第1自然段

World science is dominated today by a small number of languages, including Japanese, German and French, but it is English which is probably the most popular global language of science. This is not just because of the importance of English-speaking countries such as the USA in scientific research; the scientists of many non-English-speaking countries find that they need to write their research papers in English to reach a wide international audience. Given the prominence of scientific English today, it may seem surprising that no one really knew how to write science in English before the 17th century. Before that, Latin was regarded as the lingua franca  for European intellectuals.

第1自然段
当今世界科学由少数几种语言主导，包括日语、德语和法语，但英语可能是最受欢迎的全球科学语言。这不仅因为英语国家（如美国）在科学研究中的重要性，还因为许多非英语国家的科学家们发现他们需要用英语撰写研究论文才能触达广泛的国际读者群体。鉴于当今科学英语的突出地位，也许令人惊奇的是，在17世纪之前，没有人真正知道如何以英语书写科学。在那之前，拉丁语被视为欧洲知识分子的共同语。

第2自然段

The European Renaissance (c. 14th-16th century) is sometimes called the ‘revival of learning’, a time of renewed interest in the ‘lost knowledge’ of classical times. At the same time, however, scholars also began to test and extend this knowledge. The emergent nation states of Europe developed competitive interests in world exploration and the development of trade. Such expansion, which was to take the English language west to America and east to India, was supported by scientific developments such as the discovery of magnetism (and hence the invention of the compass), improvements in cartography and – perhaps the most important scientific revolution of them all – the new theories of astronomy and the movement of the Earth in relation to the planets and stars, developed by Copernicus (1473-1543).

第2自然段
欧洲文艺复兴时期（公元14-16世纪）有时被称为“学术复兴”，是对古典时代“失落知识”的重新关注之时。与此同时，学者们也开始对这些知识进行考验和拓展。欧洲新兴国家在世界探索和贸易发展方面产生了竞争性利益。这种扩张将英语语言引向西方的美洲和东方的印度，得到了诸如磁力的发现（从而发明了指南针）、制图学的改进以及哥白尼（1473-1543）提出的新理论（关于地球与行星和恒星的运动）等科学发展的支持。

第3自然段

England was one of the first countries where scientists adopted and publicised Copernican ideas with enthusiasm. Some of these scholars, including two with interests in language -John Wallis and John Wilkins – helped found the Royal Society in 1660 in order to promote empirical scientific research.

第3自然段
英格兰是第一个热情接受并传播哥白尼思想的国家之一。包括约翰·沃利斯（John Wallis）和约翰·威尔金斯（John Wilkins）在内的一些学者，为了推广实证科学研究，于1660年创立了皇家学会。

第4自然段

Across Europe similar academies and societies arose, creating new national traditions of science. In the initial stages of the scientific revolution, most publications in the national languages were popular works, encyclopedias, educational textbooks and translations. Original science was not done in English until the second half of the 17th century. For example, Newton published his mathematical treatise, known as the Principia, in Latin, but published his later work on the properties of light – Opticks – in English.

第4自然段
在欧洲，类似的学术机构和学会涌现出来，形成了新的国家科学传统。在科学革命的初期阶段，大部分用国家语言出版的著作是通俗著作、百科全书、教科书和翻译作品。直到17世纪下半叶，原创科学才开始用英语来撰写。例如，牛顿在拉丁语中发表了他的数学著作《自然哲学的数学原理》，但他后来关于光学性质的研究《色彩学》则用英语出版。

第5自然段

There were several reasons why original science continued to be written in Latin. The first was simply a matter of audience. Latin was suitable for an international audience of scholars, whereas English reached a socially wider, but more local, audience. Hence, popular science was written in English.

