The empowerment of technological innovation through science popularization constitutes a pivotal contemporary issue in the context of the new technological revolution. To elucidate the mechanisms and pathways of this empowerment, it is imperative to clarify why science popularization is positioned as equally critical as technological innovation and how the two can achieve efficient and synergistic integration. In light of the transformative shifts facing contemporary science popularization—including digital and intelligent societal transitions, the demands for high-quality development and high-level competition, as well as the challenges arising from the expansion of its focus from “mature science and technology” to “science and technology in action” —it is evident that the concept of science popularization has undergone substantial evolution in dimensions such as content, target audiences, actors, forms, and mechanisms. Its functions have expanded beyond ideological and cultural enlightenment and the empowerment through knowledge and technology to encompass “value creation based on knowledge and technology.” To facilitate this comprehensive transformation in the conception and functionality of science popularization and thereby realize its empowerment of technological innovation, it is essential to deeply embed science popularization within the national innovation system. The key to this lies in enhancing the national “distribution power for knowledge and technology,” which entails strengthening the efficient flow of knowledge and technology between producers and users, promptly identifying and dismantling barriers to such flows, and establishing institutional mechanisms that ensure innovators' timely access to requisite innovation elements.