In the days when the whole people resisted the "new crown pneumonia", I naturally thought of the famous popular science writer Gao Shiqi (1905-1988). I found "Bacteria and People" in the collection, read it carefully again, and read a lot of feelings and feelings.
This is the first collection of popular science works created by Gao Shiqi. In August 1936, as one of the "Enlightened Youth Series", this book was published in Shanghai by the Enlightened Bookstore, and has been reprinted and reprinted since then, with an innumerable print volume, and has become a classic work of popular science in China. Coats said in his "Self-Introduction" at the beginning of the book: "Here is a collection of twenty-nine scientific essays, which talk about all the trivial matters of the biological world, but all of them are related to life." However, I should state that the first part of the episode is "The King, the Chicken, the Ant", but I did not write about the chicken, so I gently let it go, leaving only the king and the ant, the pair of enemies. I finished writing and was not satisfied. A turn of the mind, simply a little, or call this episode "Bacteria and People". The king refers to people, and ants refer to bacteria. ”
Gao Shiqi divided the articles that were originally written sporadically into five parts in an orderly and rational manner. The first part is "Introduction", which has two articles, namely "The King, the Chicken, and the Ants" and "On the Cell". The second part is "The Life of the King", that is, the life of man, which is composed of nine articles, such as "The Third Stream of The Human Body", "Talking about smell", "The Standard of Cleanliness" and so on. The third part is "The Life of Ants", that is, the life of bacteria, with a total of seven articles, such as "The Food, Clothing, Shelter and Transportation of Bacteria", "The Form of Bacteria", "Bacteria in Water", "Bacteria in soil" and so on. The fourth part is "The Struggle of the King and the Ants", that is, the struggle between man and bacteria, and there are also nine articles, such as "The Plague Is Coming", "Tiger Liela (Cholera)", "The Problem of The War of Poisonous Bacteria" and so on. The last edition was "Other Troublemakers", which wrote about "Bed bugs" and "Moths".
After reading the whole book, I thought about it. A history of human growth is a history of man's struggle with bacterial viruses. In addition to trauma or hard injuries, the human body is constantly fighting against germs. If you are strong, you will win, and people will be healthy and unharmed. Weak or defeated, people will fall ill or die.
Back to Coatschi's "Bacteria and People", the whole book is about this basic scientific truth. I think that in the 1930s, our science was far less developed than it is today, and the living environment of people was still very unsatisfactory. However, Coatschi had already thought of popularizing scientific knowledge. He is worthy of being the pioneer and founder of China's science popularization cause.
Coats has a legendary life. At the age of twenty-two, he graduated from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago and studied bacteriology at the University's Medical Research Institute. During a study of the encephalitis virus, he was unfortunately infected by a broken bottle, resulting in a lifelong disability. Although the central nervous system was destroyed and affected by action, the brain was still clear, and with strong perseverance, Gao Shiqi insisted on completing all the doctoral courses.
In 1931, he returned to China and first served as the director of the laboratory department at the Nanjing Central Hospital, but resigned in anger because the authorities did not attach importance to the people's livelihood and did not even give him a microscope. Back in Shanghai, with the help of the Reading Life Club founded by Li Gongpu, he began to create popular science sketches and published them in newspapers and periodicals such as "Reading Life" and "Popular Culture". Because he integrates scientific and literary characteristics, the article is easy to understand, full of interest, widely praised by readers, and the manuscript is continuous, which further strengthens his confidence in popular science writing. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he traveled to Hong Kong, Guilin and Yan'an, and joined the Communist Party of China in 1938, where he was cared for by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Ye Jianying. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he returned to Shanghai and saw the current situation of the people's lack of livelihood and the epidemic of epidemics everywhere, and he was determined to devote the rest of his life to the popularization of science. Although he had difficulty holding a pen, he could only write a few hundred words a day, drawing and writing. However, since 1935, he has written more than one million words of popular science works, and published eighteen collections of popular science works such as "Bacteria and People", "War of Resistance and Bacteria", and "Bacteria Rambling".
Once, I listened to a chat with Ouyang Wenbin, a centenarian with culture. Ouyang said that Gao Shiqi was not easy, and she saw Gao Shiqi for the first time during the War of Resistance. At that time, the underground party Shao Quanlin was the head of the Guilin Cultural Supply Agency where she worked, and Shao arranged to take Gao Shiqi from Hong Kong to Guilin, asked Ouyang to find a place for Gao Shiqi nearby, and said that Ouyang would temporarily take care of him until the full-time nurse arrived. In this way, Ouyang became Gao Shiqi's temporary secretary. He read newspapers and books every day, especially in science, and concentrated on it. Because his hand could not turn the book, every time he finished reading a page, a small sound came out of his mouth, and Ouyang turned a page for him. Ouyang was also the editor of the magazine "Scientific Knowledge" at that time, and if he did not understand something, he could consult Gao Shiqi at any time nearby, and he not only solved his doubts, but also asked about Ouyang's work and came up with some ideas for "Scientific Knowledge". He wanted to dictate a scientific sketch, ask Ouyang to record it, he could only say one or two words at a time, and he had to finish a sentence several times. In this short article, he said a sweat, and Ouyang also wrote a sweat. It can be seen how difficult It is for Gao Shiqi's popular science creation. In the 1980s, when Ouyang went to Beijing to attend the Wen Dynasty, Gao Shiqi recognized Ouyang at a glance and recalled the days they spent in Guilin forty years ago, indicating that Gao Shiqi had an amazing memory.
After listening, in addition to admiring Gao Shiqi's professionalism, I think that science fantasy novels have become a hot topic for reading nowadays. Relatively speaking, the creation of popular science sketches is rarely asked. People need science fantasy, and what is more urgently needed is the dissemination of scientific knowledge with practical significance. In the creation of popular science, the second and third "Gao Shiqi" appeared! (Wei Yang)