Science popularization studies (SSP) for a new era shall be conducted under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Great efforts shall be made to adhere to the Communist Party’s leadership for work in all aspects, to fully put into place the basic theories, lines and strategies set forth by the Party, to strive for the creation of theoretical system in line with socialism with Chinese characteristics, to earnestly generate the new guiding direction for SSP, to endeavor to explore specific research projects which need profound and extensive studies, to produce a bulk of research outputs with academic, theoretical and practical significance, to make new achievements on the path towards thinktank construction and practical policy studies, to give full play to science popularization’s part in the fields of politics, economy, education, culture, innovation and ecology, and to make new and greater contribution to the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

China has witnessed a transformation of strategic goals from striving for economic development and material supply to seeking a balanced social structure and sufficient supply of cultural and spiritual resources so as to achieve a better life. Hence, a focus on strikingly speedy development has been transferred to a comparatively slower phase in which balanced development is emphasized. Ever since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, science popularization practice has long been pursuing instant effectiveness, while for the emerging culture of science, values and perseverance have been highlighted. In the new era, culture of science commands that scientific communities should no longer be enclosed as ivory tower, but take up the commission endowed by science popularization and culture of science: to fulfill the public’s increasing needs for a better life and to take corresponding actions. For this purpose, the paper proposes five inter-related major projects aiming to promote the culture of science, namely, scientific spirit promotion project, scientific culture communication project, scientific culture regulation project, scientific culture infrastructure construction project, and the project encouraging the public’s participation in scientific activities.

A complete suite of science communication work involves a communication chain with different subjects of communication. There are differences in the mode and path of different science communication guidance. In this paper, the case study method is used to sort out and analyze the science popularization work carried out by the State Key Laboratories in order to further explore their synergistic relationship and transformation path. The research indicates that the current model of scientific research teams’ participating in science popularization is shifting from task-based passive communication to responsibility-based active communication. Meanwhile, the significant differences in the core values, cost structure, collaborative subjects and IT application of the scientific research team makes it possible to adopt the reconstruction-based science popularization path.

This study focuses on the communication of health information on the psychological counseling APP, and selects four APPs with high visibility and influence as the research objects. Through the interviews with the users who are involved in communication,　and with the operators who provide communication channels, it is principally found that there is a great demand for communication on counseling and seeking help. Positive communication is conducive to promoting the users’ cognition and behavior. The richer ways for communication will contribute to the higher quality of information, the APP is more popular with users. The operators with internet background pay more attention to communication than those with psychological background. In the future, One-way and interactive communication of health information will be developed simultaneously on the psychological counseling APP.

Rural science popularization plays a significant role in improving the peasants’ ability in applying science knowledge in their daily life and in agricultural production. Science popularization in rural areas bears witness to its rapid development since the new China was founded with the working system and mechanism being continuously improved. With the development of science popularization in the rural areas, science culture construction has become a new requirement in China for the time being. Under this context, the mechanism of visualization of science popularization should play a greater role in science popularization, and efforts shall be made to strengthen an integration of science and humanities, and to provide more opportunities for farmers to know and feel science in the daily life. Furthermore, with regard to the science culture construction, more focus should be given to the extensive and profound demands of farmers. Last but not the least, de-administration in science popularization should be more promoted.

Based on the current situation where theoretical research in the fields of rural science communication is lacking, and on the defining of rural science communication, the paper principally conducts a review of the related theory of the rural science communication by defining several key words in sequence, and makes an analysis of the development status, the existing problems, and the developing trend. The ultimate aim of the research is to find the way for a further research and provide some reference for enhancing the practical ability correspondingly.

Citizen Science is the process where the public participate in scientific projects through collecting data systematically and observing natural phenomena. Environmental education, as the bridge of the relationship between human and nature, has obtained increasing attention by educators. The paper attempts to make an empirical study on environmental education project with natural observation. Taking the “Swallow Investigation” event as an example, the paper seeks to analyze the design ideas and evaluation framework by combining citizen science with local natural resources. Whilst the implementation effect data of the project is analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Last but not the least, the resource package are revised and redeveloped in line with the assessment data of the event.

