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Structure units containing all-carbon quaternary stereogenic center are found in many bioactive natural products. However, enantioselective construction of this type of structure units has been a formidable challenge for synthetic community due to the steric hindrance enforced by all-carbon quatemary stereocenters. In this review, we present the achievements made by Chinese scientists in the area of asymmetric synthesis of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters in natural products during the past two years.

The ultimate goal of climate research is to produce climate predictions on various time scales. In China, efforts to predict the climate started in the 1930 s. Experimental operational climate forecasts have been performed since the late 1950 s,based on historical analog circulation patterns. However, due to the inherent complexity of climate variability, the forecasts produced at that time were fairly inaccurate. Only from the late 1980 s has seasonal climate prediction experienced substantial progress, when the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere project of the World Climate Research program（WCRP） was launched. This paper, following a brief description of the history of seasonal climate prediction research, provides an overview of these studies in China. Processes and factors associated with the climate variability and predictability are discussed based on the literature published by Chinese scientists. These studies in China mirror aspects of the climate research effort made in other parts of the world over the past several decades, and are particularly associated with monsoon research in East Asia. As the climate warms, climate extremes, their frequency, and intensity are projected to change, with a large possibility that they will increase. Thus, seasonal climate prediction is even more important for China in order to effectively mitigate disasters produced by climate extremes, such as frequent floods, droughts, and the heavy frozen rain events of South China.

Since the launch in 1950,Science China Series and Science Bulletin have published numerous significant scientific achievements,witnessing the development of science and technology in China and serving as a bridge connecting Chinese scientists with their counterparts in the international scientific community.

It is surprising that, while arsenic trioxide （ATO） is now considered as ＂the single most active agent in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia （APL）＂, the most important discoverer remains obscure and his original papers have not been cited by a single English paper. The discovery was made during the Cultural Revolution when most Chinese scientists and doctors struggled to survive. Beginning with recipes from a countryside practitioner that were vague in applicable diseases, Zhang TingDong and colleagues proposed in the 1970s that a single chemical in the recipe is most effective and that its target is APL. More than 20 years of work by Zhang and colleagues eliminated the confusions about whether and how ATO can be used ef- fectively. Other researchers, first in China and then in the West, followed his lead. Retrospective analysis of data from his own group proved that APL was indeed the most sensitive target. Removal of a trace amount of mercury chloride from the recipe by another group in his hospital proved that only ATO was required. Publication of Western replication in 1998 made the therapy widely accepted, though neither Western, nor Chinese authors of English papers on ATO cited Zhang＇s papers in the 1970s, This article focuses on the early papers of Zhang, but also suggests it worth further work to validate Chinese reports of ATO treatment of other cancers, and infers that some findings published in Chinese journals are of considerable value to pa- tients and that doctors from other countries can benefit from the clinical experience of Chinese doctors with the largest popula- tion of patients.

Information for authors SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences is a monthly multidisciplinary academic journal supervised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Its primary mission is to encourage communication of basic and innovative research results of high quality in the fields of earth sciences, especially focusing on breakthroughs by the Chinese scientists.

The awarding of the 2015 Nobel Prize to Chinese scientist YouYou Tu created quite a stir in the media and scientific community. This award is the first Nobel Prize in natural sciences to a domestic Chinese scientist, and came at a time when the whole country was asking： who and when will the first domestic Chinese scientist receive this honor？ Alt- hough long anticipated and well deserved, this event cer- tainly arrived earlier than many expected.

In recent years, a series of cruises have been launched by China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association （COMRA） to conduct hydrothermal activity investigation at mid-ocean ridges （MOR）. Since the first active hydrothermal field at 49.6°E Southwest Indian Ridge （SWIR） was found in 2007 by Chinese scientists on board R/V Dayangyihao, more hydrothermal fields have been found on the SWIR and equatorial East Pacific Rise （EPR） [1-4].

SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences is a monthly multidisciplinary academic journal supervised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China. Its primary mission is to encourage communication of basic and innovative research results of high quality in the fields of earth sciences, especially focusing on breakthroughs by the Chinese scientists.

Fifty years ago, a great achievement in life science occurred in China--the complete synthesis of crystalline bovine insulin--which gave Chinese scientists a sense of great elation and pride. Insulin （Fig. 1） is a hormone secreted by 13 cells in pancreas. Before the clinical application of insulin, diabetes was a feared disease that commonly led to death. Insulin has been studied since 1868 when Paul Langerhans, a medical student in Berlin found clusters of cells in the pancreas （Langerhans, 1868）. These were later called ＂Islets of Langerhans＂. Some of these cells were eventually shown to produce insulin. The term ＂insulin＂ origins from ＂lnsel＂, the German word for ＂islet＂ or ＂small island＂ （Sakula, 1988）. Frederick Grant Banting, a young Canadian physician first extracted insulin from the pancreas of a dog whose pancreatic duct had been surgically ligated at University of Toronto in 1921, with the experimental facilities provided by Prof. John James Rickard Macleod and the assistance of one of Macleod＇s students, Charles H. Best. Biochemist James Bertram Collip helped purify the extract. For this work Banting and Macleod shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine （Nobelprize.org, 2014）.

＂Solar storm＂ has been commonly accepted by academic community and the public as a very popular scientific term. It is a vivid description of violent ejections of a huge amount of magnetized plasma from the Sun as strong flare/CMEs, which sweep over into interplanetary space, develop, and affect our space environment. The solar storm could bring us disastrous space weather, destroy crucial technology, and cause a large-scale blackout. It is one of the natural disasters faced by modern human beings. Here we first briefly summarize the observational features of solar storms and introduce some key issues, and then we focus on major advances in observational studies. We mainly introduce the efforts made by the Chinese scientists and comment on the challenges and opportunities that they are facing. In this era when scientific breakthroughs in solar storm studies crucially depend on space-borne devices and large-aperture ground-based telescopes, the Chinese solar research community needs to develop its own major observational facilities and improve space weather forecasting abilities.