Samples from experiments in space, which returned to Earth on Wednesday with the crew of China's Shenzhou-19 space mission, have been transferred to scientists in Beijing for further research.
At a ceremony held Wednesday night at the Chinese Academy of Science's (CAS) Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, the materials were handed over to different research teams.
The three Shenzhou-19 astronauts successfully returned to Earth on Wednesday after completing a six-month mission in space, bringing back 37.25 kilograms of samples from 25 experiments in fields including space life science, materials science, and new technologies.
Twenty of the samples are from life science experiments, and include bone cells and osteoblasts, human bronchial epithelial cells, early embryos of humans and animals, protein samples and fruit flies. This marks the largest variety of biological samples returned to Earth since the Chinese space station began operating in late 2022.
The biologically sensitive samples were rushed to Beijing immediately after the spacecraft touched down at the Dongfeng landing site, in western Inner Mongolia in north China.
Fruit flies, like white mice and zebrafish, are often used in such experiments because they have similar genes to those that can cause diseases in humans. Research based on studying fruit flies has contributed to six Nobel Prizes.
The fruit flies brought back by the Shenzhou-19 crew were descendants of those brought to the space station by the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft in November last year for experiments to see how they would reproduce and grow under conditions similar to those on the Moon or Mars, where there is almost no magnetic field and no gravity.
Three generations of the flies have been successfully bred aboard the space station.
"The in-orbit video shows that in space, fruit flies don't adapt to an environment without gravity and may float around or crash. Through meticulous analysis, we have also discovered some of their instinctive behaviors, such as courtship and feeding, also underwent abnormal changes, requiring us to conduct more in-depth and detailed data mining. We humans may leave the Earth and head for space in the future, like the Moon, Mars, and even interstellar space, where there is zero-gravity and an extremely low magnetic field environment. It is unknown whether living beings can survive, reproduce, have normal brain functions and develop normal behavioral patterns in such an environment. So through such pre-research, we can gain an early understanding and explore exactly what kind of mechanism-based changes have occurred within it," said Li Yan, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics at the CAS.
Twenty-two other samples brought back by the Shenzhou-19 mission will also soon be sent to Beijing, including high-strength steel and lunar soil reinforcement materials.
Samples from Shenzhou-19 space experiments handed over to scientists
Samples from Shenzhou-19 space experiments handed over to scientists
The Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in northeast China's Harbin released on Thursday a 38-minute video of a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII).
In the footage, former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out bacterial dispersal and frostbite experiments.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's human experiments in the field by measuring wind direction, wind speed and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground and sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
Nishijima also revealed that a Japanese military doctor once died after removing the mask and becoming infected during an experiment, indirectly proving the extreme virulence of the bacterial agents.
The video further disclosed details of the meteorological squad's involvement in frostbite experiments. To study wartime needs in frigid regions, the invading Japanese army forced the victims to expose their bodies for five to ten minutes in temperatures ranging from minus 20 to minus 35 degrees Celsius and observed their physical reactions.
"For example, during frostbite experiments, we would be sent outside to observe the weather. They wouldn't bring many people out at once, only two or three, who would be forced to take off their upper garments or all their clothes. In fact, it was already quite tough to stay out there for five to ten minutes, because it was too cold," Nishijima said.
According to the exhibition hall, Unit 731 had a separate frostbite laboratory, with Hisato Yoshimura serving as the leader of the unit's frostbite study squad from 1938 to 1945.
In a paper on frostbite published in 1941, Yoshimura recorded data from live human experiments to study the occurrence of frostbite and pathological changes in the human body under different conditions.
"This is a form from the paper. Titled 'The Severity and Process of Frostbite,' it divides frostbite into three stages. The symptoms of the first-degree frostbite are redness and swelling. Blisters appear in the second stage. And the third-degree frostbite features necrosis and ulceration. It says here that, in the third stage, from the 50th to the 60th day, toes and fingers detached. There is no doubt that these data were obtained through numerous human experiments," said Tan Tian, a researcher of the exhibition hall.
Nishijima's video, a piece of oral history from a perpetrator's perspective, further reconstructs the criminal chain of Unit 731 and once again demonstrates that the invading Japanese army's biological warfare crime was systematic and inhumane, and was an undeniable historical truth, according to the exhibition hall.
"Unit 731's frostbite experiments were essentially conducted to prevent and treat frostbite during combat in cold environments. However, for the so-called prevention and treatment of frostbite, they caused frostbite on living people for experiments and data analysis. So in nature, it still serves the purpose of war," said Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition at the hall.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.
Video offers new evidence of Japan's wartime germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
