List of Chinese Inventions - Modern (Post-Qing)

Modern (Post-Qing)

• Anti-ship ballistic missile: The anti-ship ballistic missile is a quasiballistic missile designed to hit a warship at sea. The Chinese military developed the "world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile system", although officials at the United States Navy are uncertain of the weapon's efficacy. According to the U.S. Navy, the ASBM is currently in "initial operational capability" and is approaching deployment.
• Arteminisinin, anti-malarial treatment: The antimalarial drug of compound artemisinin found in Artemisia annua, the latter being a plant long used in traditional Chinese medicine, was discovered in 1972 by Chinese scientists in the People's Republic led by Tu Youyou (屠呦呦) and has been used to treat multi-drug resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum malaria.Artemisinin remains the most effective treatment for malaria today and has saved millions of lives and is yielded one of the greatest drug discoveries in modern medicine.
• Barefoot doctors: China's system of Barefoot doctors was among the most important inspirations for the World Health Organisation conference in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan in 1978, and was hailed as a revolutionary breakthrough in international health ideology emphasizing primary health care and preventive medicine.
• Turning Urine Samples into Brain Cells: This new technique of reprogramming ordinary cells present in urine into immature brain cells that can form multiple types of functioning neurons and glial cells was developed by Chinese researchers in China, and was published in the scientific journal Nature Methods in December 2012. Instead of using retrovirus, they used vectors which the researchers say is a breakthrough This does not involve embryonic stem cells which come with serious drawbacks when transplanted, such as the risk of developing tumours. This technique makes the procedure of generating Induced pluripotent stem cells far easier and non-invasive, as the cells can be obtained from a urine sample instead of a blood sample or biopsy. This research proves human excreta could be a powerful source of cells to study disease, bypassing some of the problems of using stem cells, and could be useful for research studying the cellular mechanisms of neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and for testing the effects of new drugs that are being developed to treat them.
• Cloning, fish: In 1963, Chinese embryologist Tong Dizhou produced the world's first cloned fish by inserting the DNA from a cell of a male carp into an egg from a female carp. He published the findings in a Chinese science journal. This occurred eleven years after the first alleged cloning of an animal, tadpoles in 1952, and 34 years before the cloning of Dolly the Sheep in 1996.
• Electronic cigarette, electronic cigar, electronic pipe: The electronic cigarette, an electrical device that attempts to simulate the act of tobacco smoking, was invented in 2003 by Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist in Beijing. The patent for the invention is owned by Ruyan, a pharmaceutical corporation based in Hong Kong. The electronic cigarette consists of "a small lithium battery that atomizes a liquid solution of nicotine", producing a vapor that is inhaled.
• Maglev wind power generators: In 2006, a new type of wind power generator employing magnetic levitation (maglev) was showcased at the Wind Power Asia Exhibition in Beijing. Li Guokun was the chief scientific developer of the new maglev wind power generator, in collaboration with the Guangzhou Energy Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology Company based in Guangzhou. Li Guokun states that traditional wind turbines need high wind speeds to start, due to friction caused by their bearings. The new frictionless maglev wind generator requires wind speeds of only 1.5 m per second (or 5 km an hour) to start and are expected to cut operational costs for wind farms by half, i.e. overall cost of roughly 0.4 Chinese yuan per kilowatt hour.
• Mapping of initial anti-aging formula: Chinese researchers in Hong Kong found that a mutation in the Lamin A protein disrupted the repair process in cells, thus resulting in accelerated aging. In their latest work using both mice and experiments in petri dishes, they found that normal and healthy Lamin A binds to and activates the gene SIRT1, which experts have long associated with longevity. This was published in the December 2012 issue of the journal Cell Metabolism.
• Measurement of neutrino mixing angle θ₁₃:The Daya Bay experiment in China reported the measurement of the parameter θ₁₃ in March 2012. An important contribution to particle physics, this was named one of the runners-up breakthrough of the year in 2012 by Science
• Non-invasive prenatal diagnostic testing for Down's Syndrome: Previously, women underwent invasive testing such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS). This new maternal blood test has the potential to reduce the number of women referred for invasive testing for Down's syndrome by 98 percent. Developed by Chinese researchers in Hong Kong in 2008, this is hailed as a breakthrough.
• Synthesis of crystalline bovine insulin: In 1965, Chinese scientists synthesized bovine insulin, with the "same crystalline form and biological activities as natural insulin." The project began in 1958, and is considered one of the "first proteins ever synthesized in vitro."
• Stem cell educator therapy: Chinese and US researchers have produced remarkable results for this new treatment of obtaining stem cells from human cord blood to "re-educate" misbehaving immune cells. This result was published in the open-access journal BMC Medicine in January 2012, and offers hope for Type 1 diabetics and potentially may also be used to treat other auto-immune diseases if the approach lives up to early promise.