Facing the national needs, the author reviews the new research trends of strategic critical minerals at home and abroad, summarizes the current situation and existing problems in exploration and development of strategic critical minerals, and analyzes the resource potential of strategic critical minerals. On this basis, the author puts forward some proposals for the new round of prospecting and management of strategic critical minerals in China, which the author believes are of great strategic significance for ensuring the development of domestic strategic emerging industries and national security.

The world's energy utilization has entered a new sustainable pathway which is "clean,low-carbon and renewable".The United States tries to take the lead in developing a sustainable energy structure in order to ensure its global leadership in clean energy manufacturing and technological innovation,and ensure and achieve its national energy security and stable supply.Researches show that the total energy consumption in the US is gradually returning to pre-pandemic level and the energy efficiency is improving gradually.The transformation of the energy structure has caused the US greenhouse gas emissions to peak and continue to decline to pre-2000 levels.The carbon emissions of the power industry and the transportation industry have dropped dramatically,even with some up-going.The cost of sustainable energy generation in the United States is lower than that of other countries in the world.The improvement of the sustainable energy utilization level in the United States is guaranteed by a series of policies,regulations,financial investments and economic market measures.The U.S.government's carbon reduction initiatives and state energy efficiency guidelines guarantee the improvements in energy efficiency.The government promotes the energy transition,the investment in clean energy,and the clean energy and energy tax credits.The sustainable energy market will flourish through increased investment in natural gas,the electrification of the transportation sector and the revision of vehicle fuel economy standards.Sustainable utilization status of the United States energy shows the energy transformation direction led by "the cleanness of the energy utilization process,the low-carbon property of the utilized energy types,and the renewability of energy access way" will become the energy sustainable development trend,and the global sustainable energy technology innovation will become the position of key technology development and competition.Various difficulties in the process of international energy transition show that the bases for global cooperation in the areas of sustainable energy are numerous and extensive.The United States and China face similar situations and challenges in the energy structure and energy transition,but there are also differences.China's energy transformation will face an important technological no-man's land.We should fully understand the long-term nature,complexity and arduousness of the energy transformation from a strategic perspective,deeply strengthen the research on the basic,original and disruptive technologies of China's energy green and low carbon transformation,and promote China's energy green and low carbon safe transformation.

This paper provides an overview of the current development status of hydrogen energy highway transportation, rail transit, shipbuilding, and aviation in China. It analyzes the comprehensive performance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China and points out that the challenges faced by Chinese hydrogen energy vehicles are mainly high costs of vehicles and fuel and insufficient refueling infrastructure. However, as China steps into the middle and late stage of urbanization, heavy-load transportation and special transportation with fixed routes provide opportunities for the development of hydrogen vehicles, and family passenger vehicles will become an important direction. Hydrogen energy rail transit will also play a role in areas where electrification is difficult. Ships and aircraft powered by hydrogen compounds will become the focus of shipbuilding and aviation industries. In the future, hydrogen energy transportation should improve planning, promote technological integration and innovation, develop new hydrogen energy transportation travel modes, build a sound policy system, and adopt carbon market mechanism to achieve a new leap.

DARPA, as an incubator of disruptive technologies, plays an important role in the scientific and technological innovation of the US military. The research on DARPA RDT&E budget can provide an important basis for understanding the development direction and trend of US defense technology. This paper explored frontier technology innovations of the US military by analyzing the budgets from FY 2014 to FY 2023. The results show that (1) the focus of the budget has shifted from basic research to advanced technology development, (2) the budget shows a trend of continuously arranging frontier technologies, promoting the demonstration and verification of new technologies, and helping the construction of the "mosaic warfare", and (3) microelectronics, artificial intelligence, communication and network, and biotechnology have been the key research areas of DARPA in the past two years.

For the event sponsored by Science & Technology Review to select Chinese annual top advances in science,technology and engineering, altogether top 10 scientific, top 10 technological and top 10 engineering achievements during Jan.1 to Dec.31 of 2023 have been selected from respective published influential academic journals and scientific newspapers. The selection procedure involved screening and recommending candidates internally, followed by appraisal of experts including editorial board members and external reviewers. This article introduces these achievements in chronological sequence.

