82 year old Academician Wang Pinxian is actually a million fan UP host!, But I am willing to do science popularization, and I don't want to go on the red carpet
At the second Women Scientists Summit of the 16th Pujiang Innovation Forum on September 9, there was one of the oldest, but perhaps the most sonorous and powerful guest speakers on the scene - marine geologist and CAS Member Wang Pinxian.
"Many microorganisms live in rocks on the seabed, and their biggest characteristic is their long lifespan, which can reach hundreds of thousands of years. They hibernate inside... So if you want to live long, it's best to be a bacterium." When it comes to excitement, Wang Pin would first raise one hand and gesture a few times, silently and vividly expressing it, attracting the attention of all the audience on site.
This academician born in Shanghai is 87 years old this year. Although his hair is gray and he walks slowly, his spirit is hale and his posture is firm. There are too many legends in Wang Pinxian's body. He once dived deep into the South China Sea at the age of 82 and joked that he was still a child compared to the 30 million year old South China Sea. He also has another identity online as a "Top 100 UP Owner" and currently has nearly 1.72 million fans on Bilibili.
On Bilibili, a series of science popularization videos produced and published by Wang Pinxian's team are full of wit and humor, explaining marine geology knowledge in a simple and easy to understand way. Fans affectionately refer to him as a "internet celebrity academician" and a "science popularization old rascal", and the barrage is filled with greetings like "Hello Grandpa". The video "What are the secrets of the Bermuda Triangle?" has the highest viewership, currently exceeding 4.03 million, and "Can humans penetrate the Earth's crust?" has also exceeded 3.83 million views.
▲ Academician Wang Pinxian's Bilibili homepage
After the meeting, when interviewed by First Financial, Wang Pinxian asked how to become one of the "Top 100 UP Leaders" on Bilibili. He smiled and said that this was actually "being online", not actively doing it himself, but he found it to be a very good new way. "Wow, there are so many people all of a sudden who can see me teaching at school, with only a few dozen or hundreds of students. I have so many people now, and the greatest pleasure for teachers is getting feedback from students. I am very happy."
Wang Pinxian said that sometimes he is even stopped by "fans" in other places to take photos. He believes that it is good for science to become popular. "I don't want to go on the red carpet, but I am willing to do science popularization," he said
In 2018, 82 year old Wang Pinxian boarded the manned submersible "Deep Sea Warrior" and went deep into the South China Sea for scientific research. In 9 days, he completed three deep dives, reaching a maximum depth of 1400 meters. As a result, he also became the oldest deep-sea diver in the world, known as the "Deep Diving Academician".
Wang Pinxian told First Financial that he had wanted to go when he was building deep submersibles in China, but due to various reasons, he was unable to make it. "If I had gone down early, it wouldn't have been news in my seventies, but when I turned 82, it would have become news."
In 1999, Wang Pinxian, as the chief scientist, led the first Chinese led ocean drilling in the South China Sea, achieving a breakthrough of zero ocean drilling in Chinese waters. He stated that going up to the sky, down to the earth, and down to the sea are the three directions for human expansion. "It is easy to go up to the sky but difficult to go down to the earth," because the earth is hard. Currently, gold miners in South Africa can reach more than 4000 meters underground, but compared to a radius of over 6000 kilometers of the earth, it is less than one thousandth. Therefore, it is best to drill in the deep sea floor closest to the Earth's interior.
What are the benefits of doing ocean drilling for so many years? Wang Pinxian stated that this research has sparked a great revolution in Earth science, changing many concepts of Earth science. As the ancient saying goes, "moving mountains and overturning the sea." Ocean drilling has proven that mountains can be moved, that is, the plate theory. "For example, the extinction of dinosaurs over 60 million years ago was due to an asteroid colliding with Earth. This asteroid was located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, where ocean drilling proved this."
When it comes to open innovation, Wang Pinxian believes that China currently has an unsatisfactory situation where there are a lot of scientific articles and scientists, but we are actually an outsourced worker. The basic research projects we do come from abroad, and we write articles and publish them abroad, with both ends outside. This kind of outsourcing does not actually require innovation. "Modern science emerged in Europe, so everywhere carries the imprint of Europe. Earth science is local, not universal, so we need to innovate and base ourselves on our own characteristics. I call on China to form a Chinese school," he said.
At the end of the speech, Wang Pinxian stated that he is currently formulating an academic plan for China's ocean drilling, "In short, we must strive to advance deeper."
In the interview, this elderly man is still setting new goals for himself. "If I were to survive, I would still want to do more, not just the deep sea. I feel that what I am doing now is the intersection of science and culture, which is a weakness of China. At my age, I can do it because there is no pressure anymore and no one is urging me to do anything."