Science popularization is a kind of basic public service; the input-output of science popularization is related to the realization of science popularization public service equalization. Based on the DEA theory, the paper constructs the input-output index system to evaluate the equalization of popular science services, and analyzes the input-output of Guangxi science popularization in the Western region. The main findings in the paper are: many indexes of the input-output about Guangxi science popularization are lower than the average level of other provinces in the western region, the service ability of Guangxi science popularization is unstably developed and the general upward and increasing trend is still lacking, the main weak point of the Guangxi science popularization owes more to a lack of staff than to the funds, output is still unsteadily maintained, and the media ability on the Guangxi science popularization is weak. To this end, some suggestions have been proposed: efforts shall be made to increase the input of science popularization personnel to attach great importance to the construction of science popularization team, to enhance the ability of popular science media to promote the spread of science towards the new heights, and to stabilize the overall input of science popularization to ensure the overall development of science popularization.

Based on the statistic data of science popularization, three-stages DEA model was applied to study science popularization resources allocation and application among 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities from 2008 to 2015, which indicates both the overall and regional efficiency of the science popularization resources input in China. The research findings are unfolded as follows: The overall science popularization resources application efficiency in our country has fluctuated and tends to gradually decrease in recent years. The technology efficiency had higher influence on the overall efficiency. There remained large disparities and gaps in the levels of different regions. Among them, the eastern region had higher level of scale efficiency and was also more stable, with higher fluctuation of technology efficiency. They should focus more on rationally utilizing the science popularization resources. The central region had higher level of overall efficiency, but also with high fluctuation. In this region, the science popularization resources allocation and application efficiency should be steadily improved under manipulation. The efficiency level of western region was comparatively lower, in particular, the scale efficiency. The focus should be placed on enhancing rational allocation of the science popularization resources.

Thanks to the exploratory researches and endeavors in the area of Chinese science novel during its past 50 years of growing development, it has obtained immense supports and acclaims from a great number of renowned scientists, literature writers, and science writers. Whilst science novel research across China is still on a burgeoning path currently, with great impacts domestically and internationally. The writer finds that there remain some differences in science novel and science fiction: science novel is not entirely tantamount to “science fantasy fiction”, science novel gives an expression to science content in the form of novel which writes about “science in reality” rather than “science in fantasy”. Science and literature are the 2 wings of science novel, “science” and “novel” are wholly combined and inter-dependent for a successful science novel. Some scholars argue that the extensional connation of science novel is far more extensive than that of science fiction where science fiction shall be classified into science novel. Those arguments are worthy of further discussions. Statistics show that a number of novels in the form of science are taken as the well-known science fictions. Science novel is almost eclipsed by science fiction. As a matter of fact, as long as we seek exploring investigations and endeavors, we will encounter a huge number of classic science novels, such as Xiayi Lou by Li Yu, Cinq Semaines En Ballon by Jules Verne, as well as The New World of Mr Tompkins by George Gamow, etc.

Based on Chinese ancient poems as the main study objects, the paper illustrates the description of natural phenomena and poets’ insight into the natural laws, which are analyzed from a point of the modern physics. This is of great significance to the popularization of physics, has positive significance for the promotion of ancient poetries, and has positive implications for the analysis of the achievements and limitations of Chinese ancient science and technology.

The world bears witness to its first planetarium originated in Germany in the 1920s. Germany has therefore a long history for the interaction between planetariums and people’s social and cultural life. The paper firstly expounds on the history of the development of planetariums in Germany, followed by summarizing and analyzing the current public planetariums there in line with their geographical distribution, dome size, time of construction, equipment and architectural features, etc. The results show that they have a relatively homogeneous geographical distribution. Planetariums with 6~10 m dome diameter are the most common ones, while over 50% of them were constructed in the 1960s and 1980s. Zeiss projectors have a high market share in Germany. Both the independent and the attached planetariums have information-rich websites. Many of them provide online ticket reservation and program lists which are quite convenient for visitors. The programs are divided into instruction-based and video-based ones. There are also different levels for visitors of different ages. The main disadvantages, however, are a lack of content for high-level amateurs, as well as a lack of highly updated frequency. The latter will make it difficult for the visitors to keep abreast of what is happening in the area of the astronomical research in a short and timely manner.