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Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
Squirrels gather nuts of scientific wisdom
By Wu Chen, Yang Lina and Wang Ke |
August 17, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHY do the wires of my earphones always get twisted when I put them in my pocket? Why do we choke when we snort water, but not when we're sniffing?
Everyday questions like these are helping open a door into the realms of science for thousands of ordinary Chinese.
Posted on the "Dr You" column on songshuhui.net, they are opened up to answers from other readers.
Only the most interesting and provocative questions are chosen, says Wang Yan, the Website's content editor. Every day more than 50,000 people visit the songshuhui (Science Squirrels), which opened in April last year, and the number is growing.
So named because the club's organizers promise "to peel off the hard shells of the yummy science kernel...like little fluffy squirrels opening nuts." The Website is at the forefront of popular science in China.
It translates foreign popular science essays, organizes screenings of science documentaries, invites scientists, researchers and science fiction writers to public talks, and arranges tours of scientific research facilities normally closed to the public.
Its off-line activities are often over-subscribed. When the Science Squirrels organized a group study of the July 22 total solar eclipse in Shanghai, the number of places was filled within three hours of the announcement.
The Website was founded under the motto "To make science popular" by Ji Xiaohua, better known by his pen name, Ji Shisan, 32. With a doctorate in neurobiology, Ji started writing popular science essays on campus, before abandoning research to devote himself to popularizing science in 2007.
He opened the blog to a wide range of popular science topics and it now has 80 to 90 part-time writers, mostly science reporters, researchers, and university students. In late 2008, they published the book "When Colorful Sound Tastes Sweet," a collection of their most popular work.
Ji wants to see people talking about science in restaurants, cafes and bars, and at home.
Although Chinese traditionally have a high regard for science, they fail to see its influence in daily life, he says. "The public have shut science out of their lives. Many people believe in astrology and blood-type analysis."
He cites the story of human resources staff at a major Chinese Website who consulted the editors of its astrology section when recruiting people.
It's a far cry from the days after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, when scientists had prestige.
Many scientists were sent to rural areas to teach farmers about pest control and increase crop yields during the "Great Leap Forward" from 1958 to 1961.
During the "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1976, scientists were persecuted and more than 100 science magazines were shut down. Science saw another heyday from 1979 to 1988, when more than 20,000 books on popular science were published, along with about 250 magazines and 1,000 films.
But the past two decades, driven by the market economy, have seen many magazines closed, few films on popular science and few people, especially individuals or groups outside the government, engaging in the field.
To the chagrin of Ji and certain other science writers, "pseudoscience" and "superstition" are making a comeback.
(The authors are senior writers at Xinhua news agency.)
Everyday questions like these are helping open a door into the realms of science for thousands of ordinary Chinese.
Posted on the "Dr You" column on songshuhui.net, they are opened up to answers from other readers.
Only the most interesting and provocative questions are chosen, says Wang Yan, the Website's content editor. Every day more than 50,000 people visit the songshuhui (Science Squirrels), which opened in April last year, and the number is growing.
So named because the club's organizers promise "to peel off the hard shells of the yummy science kernel...like little fluffy squirrels opening nuts." The Website is at the forefront of popular science in China.
It translates foreign popular science essays, organizes screenings of science documentaries, invites scientists, researchers and science fiction writers to public talks, and arranges tours of scientific research facilities normally closed to the public.
Its off-line activities are often over-subscribed. When the Science Squirrels organized a group study of the July 22 total solar eclipse in Shanghai, the number of places was filled within three hours of the announcement.
The Website was founded under the motto "To make science popular" by Ji Xiaohua, better known by his pen name, Ji Shisan, 32. With a doctorate in neurobiology, Ji started writing popular science essays on campus, before abandoning research to devote himself to popularizing science in 2007.
He opened the blog to a wide range of popular science topics and it now has 80 to 90 part-time writers, mostly science reporters, researchers, and university students. In late 2008, they published the book "When Colorful Sound Tastes Sweet," a collection of their most popular work.
Ji wants to see people talking about science in restaurants, cafes and bars, and at home.
Although Chinese traditionally have a high regard for science, they fail to see its influence in daily life, he says. "The public have shut science out of their lives. Many people believe in astrology and blood-type analysis."
He cites the story of human resources staff at a major Chinese Website who consulted the editors of its astrology section when recruiting people.
It's a far cry from the days after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, when scientists had prestige.
Many scientists were sent to rural areas to teach farmers about pest control and increase crop yields during the "Great Leap Forward" from 1958 to 1961.
During the "Cultural Revolution" from 1966 to 1976, scientists were persecuted and more than 100 science magazines were shut down. Science saw another heyday from 1979 to 1988, when more than 20,000 books on popular science were published, along with about 250 magazines and 1,000 films.
But the past two decades, driven by the market economy, have seen many magazines closed, few films on popular science and few people, especially individuals or groups outside the government, engaging in the field.
To the chagrin of Ji and certain other science writers, "pseudoscience" and "superstition" are making a comeback.
(The authors are senior writers at Xinhua news agency.)
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