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Can science be popular in China?

Everyday questions like these are helping to 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 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 that are normally closed to the public.

Its off-line activities are always 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.

And the heavy rain failed to dim the enthusiasm of the lucky few who joined the group.

Xiao Wu, 20, and her mother traveled for 16 hours from southeast China's Fujian Pronvince to Shanghai.

She met some of her favorite writers, whose easy-to-read and humorous popular science essays had helped the sophomore in her own studies.

"I never read such stories on science in Chinese. They're so informative," says Wu, who takes an interest in astronomy, geography and environment, as well as her own major, biology.

In its short existence, the blog has collected a raft of accolades. It was voted the "Best Chinese Blog" in awards organized by German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle in 2008, and the official China Association of Science and Technology ranked it alongside China's first spacewalk in the "2008 Top 10 Events of Science Popularization in China."

It 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 science popularization in 2007.

"I wanted to jump out of the small circle of a certain subject and have a wider view of the scientific world," Ji says.

"During my part-time work on campus, I found popular science can reach more people. When it brings me a little success, I feel a responsibility to do the work."

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 and institution 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 science in the restaurants, cafes and bars, and at home.

Although Chinese traditionally have a high regard for science, they fail to see its influences in daily life, he says. "The public have shut science out of their lives. Many people believe in astrology and blood type analysis," Ji says.

 

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