Two achievements of ours enlisted among 2008 scientific and technological progress of China and the world's top ten news

　   On January 18, 2009, 2008 China and the world's top ten news of scientific and technological progress was announced in Beijing. The result was voted by 552 CAS and CAE academicians. Two achievements of School of physical sciences of USTC were enlisted.

　　   Using quantum memory based on cold atoms, professor Pan Jian-Wei with his colleagues Yuan Zhen-Sheng and Chen Yu-Ao for the first time developed quantum entanglement swapping with the function of memory and readout. They established quantum entanglement between two ensembles of cold atoms connected by 300 m fibers, perfectly realizing “quantum repeaters" which is vital to long-distance quantum communication. What they did has taken a solid step toward the ultimate realization of wide-area network of quantum communication. This significant research was published in Nature issued on August 28, and was enlisted among 2008 scientific and technological progress of China's top ten news. So far, USTC has a total of seven achievements selected to scientific and technological progress of China’s top ten news, and this year is the sixth consecutive year.

　    The research group led by Prof. Xianhui Chen discovered superconductivity in fluorine-doped parent compound SmOFeAs. The critical temperature of the system reached 43 K, and became the first non-copper-oxide superconductor with critical temperature over 40 Kelvin, which has broken the "McMillan limit”. This paper was published in Nature issued on June 5, and the achievement was enlisted among world's top ten scientific and technological progresses, 2008. This is the first time for the achievement of USTC being named such honor.

　 　 It is reported that China and the world's top ten news of scientific and technological progress is co-sponsored by General Office of the Academic Divisions of the CAS, the General Office of the Academic Divisions of the CAE and the Science Times .

　　  On the basis of candidate news recommended by academicians, scientists as well as science and technology news journalist, the final result is voted by 552 academicians from CAS and CAE.