PAPERS SELECTED FROM THESECOND INTERNATIONALSYMPOSIUM ON INSECTPHYSIOLOGY

摘要

This Special Issue presents four papers originally presented at the Second InternationalSymposium on Insect Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, convened inChengde, China, during July 2009. This Chinese Symposium series is growing ininternational recognition, with attendees from the United States, Japan and elsewhere.The papers in this issue are selected to showcase the broad range of insect sciencein China. China is emerging as a world leader in investment in science and in scientificpublications, including insect science. The latest available Science and TechnologyStatistics Data Book (2007; produced each year by the Ministry of Science andTechnology) tells an exciting story. In 2006 China was second only to the USA inpapers indexed by SCI, EI and ISTP and was first globally in numbers of Research andDevelopment personnel. In our arena of insect science, China is now abreast of Japan,and working to catch up with the United States. Both the numbers of patents appliedfor and numbers of patents granted increased by approximately sixfold in the decade1996–2006. The numbers of overseas Chinese students nearly doubled from 2001 to2006 while the numbers of returnees almost quadrupled. Gross spending on researchand development has tripled from 2001 to 2006; during China’s highest rate ofeconomic growth, gross spending on research and development as a proportion of thegross domestic product also increased. Funding devoted to science increased by 8% in2010. Although only a small proportion of the total funds is devoted to agriculture, asseen in virtually all advanced nations, investment in agriculture and insect science isgrowing apace. These trends are likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Mostimportant, the outlook for insect science at the global level is very bright.