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.

Information has become more and more penetrating, and mutually interactive under the era of internet, that trend has become a norm in people’s daily life. IT application and informatization is currently undergoing a series of profound changes, which has brought about tremendous impacts on people’s way of thinking, study, life and work, and social governing regulations and laws. Under the context full of challenges, it is advised to gain a full and better understanding of “people” in the era of internet, grasp the rules and laws involving internet management, make accelerated efforts to make reforms and innovation in the traditional science popularization mode, and speed up the informatization in science popularization. With regard to informatization in science popularization, efforts shall be made to get rid of the shackles imposed by the traditional and established technology, thinking, and institutional mechanism, so as to build a new and full-fledged science popularization mode. During this process, we shall focus on such newly emerging philosophy as “customer-oriented” and “attention-based economy”, make full use of big data, find the targeted and precise solutions and services, do a great job in the resolution of the issue of “last mile for science popularization”, as well as explore ways to substantially bolster science popularization capabilities.

Natural science museum is defined as a socially-involved institution dedicating itself to science communication and education. The development of natural science museum is currently faced with fresh challenges and opportunities largely due to the overall trend of world multi-polarization, economic globalization, cultural diversity, and information booming. By starting with an analysis of the development of natural science museums, globalization and sustainable development, uneven regional development and the major influence of technology and social interaction as socio-contextual factors are analyzed in this paper. According to the analysis, it is analyzing that “the Belt and Road” Initiative has provided a key platform and a package of solutions for natural science museums in terms of coping with the above-mentioned challenges. Therefore, as proposed in this paper, the following suggestions should be taken into account: strengthen the communication and cooperation among natural science museums; build a platform for scientific communication; promote the activities and events related to exhibitions and educational programs; provide a range of professional training programs to build leadership; establish mutual benefits& sharing mechanism; as well as promote a further development in science and technology, education and culture in the countries and regions along “the Belt and Road”.

Based on the visitor study of Diverse Lives at Shanghai Natural History Museum, the paper tries to analyze the frequency and types of visitors’ conversation through tracking, observation and documentation of conversation and interactive behavior of 63 samples. The survey finds that group visitors show a tendency towards visiting the museum on their own and that perceiving dialogue is the most common type of conversation occurred during the visit. By adopting the detailed analysis of the relationship between visitors’ conservations and exhibit design, the survey finds the factors which can influence visitors’ conservation. The exhibits which are with obvious features and within visitors’ sight can evoke high frequency of conservations. The labels and texts in exhibit promote visitors’ conservation. The exhibits that contribute to visitors’ relationship building and reasoning can evoke in-depth learning conservations. It is clear that great efforts should be made to facilitate visitors’ conservations; investigate the needs of targeted groups in advance; use labels, texts and videos to enrich exhibit content; choose exhibits with obvious features; and design exhibits under the guidance of inquiry learning.

Inquiry learning has received wide attention among science centers. The paper puts forward a way to evaluate the science center exhibits’ function for inquiry learning. The exhibits can be divided into three grades both at the output of information and input of conditions. With different grades, the levels of function for inquiry learning are naturally different. In the paper, both the input and output should be taken into account to evaluate the exhibits’ function for inquiry learning. Furthermore, the paper explains why the differences among exhibits exist, and puts forward some ideas and suggestions to improve the function for inquiry learning accordingly.

With the ever increasing advances of society, the role played by the traditional science communication is declining sharply, and more diverse methods are taking shape. Science fiction film is a kind of new science communication method, however, different people hold different opinions about this new method. Based on case studies, the paper analyzes the transmission factors in science fiction films and embodies a research based on a questionnaire about science fiction films. The results show that science fiction film is a practicable and effective method for science communication and has a special communication effect. Science fiction film proves to be a sound method for science communication where the overwhelming public showcase keen interest in approaching it.

The paper conducted a clear definition and scope of popular science books, considering that the scope of popular science books are featured by intersection and ductility. According to the above-mentioned characteristics, popular science books are divided into three types: core science books, general science books and extensional science books. Meanwhile, the paper also views that the following problem are still in existence: effective statistical methods are still lacking, research topics are simply confined to book editing and publication, the same researchers only publish fewer papers, as well as international academic impact is comparatively lower, etc. In a nutshell, some suggestions are made for a sound development of science popularization.

In order to gain a deep knowledge of the current situation of science communication under the context of new media, the paper makes a quantitative study of Science WeChat accounts to find out how the content and the forms relating to science information are arranged. The results of the research indicate that science WeChat has expanded the way of science communication. The science WeChat official accounts are more diverse on science topics, and tend to enrich the content construction and information format of the texts by employing such multimedia elements as images and videos.