolution image map of the whole lunar surface and high resolution (1 m/pix) images of Sinus Iridum, the future landing site of Chang’E-3. CE-2 monitored solar activity at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrangian point, and flew by asteroid 4179 Toutatis 7 000 000 km away from Earth. At a minimum rendezvous distance less than 1 km, CE-2 obtained high resolution images (10 m/pix) of Toutatis showing its shape, size, and surface structures. Currently CE-2 is 65 000 000 km away from the Earth that became a manmade small body orbiting the Sun.

Warp of the outer region of the Galaxy

ZHAO Jun-Liang

2013, 35(6): 396-401.

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It is now over 50 years since radio observations of neutral hydrogen revealed the gaseous disk of the Milky Way Galaxy to be warped and flaring. Subsequently, such a structure has also been observed in the distribution of various components of the Galaxy in different wavebands, such as population I objects, molecular clouds, interstellar dust and older star population.

The mystery of the source of mass: the BEH mechanism and Higgs Boson: A brief introduction to the Noble Prize in Physics 2013

WANG Huan-Yu;CHEN Xing;HUANG Fei-Jie;LIU Wu-Ming

2013, 35(6): 402-407.

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How particles obtain the mass has long been puzzled to the physicists. In 1964，Englert，Brout put forward a mechanism about local spontaneous symmetry breaking and solved the problem. Soon afterwards, Higgs proposed the same theory (Englert and Brout’s paper has not been published yet). The predicted Higgs boson has long been hard to be found until 2012. The Higgs boson was finally found in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) built by the CERN at the price of 6 billions. Two experiment groups ATLAS and CMS within the CERN accomplished the finding work independently, which proved the BEH mechanism. Englert and Higgs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their theory.

Computer molecular modeling: A brief introduction to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013

TANG Yun; LI Wei-Hua; Sheng Ya-Yun

2013, 35(6): 408-415.

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Computer molecular modeling has been widely used in solving complex chemical and biological problems, such as drug design and materials design, since it was developed 50 years ago. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2013 was awarded to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for developing the multiscale models of complex chemical systems, which demonstrated that for today chemical experiment on computers is the same important as that on test tubes, and theory and practice should cross-fertilize each other to solve complex problems. In this article, we briefly reviewed the basic concept, history of methodological development, and applications of computer molecular modeling. A future perspective was also provided.

Cell vesicle trafficking system and human health：A brief introduction of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013

LI Xue;LIN Xin-Hua

2013, 35(6): 416-421.

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The field of life science has been continually developed through mankind creative and diligent studies in pursuit of human health. In the1980s of last century, studies of Randy W. Schekman in yeast and James E. Rothman via biological electronic microscope and vesicle fusion experiments mapped out one of the body vesicle transport machinery leading to the definition and function of vesicle trafficking system, while investigation of Thomas C. Südhof in neuronal communication via synapses have approved precise regulation of vesicle trafficking system. Vesicle trafficking system is one of the fundamental units of cells and has been involved in many biological processes. Defects in vesicle trafficking system have deleterious effects and could lead to many human diseases. A deep understanding of the mechanisms of vesicle trafficking system will yield new insights into our human health for prevention and therapies of the related human diseases.

Mouse，the “evergreen tree” in the model organisms

KUANG Ying;FEI Jian

2013, 35(6): 422-430.

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The origin of laboratory mice and their application in life sciences research were reviewed, including spontaneous mutant mouse models and genetically modified mouse models. The new technologies to develop genetically modified mice were also introduced.

Drosophila melanogaster：small insect, great achievements

CHEN Yi;XUE Lei

2013, 35(6): 431-435.

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Drosophila melanogaster, known as fruit fly, has been used as one of the most powerful model organisms over a century in biological research, particularly in genetics and developmental biology. Drosophila possesses many advantages over other model organisms, and was extensively used to investigate the genetic mechanisms regulating embryonic development, organogenesis, diseases and animal behaviors.

Caenorhabditis elegans：the key to the secret of longevity

YANG Ying;FEI Jian

2013, 35(6): 436-441.

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Many model organisms were used to study mechanisms of aging and longevity, of which Caenorhabditis elegans is the most widely used one owing to its advantages of short life span, plentiful mutant resource and high conservation in signal pathways with humans. In the past 30 years, scientists have learned a lot from C. elegans research and provided us important informations to understand genetic regulation of longevity and aging.

New drug research and development: small fish, big chance

WU Zhuai-Bin;FEI Jian

2013, 35(6): 442-450.

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Taking advantages of small size, rapid and external development, transparent embryo, fecundity, and numerous signal
transduction pathways, morphological and physiological similarities to mammals, zebrafish has emerged as a powerful in vivo
platform for modeling human diseases and large-scale phenotype-based drug screens. Recently, new zebrafish disease models and
screening technologies have been developed. A number of active compounds were identified using zebrafish models that were also
approved in clinical trials. This review surveys the achievements and potential of zebrafish for modeling human diseases and drug
research and development.

Relationship between the unique functions of organism and its microstructure

LIN Jia-Li;FANG Xin; LIN Shuang-Mei

2013, 35(6): 451-457.

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After several billion years’ evolution, creatures in nature possess perfect structures and unique functions which favor
their acclimatization. For instance, the lotus leaf exhibits almost complete self-cleaning ability with its superhydrophobic surface, the
male peacock has colorful and beautiful feathers which are helpful in its courtship display, and the nacre from seashells exhibits
superior levels of strength and toughness. This paper thus introduces the micromorphology of the three organisms mentioned above,
and reveals that the unique functions of organisms are related with the nanostructures and the accurate assembly method of these
nanostructures in their microstructures.

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