经济学人393:科学究竟有什么用?

 　　Books and Artts; Book review;

　　文艺；书评；

　　Conundrums¹ of science;

　　科学谜题；

　　What is it for?

　　科学究竟有什么用？

　　Scinece in the 20th century and beyond; by Jon Agar;

　　20世纪后科学；乔·艾格著；

　　SCIENCE works with problems by making them into manageable, manipulable abstractions. Jon Agar's ambitious new book sets out to synthesise the insights of many recent historians of science. These might be anything from a field biologist's notes of lemming populations on Spitzbergen to a physicist's creation of muon tracks in a cloud chamber², or from a set of equations in the mathematical imagination to a vast computer model of the world's climate.

　　用科学的方法处理问题就是将这些问题转化成易管理且可操作的抽象概念。乔·艾格将近代众多科学史家的见解都融入在他的新作当中，真可谓是大胆的创作。在这本书中你将会看到野外生物学家对于斯匹茨卑根群岛上的旅鼠种群的阐述，物理学家在云室里创建的μ介子轨迹，利用数学概念思考出的一组方程式，以及巨型计算机模型中的全球气候。

　　Doing science is making these abstractions. The history of science is understanding how particular abstractions come to be accepted as the right way of producing solutions—and how problems get chosen in the first place. Sometimes the problems are those of the people paying for the science; sometimes they are posed by developments the scientists are interested in; sometimes they are problems that grow out of science itself.

　　科学研究就是这么抽象。科学史就是在逐步认知如何以适当的方式解决某些特殊的抽象事物，使它们被大众接受，以及如何在第一时间发现所面临的问题。有些时候是献身科学事业的人们遗留了许多问题，有时候是科学家们针对他们所感兴趣的发展领域而提出了某些问题，而有时是科学本身产生了问题。

　　As Mr Agar shows, the great problem-posing processes of the 20th century were its wars. The two world wars and the cold war ratcheted up the spending on science, changing its organisational basis, its political setting and its subject matter. The less obvious aspects of war and science—for example, the introduction of psychoanalysis into British medicine courtesy of shellshock—are given their due, as well as the central Faustian tragedy of the development of the atom bomb.

　　正如艾格先生所说，许多重大问题都是在二十世纪的战争期间被提出的。二战和冷战都加大了花费在科学上面的时间和精力，改变了其组织基础、政治环境和作战目的。而战争和科学较不明显的方面也受到了一定的关注，例如，由于弹震症的出现将精神分析学引入英国医学中，又如原子弹的研发（虽然是个浮士德式的悲剧）也受到了某种认可。

　　The bomb that graces the cover of the book has come to stand for the power of science. But Mr Agar's history is more illuminating³ on the less obvious story of science's role in problems of control. Throughout the book, the reader is struck by how much people have seen a lack of control over others as a problem, and science as a source of solutions.

　　一朵核爆蘑菇云出现在本书精美的封面上，引申出强大的科学力量。但是艾格先生更倾向于阐述科学在控制问题上所起到的作用，即使这个作用并非显而易见。通读全书，读者会震惊于因为缺乏控制而在诸多方面所引起的问题，而科学便是解决这一问题的唯一途径。

　　Lewis Terman, developer of intelligence tests, for example, dreamed of psychology⁴ as “a science of human engineering” in the 1920s. Eugenicists sought, by combining, in the words of J.B.S. Haldane, the offices of “the policeman, the priest and the procurer”, to control both the actions of their social inferiors and the course of evolution. Devotees and fellow travellers, such as Julian Huxley and H.G. Wells, saw in the biological sciences “the ultimate collective control of human destinies”. The Rockefeller Foundation dreamed of bringing the dangerous “psychobiology of sex” under “rational control” as part of its “Science of Man” programme. And Norbert Wiener, father of cybernetics, sought to combine the human and the machine into a system—initially, but not only, an anti-aircraft system—that was defined by the way in which it controlled itself.

　　举例来说，智力测验的开发者路易斯·推曼在1920年代将心理学设想为人体工程学。优生学家根据遗传学家霍尔丹的学说，并与警方、牧师和拉皮条者通力合作，力图控制弱势群体的行为和人类的进化过程。像朱利安·赫胥黎这样的生物学家和与其志同道合的赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯认为生物科学可“最终控制的人类的整体命运”。作为“人类科学”计划的一部分，洛克菲勒基金会希望对危险的“性心理生物学”进行“理性控制”。控制论的创立者诺伯特·维纳力图将人类和机器结合在一个系统中，即防空系统，这是最初的形式，但并非单一形式，该系统的性质是自控。

　　At first blush these look like futures⁵ that simply failed. But the story is more complex. The Rockefeller Foundation's vision of a “Science of Man” led it to foster a new “molecular⁶ biology” at CalTech and other institutions. Today's control of crops through their genes⁷ and children through their pharmaceuticals⁸ can both be traced back, in part, to that intervention⁹. And then there is the remarkable¹⁰ story of Song Jian. A Chinese engineer who had been schooled in control theory in Moscow just after Stalin's death (at which point cybernetics, previously¹¹ bourgeois¹² and reactionary¹³, became acceptable), he rose to pre-eminence in China's military-industrial complex. Attending a meeting on control theory in Helsinki in the 1970s, he became convinced of the power of crude computer models like those of the Club of Rome's “Limits to Growth”. Importing such modelling to his power base at the Chinese missile and space-flight ministry¹⁴ he became crucial in the enactment¹⁵ of the one-child policy in the 1980s.

