Unit 5B - Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
I. Bernard Cohen
The mind and personality of Isaac Newton challenge any historian. Newton was a strange, solitary figure, and the wellsprings of his behavior were hidden even from his contemporaries. A biographer of his time compared Newton to the River Nile, whose great powers were known but whose source had not been discovered. Nevertheless, the few facts we have about his early life do allow some speculations about Newton's character and development.
He was born prematurely, a physical weakling. It is said that he had to wear a "bolster" to support his neck during his first months, that no one expected him to live. Newton later was fond of saying that his mother had said he was so tiny at birth that he could have been put into a quart mug.
Newton's father died three months before he was born. When the boy was less than two year old, his mother remarried, and he was turned over to his aged grandmother. He lived on an isolated farm, deprived of parental care and love, without the friendly companionship and rivalry of brothers and sisters. The late Louis T. More, author of the best-known modern biography of the man, held that much of Newton's "inwardness" could be attributed to his lonely and unhappy childhood. Born in 1642, Newton grew up in an era when England was still tasting the "terrors of a protracted and bitter civil war". Raiding and plundering parties were common. His grandmother was "suspected of sympathy to the royal forces". In the face of these real terrors and "the frights of his imagination", he could not have received much comfort from his grandmother or the hired laborers on the farm. Naturally enough, as More observed, the boy turned to "the solace of lonely meditation", and developed a strong habit of self-absorption. A girl who knew him in his youth described him as a "sober, silent, thinking lad" who "was never known scarce to play with the boys abroad, at their silly amusements".
He evidently overcame his physical weakness by the time he reached school age, for a schoolmate reported that Newton challenged a bully who had kicked him in the belly to a fight and "beat him till he would fight no more" — winning out because he had "more spirit and resolution". The bully stood high in the class, and Newton was so determined "to beat him also at his books" that "by hard work he finally succeeded, and then gradually rose to be the first in the school".
When Newton was 14, his mother took the boy back into her home, her second husband having died. She conceived the idea of making him a farmer, but the experiment proved an unqualified failure. Newton found farming totally distasteful. Instead of attending properly to his chores, he would read, make wooden models with his knife, or dream. Fortunately for science, his mother gave up the attempt and allowed him to prepare for Cambridge University.
At the age of 18, Newton entered Trinity College. In his early years at the University he was not outstanding in any way. Then he came under the influence of Isaac Barrow, a professor of mathematics and an extraordinary man. He was an able mathematician, a classicist, an astronomer and an authority in the field of optics. Barrow was one of the first to recognize Newton's genius. Soon after his student had taken a degree, Barrow resigned his professorship so that Newton might have it. Thus at 26 Newton was established in an academic post of distinction and was free to pursue his epoch-making studies.
He had already sown the seeds of his revolutionary contributions to three distinct fields of scientific inquiry: mathematics, celestial mechanics and physical optics. After his graduation from the University he had returned to his home at Wools Thorpe for 18 months of work which can fairly be described as the most fruitful 18 months in all the history of the creative imagination. Newton's subsequent life in science consisted to a large degree in the elaboration of the great discoveries made during those "golden" months.
As a result of the invention of a new telescope, Newton was elected, at the age of 30, as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the highest scientific honor in England.
Newton was understandably overwhelmed by his sudden public recognition. He had been loath to announce his discoveries, but within a week after his election to the Society he asked permission to communicate an account of the "philosophical discovery" which had induced him "to the making of the said telescope". With a disarming lack of false modesty, he said that in his judgment he had made "the oddest, if not the most considerable detection, which hath hitherto been made in the operations of nature".
Newton's letter to the Royal Society, "containing his new theory of light and colours," was sent to London on February 6, 1672. This paper can claim a number of "firsts". It was Newton's initial publication; it founded the science of spectroscopy, and it marked the beginning of a sound analysis of color phenomena. Yet the paper did not win for Newton the universal applause that he had sought. The Royal Society was bombarded with letters disputing Newton's conclusions.
