The first revision of the Science and Technology Popularization Law has been completed. These highlights are worth paying attention to.

On December 25, the 13th session of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress voted to pass the newly revised Science and Technology Popularization Law, which will come into effect on the date of promulgation.

This is the first revision of the Science and Technology Popularization Law since it was promulgated and implemented in 2002. What are the highlights of the newly revised Science and Technology Popularization Law? Xinhua Viewpoint reporters have reviewed them.

Highlight 1: The first national science month was established

Since its promulgation and implementation, my country's current Science and Technology Popularization Law has played an important role in promoting science and technology popularization, improving citizens' scientific and cultural quality, and promoting innovation and development. At the same time, my country's science popularization is also facing some new situations and new problems, which require stronger and more complete legal protection.

The newly revised Science and Technology Popularization Law clarifies the position of science popularization in the new era from a legal perspective: the state places science popularization on an equal footing with scientific and technological innovation, strengthens the overall layout and overall deployment of science popularization work, promotes close coordination between science popularization and scientific and technological innovation, and gives full play to the role of science popularization in promoting the development of education, science and technology talents. At the same time, the "national implementation of the National Science Literacy Action" is included as one of the overall requirements, highlighting the value and mission of science popularization work in the new era.

"This revision not only reflects the country's high attention to popular science work, but also reflects the inevitable trend of mutual promotion and common development of popular science and technological innovation in the context of the new era," said Gu Yanfeng, deputy director of the Science Popularization Department of the China Association for Science and Technology.

The newly revised Science Popularization Law has made institutional arrangements to promote the coordinated development of science popularization and technological innovation from multiple aspects, including the science popularization responsibilities of innovation entities such as scientific research institutions, universities, and enterprises, the participation of scientific and technological personnel and teachers in science popularization activities, and the opening of scientific and technological resources to the public.

Over the years, the relevant departments have held a series of themed science popularization activities such as the National Science Popularization Day and the National Science and Technology Week, which have been widely welcomed and recognized by the public. Based on the summary of practical experience, the Science and Technology Popularization Law has added a provision that September of each year is the National Science Popularization Month.

Wang Ting, director of the China Science Popularization Research Institute, said that the establishment of the National Science Popularization Month is the first time that a special law on science popularization has specified a time period for concentrated and intensive science popularization activities for the public. This initiative actively responds to the people's growing demand for high-quality science popularization and is conducive to integrating richer, deeper and more stable science popularization activities into the daily lives of the public.

"September is the beginning of a new school year. Organizing science popularization activities at this time can be better integrated into the school's teaching plan and students' daily learning, promote the integrated development of education and science and technology talents, and cultivate more scientific and technological reserve talents for the country." Wang Ting said.

Highlight 2: Emphasis on popularizing new technologies and new knowledge

In order to further promote the high-quality development of science popularization and improve the level of science popularization supply, the newly revised Science Popularization Law added a chapter on "Science Popularization Activities", which supports and promotes science popularization activities from the aspects of supporting science popularization creation, developing science popularization industries, strengthening science popularization in key areas, strengthening the review and monitoring of science popularization information, and evaluating science popularization work.

Peng Chunyan, a researcher at the Science and Technology Talent Exchange and Development Service Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, pointed out that at present, with the development of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, my country's economy and society are undergoing a comprehensive digital transformation. At the same time, the more cutting-edge new technologies are, the more attention should be paid to possible negative impacts. This puts higher requirements on the timeliness and accuracy of popularizing new technologies and new knowledge.

This amendment has made corresponding provisions, such as: the state deploys and implements major scientific and technological tasks in the field of new technologies, and on the premise of complying with confidentiality laws and regulations, it can organize necessary popular science activities to enhance public understanding, recognition and support. It encourages all kinds of innovation entities to carry out popular science activities around new technologies and new knowledge, encourages the application of new technologies in popular science activities, guides the society to correctly understand and use scientific and technological achievements, and creates a good environment for the application of scientific and technological achievements.

Li Xiaoming, a professor at the School of Law of Xi'an Jiaotong University, noted that the amendment particularly emphasizes popularization of science for the elderly, the disabled and other groups. "The elderly and the disabled have relatively limited information acquisition and identification capabilities, and they need more popularization of relevant knowledge and skills to help them bridge the 'digital divide' and enjoy the fruits of scientific and technological development."

The newly revised Law on the Popularization of Science and Technology stipulates that open universities, senior citizen universities, senior citizen science and technology universities, community colleges, etc. should popularize knowledge and skills in health, network communications, intelligent technology, emergency safety, etc., and enhance the ability of the elderly, the disabled and other groups to obtain, identify and apply information.

Point 3: Control the spread of pseudo-popular science on the Internet

On the one hand, the popularization of the Internet and new technologies has enriched the content and means of popular science. On the other hand, it has also intensified the spread of pseudo-popular science on the Internet, which not only misleads the public but also may bring greater social risks.

"On the Internet, some organizations and individuals spread pseudoscience and rumors under the banner of 'popular science', using new technical terms such as quantum and nano to falsely claim that their products have special effects. It is also common to use AI technology to fabricate news events, forge audio and video of public figures, and spread unconfirmed medical advice. Some lawless elements even use AI technology to carry out illegal and criminal activities such as online fraud." Peng Chunyan said.

In this regard, the newly revised Science and Technology Popularization Law stipulates that the science popularization products and services provided by organizations and individuals and the science popularization information released must be legal and scientific, and must not contain false or erroneous content. If an Internet service provider finds that a user is spreading false or erroneous information, it must immediately take measures to prevent the spread of the information.

Wang Ting said that relevant laws and regulations emphasize that publishers of popular science information have an unshirkable responsibility for the legality and scientific nature of information, ensuring the reliability of popular science information from the source; at the same time, it makes it clear that platforms, as key links in information dissemination, have an obligation to review and supervise the popular science content they publish, which will prompt platforms to improve their review processes and standards and enhance their ability to review popular science content.

Highlight 4: Expanding the team of popular science talents

There are 1.9967 million full-time and part-time science popularization personnel nationwide, and nearly 4.56 million real-name registered science and technology volunteers... In recent years, my country's science popularization talent team has continued to grow and shown a diversified development trend, but overall, the construction of the science popularization team is still relatively lagging behind.

On July 11, volunteers from Fudan University led the children to do a buoyancy experiment. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan

To this end, the newly revised Science and Technology Popularization Law added a special chapter on "science popularization personnel", which makes provisions for establishing a professional science popularization staff team, encouraging and supporting elderly scientific and technical personnel to actively participate in science popularization work, supporting qualified universities and vocational schools to set up and improve science popularization-related disciplines and majors, and improving the science popularization volunteer service system and work system.

In response to prominent problems commonly reported by science popularization personnel, such as lack of professional identity and narrow career paths, the newly revised Science Popularization Law specifically clarifies that the state will improve the evaluation and incentive mechanisms for science popularization personnel, encourage relevant units to establish evaluation systems such as professional title evaluation and performance appraisal that conform to the characteristics of science popularization, and provide effective incentives for science popularization personnel.

Gu Yanfeng said that currently, 18 provinces across the country have launched the evaluation of professional titles in science popularization. The China Association for Science and Technology has also carried out a pilot evaluation of professional titles in science popularization for central units in Beijing since 2023, and has achieved tangible results.

"Promoting the improvement of evaluation systems and incentive mechanisms in legal forms and providing support and protection for the rights and development of science popularization personnel will attract more scientific and technological talents to devote themselves to science popularization and ensure the development of the science popularization talent team." Gu Yanfeng said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency