China-US study replicates ancient rice wine identified from 10,000 years ago
Published: 7:00pm, 12 Dec 2024 A group of international researchers has uncovered evidence that people in southeast China's Zhejiang province were fermenting rice into the wine known as mijiu some 10,000 years ago – far earlier than previously thought. The findings – from a Shangshan archaeological site in Pujiang county, part of ancient China's Lower Yangtze region – mark 'the earliest known alcohol fermentation technique in East Asia', said the researchers, in a study published on Monday.
The research, which appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed 'the complexity and innovation of early rice wine brewing', the team said.
'[It also] provides an important scientific basis for exploring the origins of rice agriculture, early social structures and technology diffusion in East Asia.'
The study was co-led by Liu Li, from Stanford University's department of East Asian languages and cultures in the United States, and Zhang Jianping of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG), an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Because wine is a volatile liquid that is difficult to preserve, let alone discover and study, the mystery of when and how winemaking technology originated and developed remains unsolved, according to an IGG said in a statement on Tuesday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
13-04-2025
- South China Morning Post
Chinese scientist Li Haibo dies aged 41 amid concern over ‘insane' workload among academics
Leading Chinese materials scientist Li Haibo died suddenly at the age of 41 on Tuesday, according to media reports. Advertisement Li, a professor at Ningxia University who specialised in nano materials, electrochemistry and optoelectronic materials, was named among the top 2 per cent of global scientists in a list released by Stanford University in 2023. His research areas included improving lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery storage performance and seawater desalination by removing salt that exists in the form of ions. His area of expertise was nano materials, including carbon nanotubes and graphene, as well as electrochemistry, including energy storage systems called supercapacitors, and optoelectronic materials such as thin-film solar cell electrodes. Wuhan-based outlet Jiupai News reported that Li had died of a sudden illness , citing an academic at the university, who said it was unlikely there would be an obituary or memorial service. Advertisement
South China Morning Post
08-04-2025
- South China Morning Post
DeepSeek, Alibaba help China narrow gap with US in leading AI models: Stanford report
China has rapidly narrowed the gap with the US in producing cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) models, according to research published by Stanford University in California. Advertisement When measured using major AI evaluating benchmarks, the performance difference of Chinese models compared with their US counterparts shrank from double digits in 2023 to near parity last year, according to the latest Artificial Intelligence Index report from the Stanford Institute for Human-Centred AI. For example, the performance gap between Chinese and US models in MMLU, or measuring massive multitask language understanding, narrowed from 17.5 points two years ago to 0.3 by the end of 2024, underscoring the relentless drive by Chinese tech firms to push the frontiers of the technology. China's Big Tech firms - including Alibaba Group Holding, ByteDance and Tencent Holdings, as well as AI start-ups such as DeepSeek and Zhipu AI - were ranked in the global top 15 in terms of notable AI models released last year. They included Alibaba's Qwen series and DeepSeek's V3 foundational model and its R1 reasoning model. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The letters 'AI' are shown on a laptop screen next to the logo of DeepSeek. Photo: AFP 'The launch of DeepSeek's V3 model in December 2024 garnered significant attention, particularly because it achieved exceptionally high performance while requiring far fewer computational resources than many leading [AI models],' the Stanford report said. Advertisement
South China Morning Post
04-04-2025
- South China Morning Post
‘The implications are profound' of finding that shingles vaccine protects against dementia
A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one – shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect ageing brains. Advertisement A new study found shingles vaccination cut older adults' risk of developing dementia over the next seven years by 20 per cent. The research, published in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age – and what we can do about it. 'It's a very robust finding,' said lead researcher Dr Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University in the US state of California. And 'women seem to benefit more', important as they are at higher risk of dementia. The study tracked people in Wales who were around 80 when receiving the world's first-generation shingles vaccine over a decade ago. Now, Americans 50 and older are urged to get a newer vaccine that has proven more effective against shingles than its predecessor. Advertisement The new findings add another reason for people to consider rolling up their sleeves, said Dr Maria Nagel of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, who studies viruses that infiltrate the nervous system