第5自然段
原创科学继续使用拉丁语撰写的原因有几个。首先，这是为了迎合国际学者的广泛读者群体，而英语只能触及更广泛但更局限于本地的读者群体。因此，通俗科学用英语撰写。

第6自然段

A second reason for writing in Latin may, perversely, have been a concern for secrecy. Open publication had dangers in putting into the public domain preliminary ideas which had not yet been fully exploited by their ‘author’. This growing concern about intellectual property rights was a feature of the period – it reflected both the humanist notion of the individual, rational scientist who invents and discovers through private intellectual labour, and the growing connection between original science and commercial exploitation. There was something of a social distinction between ‘scholars and gentlemen’ who understood Latin, and men of trade who lacked a classical education. And in the mid-17th century it was common practice for mathematicians to keep their discoveries and proofs secret, by writing them in cipher, in obscure languages, or in private messages deposited in a sealed box with the Royal Society. Some scientists might have felt more comfortable with Latin precisely because its audience, though international, was socially restricted. Doctors clung the most keenly to Latin as an ‘insider language’.

第6自然段
第二个撰写拉丁语的原因可能是对保密的关注。公开发表会带来危险，因为将尚未完全利用的初步想法公之于众。对知识产权的日益关注是这一时期的特点，它既反映了人文主义者对个体、理性科学家的观念（通过私人智力劳动进行创造和发现），也反映了原创科学与商业开发之间日益紧密的联系。在当时，“学者和绅士”这一阶层通常懂得拉丁语，而商人则没有受过古典教育。在17世纪中期，数学家将他们的发现和证明保密，通过用密码书写、使用晦涩的语言或在密封的盒子中放置私人消息来实现。一些科学家可能更喜欢使用拉丁语，恰恰是因为其受众虽然是国际性的，但在社会上受到限制。医生们最为热衷于使用拉丁语，将其视为“内行话”。

第7自然段

A third reason why the writing of original science in English was delayed may have been to do with the linguistic inadequacy of English in the early modern period. English was not well equipped to deal with scientific arguments. First, it lacked the necessary technical vocabulary. Second, it lacked the grammatical resources required to represent the world in an objective and impersonal way, and to discuss the relations, such as cause and effect, that might hold between complex and hypothetical entities.

第7自然段
原创科学在英语中延迟撰写的第三个原因可能与早期现代英语的语言不足有关。英语在处理科学论证方面并不擅长。首先，它缺乏必要的专业词汇。其次，它缺乏表达客观、客观方式，并讨论复杂和假设性实体之间可能存在的因果关系等语法资源。

第8自然段

Fortunately, several members of the Royal Society possessed an interest in language and became engaged in various linguistic projects. Although a proposal in 1664 to establish a committee for improving the English language came to little, the society’s members did a great deal to foster the publication of science in English and to encourage the development of a suitable writing style. Many members of the Royal Society also published monographs in English. One of the first was by Robert Hooke, the society’s first curator of experiments, who described his experiments with microscopes in Micrographia (1665). This work is largely narrative in style, based on a transcript of oral demonstrations and lectures.

第8自然段
幸运的是，皇家学会的几位成员对语言有兴趣，并参与了各种语言项目。尽管1664年成立改善英语的委员会的提议没有多大成就，但学会的成员们在促进科学用英语出版和鼓励适当的写作风格发展方面做了很多工作。皇家学会的许多成员也用英语发表了专著。其中之一是该学会的首位实验馆馆长罗伯特·胡克（Robert Hooke），他在《显微镜观察》（1665）中描述了他使用显微镜进行的实验。这部作品在很大程度上以叙事风格为主，基于口头演示和讲座的记录。

第9自然段

In 1665 a new scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions, was inaugurated. Perhaps the first international English-language scientific journal, it encouraged a new genre of scientific writing, that of short, focused accounts of particular experiments.

第9自然段
1665年，一本新的科学杂志《哲学交易集》（Philosophical Transactions）创刊。这可能是第一份国际性的英语科学期刊，它鼓励了一种新的科学写作体裁，即关于特定实验的简短、专注的叙述。

第10自然段

The 17th century was thus a formative period in the establishment of scientific English. In the following century much of this momentum was lost as German established itself as the leading European language of science. It is estimated that by the end of the 18th century 401 German scientific journals had been established as opposed to 96 in France and 50 in England. However, in the 19th century scientific English again enjoyed substantial lexical growth as the industrial revolution created the need for new technical vocabulary, and new, specialised, professional societies were instituted to promote and publish in the new disciplines.