A finless porpoise is taken for a physical examination in Jiangxi province. The species has been classified as critically endangered. Recent research may provide good news about the endangered species, as Cheng Si and Liu Kun report from Wuhan. The rate of decline in the number of finless porpoises in the Yangtze River may have slowed in the past six years, according to experts in the field. Wang Ding, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Hydrobiology, said official statistics will not be released until March, but recent research may indicate positive steps in the conservation of the species, which is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. However, the river's environment is still deteriorating as a result of overexploitation of natural resources, while waterway regulations and water-related construction projects pose great threats to the porpoise's natural habitat, Wang said. His comments came at the end of a scientific survey of the porpoise that was launched in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Nov 11. The survey, conducted by CAS, reviewed the status of the species in the Yangtze River, its major tributaries and two lakes called Dongting and Poyang. Financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature and charities in Hubei, the 40-day survey covered 3,400 kilometers of water, from Wuchang, Hubei, to Shanghai. In 2006, a survey found that there were 1,800 finless porpoises in the wild. However, the number had fallen to 1,405 by 2012, indicating an annual rate of decline of 13.7 percent. The number is now estimated to be less than 1,000, and the ministry placed the species under the highest level of State protection in May. Freshwater species The finless porpoise, a member of the toothed whale family, is so named because it lacks a true dorsal fin. Females produce a calf once every two years, and have a gestation period of 10 to 11 months. The species makes both high-and low-frequency tones and uses ultrasound to communicate. personalised rubber wristbandsbracelet maker onlinecustom sweatbands no minimumcustom printed wristbandsglow wristbands
Shanghai's Fudan University announced on Thursday that the 2017 Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award will be presented to three scientists for their extraordinary contributions to research on gravitational waves. The three individuals are Rainer Weiss, a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as Kip Stephen Thorne and Barry Clark Barish, both of whom are professors from the California Institute of Technology. Weiss invented the laser interferometer gravitational-wave detector that became the foundation for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), which detected gravitational waves for the first time in human history in September 2015, according to the executive council of the award. Thorne created research programs that modeled gravitational waves emitted by astrophysical processes and developed data analysis methods, while Barish was the former director of the LIGO project who created the international LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Barish also fostered greater collaboration between research parties that eventually enabled the detection of gravitational waves. The award ceremony will be held on Dec 17 in Shanghai. The laureates will share a monetary award of 3 million yuan ($455,000). The Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award was jointly founded by Fudan University and Zhongzhi Enterprise Group in 2015 to recognize scientists who have made distinguished achievements in the fields of biomedicine, physics and mathematics.
