In recent years, atmospheric temperature has been on the increase and extreme heat events have occurred frequently, which may not only affect the growth and development of individual organisms but also disturb the inter-species balance in competition, predation and parasitism, thereby exerting deleterious impacts on biodiversity and the ecosystem. Many studies have concluded that global warming may well exacerbate phytophagous pest infestations, promote their population growth and geographic exp...

With the expeditious development of structural biology techniques represented by single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, the 3D structures of an increasing number of important proteins have been revealed. Taking ion channels as an example, at present, the structure of at least one member of virtually every major ion channel family has been successfully resolved. It is thus one major research direction to promote the development of drugs targeting important proteins by utilizing numerous high-r...

Global warming has a dramatic impact on plant ecosystems as well as on crop productivity. Plants are able to sense ambient temperatures and transduce these signals to trigger subsequent responses for physiological adjustment and developmental adaptation. Mild-warm temperatures induce morphological changes, including hypocotyl / petiole elongation, leaf hyponasty, and accelerated flowering, known as thermomorphogenesis. The circadian clock is an internal timekeeper that ensures growth, developmen...

[Editor’s Note: Recently, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Zhejiang University co-published the Digital Agriculture Report: Rural E-commerce Development Experience from China, exploring the role of rural e-commerce in transforming the agri-food systems in China. Just as Mr. QU Dongyu, the FAO Director-General, wrote in the Foreword, the report “marks a step on the pathway towards the FAO-led International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture, the 1000 Digi...

[Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, Zhejiang University, with its commitment to the SDGs, launched an action plan named A Global ZJU for Social Good (Z4G) and joined forces with 60 peer universities from 31 countries and regions to make a joint statement on the 2030 Agenda. Now at the invitation of the Organizing Committee of the 16th UN Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY16) officially supported by the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), the Zh...

[Editor’s note: Today, China celebrates its ninth annual National Low Carbon Day, a campaign created to boost awareness of energy efficiency and low-carbon development policies. Let’s visit ZJU's International Campus, the first university campus in China that has joined the Eco-Campus certification system and received a platinum award, to see how it commits itself to building a zero-carbon learning and working environment.] Campus introductionThe International Campus covers an area of...

The Drosophila Down syndrome cell adhesion molecule (Dscam1) can generate 38,016 different isoforms through alternative splicing, which has been illustrated as a classical example in many textbooks and treatises. It has been suggested as an important regulator of neural circuits. Each neuron acquires a unique cell surface identity through the expression of a unique combination of tens of isoforms in a largely stochastic manner, thereby mediating self-avoidance and the discrimination of self...

【Message from the editor: Opening in 2015, the International Campus is now composed of two joint institutes, one international business school and one institute of China Studies, offering 7 undergraduate program, 14 master’s degree programs and 23 Ph.D. programs. Located in the city of Haining, between Shanghai and Hangzhou, the Campus is currently the home to 55 full-time faculty members. What attracts them to Haining and the International Campus? In Dialogue@ZJU, some faculty ...

On Aug. 17, Prof. LI Erping from the Zhejiang University - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute and the Zhejiang University College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering received the 2021 Laurence G. Cumming Award for Outstanding Service at the 2021 Joint IEEE International Virtual Symposium on EMC+ SIPI. The award, established in 1979, is one of the two highest awards of the IEEE EMC Society to recognize the outstanding contributions and service to the...

Conventional experiments in chemistry and biology study the behavior of the ensemble, but it has been an abiding scientific challenge for scientists to observe, manipulate and measure the chemical reactions of individual molecules. In response to this challenge, Prof. FENG Jiandong from the Department of Chemistry of Zhejiang University has committed himself to developing interdisciplinary single-molecule techniques and instruments to observe single-molecule chemical reactions in ...