The deep integration of transportation and land use as a development model has emerged as a critical factor in achieving high-quality urban development in China. This paper initially reviews the origins of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and examines its unique Chinese connotations, and summarizes the progression of integrated development from the initial stage, the research promotion stage, the rapid advancement stage to the beginning of entering a new stage of high-quality integrated development. Based on this foundation, the paper investigates the interplay between TOD and future urban and transportation landscapes, identifies the primary challenges and impediments to advancing TOD in China, and offers a set of recommendations for bolstering comprehensive efforts to promote TOD development.

Respiratory virus infections are common and frequently occurring diseases caused by multiple viruses and have apparent similarities in epidemiology, pathogenesis, and clinical medicine. Nutrition and exercise are effective measures for preventing and treating respiratory virus infections, but there are no universally applicable nutritional and exercise recommendations for the infections yet. Based on a large number of studies on nutrition and exercise measures for COVID-19, as well as the expert consensus, the guidelines of authoritative professional institutions, and the systematic reviews with high hierarchy of evidence in relevant areas, this paper puts forward universal dietary nutrition and exercise recommendations for respiratory virus infection according to the extent of the infections. The proposed recommendations include nutritional and exercise strategies in the prevention stage and the disease stage (divided into mild and severe conditions) and can be used as a reference guideline for relevant professionals and patients according to different situations.

Carbon neutrality is a global consensus for climate change mitigation and adaptation and an important strategic choice for sustainable economic and social development. Achieving carbon neutrality is arduous and time-critical, and carbon emission reduction and carbon sequestration initiatives must be systematically implemented in critical areas. Based on the current situation and characteristics of China's carbon imbalance, we summarize and propose a pathway framework for moving toward carbon neutrality, discuss the specific implementation pathways for carbon emission reduction in energy systems and carbon sink enhancement in ecosystems, and point out that we should strengthen research on the synergistic relationship between emission reduction and sink enhancement and socio-economic development under climate change, aiming to help China achieve the goal of carbon neutrality scientifically and steadily.

This paper retrospects the high-altitude full pressure suit in early technical validation, describes the development and evolution characteristics of the high-altitude flight full pressure suit, and summarizes the structure realization forms. Besides, the critical technical problems, i.e., low-pressure protection, thermal protection and operational ergonomics in the design process of the high-altitude full-pressure suit, are analyzed. Finally, the development of full pressure suit is prospected. It is considered that the manufacturing technique, advanced materials and new suits structure should be further studied in the future, and a standardized, lightweight, flexible and comfortable high-altitude full pressure suit should be designed.

In order to better play the role of agricultural engineering in ensuring food security, this article analyzes the different contributions of various branches of agricultural engineering, and proposes key directions for the development of agricultural engineering in China according to the constraints of resources, environment, and ecology faced by food production in China. The contributions of various branches of agricultural engineering in ensuring food security are as follows: agricultural mechanization improves labor production efficiency and ensures the planting area of grain; agricultural soil and water engineering ensures the safety of soil and water resources; land consolidation engineering ensures the quantity and quality of cultivated land; agricultural biological environmental engineering implements intensive production without competing with grain for land; rural energy and environmental engineering reduces environmental pollution; agricultural product processing engineering reduces grain loss and seed processing increases grain production. The key development directions of agricultural engineering technology are as follows： playing a comprehensive and collaborative role in promoting the construction of high standard farmland, improving the level of agricultural mechanization and informatization, improving agricultural product processing technology, promoting seed industry engineering, developing ecological agricultural engineering, and improving farmland infrastructure construction. Food security is a comprehensive project, and the coordinated implementation of agricultural engineering technology can provide technical support and necessary guarantees for China's food security.

Deep space exploration embodies comprehensive national power and has become the commanding height of science and technology competition among the world's space powers. Deep space resource utilization is the key frontier of international deep space exploration,in which the utilization of matter resources is of great significance for humanity's space expansion. This paper introduces the connotation of deep space resource and summarizes the significance of its utilization. Focusing on matter resources, this paper investigates the state-of-the-art research on the volatile extraction and utilization, atmospheric resource utilization, mineral resource extraction and refining, and in-situ manufacturing and construction on planetary surfaces. Finally,this paper offers an outlook for the trends in utilization deep space matter resources, paving the way for the future research in deep space exploration.

Cancer is one of the major health challenges worldwide. It is in urgent need to develop new technologies, new medicine, and new strategies to prevent and treat cancer. Cancer research is one key area in today’s global scientific competition. Importantly, basic research holds the key for successful cancer prevention and treatment. It is the major reason why we are behind the world-class level in developing novel cancer targets and drugs. In order to promote cancer prevention and treatment in the new era, we should pay special attention to cancer basic research. High-level cancer basic research could be supported through stable financial funding, wise project setting, improved industry-university-research cooperation mechanisms, and effective international cooperation.