The controversy had an acid effect on Newton's personality. He vowed that he would publish no further discoveries. As he wrote later to Leibnitz: "I was so persecuted with discussions arising from the publication of my theory of light that I blamed my own imprudence for parting with so substantial a blessing as my quiet to run after a shadow." And yet he did later continue to publish; he wanted the applause of the scientific world. This ambivalence was not overlooked by Newton's enemies. The astronomer John Flamsteed, who broke with Newton, described him as "insidious, ambitious, and excessively covetous of praise, and impatient of contradiction … I believe him to be a good man at the bottom; but, through his nature, suspicious. "
At Cambridge Newton was the very model of an absent-minded professor. His amanuensis, Humphrey Newton (no relative), wrote that he never knew Newton "to take any recreation or pastime either in riding out to take the air, walking, rowing or any other exercise whatever, thinking all hours lost that were not spent in his studies". He often worked until two or three o’clock in the morning, ate sparingly and some times forgot to eat altogether. When reminded that he had not eaten, he would go to the table and "eat a bite or two standing". Newton rarely dined in the college hall; when he did, he was apt to appear "with shoes down at heels, stockings untied, surplice on, and his head scarcely combed". It was said that he often delivered his lectures to an empty hall, apparently with as much satisfaction as if the room had been full of students.
After the controversy, Newton withdrew from the public eye as a scientist. He served the University as its representative in Parliament and worked away in private at chemistry and alchemy, theology, physics and mathematics. He became acquainted with Leibnitz, but refused to give his great contemporary any exact information about his discoveries in mathematics. Today it is generally agreed that the calculus was discovered more or less independently by both Newton and Leibnitz, but the two men and their partisans quarreled acrimoniously over priority, and Newton accused Leibnitz of plagiarism. Newton conceived a jealous proprietary interest in every subject he studied, and almost every achievement of his creative life was accompanied by some quarrel.
In 1684 came the famous visit to Newton by the astronomer Edmund Hailey. He had a problem concerning the gravitational attraction between the sun and the planets. Hailey and Hooker had concluded from Johannes Kepler's accounting of planetary motions that the force of attraction must vary inversely with the square of the distance between a planet and the sun. But they had been unable to prove their idea. "What," Hailey asked Newton, "would be the curve described by the planets on the supposition that gravity diminished as the square of the distance?" Newton answered without hesitation: "An ellipses." How did he know that? "Why," replied Newton, "I have calculated it. " These four words informed Hailey that Newton had worked out one of the most fundamental laws of the universe — the law of gravity. Hailey wanted to see the calculations at once, but Newton could not find his notes. He promised to write out the theorems and proofs. Under Hailey's insistent urging he completed a manuscript for the Royal Society. Thus was born the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known ever since simply as the Principia.
Newton suffered some kind of "nervous breakdown" after the completion of the Principia. He complained that he could not sleep, and said that he lacked the "former consistency of his mind". He wrote angry letters to friends and then apologized; he protested bitterly to John Locke, for example, that the philosopher had attempted to "embroil him with women".
In 1696 Newton abandoned the academic life for the position of Warden, later Master, of the Mint. Honors for his scientific achievements continued to come to him: he was knighted in 1705 and served many years as president of the Royal Society.
Although he made no important discoveries in the last quarter century of his life, Newton's last years were not barren of ideas. Now famous and honored, he felt secure enough to offer many public speculations on scientific problems. He suggested various possible hypotheses as to the "cause" of gravitation and speculated on the nature of the "ether", the size of the constituent units of matter, the forces of electricity and magnetism, the cause of muscular response to the "commands of the will", the origins of sensation, the creation of the world, the ultimate destiny of man. In the century after Newton, physical experimenters followed up many of his bold speculations.
Newton is often described as the inaugurators of the "Age of Reason". Alexander Pope expressed the sentiment of his time in the famous lines:
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.
