A recently-opened general education course at Fudan University has become a hit both on and off campus.

How popular is it? In the first round of course selection, more than 1,000 students chose the course, whose name is Breaking Paradoxes. Finally, only 258 were lucky enough to take a seat in the classroom.

(The class is full of students interested in the course. Photo by Chen Zheng)

During the past month, most of the students arrived at the classroom 30-60 minutes in advance, just to grab the front-row seats. It has also caught the attention of many netizens, who discussed the content on social media like Weibo and WeChat.

The course, organized by a Fudan professor from the School of Mathematical Sciences, discusses 17 topics designed by twelve professors, covering subjects including maths, physics, chemistry, biology, management, medicine, literature, philosophy, politics and history. For instance: “Is bitcoin technological revolution or Ponzi scheme?” “The pseudoscience in human health” “Did China’s Xia dynasty really exist?”.

A reporter from the Shanghai Morning Post attended the class one day, to find out what the course is really about and why it is so sought after by so many young people.

The topic that day was “Electromagnetic radiation VS. ionizing radiation: Is mobile phone radiation harmful?” When the bell rang, Professor Sheng Weidong from the physics department went into the classroom, which was full of curious students.

Prof. Sheng started the class with a fake advertisement about magnetized water. “Can water be magnetized?” he asked. The answer is no. In his presentation slides, he also talked about the Hall Effect and explained what happens to water when it runs through a magnetic field. Other cases he listed include the anti-vaccine movement in the US and rumors about the radiation volume of certain electronic devices.

Speaking of the reason for opening the course, Prof. Lou Hongwei from the School of Mathematical Sciences mentioned that the teachers want to justify the truth. “Though obvious to experts or professionals, paradoxes have confused many students. Even scholars can’t be sure of the truth in some areas.” As such, the course aims to amend incorrect understanding of science.