Chapter I – The Present Anarchy of Science
Every philosopher devoted to the study of subjects with rather vague outlines and uncertain conclusions, such as Psychology, Politics, or History; who had a few years ago to peruse a work on Physical Science, must have been struck by the clearness of the definitions, the exactness of the demonstrations, and the precision of the experiments. Everything was strictly linked together and interpreted. By the side of the most complicated phenomenon there was always figured its explanation.
If this same philosopher had the curiosity to look for the general principles on which these precise sciences were founded, he could not but be compelled to admire their marvelous simplicity and their imposing grandeur. Chemistry and mechanics had the indestructible atom for their foundation, physics the indestructible energy. Learned equations, produced either by experiments or by pure reasoning, united by rigid formulas the four fundamental elements of things — i.e., time, space, matter and force. All the bodies in the universe, from the gigantic star describing its eternal revolutions in space down to the infinitesimal grain of dust which the wind seems to blow about at will, were subject to their laws.
We were right to be proud of such a science, the fruit of centuries of effort. To it was due the unity and simplicity which everywhere reigned. A few minds enamored of formulas thought it possible to simplify them further by taking into account only the mathematical relations between phenomena. These last appeared to them solely as manifestations of one great entity, viz.: energy. A few differential equations sufficed to explain all the facts discovered by observation. The principal researches of science consisted in discovering new formulas that from that moment became universal laws which nature was forced to obey.
在取得如此重要的成果之前，这位哲学家弯下腰承认，如果他所生活的环境几乎不存在确定性，至少可以在纯科学领域找到确定性。他怎么会怀疑呢？他难道没有注意到大多数有学问的人对自己的表现如此确信，甚至连怀疑的影子都没有掠过他们的脑海吗？
他们生活在绝对的宁静地带，在那里所有的不确定性都消失了，在那里闪耀着纯粹真理的耀眼光芒。
我们伟大的科学理论并不都是非常古老和伟大的，因为精确实验科学的周期几乎不超过三个世纪。这段相对较短的时期，揭示了学者们思想演变的两个截然不同的阶段。
The first is the period of confidence and certainty to which I have just referred. In the face of the daily increase of discoveries, especially during the first half of the last century, the philosophical and religious dogmas on which our conception of the universe had for so long been based, faded and vanished completely. No complaint was raised. Were not absolute truths to replace the former uncertainties of ancient beliefs? The founders of each new science imagined that they had once for all built up for that science a framework which only needed filling in. This scientific edifice once built up, it would alone remain standing on the ruins of the vain imaginings and illusions of the past. The scientific creed was complete. No doubt it presented nature as regardless of mankind and the heavens as tenantless; but it was hoped to repeople the latter at an early date and to set up for adoration new idols, somewhat wooden perhaps, but which at least would never play us false.
这种对现代科学伟大教条的快乐信心一直没有改变，直到最近的一天，意外的发现使科学思想遭受怀疑，并认为自己永远自由。这座只有少数高明人才看得见裂缝的大厦突然剧烈地震动了。矛盾和不可能，起初很难察觉，现在变得引人注目。幻灭是如此之快，以至于在很短的时间内，出现了这样一个问题：那些看似构成我们物理学知识最确定的基础的原理，是否仅仅是脆弱的假设，它们将深刻的无知包裹在一层妄想的面纱里。然后，科学教条就降临了，以前的宗教教条也是如此，只要有人敢讨论它们。批评的时刻紧接着是颓废的时刻，然后是消失和遗忘的时刻。
毫无疑问，那些科学引以为豪的伟大原则还没有完全消失。在很长一段时间里，它们将继续成为大众的积极真理，并将在小学教科书中传播，但在真正的学者眼中，它们已经失去了威望。刚才提到的发现只是强调了最新作品已经开始揭示的不确定性；正是这样，科学本身就进入了一个无政府状态的阶段，从这个阶段她可能会被认为永远安全。似乎有确凿的数学基础的原则现在被那些教和保护他们的专业人士所质疑。像《科学》和《M的假设》这样深奥的书。亨利•庞加莱几乎在每一页上都给出了证明。即使在数学领域，这位杰出的学者也表明，我们只依赖于假设和惯例。
One of M. Poincare’s most eminent colleagues in the institute, the mathematician Emile Picard, has shown in one of his publications how “incoherent” are the present principles of another almost fundamental science — mechanics. He says: “At the end of the 18th century, the principles of mechanics seemed to defy all criticism, and the work of the founders of the science of motion formed a block which seemed for ever safe against the lapse of time. Since that epoch, searching analysis has examined the foundations of the edifice with a magnifying glass. As a matter of fact, where learned men like Lagrange and Laplace deemed everything quite simple, we today meet with the most serious difficulties. Every one who has had to teach the first steps of mechanics, and who has troubled to think for himself, has experienced how incoherent are the more or less traditional explanations of its principles”.
