China science, technology news summary — Oct. 20

BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.
LUNAR BRICKS
Chinese researchers have developed bricks from a material that has a similar composition to lunar soil, with the hope that they can be used to build a lunar base in the future.
According to a recent video clip provided to Xinhua by the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), a team of researchers led by Ding Lieyun used a lunar soil simulant to make “lunar bricks” that are more than three times stronger than standard red bricks or concrete bricks.
The team also developed another construction option using additive manufacturing technology. The researchers invented a 3D-printing robot to print houses using lunar soil.
AUTONOMOUS DRIVING
Beijing plans to significantly expand its high-level autonomous driving demonstration area to approximately 3,000 square kilometers between the fourth and sixth ring roads, more than double the size of the city’s six urban districts, an official said on Friday.
Since the launch of China’s first high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone in September 2020, the city has successfully developed intelligent infrastructure across 600 square kilometers, said Wang Lei, director of the Beijing High-level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone Work Office, during the 2024 World Intelligent Connected Vehicles Conference.
TEMPERATE FOREST CANOPY STRUCTURE
Scientists uncover the mechanism by which temperate forest canopy structure influences autumn phenology, providing a scientific basis for predicting both autumn phenology’s response to climate change and the forest’s carbon sequestration capacity.
Researchers from the Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences selected six typical northern temperate forest sites, using laser radar and high spatiotemporal resolution imagery data to accurately quantify information on autumn phenology and forest canopy structure, and found a significant and consistent relationship between the two. ■