Science through music for young minds

A unique concert, attended by classical musicians and Chinese scientists, was staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Sunday.

DNA Trio, featuring cellist Song Zhao, violinist Zhang Jingye and pianist Zhang Jialin, performed music pieces, including the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op 1 and the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Trio in D Major, Op 70.

Liu Jianni, a professor of Northwest University, Shaanxi province, who is a holder of PhD in paleontology and stratigraphy, and popular science writer Yin Ye, who is also the chief executive officer and executive director of BGI Group, a leading genome research organization, attended the concert, sharing their own stories with science.

Two young students from Peking University, Li Hongxuan and Ma Yifan, read the speech that Thomas Hunt Morgan gave when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity.

Co-organized by Beijing Association for Science and Technology, the National Centre for the Performing Arts and Peking University Press, the event was held for children during the summer vacation in particular, to popularize science among young people through a diversity of elements, such as classical music, photos and videos.