Big brains win big fame

The 18-year-old student of physics from Tsinghua University is now an internet celebrity. And some of his fans even use his photo with his name on as an amulet hoping it will help them pass a challenging exam.

His popularity stems from Forward to the Future, a hit sciencethemed quiz show that ended its third season on China Central Television late last month.

In the latest season of the show, Chen beat 23 elite contestants — all selected from top schools — to win the top prize.

“He was the biggest surprise for us. He is the kind of person who thinks quickly and gives an answer confidently,” says Zhang Yuanyuan, the show’s chief director.

When Chen attended a selection test to pick contestants for the show, he took just five minutes to answer all the questions, much less than the 20 minutes on average for most other aspirants.

And his debut on the show stunned presenter Sa Beining, who co-hosted the program with his ethnic Uygur partner, Nigermaidi Zechman.

Chen, then a sophomore at Tsinghua’s Department of Physics and now a junior, introduced himself, saying: “I’ve started scientific research on plasma and controlled nuclear fusion since this year. My goal is to replicate nuclear fusion reactions in the core of the sun to provide energy for humankind.”

If the hosts were impressed by the young scientist’s aspirations, that was just the beginning, because they soon found out that he has also had a daredevil streak in him and was ready to walk the talk if he believed in something.

The proof of his courage came when Chen and his first-round rival, a 15-year-old genius in chemistry, were given the first test, which was: Which kind of tank — one that has 2 percent sugar melted in the water or the same amount of water with the same percentage of salt — is safe for people to be immersed in if the water is charged with a 1.1-million-volt electric current?

Chen chose the salty water, and he tested his conclusion personally.

As his rival was not an adult, she was allowed to have the host, Zechman, take her place to test sugar water.

For the test, Chen wore a special hat and with his arms wrapped with tin foil. He got into a bath filled with water and 20 kilograms of salt.

While the audience was on the edge of their seats, the young man was relaxed, and even stretched out his fingers to touch the high-tension arc carrying the high-voltage current, which could be fatal if he was wrong.

Ling Ran, 26, a PhD graduate of environment engineering at the National University of Singapore, and Chen Kunyu, 18, a student of physics from Tsinghua University, are two of the contestants of the show, who have won many fans.

“His calmness formed a sharp contrast to Zechman, who was very nervous,” recalls director Zhang.

Chen, who was born in Fushun, Liaoning province, demonstrated an interest in science from the age of 3 as he preferred to look at science-themed picture books instead of watching TV.

Later, he was part of a project to recruit child geniuses for the Northeast Yucai School in Shenyang. A former champion in China’s national physics contest for middle school students in 2015, Chen, who joined Tsinghua at 16, writes sci-fi novels as a hobby.

Chen is not the only star created by the show.

Those who have also won fans are Ling Ran, a 26-year-old PhD graduate of environment engineering at the National University of Singapore, and Zhang Haolin, a biochemistry doctorate student at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Producer Wang Xuechun says the show has led to the creation of positive role models for China’s children and teenagers in an era dominated by entertainment.

“Now that the show has broadcast its third season, our aim is not only to disseminate scientific knowledge but also to convey the spirit and strength of science,” says Wang.

And she gives the instance of an episode featuring how artificial intelligence has transformed the life of a young woman who lost an arm when she was 2.

Lin Anlu realized her dream of playing piano after having practiced with a mind-controlled prosthetic limb for six months. And on the show she performed a fourhanded duet with celebrated pianist Lang Lang.

The show also features eye-popping experiments, including breeding a chick incubated in a glass jar, dealing with a cube of flammable ice brought from the deep sea and escaping when a car sinks into water.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the show, which broadcast its first season in 2016, Wang says: “We’ve seen that European and US TV shows often feature interesting scientific experiments. But this was rarely done in China.”

Also, the production team believed that the popularization of science knowledge and boosting of scientific research would be one of China’s key goals in the years ahead, says Zhang Yuanyuan.

To ensure the credibility of the show, some of China’s top scientists — such as renowned marine geologist Wang Pinxian and physicist Cao Zexian — guide and supervise all the experiments.

The show seems to have ignited a passion for science off-screen. And the production team’s campaign to pick two experiments for the show from nearly 300 candidates has earned 170 million “clicks”.

The two chosen experiments — one to observe how long potatoes will take to rot in outer space and one about liquid metal — were to be carried in a satellite to be launched by a privately developed rocket from Jiuquan in Northwest China’s Gansu province on Oct 27. But the launch was not successful.

Speaking about the setback, Jia Shanshan, who’s also a producer and director of the show, says: “Our attempt to do the two space experiments failed, but we are not frustrated.

“It helps us realize that it is a tough journey to pursue a scientific dream. And the most important thing is to persist with courage.”