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.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence in the digital age is reshaping the connotation and boundaries of science popularization, promoting the transformation of science popularization goals from traditional knowledge dissemination to ability cultivation. By reviewing the development process and current challenges of science popularization work in China, and combining the development of science popularization in the digital age with the policy orientation of the revised Law of thePeople's Republic of China on Popularization of Science and Technology, this paper explores the theoretical basis and practical needs for the transformation of science popularization towards capacity cultivation. At the theoretical level, based on the STS theory and scientific literacy theory, it is transforming into a capacity-building science popularization, to enhance the public's scientific thinking ability, technological adaptability, and ethical judgment ability. To address the challenges brought by new technologies such as artificial intelligence, a five-dimensional training path is proposed, which includes optimizing supply content, innovating communication modes, reforming evaluation systems, supporting institutional policies, and optimizing talent systems. This provides a reference for improving public rationality and modernizing science popularization governance.

The integration of culture and technology constitutes both an inevitable trend and a pressing need for technological and social development. Existing studies, however, remain predominantly practice-oriented, exhibiting a paucity of theoretical exploration and systematic inquiry, particularly concerning the role of science popularization. Employing the theory of the public sphere, this study systematically analyzes how constructing a public sphere for cultural-technological dialogue can overcome barriers to their integration across three dimensions: knowledge, values, and practice. It examines the characteristics of science popularization that align with those of the public sphere—openness, rationality, and interactivity—and elucidates the mechanisms whereby science popularization fosters integration by: establishing a public space for knowledge convergence, providing a public platform for value negotiation, and creating a public interface for practical collaboration. The study also identifies current challenges in this process and proposes corresponding countermeasures. This study reveals that science popularization serves as a natural public sphere for cultural-technological dialogue. To further facilitate the integration of culture and technology through high-quality science popularization, efforts should enhance its openness, rationality, and interactivity.

Under the strategic framework of supporting Chinese modernization with high-quality population development, science popularization services assume a critical role in advancing such development. This paper analyzes the challenges confronting China's population development, including pressures arising from population size and structural issues. It elucidates the scientific essence and priority tasks of promoting high-quality population development. Furthermore, it examines the new demands placed on science popularization services in this context, such as their integration into the population service system, their contribution to enhancing the overall quality of the population, and their role in reshaping perceptions related to marriage and childbearing. A framework for structuring science popularization services to foster high-quality population development is proposed. Accordingly, for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is imperative to focus on the integrated enhancement of three core dimensions of comprehensive population quality: scientific and cultural literacy, holistic health, and ideological and ethical standards. This requires to establish a science popularization system for the entire population and across the entire life cycle, innovate the content of science popularization, implementing targeted action plans, which include initiatives for a high-quality demographic foundation, a competent workforce, healthy aging, and supportive family environments, promote the integration of new and traditional science popularization methods, and strengthen the policy guarantee mechanism for science popularization, and promote the high-quality development of the population served by science popularization.

Scientific and technological innovation alongside public science education serve as the “dual engines” driving innovation-led development. As a pioneering region for high-quality development in China, Zhejiang Province has cultivated distinctive experiences in promoting the synergistic evolution of these two domains. This paper focuses on the core issue of how Zhejiang facilitates itscoordinated advancement and explores the underlying mechanisms. Employing empirical analysis combined with case studies, This paper utilize the entropy method and the coupling coordination model to quantitatively assess the coupling coordination degree across Zhejiang's 11 prefecture-level cities in 2023. Through integrating practical case studies from the province, The research identify the intrinsic mechanisms governing their synergistic evolution while revealing existing challenges: uneven resource allocation between innovation and popularization, low conversion efficiency, insufficient public engagement, and lagging evaluation mechanisms. Systematically summarizing these intrinsic mechanisms, This paper propose targeted improvement recommendations based on our findings, This includes four aspects: establishing a cross-regional resource coordination and compensation mechanism, establishing a collaborative transformation system for scientific research andsciencepopularization, cultivating a sciencepopularization ecosystem involving multiple entities, and improving dynamic evaluation and governance feedback mechanisms. offering transferable insights for other Chinese regions pursuing coordinated “dual-engine” development.

