China has seen rapid progress in major scientific and technological infrastructure over the past five years, with many large-scale facilities completed and key technologies achieving breakthroughs. To date, more than 65 large-scale scientific facilities have been completed or are under construction across the country. Operational facilities are steadily yielding new breakthroughs, while next-generation projects are already in development.

A newly published study in the scientific journal Science Advances unveils the deep-time processes responsible for the exceptional plant diversity characterizing the world's mountain regions. While the richness of alpine flora is well-documented, this research, spearheaded by scientists from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, offers a comprehensive analysis of how geological forces and climate change have shaped this biodiversity over millions of years.

Chinese researchers have recently revealed how surface heat sources in urban clusters contribute to extreme heat events, according to the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study unveiled the changing characteristics of surface heat sources and their relationship with compound high-temperature events, highlighting the importance of surface energy analysis in understanding urban climate change.

China has made progress in invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) tehcnology, achieving complex real-world operations such as mind-controlled wheelchairs. BCI is categorized into three types: invasive, semi-invasive and non-invasive. The latest breakthrough in the invasive BCI was achieved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, in collaboration with Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University and other institutions.

A team of Chinese scientists has announced the discovery of a new fossil lungfish species in southwest China's Yunnan Province, offering important insights into a crucial phase of early vertebrate evolution. The finding, published in the journal Current Biology, was led by researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A China-developed technique for making ultrathin metal films was recently included in this year's top 10 scientific breakthroughs by the journal Physics World for achieving the world's first single-atom-layer metal materials, highlighting China's leading position in the field. The study, conducted by the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has pushed the thickness of metal materials to the angstrom scale, a thickness of merely one-millionth of that of a standard A4 paper and one-200,000th the diameter of a human hair.

A new study on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has provided key evidence for evaluating the permafrost carbon feedback in climate change, according to the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (NIEER) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This quantitative research on alpine thaw slumps on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is of importance to the global climate change predictions and the alpine ecological protection of China.

A new study published in the scientific journal Building and Environment reveals a persistent and evolving threat to indoor air quality known as "thirdhand smoke." While the risks of secondhand smoke are well understood, this study, led by researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides the first real-time analysis of how thirdhand smoke lingers and chemically transforms in our homes long after active smoking has ceased.

China's Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) project released the Phase-1 dataset of millimeter-wave molecular spectral lines observation data, according to the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Thursday. The newly released data covers approximately 2,300 square degrees of the northern Galactic plane, spanning longitude ranges from 10 to 230 degrees and latitudes within ±5 degrees.

A new study has revealed that abrupt and substantial day-to-day temperature fluctuations are intensifying in both frequency and severity as a result of climate change, representing a serious, distinct threat to public health. Published in Nature Climate Change, the research was conducted by scientists from Nanjing University and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Chinese scientists have uncovered a crucial mechanism explaining how Earth may have stored vast quantities of water in its infancy, shedding new light on the planet's dramatic evolution from a fiery ball of magma to the life-nurturing world of today.

Chinese scientists have proposed new insights into how alpine ecosystem carbon cycling may respond to long-term climate change via a long-term study of plant phenological events in alpine grasslands, according to the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology (NWIPB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

China has officially launched its northernmost satellite data receiving station, located in the extreme cold of Heilongjiang Province. The station's strategic high-latitude location will enhance the country's Earth observation capabilities by increasing the data reception time from polar-orbiting satellites.

Officials and experts from China and Africa on Sunday called for stronger scientific and technological cooperation to address desertification and land degradation, urging closer coordination to advance Africa's Great Green Wall initiative. The calls were made at the fourth Taklamakan Desert International Forum, held in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, where participants stressed that desertification remains a shared global challenge requiring joint action and the sharing of experience.

Scholars and industry insiders gathered in Beijing on Saturday to discuss the importance of establishing a responsible, scientific and credible think tank research system in the new era, highlighting the double-edged sword role of artificial intelligence in this context.

China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) achieved a new milestone in their space partnership on December 10, 2025, as Arab Satellite 813 was successfully launched into orbit aboard China's Lijian-1 Y11 rocket. The launch marks a historic step in space cooperation between the two countries. Lijian-1's developer, CAS Space – a commercial spaceflight company established by the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – has now served a total of 32 satellite customers, including 26 domestic and six international clients.

In order to study the construction and renovation history of this complex, a team of Chinese researchers has successfully pinpointed the growth years of three ancient timbers in the Forbidden City and traced their geographical origins via oxygen isotope analysis. Xu Chenxi, a researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has devoted himself to the study of paleoclimate change, specifically using stable isotopes in tree rings to investigate variations of the Asian monsoon over the past millennium.

China's northernmost satellite data receiving station officially commenced operations on Friday, according to the station's developer, the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.