　　乍看下，这些内容毫无希望可言，但其实并非如此。洛克菲勒基金会对于“人类科学”的愿景促使其在加州理工学院和其他院校发展了“分子生物学”这个新学科。如今，通过基因可以对农作物进行控制，并且通过药物能对儿童进行控制，在某种程度上都能对事物进行一定的干预。接下来看一看宋健的非凡故事。他是一名中国工程师，就在斯大林病逝后不久（此时控制论、曾经的资产阶级和反动分子开始为人们所接受），他前往莫斯科学习控制理论，随后在中国的共军联合体中成为一名出类拔萃的人物。1970年代，宋健在赫尔辛基参加了一场有关控制理论的会议，他开始认识到原始计算机模型的力量，正如罗马俱乐部发表的《增长的极限》依据的计算机模型一样，随后他便将这类模型引入他在中国导弹与航天部门的动能基地加以研究。他也是1980年代独生子女政策的主要制定者。

　　Mr Agar's book is somewhat biased¹⁶ towards the physical sciences and it has some odd gaps. Seeing the molecular biology of the 1960s as an information science, Mr Agar overlooks Peter Mitchell, whose breakthrough in understanding that cells store energy, not in molecules¹⁷, but in potential differences revealed an aspect of life hitherto undreamed of. There is nothing on the fluoridation of water, and too little on nutrition.

　　艾格先生在书中对自然科学的存有一些偏见，但该书在某些领域的也有空白。他不仅将1960年代的分子生物学视为信息科学，还忽视了彼得·米切尔的观点，这位生物化学家的一项突破性研究是细胞能够通过电位差而不是分子储存能量，这个理论体现在生活中的方方面面，至今为止都让人类难以想象。书中也没有对饮水加氟法进行阐述，在营养学方面也较少被提及。

　　Some of the later material on trends too close to the present might well have been omitted. Given the central role of war, a book limited to what Eric Hobsbawm has called the short 20th century—1914 to 1991—might have served better. But overall, Mr Agar has abstracted and made manageable a range of rich and informed analysis. Anyone who thinks seriously about science, and about how it is used, will find it a very useful source of new ways to appreciate both problems and solutions.

　　后期对科学趋势的一些研究由于很接近当今的研究而被省略了。鉴于埃里克·霍布斯鲍姆称二十世纪（1914年至1991年）乃是个“短暂的世纪”，以及战争在本书起到的核心作用，这样的安排比较妥当。但总体来说，艾格先生在本书中做出了一系列充分且通透的分析，虽然抽象，但易于掌握。认真研究并运用科学的人都会发现书中许多有用的科学方法会帮助他们解决问题并发现对策。

1 conundrums   

n.谜，猜不透的难题，难答的问题( conundrum的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• After all the conundrums of Hungary, the second Turkish Grand Prix promises much. 继匈牙利站所有猜不透的事之后，第二届土耳其大奖赛许诺了太多。 来自互联网
• I see conundrums, dilemmas, quandaries, impasses, gnarly thickets of fateful possibility with no obvious way out. 眼看问题经纬万端，进退两难、入困境，死路一条，盘根错节的命定可能性，但找不到明显的出路。 来自互联网

2 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

3 illuminating   

a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的

参考例句：

• We didn't find the examples he used particularly illuminating. 我们觉得他采用的那些例证启发性不是特别大。
• I found his talk most illuminating. 我觉得他的话很有启发性。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

6 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

7 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

8 pharmaceuticals   

n.医药品；药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
• The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究，尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

10 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

11 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

12 bourgeois   

adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子

参考例句：

• He's accusing them of having a bourgeois and limited vision.他指责他们像中产阶级一样目光狭隘。
• The French Revolution was inspired by the bourgeois.法国革命受到中产阶级的鼓励。

13 reactionary   

n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的

参考例句：

• They forced thousands of peasants into their reactionary armies.他们迫使成千上万的农民参加他们的反动军队。
• The reactionary ruling clique was torn by internal strife.反动统治集团内部勾心斗角，四分五裂。

14 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

15 enactment   

n.演出，担任…角色；制订，通过

参考例句：

• Enactment refers to action.演出指行为的表演。
• We support the call for the enactment of a Bill of Rights.我们支持要求通过《权利法案》的呼声。

16 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

17 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。