Within the first month of 2025, the trend of reading pop science books, particularly ones with fascinating text and illustrations attractive to children, has risen among young readers thanks to policy support from various authorities.

On Jan 1, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology, along with cooperating departments, announced its annual New Discovery Pop-Science Booklist of 21 types of books, including one that explains sound to readers and one about flying birds, both of which had good sales records on domestic bookselling websites.

The Beijing Book Fair was held from Jan 9 to 11 at the China International Exhibition Center (Chaoyang Hall), where pop science books appeared as a genre that both readers and publishers marveled at. Their popularity was evident with over 2,900 display booths seeing their opening hours hosting pop-science writers' lectures where they shared knowledge that was well-received among audiences.

"We get double the information by attending the lectures," said 38-year-old Deng Hong, who attended three pop-science book-sharing lectures with her daughter on Jan 9.

"We both get to know what a new book is about and take in science knowledge," she added.

One of the lectures Deng attended was given by Cao Yong, a professor from Northwestern Polytechnical University Ningbo branch, who was in charge of a team that designed a robotic "ghost fish", a bionic submersible that could travel autonomously in the ocean. Cao shared how the "ghost fish" swims underwater and answered questions such as, "would such a bionic fish be eaten by a bigger fish", or "what materials is its skin made of that can withstand high water pressure". Cao also gifted a book about big airplanes to Beijing No 15 High School whose students attended his lecture.

The Young Scientist, a pop science cartoon series, is another major product that attracted over 100 people on-site and sold more than 1,000 copies online during the past two weeks. Written by 10 renowned domestic scientists and pop science writers with illustrations by 11 professional artists, the series teaches readers about the latest advancements in major science sectors and enhances their prospects. Four of the 10 writers held an open seminar in which about three dozen were kids that they "hope to influence the most", according to its editor Zou Li.

The four writers shared key points in their books. For example, "a long rumor is that mankind invented radar-imitating bats that find their way by sending ultrasonic waves", said Yuan Lanfeng, chief editor of the series, "but while writing and editing the book about bionics, we consulted a bat expert, a radar expert and an acoustics professor and found that mankind invented the radar long before discovering that bats emitted ultrasonic waves. The two are similar but not imitating each other."

The writers also answered questions raised by the pupils. The most popular question was: "What do we do now to become scientists like you?"

"If you want to be an astronaut or astronautic scientist, stay healthy and do your homework to become educated," answered Zhou Binghong, one of the writers who is also a researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology, pointing out that the line between astronauts and astronautic scientists is vague as these professions need extensive knowledge to travel to space for on-site experiences. "Health and knowledge are the most important factors for both professions, which are becoming increasingly popular at a lower cost."

Wang Dapeng, a researcher at the China Research Institute for Science Popularization, encourages the idea of recruiting scientists to write their stories. "We need more scientific researchers to tell stories of their research fields. Science in the form of stories is more digestible to children because reading is not only for acquiring knowledge but also for enriching lives and improving oneself."

Li Hui, deputy Party secretary and vice-chairperson of the board of Hunan Publishing Investment Holding Group, said that pop science works play an irreplaceable role in cultivating children's scientific literacy and stimulating their innovative potential. The publishing group follows the national innovation-driven development strategy and is committed to publishing excellent popular science works and enhancing scientific literacy.

"How many galaxies are there in the universe besides ours?" asked a 7-year-old at the end of the seminar.

"So far, we know of about 100 billion," Zhou answered, "which means for each of the 8 billion people on Earth, there is an average of a dozen galaxies. The coming generations have a mission to work harder on space science so that one day we can travel at the speed of light into the deep universe to explore them.

"Let's find our own galaxies," Zhou said.