The implementation of the 973 Program has remarkable impact on the scientific and technological society, and greatly boosted the rapid improvement of China's international competitiveness. The Formulation of the 973 Program offers an important deployment for the strategic development of China's basic research. And the organization and implementation of the Program exerts an important influence on China's scientific and technological society and draws close attention and high recognition from both the scientific and technological society and other social circles. The entrance into WTO means that China will participate in the global economic competitions in a large scope and on a deeper level, which will surely result in important and deep impact on China's economy, society, science and technology. Presently, the developed countries are accelerating their paces to transfer their technological advantages into market monopoly throughout the would. This is vividly reflected by the protection of intellectual properties, possession of patents, and their restrictions imposed on the developing countries. The implementation of the 973 Program further emphasizes the original innovations and independent intellectual properties in China's research. At the same time, great efforts have been made to carry out the strategies of patent and technical standards, thus rapidly uplifting the number and quality of China's patents and improving the international competitiveness of China's science, technology, and economy.

Absorb and gather a bunch of outstanding scientific and technological experts, and foster a bunch of high-quality academic researchers.

The implementation of and strong financial support from the 973 Program promotes the stabilization of China's scientific research team and the training of the young and middle-aged experts. Plus, it provides a stage for the outstanding overseas Chinese people to return home to serve the motherland. The projects of the 973 Program have absorbed and gathered a big bunch of outstanding scientific researchers from home and abroad. Some of them are the older-generation scientists who enjoy moral eminence and high esteem, while others are young and middle aged researchers who are creative and pioneering. According to statistics, out of the 108 chief scientists who responsible for the 87 projects that have already been initiated and implemented, 2 persons are from the research institutes headquartered in a foreign country and Hong Kong. Since the 973 Program was started up, 166 CAS academicians and 59 CAE academicians have already taken part in the organization implementation of the Program and the research work of the projects. From the "Hundred Talents Program" of the CAS, the "Cheung-Kong Scholar Program" of the Ministry of Education, and the "National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars" of the National Natural Science Foundation and some other national outstanding scientists assistance and training programs, a total of altogether 516 people have participated the project research of the 973 Program in succession. Over years of arduous work, 87 projects have trained 720 postdoctoral, 2671doctors and 2641 masters. We can believe that there will be more emerging outstanding young scientists after a period of implementation of the projects.

Promote the "trans-departmental and trans-field" cooperation among the research institutes, universities, companies and regions. Through the organization and implementation of the 973 Program, we have further enhanced the understanding of different social strata and the scientists about the importance of basic research. In particular, the idea that "in the new era, the basic research should be done in line with the important national requirements and aimed at resolving the important scientific issues regarding the development of national economy and society" has profoundly influenced the whole society. The industrial departments, local governments and companies have been gradually driven to pay close attention to and provide great supports for the strategic basic research, thus gradual overcoming the bias of "emphasizing research while ignoring application" which used to be quite popular among scientists and researchers for a long time. This has improved their understanding of intellectual property rights and economic effects. The implementation of the 973 Program has promoted the combinations and close collaborations among universities, institutes and industrial sectors, intensified the cohesive force of the scientific and technological society, spurred the intersection and integration of various disciplines, as well as greatly improved the actual capabilities of resolving important issues. This enables the scientists to utilize the limited resources and focus the strength on basic innovative research, in line with the national objectives, so as resolve the important issues in national economic construction and social development.

Important program has already been made in the 973 Program

The "Basic research on the new-generation iron & steel material" by applying the in-depth research on the mechanism of the formation of the micro-structures and the transformation inducements of the steel materials, as well as the exploration of the basic theories about metallurgy such as the micro-alloying of highly clean steel, through seeking the grain size number of the refined steel materials. It has made breakthrough in improving grain size number of the steel, the technological process and control technology for the improvement of the steel uniformity, and improvement of the intensity and life of the steel materials. Scientists conducted the industrial experiment of deformation-induced phase transformation on Q253-steel (annual production capability is 40 million tons all over the country) in Bao-shan and An-shan steel and Iron complexes respectively, and the reliability of the research achievements has been proved under industrial conditions, thus improving the yield strength of the carbon steel from 200 MPa to 400 MPa. This was the first large-scale experimental research in the would, which has transfered the achievements of the basic research into industrialized production site in a short period of time, displaying exciting application prospects.

The project of "Establishment of the theoretical and technological system on the disease genome" has located sites for pathogenic genes related to single-gene of multi-gene disease, established models for genetic esophagus and nasopharyngeal cancer, and conducted in-depth structure-function research on pathogenic genes of high-frequent deafness and leukemia. At the same time, the projects has carried out overall and multi-level research on disease models (such as liver cancer) on aspects of genome structure variation, expression spectrum, and biochemical adjustment network, indicating further breakthroughs in the near future. Scientists have also conducted overall research on the regulating gene in differentiation induction therapy of acute promyelocytic leukemia with all-trans retinoic acid", and successfully isolated 169 genes regulated by retinoic acid, thus providing theoretical guidance for the clinic comprehensive therapy, and the prevention of recrudesce and anti-drug mechanism of the disease. Scientists introduced the method of located candidate cloning technology, and did research on the genetic opalescence dentine genealogy, and figured out for the first time in the would that the pathogenic genes of the disease is DSPP. In-depth research on the pathogenic genes of the finger (toe) skeletal deformity genetic diseases have also been conducted, such as short finger (toe) disease, and found for the first time that the three variations of the IHH gene are the direct causes of A-1 type short finger (toe) disease.

For the project of "Nanometer material and nanometer structure", on the basis of directional growth of super-long (2-3 mm) carbon nanometer pipe arrays with large areas of underlay, scientists have successfully produced the super-thin carbin nanometer pipe with the inside diameter of only 0.5mm. They produced nanometer copper by using the electro-deposit technology, figured out that the material can obtain 5100% elongation rate under the normal room temperature, and pointed out the mechanism of elongation rate under the normal room temperature, and pointed out the mechanism of elongation is that high crystal integral of nanometer metal Cu is the important cause of super elongation. They have also made a series of creative progress, for example, the production of the sequential arrays of GaN mono-crystal uni-dimensional nanometer threads, the research and production of the coaxial nanomater cable with GaN at the core, BN outside and diameter of 50nm, the assembly of the thinnest probe with the best performance in the would by using the single-wall carbon nanometer pipes in channel-scanning microscopes, and the production of hexahedron GaN nanometer crystal with benzene heat prefabrication technology.

The "research on structural performance, molecular design, micro-structural design and manufacturing process of the photo-electrical functional crystal" has first discovered theoretically and then proved in experiments that inside the dielectric crystal lattice composed of piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials, there exists coupling between the super-lattice vibration and the electromagnetic waves. And the project has put forward the new concept of "ion type phonon crystal". The researchers of the project have successfully produced high-quality big crystal, such as YCOB, Nd:YCOB, and GCOB, and have found out experimentally that the most effective power output direction is not on the main plane, which was recognized in the would. The YCOB direct double frequency has been obtained and the acquired output efficiency of the green light is 15% higher than the best result abroad. The Nd:YCOB crystal has been used to obtain the self double frequency green light output in the most effective power output direction. Through the super-lattice micro-structural design, the laser direct triple frequency theory and methods have been developed, and the big-sized triple frequency optical supper-lattices with different structure sequences have been produced. For the first time, the small and completely solid optical maser with two wavelengths of UV-green and red-blue has been produced. This achievement is the first experimental result with application value, regarding the quasi-crystal and quasi-period material in the field of non-linear optics since the quasi-crystal was found. (责任编辑：泉水)