Article | Reporter Ni Sijie Liao Yang, China Science DailyIn the kitchen, a petite old lady sits at the dining table, frowning and pondering over the missing piece in the puzzle. She picks up a purple number block "10", unsure if she should place it in the gap. It took her nearly 5 minutes to assemble the puzzle from "1" to "9".The old lady's name is Zheng Shouyi, already 93 years old. She is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has pioneered the classification and ecology of modern foraminifera in China. She once served as the Deputy Mayor of Qingdao City but voluntarily resigned to pursue her academic research.At this moment, her daughter Fu Xinhong is doing housework in the kitchen. She turns around to look at her mother, takes out her phone, and captures this moment. In the photo, Zheng Shouyi's silver short hair looks so soft and smooth, and her blue floral shirt has not a single wrinkle.In her daughter's eyes, her mother looks as beautiful as she did when she was young. Time slowly takes away her memories, but it cannot take away her seriousness and enthusiasm for life.Zheng Shouyi playing with number toys at the kitchen table.
In the 1950s, foraminifera research had already been conducted abroad for half a century, but it was still a blank field in China.Starting in 1956, with her hands, eyes, and microscope, Zheng Shouyi meticulously described over 1,500 new species of foraminifera, accounting for about a quarter of the world's known living foraminifera species.Not only that, she also drew more than 30,000 illustrations of foraminifera species, establishing an accurate and reliable "population register" for foraminifera. She made over 250 enlarged models of foraminifera, allowing the beauty of foraminifera to be "released" from the microscope. She has written over 3.2 million words of scholarly articles and works, propelling China to the forefront of foraminifera classification research...When friends visit her laboratory, she takes them to the microscope and proudly exclaims, "Look, today I found a beautiful foraminifera."The last time Li Naisheng, the former Deputy Party Secretary of the Marine Science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, saw foraminifera in Zheng Shouyi's office was 3 years ago.He is 26 years younger than Zheng Shouyi and they have an unconventional friendship. When Zheng Shouyi was 90 years old, she would occasionally work in her office. Li Naisheng remembers that there was a microscope in the center of Zheng Shouyi's desk, and various foraminifera shells were scattered like sand in glass containers. Zheng Shouyi pointed the microscope at one of them and showed it to Li Naisheng, saying, "It's grayish white, like a small ball with patterns on it."+
Hands
"If she didn't engage in biological research,
she would have been a good painter or sculptor"
During the day, Zheng Shouyi's indoor activities consist of watching cats, playing puzzles, and flipping through photo albums. She has 6 cats at home, so many that she can't count them. She points at each cat with her finger, but always gets stuck at "4". The puzzles were bought by her daughter, hoping that puzzle toys can slow down the progression of her Alzheimer's disease. At 93 years old, Zheng Shouyi already finds it difficult to handle toys for children aged 3 and above, often holding them in her hand and pondering for a long time. The large photo album was also printed by her daughter on A4 paper, filled with various photos of her. Rather than looking at the photos, Zheng Shouyi enjoys folding the corners under each page of the album.
In the 1950s, foraminifera research had already been conducted abroad for half a century, but it was still a blank field in China.Starting in 1956, with her hands, eyes, and microscope, Zheng Shouyi meticulously described over 1,500 new species of foraminifera, accounting for about a quarter of the world's known living foraminifera species.Not only that, she also drew more than 30,000 illustrations of foraminifera species, establishing an accurate and reliable "population register" for foraminifera. She made over 250 enlarged models of foraminifera, allowing the beauty of foraminifera to be "released" from the microscope. She has written over 3.2 million words of scholarly articles and works, propelling China to the forefront of foraminifera classification research...When friends visit her laboratory, she takes them to the microscope and proudly exclaims, "Look, today I found a beautiful foraminifera."The last time Li Naisheng, the former Deputy Party Secretary of the Marine Science Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, saw foraminifera in Zheng Shouyi's office was 3 years ago.He is 26 years younger than Zheng Shouyi and they have an unconventional friendship. When Zheng Shouyi was 90 years old, she would occasionally work in her office. Li Naisheng remembers that there was a microscope in the center of Zheng Shouyi's desk, and various foraminifera shells were scattered like sand in glass containers. Zheng Shouyi pointed the microscope at one of them and showed it to Li Naisheng, saying, "It's grayish white, like a small ball with patterns on it."+