The principles of mechanics, which are apparently most simple, writes Prof. Mach in his History of Mechanics, “are of a very complicated nature. They are based on unrealized, and even on unrealizable, experiments. In no way can they be considered in themselves as demonstrated mathematical truths”.
At the present time we possess three systems of mechanics, each of which declares the other two to be absurd. Even if none of them, perhaps, deserves this qualification, they may at least be considered very incoherent, and as furnishing no acceptable expantion of phenomena.
“现在几乎不存在了”，M。卢西恩·庞加莱，“那些伟大的理论中的任何一个，一旦被普遍承认，所有的研究者都同意。在自然科学领域，某种无政府状态统治着，所有的假设都是允许的，没有法律似乎是绝对必要的……我们现在正在目睹，与其说是拆除，不如说是一项明确的建设工程……在我们的前辈看来已经牢固确立的观点现在受到了争议……今天，所有现象都可以用力学解释的观点被普遍抛弃……力学的原理本身就是一场竞赛，最近的事实动摇了我们对迄今为止被认为是基本的法律的绝对价值的信念”。
Assuredly the great theories which dominated the science of each epoch, and gave direction to its studies, did not remain forever undisputed. After an existence generally pretty long, they slowly vanished, but did not give place to new doctrines, until these last were strongly founded. Today the old principles are dead or dying, and those destined to replace them are only in course of formation. Modern man destroys faster than he builds. The legacies of the past are merely shadows. Gods, ideas, dogmas, and creeds vanish one after the other. Before new edifices capable of sheltering our thoughts can be built, many ruins will have crumbled into dust. We are still in an age of destruction, and therefore of anarchy.
幸运的是，幸运的是，比这个无政府状态更有利。世界上充满了我们看不到的事情，经典教义传统的错误或不足的想法是绷带是编织的，涵盖了我们的视线。历史表明科学理论在多大程度上延迟进展，因为他们获得了一定的固定性。在足够的解离之前的想法之后，新的前锋仅成为可能。要指出错误并跟进其后果是有时可用作发现新事实。也许对人类思想进步的最危险的事情是在读者面前放置 - 所有教育作品总是如此，不可确定的事实，并认为对科学限制限制，或者，奥古斯特·科特希望这样做，知识。庆祝的哲学家甚至建议创造一个学者的一堆，以便将限制对应允许的研究进行定制。不幸的是，这些法庭已经太多了，而且没有人可以不知道破坏如何影响他们的影响。
There should therefore be no hesitation to examine closely the fundamental dogmas of science for the sole reason that they are venerated and at first sight appear indestructible. The great merit of Descartes lay in his viewing as doubtful what down to his time had been considered uncontested truth. Too often do we forget the scientific idols of the present day have no more right to invulnerability than those of the past.
The two dogmas of modern science formerly most respected were those of the indestructibility of matter and energy. The first was already 2000 years old, and all discoveries had only tended to confirm it. By a marvelous exception, the strangeness of which struck no one, while all things in the universe were condemned to perish, matter remained indestructible. The beings formed by the combinations of atoms had but an ephemeral existence; but they were composed of immortal elements. Created at the beginning of the ages, these elements defied the action of centuries and, like the gods of ancient legends, enjoyed eternal youth.
