Where does the super computing power of quantum computing come from? How did Mars form and evolve in the vast universe? What secrets will Tianwen-1 reveal for us? On Saturday, Tencent, together with the journal Science and Tsinghua University, held the Third Tencent Youth Science Conference in Beijing. Eight top scientists and popular science scholars were on the same stage to interpret for teenagers the mysteries of frontier science such as protein structure, Mars exploration, quantum computing and robotics. Tencent and Science jointly released the third annual “Top 10 Youth Science Watch List” selected by 1.58 million teenagers. According to the list, China’s breakthrough in quantum computing is the scientific topic most explored by teenagers. Six teenagers students were invited to present the annual science breakthrough awards to scientists who helped bring about the breakthroughs in the top 10 list, to encourage the young to love and explore science. Scientists and scholars discussed with teenagers the annual scientific achievements in the fields of astronomy and geosciences, mathematical physics, life sciences and chemistry; the presentations were broadcast through 52 media and platforms. “It has been three years since we first held this science conference for teenagers. Every year, we invite top scientists to meet with the young and bring them the most cutting-edge scientific information. We hope that children can take scientists as their idols and pass on the spirit of scientific research,” Cheng Wu, vice president of Tencent Group, said. Not long ago, the Tianwen-1 Mars probe successfully landed on Mars. Pan Yongxin, as the chief scientist of this mission, deciphered the biggest challenges in the Mars exploration process for teenagers and talked about the areas around which scientific research will be carried out in the future. Zheng Yongchun, a top researcher in the field of Moon and deep space exploration and the winner of the Carl Sagan Award, introduced the landing process of Tianwen-1 on Mars in detail. “Tianwen-1 is only the first step of many to come in China’s planetary exploration,” he said. Tu Ruihe, an environmental expert and representative of the United Nations Environment Program in China, explained the causes and hazards of global warming. Starting with the case of “ozone layer restoration,” he explained to the young the impact of the earth’s environment on human beings and the efforts made by various countries to improve the environment. Thanks to the joint efforts of the international community for more than 30 years, since 2000, the ozone layer over the earth has been continuously recovering, and the ozone hole in the Antarctic region has been shrinking. “China has made great contributions to the protection of the ozone layer. This is a contemporary version of the story of ‘Nyuwa mending the sky,’” he said. Lu Chaoyang, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, focuses his research on quantum computation, solid-state quantum photonics and other topics. Lu explained the theories of quantum parallel computing and the latest development in his field in simple language. Perhaps most significantly, in less than a year, scientists developed and delivered vaccines for COVID-19. Zhang Linqi, professor of the School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, is one of the scientists behind this effort. He encouraged today’s students to “set their aims high and contribute to the fight against viruses and infectious diseases in the future.” Also sharing with the young were Wang Zhizhen, a protein expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhang Zhengyou, director of the Tencent AI Lab and robotics x lab, and Tim Appenzeller, news editor in chief of Science journal. (Li Dan) | 