2019-10-31 15:10
There is a clear error in the formulation of "Great Antiquity".
The book writes "knowledge" as "just."
This page of the book is incorrect about "candy snails".
With the continuous adjustment of teaching content, reading in the compulsory education stage occupies an increasingly important proportion. Since the beginning of the new fall semester, the bookstore counter has been filled with parents who choose books for their children, as well as primary and secondary school students who pick their own books. Popular science books with pictures and texts, novel and good-looking, have always been the "hot players" who capture children's "hearts". While absorbing the nutrients of knowledge in fun, people also expect that this nutrition can be more "pure and flawless".
survey
There are many knowledge errors And low-level errors are really eye-catching
Not long ago, Lei Guangyuan, a master's student at Beijing Agricultural College, inadvertently flipped through his friend's "We Love Science" magazine, and in the June 2019 (part 2) issue, a few pages of knowledge about snails aroused his interest.
Influenced by his major, Lei Guangyuan has a relatively niche hobby, especially snails and shells, and has also studied deeply in this regard. And when he flipped through it, he found that there was an error in the introduction of rare varieties of candy snails.
There are three pictures on this page. A colorful picture in the middle reads, "Look closely, it's just ordinary snail shells painted in color, not real candy snail shells, because the shape of candy snail shells is tapered." ”
In fact, Lei Guangyuan found that the expression "ordinary snail shells are colored" in the text is wrong, they are actually real candy snails, but they come from the genus Polymita, and the origin is only Cuba, so it is also called "Cuban candy snails". To further confirm this, he also sent ecological photographs taken by friends in the local area and pictures of specimens collected as illustrations.
"Usually, most of these books are read abroad, because there are more errors in domestic books." Speaking, Lei Guangyuan opened another "Atlas of World Famous Shell Appreciation", in which one page of grape nest snails and interstitial nest snails, as well as another page of yellow double-spin snails, the habitat is described as "inhabiting the grass on the seabed". The habitat of the two kinds of snails should be on tree trunks or stones, and the habitat of snails should be on the branches of leaves, which means that these three pieces of information are wrong.
In addition to this kind of content error that appears to be somewhat professional, the "low-level errors" of popular science books posted by people on the Internet are more common. For example, in a photo of the inner page of Felines, the "knowledge" of "Animal Knowledge Tips" is written as "just". The netizen angrily asked, "All the 'knowledge' on pages 130 to 150 is written as 'just', such an expensive book, full color, make such a low-level mistake?" In the book "Earth ⋅ Life - 13.8 Billion Years of Evolution", there is a statement that "the Great Antiquity refers to the 1.3 billion years between 4 billion and 500 million years ago". There are also netizens who post a set of popular science books that children are reading, one of which is the illustration explanation of the crocodile, which is exactly the same as the illustration explanation of the giant sand ant in the other book, and it is copied and pasted at a glance.
oppugn
Editors and proofreaders dig pits Parents " minesweeping" has become a difficult point
On the third floor of Wangfujing Bookstore, a series of curved lines outline a bright and lively reading space. This layer of books is mainly for children and teenagers, and is divided into many areas such as early childhood enlightenment and children's encyclopedia according to age group and general content. No matter which area, popular science books are placed in a more eye-catching position, attracting many children to read the favorite theme with great interest.
"Little friend, help me see, do you like this book?" An old gentleman who came to Beijing on a business trip from Qinhuangdao made a special trip to the bookstore before returning to the bookstore, hoping to bring a few books to his little granddaughter. He took an insect flipping book and asked the little boy next to him, who was about the same age as his granddaughter, who was watching the "secret car" with relish.
"Loved it!" The child was interested in fiddling with the three-dimensional insects in the pages of the book, and answered very crisply. "This book is quite expensive." The mother of the child on the side interjected, and sure enough, the price of the back cover was approaching the hundred yuan mark. "Now children's books are exquisitely done, and all kinds of three-dimensional illustrations, mechanisms, and prices have gone up." While lamenting the "charming appearance" of books, the mother said that choosing books will value whether the child is interested, and indeed can not pay attention to the problems inside. "Typos and the like I can still find, like his favorite cars, dinosaurs, if the knowledge point is written wrong, I can't see it!"