没有问题,但是,独自拥有privilege of immortality. The Forces — which are now termed Energy — were equally indestructible. This last might incessantly change its form, but the quantity of it in the world remained invariable. A form of energy could not disappear without being replaced by another equivalent one.
我致力于近10年的实验研究，在我的书中总结，物质的演变，证明了上述教条中的第一个不能再保持，并且这事项也必须进入谴责的事物的循环变老和死。但如果重要的话，我们能否认为能量独自享有不朽的特权？能量守恒的教条仍然保留了如此多的声誉，这似乎没有批评似乎摇动它。在这项工作中，我们必须讨论其价值，这项研究将需要许多其他人。我自己的实验研究导致我探讨了一些不同的物理章节，而不会在没有关于他们所教导的内容。尽管这些研究有必要的零碎特征，但他们可能会对那些科学信仰尚未解决的读者来兴趣。
最终给某些物理和力学原理带来巨大力量的，是它们被包裹在其中的非常复杂的数学仪器。一切以代数形式呈现的事物，对某些人来说，立刻就获得了无可争辩的真理的特性。最完美的怀疑论者心甘情愿地将一种神秘的美德归于方程式，并向其假定的力量鞠躬。在教学中，它们越来越倾向于取代推理和实验。这些现在围绕着最简单原则的虚幻面纱，往往掩盖了不确定性。正是通过提升它们，我不止一次地成功地展示了科学信仰的脆弱性，对许多学者来说，科学信仰具有启示教条的权威。
Chapter II – The New Doctrines
拉格朗日写道，牛顿是最伟大的，同时也是最幸运的天才，因为人们在某种程度上不会不止一次地发现宇宙缺少一个系统。
In saying this, the illustrious mathematician was evidently persuaded that the system of the universe must be considered as established once and for all. This simple belief has no longer many adherents. It now appears pretty clearly that we know very little of the general laws of out universe. We can only dimly see in the far-off future the epoch when these laws will be established. It is, however, already felt that the actual mechanism of the world differs greatly from that constructed by the science of the past. We now feel ourselves surrounded by gigantic forces of which we can only get a glimpse, and which obey laws unknown to us.
想法必然在链中彼此遵循。在没有带来这一系列同样新的后果的情况下，无法启动一个新的理论。事实证明，在原子的解离是一种普遍的现象之后，尽管巨大的宏伟，但迄今为止的能量是一个巨大的能量储层，我自然导致自己宣传宇宙的所有力量 - 尤其是太阳能热电和电 - 没有完全从这个能量储存，因此来自物质的解离。
至于太阳热，地球上大部分能量的来源，离解似乎足以解释太阳温度的维持，因为假设白炽恒星的原子所包含的内部原子能一定比它们冷却时所拥有的更多。关于电，我记得我的实验结果：-带电点发射的粒子与镭等放射性体产生的粒子是相同的。这一事实证明，电也是物质非物质化的产物。
The phenomenon of the dissociation of atoms presented therefore consequences of considerable importance, since it was possible to regard it as the origin of the forces of the universe. Matter became a simple reservoir of forces, and could itself be considered as a relatively stable form of energy. This conception caused the disappearance of the classic dichotomy between matter and energy, and between matter and the ether. It allowed us to connect the two worlds of the Ponderable and the Imponderable, once considered very distinct, which science believed she had definitely separated. Berthelot even asserted at the recent inauguration of the Lavoisier monument, that the distinction between ponderable matter and imponderable agencies is one of the greatest discoveries ever made”.
