"Zheng Yuanjie of the scientific research community"? He tells children about science as if it were a fairy tale

"Legend has it that deep in the mountains, there lives a long-tailed dragon. It likes to rush out of the mountains on stormy nights. If people get too close, they will be eaten by it..." This is the first sentence of the popular science children's book "The Long-Tailed Dragon in the Mountains", written by Tie Yongbo, a professor-level senior engineer at the Chengdu Geological Survey Center of the China Geological Survey and a master's supervisor in geological engineering.

Tie Yongbo

Perhaps the connection between the two is somewhat "contrastingly cute". But Tie Yongbo is such a person, full of childlike innocence and love of literature. He single-handedly swept away the stereotypes in the eyes of the public, such as "scientists are demanding data, rigid and boring". In his eyes, mountains and rivers are never ordinary. Every inch of ridges and hills and gullies hides the heartbeat of the earth, which stirs up an extremely strong desire for exploration in his curious heart and nourishes his profound literary literacy. In the end, this poetic feeling of life flows from the bottom of his heart, and he is also happy to pick up a pen to record the pulse of these new era mountain villages, but in the most simple and childlike way.

"I think good popular science works should be understandable to everyone, so I chose to 'start from the young'. 'The Long-tailed Dragon in the Mountains' is a fairy tale born out of the prevention and control of mudslide disasters. I hope to tell everyone more stories about me and geological research in the future." Tie Yongbo said.

People are "repairing the earth" in Sichuan

People who deal with the "land" are often romantically called "earth repairers".

The importance of earth science is self-evident. It is not only one of the six basic disciplines of natural science, but also contains the secret of "the origin of mankind". Under the vast territory of my country, the mountains and rivers of Sichuan are the most unique - its complex geological structure quietly preserves the blueprint of geological changes, so it is called the "kingdom of earth science".

Therefore, since he stepped into the Chengdu Geological Survey Center of the China Geological Survey (referred to as "Chengdu Geological Bureau") in 2009, Tie Yongbo has been willing to travel between the mountains and valleys, measuring every mountain or stream in Sichuan with his footsteps.

May to October every year is the flood season in Sichuan, and it is also the busiest time for Tie Yongbo and his team. As long as there are geological disasters such as landslides and mud-rock flows in mountainous areas, or even just heavy rain warnings, Tie Yongbo's team needs to rush to the scene to guide local governments in conducting geological disaster risk assessment and response work to protect people's lives and property. And these are just their "daily routines." In addition to routine geological surveys and assessments, as the leader of the Ministry of Natural Resources' expert group on geological disaster prevention in Sichuan during the flood season, whenever a major geological disaster occurs, it is the time for Tie Yongbo to shoulder the heavy burden.

In the 15 years since he started working, it is not difficult to find Tie Yongbo leading the team at the post-earthquake sites in Luding and Lushan. He also stepped forward to help in the Jishishan earthquake in Qinghai in 2023 and the landslide in Zhenxiong in early 2024. "This is my job and what I want to do."

Tie Yongbo's work site

Due to his participation in the prevention and response of many major geological disasters, Tie Yongbo has been commended and recognized many times by the State Council Earthquake Relief Headquarters Office, Sichuan Earthquake Relief Headquarters Office, Gansu Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Zhaotong Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources, etc. However, unexpectedly, geologists have not received all applause and flowers over the years. In areas with relatively backward cognitive development, some people have questioned their work.

"We always show up before or after a disaster, and may be mistakenly considered to be 'inappropriate', so this shows the importance of popular science work." This is also one of the fundamental reasons why Tie Yongbo took up writing.

The heart looks for the future in books

Tie Yongbo's literary spirit was deeply planted at an early age. When he was a teenager who loved to run around and play, he loved to read novels. He read during the day and at night, and sometimes even read secretly during class. He often exchanged the food coupons given by his family for novels. His parents did not stop him, and he did not delay his studies.

In the 1970s, the popular path of growth was to "go to a technical secondary school or a normal school, learn a craft, and become a clerk or teacher with a 'iron rice bowl' after graduation", but Tie Yongbo wanted to find his future in books. So, after a few visits, he was admitted to an ordinary high school. "I often think that my fate with academics may have started from here," he recalled.

To this day, Tie Yongbo still has the habit of reading. Decades later, he seems to be still that "literary youth" who still loves to read novels. He carefully collects every winning work of the Mao Dun Prize, leaving no empty bookshelf in his home. "This is probably the utopia in my heart," he always said.

Therefore, when the idea of ​​popularizing science came up, Tie Yongbo was eager to combine literature with his profession and create his own popular science books. The Long-tailed Dragon in the Mountains series of books was born.

One of the series of books "Long-tailed Dragon in the Mountains"

When the work came out, it received many honors, such as "Excellent Popular Science Book of Hubei Province" and "Top 100 Popular Science Creations of Tianfu Science Cloud". Questions such as "Why did you choose to use an anthropomorphic perspective to tell the story of mudslide disasters?" and "Why did you choose to write a children's book?" gradually increased with the attention and visits. However, Tie Yongbo had only one answer: "Literature is the study of human beings. Only by living in the world can it be full of life, and my life is geological research and southwest China. Therefore, I just chose the way I am most familiar with to pass on the knowledge of geological disaster prevention and control to more people."

But what Tie Yongbo didn't say is that the term "long-tailed dragon" was inspired by the people in the mountains, who often called mudslides "walking dragons". In addition, on his desk, there is always a small model of two rammed earth houses that can be seen everywhere in western China. These are houses that are often encountered in geological surveys. Therefore, for Tie Yongbo, it is a wake-up call that inspires his scientific research progress, and also his homesickness.