Why don't giant pandas eat meat? Why do Tibetan foxes and foxes look different, but they are close relatives of arctic foxes? What other canines are there besides dogs? On Douyin, there is a "Professor Guo who does not brush the question", sharing these "cold knowledge" about biology through a short and popular science video.
"Professor Guo without brushing the question" was formerly known as Guo Guangpu, associate professor of the School of Life Science and Technology of Tongji University, director of the Shanghai Ecological Society, and doctor of ecology. At school, he taught courses focused on zoology and ecology. Outside of class, he has visited Metuo in Tibet, Xishuangbanna and Yunlong in Yunnan, Dianzhou Island in Guangdong, Wuyishan in Fujian and South Africa. Advocating contact with nature, he has guided a number of nature science popularization activities and summer camps, and traveled to various national protected areas and national forest parks to train staff.
This year, he opened a Douyin account and often published popular science videos related to animals and plants, including ecological protection and animals.
Guo Guangpu and the children interact in nature and popularize science knowledge at the same time
Guo Guangpu has been associated with animals and plants since childhood. Born in 1969 in Boai County, Henan Province, his parents worked in the agriculture and forestry department when he was a child, so he learned a lot about agriculture and forestry biology, and entered the biology major in college, and finally got a doctorate in ecology from the College of Life Sciences of East China Normal University.
On the Douyin homepage, he used the current Internet hot stem to introduce himself: "I am from Henan, teaching in Tongji... Henan dialect says it like this: eggplant is called 'Qiào', persimmon is called 'Sòu', and the thorn of the plant is called 'GeZhèn'..." Guo Guangpu advocates "no brushing", believing that simple repetitive activities like brushing problems will inhibit children's creativity, and he hopes to take everyone into real nature, so his videos often have real animals on camera or filmed in field expeditions.
Compared with the content in the classroom, Guo Guangpu believes that the videos shared on Douyin can be aimed at a wider audience, and the animals and plants selected are both the most familiar and relatively unfamiliar. On the other hand, he believes that the core of popular science is to ensure the scientific nature of the content, so behind the seemingly popular and interesting explanation, he consulted a large number of materials, involving structure, behavior, reproduction, evolution, ecology, etc., hoping to introduce a certain animal or the particularity of a certain animal as comprehensively as possible in the short video.
Short video released by Guo Guangpu
For example, in explaining "why giant pandas don't eat meat," Guo Guangpu traces back to their ancestors in Lufeng County, Yunnan, China, and when the ice age came, many northern carnivores were driven to the place where giant pandas lived, so "meat became a hot commodity, so about 2 million years ago, they turned to vegetarianism and became experts in nibbling bamboo." In another video, he mentioned that according to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the giant panda was the mount of Xuan You, who fed on iron and copper, so it was called an "iron-eating beast".
When telling the "family history" of the Tibetan fox, he talked about the common ancestor of the Arctic fox and the Tibetan fox, the former in order to adapt to life after migration, the body will become white in winter, blending with the surrounding environment, and in the summer it will become gray, close to the color of the tundra, such an adaptation process is called "radiation evolution"; The Tibetan fox's "thick torso, huge head, small ears, and four small short legs" follow the "Bergman's Law" and "Allen's Law" in order to survive better in cold areas.
Talking about the idea of introducing animals, Guo Guangpu said that he currently has two ideas, "One is to introduce which animals are encountered in reality, from the three aspects of form, structure and behavior, combined with some ecological factors; The other is to make a concise introduction in the order of animal evolution and teaching, from single-celled animals to mammals. ”
Guo Guangpu is in Nyingchi, Tibet, behind him is Nanga Bawa Peak
In many videos, Guo Guangpu appears in national protected areas or forests to share the creatures he discovered during field expeditions. In Tianmushan National Nature Reserve, he encountered fireflies, so he introduced the glowing part of the fireflies in the penultimate second body segment of the abdomen; I saw the Chinese toad and explained the toad's venom glands and defensive behavior.
Like Newt in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, he often "captures" these animals with his bare hands in the wild, and after the introduction, he will let them "go home". Sometimes, he also encountered some dangers, recently, he was bitten by a tick during an expedition to Tianmu Mountain, and after treatment, he still had scars on his feet, which he planned to do a related science popularization.
Compared with looking for online videos, combined with the later dubbing commentary, Guo Guangpu believes that he and these creatures will be more authentic, which will produce more resonance. In addition to the output of all knowledge, he hopes that through these videos, a concept of ecological protection can be brewed, "to love nature, love life, and protect the earth, which is the three points we emphasize after each popular science," Guo Guangpu said.
Different from the boring "brushing questions", he expects that these knowledge and concepts can be internalized into people's consciousness, so as to pay attention to the nature around them, cultivate a green, healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle, live in harmony with nature, live in harmony with society, and live in harmony with themselves!
Guo Guangpu took the children to summer camp activities in Tianmu Mountain