China releases top 10 scientific advances of 2024

BEIJING -- The National Natural Science Foundation of China released the country's top 10 scientific advances of 2024 during the opening ceremony of the 2025 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) Annual Conference in Beijing on Thursday.

The advances were mainly achieved in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, information science, chemistry, materials science, energy, earth and environmental science, and life and medical science.

The list includes the Chang'e 6 mission's returned samples, which revealed volcanic activity on the far side of the moon dating back 2.8 billion years, the realization of intelligent reasoning and training using large-scale photonic computing chips, and the discovery of key evidence that supermassive black holes affect the formation and evolution of their host galaxies.

The annual selection of China's top 10 scientific advances began in 2005, said Dou Xiankang, director of the foundation.

This year's top 10 advancements were chosen from over 700 groundbreaking basic research achievements.

The 2025 ZGC Forum runs from March 27 to 31, focusing on cutting-edge fields from large AI models to quantum technology.