The identification of the wrong content of popular science books is a common "difficulty" among parents, and it is also the most controversial. Some careful netizens posted the book "Magical Nature" of the "Larouss Fun Science Museum" on Weibo, saying that "as soon as the bird name appears, it is blindly translated, and the before and after errors do not correspond." Popular science author Santanaise forwarded, "Parents pay attention to mine clearance." Casually looking at it, the puffin alone appeared in the translation of 'Big Beak Sea Duck' and 'Red-billed Gull', and the editors and proofreaders failed. ”
There are also parents who shoot the content of the popular science book, ask the "Dinosaur Doctor" Xing Lida, the book introduces the Barro dragon is also called the Confused Dragon, but the "Dinosaur Kingdom Encyclopedia" says that the Thunder Dragon is the Confused Dragon, please ask the Confused Dragon is the Thunder Dragon or the Balot Dragon? Xing Lida replied that the baro dragon was a mistranslation of the heavy dragon "Barosaurus", and the thunder dragon was "Brontosaurus", which may have begun with B, and the author mistakenly regarded the heavy dragon as a thunder dragon.
"I also have this book at home", "I have been recruited", "children take it to the kindergarten every day to read"... Under a number of similar microblogs, there are a large number of comments. Parents think, "Children can remember things clearly!" Popular science books should be better compiled and proofread. ”
suggestion
Put an end to scissor paste, scientists should do "meta science"
Zhang Zhimin, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Popular Science Writers and associate researcher of the China Institute of Popular Science, has long maintained a high degree of attention to popular science books. In her opinion, there are many reasons for the error of popular science books. For example, the creator cites the wrong data and tells the wrong point of view; the compiled book may be due to the lack of relevant literacy of the author, the matching between different information is not well grasped; and the errors in the typesetting process occur.
Before the book is published, the publisher must also do the final quality review, including the scientific review. If there are still errors in the book, in the final analysis, it is inseparable from the "not seen" quality review.
The China Popular Science Writers Association has an "Excellent Popular Science Works Award", which is the highest professional award in the field of domestic popular science creation. One of the channels for the selection of books in the award is to recommend works by the provincial popular science writers association and publishing houses across the country. After being submitted to the association, experts from different disciplines and backgrounds will conduct group evaluation, and the award-winning works will be determined through preliminary review, final review, final evaluation meeting and other links. Among them, scientific is the most important, as well as the quality of the layout, whether the content is interesting and good-looking and other considerations.
During the judging process, the experts did see errors in the submitted works. When I think of them being submitted by major publishing houses to win the award", the judges have found the mistake at once, and they can't help but sigh silently in their hearts - they will wonder how the previous "checks" were done, and at the same time feel a little helpless, because this is a regulatory issue in the entire publishing industry. In addition, there is no shortage of popular science books in the market that have found problems during the review, but they are selling well. For example, mistakes in editing, rumors about science mixed into the book, and things that are not conclusive for the time being, written with certainty, are not in line with the spirit of science.
"Scientists and researchers personally come to do science popularization, which is definitely the most ideal." The scientific nature of popular science works is not too high, and "created by professionals" is generally regarded by the industry as a good way to ensure the quality of popular science works. Mr. Bian Yulin, an astronomer and famous popular science writer in China, has published millions of words of popular science works, and in the early years he said that in the whole science dissemination, scientists are irreplaceable "hair players". In recent years, it has been more advocated that scientists should do "meta-science popularization" and provide authoritative and accurate "first-hand materials".
In fact, Mao Yisheng, Jia Zuzhang, Gao Shiqi and other scientists of the older generation have written popular science articles. But later, because of the pressure of researchers, they may not have the time and energy to do science popularization. If you don't do science with professionals, the situation is very complicated. After all, popular science works can be shown to high-level intellectuals, and they can also be shown to two- and three-year-old children. To varying degrees, there are cases of quick success, shoddy fabrication, and "scissors plus paste" copy and paste.
At present, Amazon, Dangdang and other platforms book sales in the top ten popular science books, or the introduction of books, according to Zhang Zhimin observation, there has been a good trend in the quiet emergence - more and more scientists, front-line researchers on the popular science creation and active. "For example, Wang Yuan, director of the China Paleozoological Museum, and many other scientists such as Zheng Yongchun, Zhang Jinshuo, Li Miao, etc., who write popular science books, are less likely to have scientific problems."
In addition, with the vigorous development of new media, researchers write articles and public accounts on the Internet, so as to participate in offline activities, and there are more channels to popularize scientific knowledge. "Of course, now we can't say that scientists have become the mainstream of science popularization, only that more people are paying attention to and participating." Then the scientific nature of popular science works should be developed in a good direction. Wei Jing, a reporter of this newspaper, wrote and pictured
Editor-in-charge: Li Xinuo