Large-scale scientific facilities are important equipment for scientific and technological innovations. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC，construction of large-scale scientific facilities in China has been steadily advanced and many achievements have been acquired. The article reviews the construction and development process of large-scale scientific facilities since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, then analyzes the problems existing in the development of large-scale scientific facilities. Finally, some suggestions are put forward from the aspects of funding investment, solving key technology and strengthening international cooperation for realizing sci-tech self-reliance and self-improvement.

The urban and rural energy supply system refers to the supply system that provides electricity supply, heat supply and fuel supply for buildings and industrial production. Urban and rural energy supply system includes the transmission and distribution system, intermediate transition system, and consumption and regulation of end-users. Carbon neutrality targets will revolutionize this system. This paper systematically discusses the structure, characteristics and regulation of the new electricity system and heating supply systems towards China’s zero-carbon target, as well as the direction of the fuel system. This paper discusses the tasks that need to be accomplished in each period to achieve zero carbon goal in three timeframes, and gives a pathway to a zero carbon energy supply system.

W boson is the elementary bosonic particle mediating the weak force and its mass is originated from electroweak symmetry breaking. Precision measurements of W boson mass provide a self-consistence check of the standard model theory and could hint at new particles or other mysteries of physics yet to be discovered. The Fermilab CDF group published the most precise result on W boson mass and found that this new measurement disagreed with the standard model's expectation by 7 sigma on the statistical significance. This finding would possibly challenge the current understanding of the standard model of particle physics.

As a crystallization of ancient Chinese science, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has gradually entered the mainstream international medical system. Chinese and Western medicine have different scientific paradigms. Western medicine is rooted in a simplistic paradigm based on material science, while TCM follows a complex paradigm based on information science. TCM is guided by the principle of "efficacy" and operates under the concepts of "harmony between man and nature" and "harmony between man and virtue". It places the human body's information system at the core and establishes close connections between the doctor and patient, human health and the natural environment, intervention measures, as well as temporal and spatial factors. Through methods such as "syndrome differentiation and treatment", TCM achieves the transformation of information and ultimately aims to maintain health, alleviate ailments, and promote longevity. With the rise of technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, TCM, characterized by "information science", will further achieve high-quality development and ultimately realize the modernization of TCM.

The International Space Station (ISS) continued to play its important role as an on-orbit scientific research and application platform. Comprehensive statistics and text analysis of the ISS experiments databases of the United States and Russia and annual highlights of results report showed the following findings. For the Expedition 66-67 from October 2021 to September 2022, NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and CSA sponsored 360 experiments in six categories, including technology development and demonstration, biology and biotechnology, physical science, human research, educational and cultural activities, and earth and space science, of which new experiments accounted for more than 40%. At the same time, new scientific achievements, such as teleoperation by ISS crew to control robotic components on earth, creation and measurements of bubbles of ultracold atoms on-orbit, and observation of a magnetar, attracted widespread attention from the global science community. By focusing on representative new experiments and achievements this review comprehensively reflects the progress in the scientific research and application of ISS in this period, the progress of scientific research and application is comprehensively reflected. ISS is at the peak of scientific research and application output, with highly active research activities and continuous emergence of scientific achievements. In the future, it is expected to produce more new achievements to benefit space and Earth.

As a non-carbon clean energy, geothermal energy plays an important role in promoting the development goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality due to its advantages of stable and continuous supply. The utilization of geothermal energy is generally divided into geothermal power generation, geothermal direct utilization and geothermal energy storage. Since 2010, global geothermal direct utilization has grown exponentially, with the installed capacity of geothermal direct utilization and annual heat utilization of about 108 GWt and 283,580 GWh, respectively. China has long ranked first in the world in terms of geothermal direct utilization. The geothermal heat pump system shows an exponential growth of about 16% every year, and the geothermal heat pump system accounts for about 72% and 60% of the installed capacity and heat utilization of the global direct utilization of geothermal heat, respectively. The average annual growth rate of geothermal power generation from 2010 to 2020 is about 4% restricted by high-temperature geothermal resources. Geothermal energy storage is the frontier field of geothermal utilization. Europe and the United States have deployed the "HEATSTORE" and "Geothermal Battery" energy storage projects respectively. The geothermal energy storage project deployed by the Geothermal Team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has also entered the stage of key technology research and demonstration projects construction. As a huge natural energy storage, geothermal storage is the most suitable basis for storing energy and realizing a stable supply of thermal energy in a multi-energy complementary system. It can save other energy sources across seasons, realize efficient and large-scale energy storage across seasons, and improve energy utilization efficiency. Therefore, it can help achieve the development goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

