Professor Hawking thinks it important to keep everybody in touch with what science is about. In this article he explains why.
霍金教授认为使每个人都了解科学是干什么的非常重要。在这篇文章中，他对其中的缘由作了解释。
Public Attitudes Toward Science
Stephen Hawking
1 Whether we like it or not, the world we live in has changed a great deal in the last hundred years, and it is likely to change even more in the next hundred. Some people would like to stop these changes and go back to what they see as a purer and simpler age. But as history shows, the past was not that wonderful. It was not so bad for a privileged minority, though even they had to do without modern medicine, and childbirth was highly risky for women. But for the vast majority of the population, life was nasty, brutish, and short.
公众科学观
斯蒂芬·霍金
无论我们是否愿意，我们生活的世界在过去一百年间已经变化了许多，而且在未来的一百年里可能变化更多。有人想中止这种种变化，回到那个他们认为更纯洁更朴素的时代。但正如历史所表明的，过去并非那么美妙。过去对享有特权的少数人不算太糟，但即
便他们也无从享受现代医疗，而生育对妇女来说风险极大。对占人口大多数的民众而言，生活是艰难、残忍而又短暂的。
2 Anyway, even if one wanted to, one couldn't put the clock back to an earlier age. Knowledge and techniques can't just be forgotten. Nor can one prevent further advances in the future. Even if all government money for research were cut off (and the present government is doing its best), the force of competition would still bring about advances in technology. Moreover, one cannot stop inquiring minds from thinking about basic science, whether or not they are paid for it. The only way to prevent further developments would be a global state that suppressed anything new, and human initiative and inventiveness are such that even this wouldn't succeed. All it would do is slow down the rate of change.
不管怎样，即使有人想这么做，他也无法将时钟拨回到早先的时代。知识与技术不可能说忘就忘了。也没有人能阻止未来的进一步发展。即使所有用于研究的政府资金都被取消 （现政府最擅此事），竞争的力量仍将继续带来技术的发展。更何况，没有人能阻止探究求索之士去思索基础科学，无论他们是否会为此得到酬劳。惟一能阻止进一步发展的办法或许是一个压制任何新事物的全球政府，但人类的进取心与创造力如此旺盛，即便这个政府也不会成功。它所能做到的只是延缓变化的速度。
3 If we accept that we cannot prevent science and technology from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes they make are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions and not leave them in the hands of experts. At the moment, the public is in two minds
about science. It has come to expect the steady increase in the standard of living that new developments in science and technology have brought to continue, but it also distrusts science because it doesn't understand it. This distrust is evident in the cartoon figure of the mad scientist working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein. It is also an important element behind support for the Green parties. But the public also has a great interest in science, particularly astronomy, as is shown by the large audiences for television series such as The Sky at Night and for science fiction.
如果我们承认，我们无法阻止科学技术改变我们的世界，我们至少可以努力确保科技带来的变化方向正确。在一个民主社会里，这意味着公众需要对科学有一个基本的了解，从而可以作出明达的决定，而不是把决定留给专家去作。目前，公众对科学存有矛盾之心。公众期望科技新发展带来的生活水准的稳定提高能继续，但又怀疑科学，因为他们不懂科学。那个在实验室里设法制造弗兰肯斯泰因的疯狂的科学家的卡通人物清楚地体现了公众的这种怀疑。这也是人们之所以支持各种绿色组织的一个重要因素。但公众同时也对科学深感兴趣，尤其是对天文学，诸如《夜空》之类的电视连续剧观众不少以及科幻小说读者甚多就是明证。
4 What can be done to harness this interest and give the public the scientific background it needs to make informed decisions on subjects like acid rain, the greenhouse effect, nuclear weapons, and genetic engineering? Clearly, the basis must lie in what is taught in schools. But in schools science is often presented in a dry and uninteresting manner. Children learn it by rote to pass examinations, and they don't see its relevance to the world around them. Moreover, science is often taught in terms of equations. Although equations are a brief and
accurate way of describing mathematical ideas, they frighten most people. When I wrote a popular book recently, I was advised that each equation I included would halve the sales. I included one equation, Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2. Maybe I would have sold twice as many copies without it.
