How does Qian Xuesen do science popularization? Recently, I saw a report in china science newspaper" entitled "Qian Xuesen who is "different" ("different" Qian Xuesen---- the "Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" electronic magazine), Qian Xuesen's subordinate at that time, Academician Yu Hongru of the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Figure 2), recalled many of Qian Xuesen's differences.
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched mankind's first artificial satellite, and many people hoped that Qian Xuesen would explain the scientific principles behind it. Qian Xuesen wrote a full-page popular science article for the People's Daily and also prepared a science popularization report.
Yu Hongru recalled: "One day Zhou Su, director of the office, told me that recently many units asked Director Qian to talk about artificial satellites, and Director Qian was too busy to come alone, so let the people in the institute help him talk, and you should also talk about it. I was anxious as soon as I heard it. Director Qian said: Don't worry, in a few days he will give a lecture to the head of the central authorities, and you will speak after listening to it. ”
Subsequently, Yu Hongru listened to Qian Xuesen's report and mainly talked about three questions: why the artificial satellite could not fall, what method was used to accelerate the satellite to such a high speed, and what was the use of the artificial satellite.
Please think carefully, why did Qian Xuesen say this? My understanding is that most people's first question about satellites is "why didn't it fall" because they don't understand the first cosmic speed (how fast it takes to fly out of Earth, and why can we only achieve three major cosmic speeds at this time?). ）。 Since the Earth is a ball, the ground is actually falling as an object advances. If the object were to advance at the first cosmic velocity, i.e. 7.9 km/s, it would fall at a speed just equal to the rate at which the ground would descend, and thus remain at the same distance as the ground, i.e., around the Earth. Therefore, the first cosmic velocity is also known as the orbital velocity. With this concept in mind, the next question is "how to accelerate the satellite to 7.9 km/s," because it's a speed far beyond what you can do on a daily basis. The answer is to use rockets. After understanding this, the last question is "What is the use of satellites?"
Qian Xuesen's three points show that he has carefully considered the needs of the audience and knows what they want to ask most. This is the most important methodology of popular science. If you don't start from the perspective of the audience and talk about the technical problems of satellites from the beginning, you can talk about a lot, but ordinary people have long been wandering the sky.
Yu Hongru recalled: "Director Qian summed up the use of satellites as 'standing tall and seeing far', and the content was understood by everyone. He told me that in making a report, we must first let the audience understand, and if there is a knowledgeable non-peer expert listening to the lecture, he should not be regarded as an expert, and the preconditions should be clearly explained, and the speech should not be omitted. Later, after listening to my report, many people also felt that I spoke very well, but in fact, the key was the guidance of Director Qian. With this experience, I felt that even if scientific research work was difficult, it was not too timid. ”
This story reminds me of the great chemist Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994, Figure 4), the only person to win the Nobel Prize twice, whose biography I read when I was a PhD student and was inspired. In 1945, after the victory of World War II, the atomic bomb became the hottest topic, and an institution asked Pauling to talk about the principles of the atomic bomb. Pauling did not participate in the Manhattan Project, but he felt that the topic should be completely talked about at his level of knowledge, so he agreed. Considering that the audience was non-professional, he felt that it was better to use some teaching aids.
He sawed a wooden ball in half, dug it into hollows, and then slapped them together with great force, making a loud noise to demonstrate the principle of the atomic bomb. This impressed the audience, and word spread at once: here's a college inquirer who reports great things! So people asked him everywhere to give a report on atomic energy, and Pauling became one of the most popular speakers in Southern California.
From this point of view, Pauling became increasingly involved in the scientists' campaign to control nuclear weapons, contributed greatly to the peace movement, and became the leader of the peace movement after Einstein. Do you know what his two Nobel Prizes are? The 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize.
