译者按在希特勒掌德国权柄两年后,匈牙利出生的物理学家泰勒不得不离德赴美,躲避政治,遁入实验室。可是,在20世纪的科学家中间,却又没有哪一位科学家比泰勒更多地卷入政治旋涡。作为一个著名而又有争议的人物,泰勒曾与他同代的许多杰出科学家一起共过事,他们是玻尔、费米、希拉德和奥本海默等。通常人们誉为美国“氢弹之父”的泰勒,如今又逐渐以“‘主动防务战略’之父”而名播遐迩。在科学家和非科学家中间,他做的这两项大事,既为自己赢得了赞誉,同时亦给自己招致了侮弄。 1987年,美国自由出版社出版了泰勒的一部新作,题为《盾优于矛:防务与技术的透视》。在这本书中,他对自己一生作了反思,并就科学、技术和防务等一系列问题,提出了独自的见解。在接受美国《科学家》报记者采访时,泰勒曾说过:“恐怕科学正在变得愈加政治化了。但我却认为,倘若科学家们把耗费在政治方面的时间减少一些,事情会更好。” 下面这段文字,即是摘译于泰勒的上述新著。读者会发现,泰勒一再强调,科学家不应去关注他们的科学发现是如何被应用的。“作为一个公民,科学家必须为决策发挥作用。不过,科学家只能发挥如同一位农民、一位艺术家,或在我们民主社会中任何一位成员同样的作用,既不能多,也不能少。” 这篇原文是两年前,英国皇家学会会员、世界著名物理学家马凯教授寄给我们的,原载于美国费城加菲尔德主编的《科学家》报上。之后,我们还与泰勒教授本人联系过。在复函中,他表达了他的著作中译本能问世的强烈愿望。在本文翻译过程中,我们荣幸地得到了马凯教授,以及我国著名翻译家董乐山教授、鲍建成教授和祝友三教授的指教,谨此致谢。 Two years after Hitler took the German authority, Hungarian-born physicist Taylor had to leave Germany for the United States, evade politics and escape into the laboratory. However, none of the scientists in the twentieth century was more involved in the political turmoil than Taylor. As a famous and controversial figure, Taylor had worked with many prominent scientists of his generation, including Bohr, Fermi, Hillary and Oppenheimer. Often known as the “father of hydrogen bombs” in the United States, Taylor is now gradually becoming known as the “father of active defense strategy.” Between the scientists and the non-scientists, both of these major events he did won praises for himself and at the same time led himself to insult himself. In 1987, the Free Press of the United States published a new work by Taylor titled “Shields Outweigh Spears: Perspectives in Defense and Technology.” In this book, he made a reflection on his own life and put forward his own opinion on a series of issues such as science, technology and defense. In an interview with the American newspaper The Scientist, Taylor once said: “I’m afraid science is becoming more politicized, but I think it would be better if scientists could spend less on politics . ”The following passage, which is an excerpt from Taylor’s new book. Readers will find that Taylor has repeatedly emphasized that scientists should not be concerned about how their scientific discoveries were applied. “As a citizen, scientists must play a role in decision-making, but scientists can neither do nor do little more than play a role as a farmer, as an artist, or as a member of any one of our democracies.” “This article was originally sent two years ago by a member of the Royal Society and a world-renowned physicist Professor Ma Kai. It was originally published in the” Scientist "newspaper compiled by Garfield, Philadelphia, USA. After that, we also contacted Professor Taylor himself. In his reply, he expressed the strong desire that his translation should come out in his book. In the course of this translation, we are honored to receive the advice of Professor Ma Kai and Professor Dong Leshan, Professor Bao Jiancheng and Professor Zhu Youzan who are famous translators in China.