怎么样才能利用这种兴趣，向公众提供所需要的科学知识，以便其在酸雨、温室效应、核武器以及基因工程等问题上作出明达的决定呢？显然，必须把基础建立在学校课程上。但在学校里，科学往往被教得枯燥乏味。孩子们死记硬背应付考试，他们看不出科学与他们的周围世界的联系。更有甚者，科学常常是用公式来教的。虽然公式是阐述数学概念的一种简单而精确的方式，它们却使大多数人望而生畏。前不久我写了一本通俗读物，当时有人告诫我说，我每使用一个公式就会使销量减半。我只使用了一个公式，即爱因斯坦那个著名的公式，E=mc2。如果不用这个公式的话，也许我能多卖出一倍的书。
5 Scientists and engineers tend to express their ideas in the form of equations because they need to know the precise values of quantities. But for the rest of us, a qualitative grasp of scientific concepts is sufficient, and this can be conveyed by words and diagrams, without the use of equations. 科学家和工程师倾向于用公式阐述观点，因为他们需要知道量的精确值。但对我们其余的人来说，对科学概念有个质的认识就已足够，这可以用文字和图表来表述，大可不必使用公式。
6 The science people learn in school can provide the basic framework. But the rate of scientific progress is now so rapid that there are always new developments that have occurred since one was at school or university. I never learned about molecular biology or transistors at school, but genetic engineering and computers are two of the developments most likely to change the way we live
in the future. Popular books and magazine articles about science can help to put across new developments, but even the most successful popular book is read by only a small proportion of the population. Only television can reach a truly mass audience. There are some very good science programmes on TV, but others present scientific wonders simply as magic, without explaining them or showing how they fit into the framework of scientific ideas. Producers of television science programmes should realize that they have a responsibility to educate the public, not just entertain it.
人们在学校学到的科学知识可以提供一个基本的框架。但如今科学进步的速度如此之快，一个人离开学校或大学后新的发展层出不穷。我在学校从未学过分子生物学或晶体管，但基因工程和计算机是极有可能改变我们未来生活的两项发展。有关科学的通俗读物和杂志文章能帮助人们了解新发展，但即使是最畅销的科普读物也只有一小部分人阅读。只有电视能赢得真正广大的观众。电视上有一些相当优秀的科学节目，但其他的节目把科学奇迹简单地作为魔术播出，既不加以说明，也不展现它们与科学观念的整体框架的关系。电视科学节目的制片人应该认识到，他们负有教育民众的重任，而不仅仅是为他们提供娱乐。
7 The world today is filled with dangers, hence the sick joke that the reason we have not been contacted by an alien civilization is that civilizations tend to destroy themselves when they reach our stage. But I have sufficient faith in the good sense of the public to believe that we might prove this wrong.
当今世界充满危险，因此就有了那个令人毛骨悚然的玩笑，说我们尚未受到外星文明造访的原因在于：但凡文明发展到我们目前的程度，它们往往就自我毁灭了。然而我对
公众的明智充满信心，因而相信，我们将证明这一说法是错误的。
When scientific discoveries hit the news they are rarely as simple as the headlines suggest. They usually do not mention the years of work that lie behind the discoveries. The reports also do little to help us realize that science seldom provides answers that are final and beyond challenge.
科学发现成为新闻时，很少如新闻标题所显示的那么简单。新闻标题通常只字不提科学发现背后的长年努力。新闻报道也很少帮助我们认识，科学绝少提供最终的、经得住挑战的答案。
How To Make Sense Out Of Science
David H. Levy
1 New Drugs Kill Cancer
如何理解科学
大卫·H·利维
新药灭癌
2 Devastation by El Ni?o ─ a Warning
厄尔·尼诺现象将带来毁灭 ── 一则警告
3 6:30 p.m. October 26, 2028: Could This Be the Deadline for the Apocalypse?
2028年10月26日下午6:30：世界末日的最后期限？
4 When these headlines appeared this year, their stories became the subjects of conversations around the world ─ talks spiced with optimism and confusion. Imagine the hopes raised in the millions battling cancer. Did the news mean these people never had to worry about cancer again? Or that we all had to worry about a catastrophe from outer space or, more immediately, from El Ni?o?
这些标题于今年见诸报端时，这类新闻便成为全世界的话题 —— 既掺有乐观又带来混乱的话题。想象一下这些新闻为成千上万与癌症抗争的人们所带来的希望。这些新闻是否意味着这些人再也不用为癌症担忧呢？还是说我们所有的人都得为来自外层空间的大祸，或者更近一点，为厄尔·尼诺现象造成的灾难而忧心忡忡呢？。
5 Unfortunately, science doesn't work that way. It rarely arrives at final answers. People battling cancer or victims of El Ni?o may find this frustrating, but the truth is that Nature does not yield her secrets easily. Science is done step by step. First an idea is formed. Then this is tested by an experiment. The outcome, one hopes, results in an increase in knowledge. 不幸的是，科学并非这般运作。科学极少提供最终的答案。与癌症搏斗的人们或厄尔·尼诺现象的受害者也许会觉得这太令人沮丧，但事实是，大自然并不轻易袒露其奥秘。科学研究是一步一步进行的，首先要有一个构想，然后用实验检验这个构想，人们希望其结果能成为知识的一种积累。
6 Science is not a set of unquestionable results but a way of understanding the world around us. Its real work is slow. (1) The scientific method, as many of us learned in school, is a gradual process that begins with a purpose or a problem or question to be answered. It includes a list of materials, a procedure to follow, a set of observations to make and, finally, conclusions to reach. In medicine, when a new drug is proposed that might cure or control a disease, it is first tested on a large random group of people, and their reactions are then compared with those of another random group not given the drug. All reactions in both groups are carefully recorded and compared, and the drug is evaluated. All of this takes time ─ and patience.
