85-year-old academician "surrounded by bullet screens": Millions of netizens watched my lectures and were very encouraged

Purple Cow News Reporter Zhang Bingjing Purple Cow News Trainee Reporter Sun Qingyun

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Explain marine science knowledge in short videos

The 85-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences became popular on the Internet

The biggest bacteria are on the ocean floor?

Do submarine volcanic eruptions have an impact on us?

What if 70% of the Earth's surface is continental?

……

Recently, a series of marine science videos by Wang Pinxian, an 85-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were sought after by young netizens. Since June this year, he has updated the content related to marine expertise on various short video platforms such as Station B and Douyin, attracting millions of fans. Whether it is the evolution of the South China Sea or the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, he explains it in simple and popular language.

After watching Wang Lao's teaching video, some netizens left messages to discuss problems with him that they could not understand and digest, and carefully wrote "notes" in the comment area, and some students replied happily after watching the video: "Ah, today is another day to discuss academic frontier issues with academicians!" Everyone calls Wang Lao's video "gangster-level science popularization."

Recently, the Yangtze Evening News/ Purple Cow News reporter contacted Wang Lao himself, and he introduced to the reporter the story behind his network science popularization. Elder Wang said that in fact, he was "put on the Internet." At first, CCTV reporters came to interview and record videos, and felt that his popular science lectures were very interesting, so they took the initiative to design a "scientific old naughty boy" image for him to surf the Internet. With the help of young people in the college and the website, the videos of Wang Lao's popular science and lectures were edited and sorted out and posted online.

"I think this form is very interesting, I think people who are engaged in science should keep pace with the times, in the past, they used to write on the blackboard in class, and now they use PPT and online teaching." I don't know much about new technologies, but I'm happy to do these things with young people, so that I can communicate closely with more young people through the Internet. In this way, the 85-year-old marine expert Wang Lao successfully "dived" into the online world and became the "net red" academician grandfather loved by many young netizens.

What impressed Elder Wang the most was the "bullet screen" floating on the video, "a large and large piece, like rain, very spectacular." Elder Wang said that he sometimes reads comments in the message area, and is also touched by the enthusiasm of netizens, "In the lecture on the podium, dozens of classmates sit under the stage, writing an article may be seen by hundreds of people, but now do a video, you can let millions of netizens see, there are so many people willing to listen to my lectures, I am very encouraged." ”

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Three years ago, I had dived three times in the South China Sea in 9 days

Discover ecological gardens composed of cold-water corals

However, posting videos online is only part of his science popularization work, "which is an extension of my usual teaching and writing books and doing scientific research." And I've found that the audience radiation range of each platform is not very different, covering various fields and age groups. ”

Elder Wang said that he felt that this difference was very good, "China's social development to this day, science has become a hobby of the public, I am particularly pleased." He believes that everyone's curiosity about science makes it more necessary for scientists to go to the front line to do science popularization, "This is also good for scientists themselves, if you can say the content of the research even ordinary people can understand, it means that you understand it more thoroughly." ”

The reporter learned that Wang Laozu was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, and is now teaching at the College of Marine and Earth Sciences of Tongji University. In 1960, he returned from moscow University, and from 1972 he devoted himself to the study of marine science in his homeland, and in 1991 he was elected an academician of the Faculty of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His team realized deep-sea scientific drilling in the South China Sea, established China's first comprehensive seabed observation deep-network system, the East China Seabed Observation Xiaoqushan Experimental Station, and discovered for the first time the paleo-oceanographic amplification effect of environmental and sedimentary changes in the circumference of the western Pacific rim sea such as the South China Sea during the glacial/interglacial period.

Three years ago, in order to study the evolution of the South China Sea and the paleoclimate of East Asia, 82-year-old Wang Lao also dived in the South China Sea three times in 9 days. He told reporters: "I had this plan very early on, but the supervisors have been dragging it out for safety reasons, so you see, it will not go down until I am so old." Speaking of this, he laughed.