参考译文——艾萨克·牛顿
艾萨克·牛顿
I.伯纳德·科恩
研究艾萨克·牛顿的心理与个性对任何一位历史学家来说都是一种挑战。牛顿是个生性孤僻的奇特人物，就连他同时代的人也无法弄清他行为的由来。一位与牛顿同时代的传记作家把他比作尼罗河：其巨大威力人所共知，但其源头却仍无觅处。不过，我们掌握的有关歹早年生活的少量事实确能使我们对他的性格及其发展作出一些推测。
牛顿是个早产儿，身体羸弱。据说他出生后的最初几个月里，他得戴一种"支撑物"撑住头颈，没有人会认为他会活下来。日后牛顿喜欢对人家说，他母亲曾说他生下来时只有一点儿大，简直可以放进一夸脱的杯子里。
牛顿的父亲在他出生前三个月就去世了，不满两岁，母亲也改嫁了， 他被交给年迈的祖母抚养。他住在一个与世隔绝的农场上，失去了父母的关怀疼爱，没有兄弟姐妹亲密相伴，相互竞争。已故的路易斯·T·莫尔---那部最有名的现代牛顿传记作家---认为，牛顿的"内向"在很大程度上可归因于孤寂寡欢的童年。牛顿生于1642年，长在不安定时代，当时英国依旧在体验"长期激烈内战造成的恐怖"。结伙打家劫舍司空见惯。他祖母"被疑为同情王室军队"。 面对这些真实的恐怖以及"他想象出来的惊吓"，牛顿不可能从祖母和农场上的雇工那里得到多少安慰。毫不奇怪，正如莫尔所言，这孩子转向"独思冥想以求慰藉"，形成了根深蒂固的自我专注习性。一位在他青年时代认识他的姑娘曾说, 他是个"持重寡言、喜爱思考的小伙子"，"从不跟外面的男孩玩他们那些无聊的游戏"。
他到上学年龄时，身体显然己经不像原来那样虚弱了。这从一位同学的话中可以得到证实：有个恃强凌弱的学生踢了牛顿的肚子，牛顿便向他提出挑战，和他干了一仗，"直揍到他讨饶方才住手" ——牛顿赢了，因为他有"更大的勇气和决心"。那个小霸王在班里名列前茅，牛顿下定决心"在功课方面也要战胜他"，他发奋学习，终于学业大进，后来渐渐成了全校第一"。
牛顿十四岁时，母亲把他领回自己家里，那时她第二个丈夫己经去世。 她打算让他做个农场主，但这一实验彻底失败了。牛顿极端讨厌农事，不去用心照料农场杂务，而是经常读书、用小刀制作木头模型，或者沉迷于遐想。对科学事业幸运的是，他母亲放弃了原先的企图，允许他准备就读剑桥大学。
牛顿十八岁时进入三一学院。他在这所大学的最初岁月中，各门课程成绩平平，后来他受到数学教授艾萨克·巴罗这位非凡人物的影响。巴罗是位富有才华的数学家、天文学家、古典文学艺术研究者、也是光学领域的权威。他是最早发现牛顿天才的人之一。牛顿获得学位后不久，巴罗就辞去教授职位，以便让他的学生接任。就这样，牛顿二十六岁时便在享有崇高声誉的学术职位上奠定了地位，可以放手展开划时代的研究工作了。
此前，牛顿已经在三个不同的科研领域播下了具有革命性贡献的种子：数学、天体力学以及物理光学。剑桥大学毕业后，他曾回到在伍尔思索普的老家工作过18个月。毫不夸张地说，那是创造性想象的全部历史中最富有成果的18个月。牛顿随后的科研生涯，在很大程度上就是进一步阐述这些"黄金"月份里的各种伟大发现。
由于发明了一种新式望远镜，牛顿在三十岁时被选为皇家学会会员，赢得了这一英国科学界的最高荣誉。
牛顿因突然获得公认而很自然地激动不已。原先他一直不愿公布他的发现，但在他入选皇家学会后一周不到，便主动请求发表一项"哲学上的发现"。这一发现曾促成他"造出该望远镜"。他说，依他之见，"在大自然转机制方面"他作出了 "迄今为止即便不是最重大的，也可说是最奇特的发现"。他说这番话时并不故作谦虚，颇令人信服。
牛顿给皇家学会的信于1672年2月6日寄往伦敦，信中"阐述了他关于光和色的新理论"。这一论文可以冠以好几个"第一"：它是牛顿最早出版的著作、创立了光谱学学科、标志着对颜色现象作正确分析的开端。但这一论文并未为牛顿赢得他所企求的普遍赞誉，反驳牛顿结论的信件雪花似地飞向皇家学会。
这场争论对牛顿刺激很大，他的个性都发生了变化。他发誓再也不发表自己的发现了。正如他后来在写给莱布尼兹的信中所说："我被由发表我关于光的理论而引发的争议纠缠得心神不宁，怨恨自己太轻率，竟会抛弃自己的安宁这样实实在在的幸福而去追求虚幻之物。"然而，他后来却又继续发表著作，想要得到科学界的赞扬。牛顿的敌人没有忽略他这一矛盾心态。与牛顿绝了交的天文学家约翰·弗拉姆斯蒂德把他说成是"狡诈、野心勃勃、极端垂涎赞扬，却又听不得别人反驳……我认为他基本上算个好人，但本质使然，为人多疑"。
在剑桥，牛顿是个十分典型的健忘教授。他的抄写员汉弗莱·牛顿(并非他的亲戚）曾写道，他从未听说牛顿"参加过什么娱乐、休闲活动，比如骑马兜风、散散步、划船或者任何其他体育锻炼，他认为不是花在研究上的时光都是白白浪费掉的"。牛顿常常工作到清晨两三点钟，吃得很少，有时压根儿忘记吃饭。别人提醒他还未吃饭，他便走到桌子旁边"站着吃一两口"。牛顿很少去学院的食堂就餐，难得去了，又往往见他"着一双后跟磨掉的鞋子，穿一双没有系好的袜子，披着白外套，头也几乎没梳理过"。据说，他常常对着空无一人的大厅演讲，神情显然像是厅里坐满了学生一般得意。
