Black tea, which is fully fermented, is the most consumed tea in the world. While being processed, it has to undergo withering, rolling and fermentation, which causes complex biochemical reactions of the substances contained in tea leaves and ultimately gives birth to its unique flavor and health effect. Recently, the research team led by Prof. WANG Yuefei from the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, has made a series of progress in terms of the quality formation ...

By analyzing the acquisition-conservation tradeoff in root systems among different plants, ecologists put forward the root economics spectrum (RES) hypothesis. Some plant species have finer and cost-effective absorptive roots which contribute to rapid nutrient uptake but have shorter lifespans whereas others have thicker and less cost-effective absorptive roots marked by slower nutrient acquisition but longer lifespans. The RES hypothesis reflects the correlations among different root traits, wh...

Drug-target interaction (DTI) is a prominent research area in drug discovery, which refers to the recognition of interactions between chemical compounds and the protein targets. Chemists estimate that 1060 compounds with drug-like properties could be made — that's more than the total number of atoms in the Solar System, as an article reported in the journal Nature in 2017.Drug development, on average, takes about 14 years and costs up to 1.5 billion dollars. During the journey of d...

On December 13, Prof. JIAO Chen from the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, and Prof. FEI Zhangjun from the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University, co-published a research article entitled “Genomic analyses provide insights into spinach domestication and the genetic basis of agronomic traits” in the journal Nature Communications.Spinach is a remarkably nutritious leafy vegetable belonging to the Chenopodiaceae family. However, there has been a p...

On December 9, 10 youth-led teams pitched their innovative solutions at the on-line Pitch Event of the Global AgriInno Challenge (GAC) 2021, which attracted over 600 viewers from five continents.GAC 2021, themed on “Digital Villages: Solutions for the Four Betters”, was co-organized by Zhejiang University (ZJU) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China and Pinduoduo, a leading e-commerce platfor...

“Let me introduce to you my second granddaughter,” an elderly lady enthusiastically announced, bending down to a half-squat as she patted the robot at her feet, “unlike other robots, this one can chat with me, and amazingly, in the Hangzhou dialect!” The ball-bodied, six-legged robot is called X-Spider. its relevance to the global aging population and its unique value proposition sent this elder-care robot all the way to the finals of the 7th International “Internet Plus” Competition....

Habitat fragmentation is one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss. The body size in terms of body mass and body length is associated with many biological traits, such as life history strategy and interspecific competition. Differences in space and time in body size are also the outcome of adaptive evolution. As compared with mainland species, island species have undergone remarkably striking changes in shape and body size.Prof. DING Ping at the Zhejiang University College of Life Scie...

Zhejiang University and LMU Munich have renewed an agreement to work together to develop strategic collaborations for advancing knowledge, research and innovation.ZJU Vice President YAN Jianhua and LMU Vice President Francesca Biagini signed an Agreement for Joint Doctoral Studies on December 17 as a latest step in the development of co-supervision mechanisms.“With this Agreement, Zhejiang University will establish a scholarship to support our PhD candidates to study at LMU Munich,” said Prof....

[Message from the Editor: In the face of major challenges, concerted actions need to be taken more broadly in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Innovation-driven universities have a greater responsibility to shoulder and a unique role to play in this process. At the invitation of International Association of Universities (IAU), Vice President HE Lianzhen shared ZJU’s practice in sustainability in the newly released issue of IAU Horizons.]Together We Are Building...

A multi-country panel of scholars, researchers and stakeholders called for global efforts to tackle the peril of AI usage with AI ethics at the Workshop themed on “the AI Ethics & Internet Governance: Global Lessons & Practices”. As part of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Katowice, Poland from December 6 to 10, the Workshop was co-hosted by the Zhejiang University College of Media and International Culture and Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, the Pennsylvania...