Mr. Wang said he was preparing for an exhibition of deep-sea corals inspired by the dive mission, "The gardens we saw were all plants in the sun, but on the deep seabed of several kilometers, there are also 'gardens' in the dark, and some corals can grow as tall as trees." Elder Wang said that he was particularly happy to find this "ecological garden" in the South China Sea, "The cold-water coral under the bottom of the South China Sea cannot be seen on the ship, and I was particularly lucky that time, and I saw it as soon as I went." ”

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The carriages and horses are very slow, and the letters are far away

Elder Wang and his wife are deeply in love

On September 15 this year, Wang Pinxian and his wife Sun Lao donated 2 million yuan of savings for many years to set up the "Tongji University Marine Scholarship". Wang's wife, Sun Xiangjun, is a researcher at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an adjunct professor at Tongji University.

Knowing each other for decades, the deep affection of Elder Wang and his wife has also touched many people. Elder Wang told reporters: "The two of us were old classmates, at that time we both studied Russian in the preparatory class for staying in the Soviet Union in Beijing, and later we were assigned to study at Moscow University in the Soviet Union. Elder Wang and Sun Xiangjun married three years after returning to China, but at that time, because of their respective careers, they lived separately. Sun Xiangjun is in Beijing, and Wang Lao is in Shanghai. "We lived apart for more than thirty years, and when she retired, she was rehired, and when the re-employment ended, she went to Shanghai, when we were older."

Elder Wang told reporters that when they were separated, they often wrote letters and made long-distance calls every once in a while, "Long-distance calls are quite expensive, I have to ride my bicycle to the city, and I can only call after I find a station with long-distance calls." At that time, there were only 10 days of family leave a year, and I took a train to Beijing. My mother and children are also in Beijing, and while she is engaged in research, she takes care of her family in Beijing and picks up the burden of the family. And I was alone in school doing research and living a student-like life. ”

For the secret of love preservation, Wang Lao smiled and said: "We have a lot in common, although the professions we do are somewhat different, but in general the language is common, we have cooperated with two papers published internationally." When she came to Shanghai, it was when I was doing the 'International Ocean Drilling Program', she and I were doing deep-sea work, and our cooperation was very successful. Many of our views are in agreement and our interests and interests are similar. ”

Professor Sun Xiangjun, The wife of Elder Wang, also said: "When he was young, he was very elegant, very vigorous, with broad shoulders, high people, and a kind of wisdom in his eyes, I felt that this person was very smart. He is a man of very good character, loyal, enthusiastic, to do science, no interest can not do. From the morning to the night, the main thing is a force to support him, an interest to support him. ”

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You have to race against the clock

Do more in the best of times

When I contacted Elder Wang, he was holding a meeting in the office, and Elder Wang said that his life is very regular now, getting up at 6:30 every morning, going to school at 7:30, and then doing some research, reading some books, and coming home from work at 9:30 p.m., "My home is more than a kilometer away from the school office, so commuting to and from work is cycling, saving walking time, it is also a kind of exercise for me, sometimes I will ride a bicycle to the road to turn a big circle, even if it is my rest." Most of the day is in the office, I get used to it, and some articles can only be written in the office. ”

In Wang Lao's office, the bookshelf history, human documents also occupy a lot of space, Wang Lao said, now want to do some research that combines culture and science, so there are still many books to read, there are many things to learn, "I feel that time is precious, we must race against the clock, and there are still many things that I want to do." ”

He and his wife's offices were connected, and on weekdays, they did research together at school, "All my manuscripts she was the first reader, and we would discuss a lot of things." ”

If he retired at the age of 60, Wang Lao should have retired in 1996, but that was just the beginning of his deep-sea dream. In 1998, China officially joined the International Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), and the proposal "The Record of east Asian Monsoon History in the South China Sea and Its Global Climate Impact" written by Wang Pinxian ranked first in the global competition, and was implemented as the 184th voyage of the ODP in the spring of 1999, and Wang Pinxian was appointed as the chief scientist. He was 63 years old at the time, and he was the oldest on board.

Since 2011, Wang Lao has led China's Ocean drilling in the South China Sea and an unprecedented scale of major research programs in the depths of the South China Sea, promoted the construction of major national scientific and technological infrastructure projects for the seabed scientific observation network, and led China's earth science to enter the international forefront of deep-sea research. After eight years of struggle in 30 laboratories across the country, China has won the international dominance of deep-sea research in the South China Sea.

Elder Wang showed reporters more books after retirement than before retirement, "I always want to do more things in the best of times." ”

Source: Yangtze Evening News