标签：scientific spirit

When Results Obscure Process — “Scientific Literacy Standards” and Melamine

Culture & Public Commentary2016.04.29
When Results Obscure Process — “Scientific Literacy Standards” and Melamine
Recently I participated in the commentary on the , and was invited to write a piece for *China Science Daily*, which was published together with interviews with many teachers; see here. Because of the word limit, I accidentally wrote too much. When the article was published, the editors cut and revised it; actually the revisions were quite good—they kept all the key points and reduced the aggressiveness. Still, I’ll post the unedited original here for reference~ The newly released has stirred up a great deal of controversy. Beyond simply laughing at it or picking holes in it, there has gradually also been some serious discussion by scientists and scholars…
China science history of science philosophy of science
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2016年4月29日
I, Too, Will Take a Shot at the “Chinese Citizens’ Scientific Literacy Benchmark”

Culture & Public Commentary2016.04.24
I, Too, Will Take a Shot at the “Chinese Citizens’ Scientific Literacy Benchmark”
Recently the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Central Propaganda Department released the latest Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy among Chinese Citizens, which drew a great deal of mockery. Out of curiosity, I looked it up too, and after reading it I could not help wanting to mock it as well, so I sat down and wrote this (I’ve been trying to stimulate my own will to act lately). At first I only intended to pick a few items that had not been mocked much online and talk about them, but after writing I discovered there were far more targets for ridicule than I had imagined. Before I knew it,…
China science history of science philosophy of science
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2016年4月24日
Second Commentary on the Science and Technology Assignment (On the Revolutionary and Conservative Aspects of the Copernican System)

Teaching & Courses2011.11.30
Second Commentary on the Science and Technology Assignment (On the Revolutionary and Conservative Aspects of the Copernican System)
I’d been busy with meetings for a while; organizing these meetings takes so much mental energy that I still haven’t really recovered… But the long-overdue second assignment for Keton had to be graded. I’ve already gone through the assignments once and added comments one by one. Some assignments got very few comments, so I’ll use this space to talk about the more general issues. First, I have to stress once again the issue of annotation conventions. Last time I only directly pointed out the problem of annotation conventions in my replies to some students; for other students whose annotations were also nonstandard, I didn’t criticize them directly. Instead, I wrote…
history of science scholarship history course
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2011年11月30日
Reading an Einstein Biography

History of Science & Scholarship2009.05.09
Reading an Einstein Biography
[U.S.] Walter Isaacson: Einstein: Life and the Universe, translated by Zhang Butian I had originally promised to write a review for Senior Brother Butian, but I have kept putting it off again and again. It seems I really just cannot squeeze one out; at least, not before the end of this term. So let me just write a few random lines here as an explanation… There are several reasons for this procrastination: First, this spring I unfortunately developed allergic rhinitis. Since I had never had allergies before, I never got the right treatment at the beginning, and it took me more than half a month of fussing around before I…
book reading notes history of science historiography
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2009年5月9日
Paul Hoffman: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers—A Biography of Erdős

History of Science & Scholarship2007.07.08
Paul Hoffman: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers—A Biography of Erdős
Paul Hoffman: Digital Abiding Passion: The Life of Erdős, translated by Mi Xiujun, Zhang Xiaoyan, and Miu Weidong, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press, August 2000, 21 yuan This was the first book I read during my trip to Shanxi. It was something Senior Brother Botian had mentioned before, and it really is very good. It had been a long time since I last read a scientist’s biography. In fact, biographies of scientists are a superb form of popular science: through literary means, they can interestingly combine first-order popularization with second-order popularization. That is to say, in a scientist’s biography, one can not only occasionally insert explanations of scientific knowledge,…
philosophy book reading notes history of science
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2007年7月8日
On CCTV Airing a Paranormal Video

Life & Notes2007.02.08
On CCTV Airing a Paranormal Video
About CCTV Broadcasting Paranormal Videos I happened to see a QQ News item, http://news.qq.com/a/20070208/000611.htm To say whether what CCTV is promoting is “pseudoscience” is hard to say, but one thing can be certain: it is not promoting science, and even less the spirit of science. I already mentioned the badness of CCTV’s “Exploration·Discovery” program in an earlier article, The Zodiac, Easter Island, and the Predicament of Popular Science. I have always recommended: if you want to know more about science, it is best to watch less television. Whether it is “Exploration·Discovery” or “Discovery,” the contribution to the public understanding of science is probably extremely negative. I am less and less…
everyday life science scientific spirit experts
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2007年2月8日
On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: Can All Problems Brought by Science Be Solved by Science?

History of Science & Scholarship2007.01.03
On the Discussion on the Teachers’ Blogs: Can All Problems Brought by Science Be Solved by Science?
Reposting one article by Teacher Jiang Xiaoyuan: Can all the problems brought by science be solved by science? 2007-03-30 21:16:43 Can all the problems brought by science be solved by science? ——A discussion with Professor Wei Menghua Jiang Xiaoyuan http://www.sciencenet.cn/sbhtmlnews/200733001117574176097.html Science Times 2007-03-30, A4 Having read with respect Professor Wei Menghua’s article, “Science Has No Third Pole—A Discussion with Professor Liu Huajie,” published in the March 23 issue of Science Times · Weekend Review, as well as Professor Liu Huajie’s article, which was the object of discussion and had appeared earlier in Science Times, I have been deeply moved, and cannot resist offering a few modest views of my own….
science discussion truth Liu Huajie
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2007年1月3日
How Can We Promote Technological Innovation?

History of Science & Scholarship2006.06.10
How Can We Promote Technological Innovation?
Just as a lightning strike is an extremely accidental event, hard to predict and grasp, people can nonetheless figure out what conditions make lightning more likely to occur. They can then install lightning rods and other facilities to channel possible strikes. Technological innovation is also unpredictable, but people can strive to create environmental conditions conducive to innovation, promote the emergence of innovation, and more effectively bring its effects into play. So how can we create a technological environment favorable to innovation? I think this first requires adhering to a certain “tolerant” attitude. A tolerant attitude applies to many issues; here I will begin with a preliminary discussion from the following…
science history of science scientific spirit scientific method
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2006年6月10日
Xiao Gu Talks Quantum Physics (Colloquial Edition) — Lecture One: The Gains of Not Understanding

History of Science & Scholarship2006.04.04
Xiao Gu Talks Quantum Physics (Colloquial Edition) — Lecture One: The Gains of Not Understanding
Xiaogu Talks About Quantum Physics (Colloquial Version) Lecture One: The Gains of Not Understanding The reading salon has been eagerly anticipated for a long time. You all know that I am very fond of books: first I like buying books, and second I like reading books. Among students, I’m probably the one who buys the most books. Of course, they are not all just for show; I have read quite a few of them. There are simply far too many books on the market now. There is a pile of bad books, but there are also far too many good books. If you asked me to pick two books from…
science history of science philosophy of science scientific spirit
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2006年4月4日
Xu Jinhua’s Lecture

Life & Notes2006.04.02
Xu Jinhua’s Lecture
Pretty interesting. Mr. Xu was very witty. But he does indeed seem to have a bit of a folk-science air about him. His “integrated waterway” sounds far too mystical; to fantasize about solving “all environmental problems” through such a technology, even if Mr. Xu insists that this is not technology but science, is still a bit too naive. As for the “fundamental error of Einstein,” that was the weak point of Mr. Xu’s lecture this time. Of course, science must oppose blind faith in authority, but scientific masters are after all masters—how could they be so easily refuted? Wave-particle duality is after all persuasive; not to mention photons and light…
everyday life science scientific spirit Einstein
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2006年4月2日