那场争论结束后，作为科学家的牛顿从公众的视线中消失了。他代表剑桥大学担任议会议员，不过私下还在继续研究化学和炼金术、神学、物理以及数学。他结识了莱布尼兹，但不肯向这位伟大的同时代人透露自己在数学方面一些发现的确切信息。今天人们普遍认为，微积分是牛顿和莱布尼兹各自基本上独立发现的，但是这两个人及其支持者曾为谁的发现居前激烈争吵，牛顿还指控莱布尼兹剽窃。牛顿将他研究的每门学科都视为己有，提防被人占去 一份；他创造性生涯中差不多每取得一项成就便会随着发生一些争吵。
1684年，天文学家埃德蒙·哈雷拜访了牛顿，这次访问后来广为人知。哈雷在太阳与行星间的引力方面有个问题尚未解决。他和胡克从约翰尼斯·开普勒对行星运行的描述中得出结论，引力必然和行星与太阳间距离的平方成反比，但他们一直未能证明这一想法。哈雷问牛顿："假设引力随距离平方变化而减小，小行星运行的曲线是怎样的？"牛顿毫不犹豫地回答说："椭圆。" 他怎么会知道的呢？ "呃，"牛顿答道，"我计算过。"这四个字告诉哈雷，牛顿已经解决了宇宙中最基本的法则之一——引力定律。哈雷想要马上看看他的演算，但牛顿找不到笔记，于是答应把定理与演算全都写出来。在哈雷一再催促下，他为皇家学会完成了一篇稿子，《自然哲学的数学原理》就这样诞生了，此稿自问世以来一直被简称为《原理》。
写完《原理》，牛顿得了某种"神经崩溃症"。他诉说自己睡不着觉，缺乏“原先的思维连贯性”。他给朋友写去泄愤的信件，然后又向他们道歉。比如，他曾愤懑地向约翰·洛克抗议说，这位哲学家曾企图"使他卷入绯闻"。
1696年，牛顿放弃学术生涯，就任造币厂厂长的职位，后又充任该厂掌管人。但他的科研成就继续给他带来荣誉：他于1705年被封为爵士，还当了多年皇家学会会长。
牛顿在生命的最后二十五年中虽然没有作出重大发现，但他在晚年并非再无新鲜见解。这时他声名卓著，受人敬重，不再感到有什么顾忌了，于是对科学上的问题公开提出了许多推断与猜测。他对万有引力的"成因"作了各种可能的假设，还对以下种种加以推测：醚的性质、物质组成单位的大小、电力与磁力、肌肉对"意志所发指令"作出反应的原因、知觉的来源、世界的创造以及人类的最终命运。在牛顿之后的整整一百年中，物理学实验人员对他的许多大胆推测与猜测作了进一步研究。
牛顿常被称为"理性时代"的开创者，亚历山大·蒲柏则以他的著名的诗句表达了他那个时代的感受：
大自然与自然法则为夜色笼罩：
上帝说道，让牛顿降生！万物顿被阳光普照。
Key Words:
solace ['sɔləs]
n. 安慰，慰藉 v. 使快乐，使安慰，使缓和
unhappy [ʌn'hæpi]
adj. 不快乐的，不高兴的
solitary ['sɔlitəri]
adj. 孤独的，独立的，单个的，唯一的，荒凉的
biography [bai'ɔgrəfi]
n. 传记
sympathy ['simpəθi]
n. 同情，同情心，同感，赞同，慰问
protracted [prə'træktid]
adj. 延长的，拖延的
biographer [bai'ɔgrəfə]
n. 传记记者
isolated ['aisəleitid]
adj. 分离的，孤立的
bolster ['bəulstə]
n. 长枕，靠垫 vt. 支持，鼓励
nevertheless [.nevəðə'les]
adv. 仍然，不过
weakness ['wi:knis]
n. 软弱
unqualified ['ʌn'kwɔlifaid]
adj. 不合格的，无资格的，不适任的，绝对的
genius ['dʒi:njəs]
n. 天才，天赋
beat [bi:t]
v. 打败，战胜，打，敲打，跳动
n. 敲打，
established [is'tæbliʃt]
adj. 已被确认的，确定的，建立的，制定的 动词est
outstanding [aut'stændiŋ]
adj. 突出的，显著的，未支付的
bully ['buli]
n. 欺凌弱小者，土霸，开球
vt. 威胁，恐
authority [ə'θɔ:riti]
n. 权力，权威，职权，官方，当局
conceived
v. 构思；设想（conceive的过去式）
extraordinary [iks'trɔ:dnri]
adj. 非凡的，特别的，特派的
distinct [dis'tiŋkt]
adj. 独特的，不同的，明显的，清楚的
permission [pə'miʃən]
n. 同意，许可，允许
elaboration [i.læbə'reiʃən]
n. 详细阐述，精心制作，精致，周密
considerable [kən'sidərəbl]
adj. 相当大的，可观的，重要的
communicate [kə'mju:nikeit]
v. 交流，传达，沟通
invention [in'venʃən]
n. 发明，发明物，虚构，虚构物
mechanics [mi'kæniks]
n. 力学，机械学，(技术的，操作的)过程，手法
detection [di'tekʃən]
n. 察觉，发觉，侦查，探测
announce [ə'nauns]
vt. 宣布，宣告，声称，预示
vi. 作播音