然而，现在看来，物理学家早就应该看到——也就是说，早在最近的发现之前——物质和乙醚是紧密相连的，它们不断地交换能量，绝不是分离的世界。物质不断发出发光或发热的辐射，并能吸收它们。到了绝对零度，它不断地辐射，也就是说，它发出空灵的振动。物质的搅动在乙醚中传播，乙醚的搅动在物质中传播，没有这种传播，就没有热和光。乙醚和物质是一种不同形式的东西，我们不能把它们分开。如果我们不是从狭隘的观点出发，认为光和热是不可计算的因素，因为它们似乎对身体的重量没有任何增加，那么学者们如此重视的可计算和不可计算之间的区别早就消失了。
The ether is doubtless a mysterious agent which we have not yet learnt to isolate, but its reality is manifest, since no phenomenon can be explained without it. Its existence now seems to several physicists more certain than even that of matter. It cannot be isolated, but it is impossible to say it cannot be seen or touched. It is, on the contrary, the substance we most often see and touch. When a body radiates the heat which warms or burns us, what constitutes this heat, if it be not the vibrations of the ether? When we see a green landscape on the ground glass of a camera obscura, what constitutes this image, if not the ether?
The theory of the dissociation of matter has not only served to clear away the two great dichotomies, force and matter, ponderable and imponderable, which seemed established forever. The doctrine of the vanishing of matter by its transformation into energy carries with it important consequences in regard to current ideas of energy.
根据力学最基本的原则，当我们与材料体通信时，可以改变这种能量，但是该能量永远不会回报超过它的量超过它。这一原则被认为太不言而喻，以争议。事实上，这是无可争议的，只要它被承认，问题只能放弃传递给它的能量并且无法创造任何东西。通过表明物质是一种巨大的能量储层，我同时证明了它发出的能量数量，在外部武力作为一种激动人的影响下，可能远远超过它已经收到的。
With such a very slight excitement as that of a thin pencil of invisible ultraviolet radiations, — or even with no excitement at all, we observe in the emission of spontaneously dissociating bodies such as radium, — we can obtain considerable quantities of energy. No doubt, we do not create this liberated energy, since it already exists in matter, but we obtain it under conditions which the old laws of mechanics could never have imagined. The idea that matte cold be transformed into energy would have seemed absolutely absurd only a very few years ago.
它将成为发现释放手段的未来科学的一部分，以实际的形式释放，这是重要的含量的力量。
“Intra-atomic能源科学带入play”, recently wrote M. Ferrand, “will create the totally new science of modern Energetics: it will give us the formula of the thermodynamic potential of energy freed from matter. Turned commercially to account, it is capable of turning upside down the productive activity of our old world”.
The researches which I have set forth in numerous papers for the last 10 years have rapidly spread through the laboratories, and have been largely utilized, especially by those physicists who have not quoted them. Some of my propositions, considered very revolutionary when first formulated, are now beginning to be almost commonplace, although they are far from having yet produced all their consequences. When those last are unfolded, they will lead to the renewal of a great part of a scientific edifice the stability of which seemed eternal.
证明这个大厦如此稳定，在外观上很稳定是有用的，远远不那么稳定，并且可能从我们普通教育习惯的人那里的非常不同的点观看。这是为了证明这项工作的一部分将致力于这一工作。
The fundamental principles which will guide us are those enumerated in my preceding work, which I repeat: —
- 迄今为止，迄今被认为是坚不可摧的，通过其组分原子的连续解离慢慢消失。
- The products of the dematerialization of matter constitute substances placed by their properties between ponderable bodies and the imponderable ether — that is to say, between two worlds hitherto considered as widely separate.
- 另一方面，物质以前被认为是惰性的，只能将最初提供给它的能量回馈给它，它是一个巨大的能量库——原子内的能量——它可以消耗掉，而不需要从外部借用任何东西。
- 宇宙中的大部分力，尤其是电和太阳热，都是从物质离解过程中释放出来的原子内能中产生的。
- 力和物质是同一事物的两种不同形式。物质代表原子内部能量的稳定形式：热、光、电等代表不稳定的形式。
- By the dissociation of atoms — that is to say by the materialization of matter, the stable form of energy termed matter is simply changed into those unstable forms known by the names of electricity, light, heat, etc., matter therefore is continuously transformed into energy.
- 适用于生物的进化法也适用于简单的机构;化学物种与生活物种不那么不稳定。
- 能量不比它从它发出的问题更坚不可摧。
