Recently, she talked about the evolution process of human beings in the New Year's Eve live broadcast room, and put forward the view that human ancestors were four-legged fish, which once again gained a lot of attention. In her speech, she quipped: "Human ancestors were four-legged fish, and our cousins 400 million years ago are still lying on the bottom of the sea...... Teacher Lu's name is Lu Jing, a researcher at the Institute of Paleospine and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who has been studying ancient fish for many years. In 2019, she accidentally came into contact with the Douyin platform and began to use short videos to entertain science popularization paleontology, which attracted many fans. In the past two years, the frequency of Mr. Lu's video updates has become less, and netizens have frequently urged them to update, leaving messages "I haven't seen Mr. Lu for a long time, what is Mr. Lu busy with?" The Yangtze Evening News Purple Cow News reporter interviewed Mr. Lu, and she said with a smile: "In the past two years, I have been busy doing CT scans on fish!"
New Year's Eve speeches are frequent
"Teacher Lu who plays with bones" is on fire again
In 2019, I believe you must have swiped these videos, a sweet-looking female scientist, with the members of the studio to eat yellow stewed chicken, cut out the bones and spell out the whole chicken bone model, similar to Archaeopteryx......;
After eating the fish head cake, Lu Jing and her team put together a fat-headed fish brain model
This female scientist named Lu Jing has an interesting screen name - "Teacher Lu who plays with bones", her sweet appearance, gentle voice and bone-fighting skills have made netizens praise: "It's so cool!" 400,000 netizens frequently urged to change. The reporter found that in the past two years, the frequency of Mr. Lu's video updates has decreased, but every year he will come to the Douyin live broadcast room of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on time to give a New Year's Eve speech to convey new paleontological knowledge to netizens.
Lu Jing and her team put together a model of Archaeopteryx
In this year's Douyin live broadcast room of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Lu explained the history of the evolution of early vertebrates by putting forward the view that "the ancestors of human beings are four-legged fish", and shared with you the story of the high-precision CT center doing CT for various vertebrates in recent years, thus introducing the digital research work of the institute.
Lu Jing gave a speech in the Douyin live broadcast room of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
CT Center, Institute of Paleospine, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Make important technical support for top journal papers
In an interview with reporters, Mr. Lu said that in the past two years, he has spent a lot of time exploring new technologies and methods, so there are fewer opportunities to meet everyone on the short video platform, "I didn't expect that many netizens remember me and feel very happy!" "The institute has five to six CT machines for different samples, and these machines play a very important role in the study of paleontology. In the past, we studied specimens. You have to hold the specimen in your hand and hold it in front of you before you can study it. For example, if I want to study a specimen in Australia, I have to fly to Australia, but now, as long as I have the CT data of the specimen, I can study these specimens in detail, and this is a new way of studying in the digital age. ”
"I believe that when you see paleontological specimens hundreds of millions of years ago in museums, you will have the same question: these specimens are buried in rocks, and when scientists have not yet repaired their full picture, how can they know what the parts buried in the rocks look like? There are also some important materials, and their heads and internal structures of their bodies cannot be seen from the outside, so how can they be studied?" Mr. Lu answered everyone's questions, "These can be scanned with CT." On this basis, we have also made more digital explorations, including the use of 3D visualization software to render models, etc., which can use accurate CT data to restore organisms, in addition to being useful for research, but also allowing the public to understand what hundreds of millions of years ago, fish that may be the ancestors of humans, and what it looks like. ”
Lu Jing introduced the technology of the CT Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
The CT Center of the Institute of Paleospine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has now provided important technical support for more than 150 top journal papers, and this technology can be said to have benefited the development of the entire discipline." Last year, we also did something that may not have been done by scientific research teams all over the world, that is, all the major phyla of vertebrates, embryo specimens at different stages of development were scanned and 3D reconstructed, nearly 100 embryo samples were scanned, and 3D data and rendering videos that can show the complete development process of vertebrate embryos were obtained, and these data were shared with the academic community around the world. ”
Get started with a book
I am fortunate that the translated book was recently published
Mr. Lu said that whether it is shooting a video or giving a live lecture, the original intention is the same, which is to let more people understand paleontology, become interested in paleontology, and then become interested and curious about scientific research through their own way. Mr. Lu recalled to reporters the story of when he entered this discipline, "When I was a child, I watched the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark", and the archaeologist Indiana Jones left a deep impression on me. So I grew up loving archaeology, and I especially loved ancient Egypt, and when I was in college, I studied biology and gradually discovered that vertebrates were very interesting. When I was going to graduate school, I looked through the book to look for the direction of the graduate school entrance examination, and I saw the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Teacher Lu said with a smile that at that time, he didn't have too deep understanding of what this major specifically studied, but he felt that he had to come here to Xi. It wasn't until I actually entered the institute that the door to a new world of paleontology was opened.
"I was originally interested in dinosaurs, but my mentor, Academician Zhu Min, gave me a book called A Fish Caught in Time at that time. The book tells the story of the discovery of the living fossil, the Latimai fish, which was thought to be a flesh-finned fish that went extinct with the dinosaurs, but was unexpectedly discovered in the last century. The legendary experience of this creature opened the door to a new world for me, and it turned out that ancient fish could be so fascinating. As a result, Professor Lu plunged headlong into the field of ancient fish research, and has been working in the institute since graduating from his doctorate.
Mr. Lu also shared one thing with a smile, "I gave a popular science lecture in 2019 and talked about the impact of this book on me, and the editors of the Commercial Press sat in the audience at that time, and they introduced the book after listening to my report and approached me as a translator. When the book was published in November last year, when I saw it, I thought about the story of my entry into the industry, and I thought it was a very amazing thing. I also hope that through this book, the door to a new world will be opened for more people, so that more people will like ancient fish and ancient creatures. ”
Lu Jing's translation of this book has been published
Take the team out on a monthly trip
I want to arouse everyone's curiosity
Today, Lu Jing goes to the research center in Qujing almost every month and takes the team out to investigate, "Our wilderness is not to go to uninhabited places, most of them are to go to the city, to the edge of the fields, to dig up fossils by the crops, and the answer we want to pursue 400 million years ago is in these inconspicuous stones." ”
In Mr. Lu's office, there are large and small paleontological models, "many people say that my office is suitable for checking in!" These models are Mr. Lu's treasures, among these objects, Mr. Lu especially likes the model of the Latimai fish, "I have collected dozens of models of the Latimai fish alone, and I usually go out to travel, or foreign counterparts come to visit, will bring me souvenirs related to the Latimai fish." The Latimai fish has a special meaning for me, it is this fish that led me into this field and found my heart. ”
Group photo of Lu Jing and Latimai fish model
So will you continue to return to the Douyin platform to do popular science for everyone? Teacher Lu said frankly that for researchers, it is a particularly lucky thing to have fans, so she has kept this account. But back to scientific research itself, she must calm down and precipitate herself, scientific research is her own job. Every time she was researching fossils or inquiring about information, she would be very excited when she made a new discovery, as if she had been struck by fate, "and then said to herself, I actually found such an interesting thing! This excitement is probably love, this love cannot be replaced by anything, it is my original intention, I will definitely keep going and always discover new things." ”
At the end of the interview, Mr. Lu said that everyone, especially when they were young, had a strong curiosity and had many questions about everything, which often inspired many famous scientists to embark on the road of scientific exploration. "In the future, when I have time, I will continue to do science popularization in various forms, so that more people are interested in our work and explore the mystery of the evolution of life. ”
Purple Cow News reporter |
(Source: Purple Cow News)
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