科学并非一组无可置疑的结果，而是认识我们周围世界的一种方法。其实际进程是缓慢的。(1) 正如我们很多人在学校里所学的那样，科学方法是一个渐进的过程，这个过程始于某个目的，或某个有待解决或回答的问题。这包括一组材料，一套必须遵循的操作步骤，一系列有待进行的观察，最后是有待得出的结论。医学上，有人提出一种新药可能医治或控制某种疾病时，先是在随意挑选的大量人群中进行试验，然后将这部分人群的用药反应与另一组随意挑选的未用此药的人群的情况进行比较。两组人群的种种反应被一一记录，仔细比较，从而对新药的疗效作出鉴定。所有这些过程需要时间 —— 以及耐心。
7 It's the result of course, that makes the best news ─ not the years of quiet work that characterize the bulk of scientific inquiry. After an experiment is concluded or an observation is made, the result continues to be examined critically. When it is submitted for publication, it goes to a group of the scientist's colleagues, who review the work. If the work is important enough, just before the report is published in a professional journal or read at a conference, a press release is issued
and an announcement is made to the world.
成为新闻热点的当然是结果，而非长年默默无闻的努力，而长年默默无闻的努力正是绝大多数科学探索的特点。在实验有了结论，或观察结束之后，其结果仍将受到严格的检测。结果送交发表时，会由一组科学家的同行审阅。如果成果相当重要，那在专业杂志上发表或会议上宣读该实验报告之前，将会举行新闻发布会，向世人宣布。
8 The world may think that the announcement signifies the end of the process, but it doesn't. A publication is really a challenge: \"Here is my result. Prove me wrong!\" (2) Other researchers will try to repeat the experiment, and the more often it works, the better the chances that the result is sound. Einstein was right when he said: \"No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can at any time prove me wrong.\"
世人也许会认为宣布结果标志整个过程的结束，其实不然。发表成果实际上是种挑战：“本人所作结论在此。请证其谬！”(2) 别的研究人员会试图重复这一实验，实验成功的次数越多，其结果就越有可能是可靠的。爱因斯坦说得对：“再多的实验也永远不能证明我正确，而一项实验随时就能证明我错误。”
9 In August 1996, NASA announced the discovery in Antarctica of a meteorite from Mars that might contain evidence of ancient life on another world. (3)As President Clinton said that day, the possibility that life existed on Mars billions of years ago was potentially one of the great discoveries of our time.
1996年8月，美国国家航天和航空局宣布在南极洲发现了一颗来自火星的陨石，
其中可能包含着其他星球存在古老生命的证据。(3) 正如克林顿总统那天所说，发现亿万年前火星上可能存在生命这件事, 有可能是我们时代最伟大的发现之一。
10 After the excitement wore down and initial papers were published, other researchers began looking at samples from the same meteorite. (4) Some concluded that the \"evidence of life\" was mostly contamination from Antarctic ice or that there was nothing organic at all in the rock.
当兴奋和激动慢慢平息，首批论文发表之后，其他研究人员开始研究取自同一颗陨石的样本。(4) 有些人得出结论说，这些“生命的证据”大多来自南极冰的污染，或者说那块石头里根本就没有有机物。
11 Was this a failure of science, as some news reports trumpeted?
这是某些新闻报道所鼓噪的科学的失败吗？
12 No! It was a good example of the scientific method working the way it is supposed to. Scientists spend years on research, announce their findings, and these findings are examined by other scientists. That's how we learn. Like climbing a mountain, we struggle up three feet and fall back two. It's a process filled with disappointments and reverses, but somehow we keep moving ahead.
不！这正是科学研究以其应有的方式进行的一个范例。科学家经过多年研究发布成果，其成果再由其他科学家加以检验。我们就是这样增进知识的。正如爬山，我们费力爬上三英尺，又掉下去两英尺。这是个充满失望与挫折的过程，但不管怎样，我们一直往前
迈进。
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