Quality 4.0 is an emerging quality management concept, which has been increasingly appreciated due to intensification of competition, continually changing customer requirements, and technological evolution. It deals with aligning the practices of quality management with the emergent capabilities of Industry 4.0 to improve cost, time and efficiency as well as increase product quality. As the future of quality, Quality 4.0 has become a potential choice for enterprises and has attracted increasing attention in recent years. In the literature, many studies have been conducted to investigate Quality 4.0 from different perspectives. They provide valuable insights and interesting research suggestions concerning Quality 4.0. However, the current researches on Quality 4.0 are insufficient in terms of basic concept, architecture design and key technologies. Therefore, this paper tries to improve the concept of Quality 4.0 by clarifying the definition, features and goals of Quality 4.0 based on a comprehensive review of current researches and practices. Then, a basic architecture of Quality 4.0 is presented by including physical layer, edge layer, analysis layer and decision layer. Besides, eight key technologies, i. e., industrial big data, digital twins, machine learning, machine vision, visualization technology, optimization techniques, connect technology, and collaborative technology, are identified to support the implementation of Quality 4.0. Finally, the problems of Quality 4.0 implementation in the Chinese manufacturing industry and the possible solutions to address them are discussed.

We summarize Loo-Keng Hua's important update on economic optimization theory before his immortal death, which unfortunately fell asleep for 37 years and was not awakened until the end of 2021. Next, we introduce its subsequent progress, including one revision, one re-update, and five new developments: a new method for stability analysis; product (industry) level (ranking); prediction and adjustment; optimization of economic structure; efficient algorithms for reordering and large matrix principal eigenvalues (as well as the top 6 eigenvalues in major and minor order). It is rare that multiple transformations provide exactly the same unstable time and product. In the early years, the proof of the Hua's economic collapse theorem was based on the ergodic theorem of the Markov chain, and the recent results are all based on the transition probability matrix of the Markov chain, which may be seen as a new approach to economic optimization research. These achievements have been applied to one provincial-level and five national level input-output tables in China, testing the rationality and reliability of the theory.

Ultrafast science employs ultrafast light sources and ultrafast measurement as the main approaches to understand, apply and control macroscopic matter through the measurement and manipulation of ultrafast kinetic processes of microscopic particles. As one of the most important frontiers in international science and technology, the development of ultrafast science will provide an important impetus for original innovation in numerous disciplines. Its breakthroughs will help to address many important issues related to the vital national needs and public health. This paper focuses on the research of ultrafast laser technology, ultrafast measurement technology and ultrafast dynamics in ultrafast science, mainly introducing their development status, frontier application and future prospect. In-depth analysis of the problems facing the development of ultrafast science in China is provided, and specific recommendations are proposed to promote its development, including strengthening top-level design, promoting industrialization, improving the evaluation mechanism for talent cultivation, supporting major scientific and technological infrastructures, and participating in international big science programs.

Brain science is regarded as the "ultimate frontier" to understand the relationship between universe, nature and human beings, and human beings have never stopped exploring human brain and imitating its mechanism. In the past few centuries, human beings have gained certain understanding of the anatomical structure of human brain and unique functions of each part of the human brain, but its information processing mechanism, the formation of intelligence and other issues need to be further explored. At the same time, it is of great significance to investigate the information processing way of human brain to the study of brain-like intelligence, which plays an important role in expansion and application of human intelligence and is the next goal of AI. Based on extensive research on brain science and brain-like intelligence research at home and abroad, this paper addresses some key scientific issues from a perspective of AI technology in terms of brain information processing mechanism driven by big data, human intelligence formation mechanism based on multiple brain regions collaboration, development mechanism of brain diseases with multi-marker linkage and the mechanism of brain-like depth computing based on multi-modal fusion. It is also suggested to strengthen brain science and brain-like intelligence research from the aspects of interdisciplinary integration, industry-university-research cooperation promotion, international exchange and sharing, strategic planning and deployment, training of scientific talents and so on.