creative [kri'eitiv]
adj. 创造性的
shadow ['ʃædəu]
n. 阴影，影子，荫，阴暗，暗处
vt. 投阴
analysis [ə'næləsis]
n. 分析，解析
controversy ['kɔntrəvə:si]
n. (公开的)争论，争议
applause [ə'plɔ:z]
n. 鼓掌，喝彩，赞许
v. 鼓掌
suspicious [səs'piʃəs]
adj. 可疑的，多疑的
ambitious [æm'biʃəs]
adj. 有雄心的，有抱负的，野心勃勃的
contradiction [kɔntrə'dikʃən]
n. 反驳，矛盾，不一致，否认
impatient [im'peiʃənt]
adj. 不耐烦的，急躁的
excessively [ik'sesivli]
adv. 过分地，过度地，非常地
claim [kleim]
n. 要求，要求权;主张，断言，声称;要求物
alchemy ['ælkimi]
n. 炼金术，魔力
proprietary [prə'praiətəri]
adj. 专利的，所有权的 n. 所有权，所有人
acquainted [ə'kweintid]
adj. 有知识的，熟悉的，了解的 动词acquaint
priority [prai'ɔriti]
n. 优先权，优先顺序，优先
controversy ['kɔntrəvə:si]
n. (公开的)争论，争议
calculus ['kælkjuləs]
n. 微积分
plagiarism ['pleidʒiərizəm]
n. 剽窃，剽窃物
quarrel ['kwɔrəl]
n. 吵架，争论，怨言
vi. 吵架，争论，挑
conceived
v. 构思；设想（conceive的过去式）
contemporary [kən'tempərəri]
n. 同时代的人
informed [in'fɔ:md]
adj. 见多识广的 v. 通告，告发 vbl. 通告，
supposition [.sʌpə'ziʃən]
n. 想像，推测，推想
fundamental [.fʌndə'mentl]
adj. 基本的，根本的，重要的
n. 基本原
hesitation [.hezi'teiʃən]
n. 犹豫
curve [kə:v]
n. 曲线，弯曲，弧线，弯曲物
vt.
universe ['ju:nivə:s]
n. 宇宙，万物，世界
insistent [in'sistənt]
adj. 坚持的，迫切的
diminished [di'miniʃt]
adj. 减退了的；减弱的 v. 减少；削弱（dimin
manuscript ['mænjuskript]
adj. 手抄的
n. 手稿，原稿
gravity ['græviti]
n. 重力，严重，庄重，严肃
muscular ['mʌskjulə]
adj. 肌肉的，肌肉发达的
sensation [sen'seiʃən]
n. 感觉，感知力，激动，轰动
academic [.ækə'demik]
adj. 学术的，学院的，理论的
secure [si'kjuə]
adj. 安全的，牢靠的，稳妥的
vt. 固定
sentiment ['sentimənt]
n. 感情，情趣，意见，观点，多愁善感
response [ri'spɔns]
n. 回答，响应，反应，答复
n. [宗
magnetism ['mægnitizəm]
n. 磁性，吸引力，磁学
bold [bəuld]
adj. 大胆的，粗体的，醒目的，无礼的，陡峭的
barren ['bærən]
adj. 不育的，贫瘠的
ultimate ['ʌltimit]
n. 终极，根本，精华
参考资料：
- 大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit5B Isaac Newton(1)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit5B Isaac Newton(2)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit5B Isaac Newton(3)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit5B Isaac Newton(4)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit5B Isaac Newton(5)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
- 大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit5B Isaac Newton(6)_大学教材听力 - 可可英语
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