Scientists take to TV and Weibo to spark public bonanza(3)

Guokr has a column especially devoted to quashing the spread of scientific misinformation. "Guokr provides the public with a number of informed scientific opinions from around the world on issues that concern them," said Xu.

"Our articles express the perspectives of the global scientific community, and is based on an abundance of academic research."

When, several days ago, the story broke that Malaysian Airline Flight MH17 was brought down by what is suspected to be a missile attack from near the Ukraine-Russian border, the team at Guokr worked through the night to provide coverage of the incident from a scientific angle.

Editors were tasked with monitoring the story as it unfolded, on social media pages, news feeds and overseas websites.

When it was reported that 108 AIDS researchers had died in the crash (a figure that has since been revised to just six), the editors decided to cover the incident from the point-of-view of the loss it represented to the AIDS research community, while elaborating on the current state of AIDS research around the world.

"Some scientists are not attuned to everyday life, or find it difficult to explain their work to a layman. Guokr helps them to find a topic that is of interest to a general audience, and also helps to ensure that their writing is not too academic, but can easily be digested by the public," said Xu.

A less solemn example of how Guokr does this can be found in their article dissecting the Chopstick Brother's hit pop song "Little Apple" from a scientific viewpoint.

"We ran a report examining the relationship between rhythm, movement and people's neurobiology, to explain why people are attracted to the song," Xu said.

Looking to the future

The efforts being made by people like Wei and Ji are starting to bear fruit, with an increasing number of people in both the media and the general public taking a greater interest in trying to understand science.

Wei's television show has been renewed for a second season. According to the CSM Media Research Company, the first season finale of Super Brain had the highest audience share for its timeslot that evening.

Mirroring Super Brain's success, albeit somewhat more modestly, is Guokr. The online platform's AIDS-related report about the recent Malaysian Airlines plane crash had been reposted more than 130,000 times on Sina Weibo.

Other parts of the media have also started making space for dedicated science coverage.

Zhihu, an community-based Q&A website that might usefully be compared to Reddit, has a section devoted to questions about science. And last year, a new magazine called Wissen - Xinzhi in Chinese, which can be literally translated as "New Knowledge" - was launched, with coverage on scientific developments and discoveries making up 20 percent of its total content.

Although Wei is pleased with the success of his show and the steps that are being taken to improve scientific literacy in China, he's not counting his chickens before they hatch.

"Scientific literacy in China will improve gradually," said Wei.

"But it takes time. It isn't a project that can be completed within one or two generations."