Under the background of a strong country in education and science and technology, the importance of science education is increasingly prominent. As an important goal of science education, the nature of science helps students better understand scientific knowledge, develop scientific thinking, and enhance curiosity and imagination. Teaching the nature of science in early childhood is crucial to ensuring that students have an accurate understanding of the nature of science. However, the survey results show that the overall development level of kindergarten graduates' understanding of the nature of science is low, and there are regional and school differences in China. Schools in the western region and schools with weak conditions are in a relatively vulnerable position. Besides, the survey results of kindergarten teachers also reveal that kindergarten teachers themselves have a poor understanding of the nature of science, and a serious lack of understanding of the importance of the nature of science. Based on this, this study proposes a multi-level framework for promoting the understanding of the nature of science in early education. At the macro level, it advocates for the early implementation of relevant educational practices and the optimization of resource allocation. the meso level, the focus shifts to institutional empowerment and ecological development, aiming to enhance science teachers' comprehension and appreciation of the nature of science, foster an open, diverse, and inclusive environment for exploration, and establish a coherent science education system bridging kindergarten and primary school. At the micro level, the emphasis is placed on the internalization of teaching practices and interactive pedagogies. Through modalities such as hands-on experiments, scientific dialogue, and home-school collaboration, the framework seeks to advance young children's grasp of the fundamental understanding of the nature of science.

As artificial intelligence increasingly permeates the field of education, early childhood science education is encountering both new opportunities and emerging challenges. Grounded in multimodal learning theory, this paper reviews the applications of artificial intelligence in scientific context creation, inquiry process support, and learning process evaluation, and analyzes the potential risks it may pose to child development, teacher professionalism, and educational ethics. The analysis indicates that artificial intelligence can enrich children’s learning methods and enhance the quality of science education through multimodal presentation, instant feedback, and continuous evaluation. However, its deep involvement may also weaken children’s experiential inquiry, diminish teachers’ professional judgment, and, in certain contexts, lead to the encroachment of technical logic upon educational values. In response, this paper proposes strategies across three dimensions: educational philosophies, teacher professionalism, and institutional safeguards. These strategies include upholding inquiry-based learning, strengthening teachers’ professional judgment, and improving ethical norms and data security mechanisms, aiming to promote the appropriate and effective empowerment of early childhood science education by artificial intelligence, ensuring that technological innovation genuinely serves children’s scientific learning and development.

In the new era, the promulgation of a series of laws, regulations and policy documents has put forward higher and more challenging requirements for early childhood science education. This study explores the requirements and challenges posed by the new era for early childhood science education in terms of educational objectives, teachers’ scientific literacy, technological empowerment, multi-agent collaboration and other aspects. By crafting its value system based on the five perspectives of basic view, systematic view, symbiotic view, construction view and digital-intelligent view, this study builds an independent exploration-oriented early childhood science education model, improves the teachers’ scientific literacy, and establishes a “six-party” collaborative ecological system for early childhood science education.

In the strategic context of the “Artificial Intelligence+” Action, enhancing national AI competence is a prerequisite for consolidating the foundations of an inclusive, intelligent society, activating New Quality Productive Forces, and securing a competitive national advantage. National AI competence can be tiered into two levels. The first is General AI Competence, designed for all citizens, and includes functional application, critical thinking, and ethical safety. The second is Domain AI Competence, aimed at professionals, focusing on process re-engineering, human-machine collaboration, and ethical governance. To advance this competence, we must move beyond spontaneous, fragmented individual efforts and establish it as a systemic public popularization endeavor. This requires strengthening top-level design, adopting a dual-track strategy of universal inclusion and targeted precision, consolidating the responsibilities of platforms and media, establishing social incentive and certification mechanisms, and building a continuously evolving popularization research support system.

It is evident that parks and science museums play a significant role in the development of the country's science popularization capability and the realisation of its high quality development. However, there are several issues that must be addressed in the development of science parks, such as the need for infrastructure upgrades, the lack of integrative, diverse and specialised content, and innovation in the application of scenes. The study is founded upon the question refer to how to promote the transformation of the function of science museums and its service. The study draws upon symbiosis theory, employing the analytical method of examining the historical evolution of parks and museums. In addition, an explanation is provided of the unique scientific and cultural value of parks, and of their role in the construction of a scientific and technological powerhouse. Moreover, a number of typical cases are selected for comprehensive analysis. The study proposes a series of strategies to facilitate the healthy development of science parks. These include the construction of new infrastructure for science popularization, the exploration of park resources, the establishment of a platform for research, and the enhancement of the technology that enables parks to develop. The overarching objective of these strategies is to effect a transformation in the functional orientation of science popularization position and transformation and upgrading of service mode.