Story of Newton's encounter with apple goes online

[美联社]网上揭秘牛顿传奇

AP - In this photo taken Friday, Jan. 15, 2010, Royal Society librarian Keith Moore holds the manuscript of ...

美联社-图为皇家学会图书馆馆长基思-摩尔拿着那份手稿，摄于2010年1月15日，星期五

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press Writer - 38 mins ago

写作供稿：RAPHAEL G. SATTER

LONDON - It always falls down. That's how the apple helped Isaac Newton.

伦敦报道：苹果落下乃司空见惯，唯牛顿获得科学灵感

An 18th-century account of how Newton developed the theory of gravity was posted to the Web Monday, making the fragile paper manuscript widely available to the public for the first time.

一份18世纪记载着牛顿如何发现万有引力理论的手稿上周五在网上发布。把易于破碎的手稿在网上公布于众，这还是第一次。

Newton's encounter with the apple ranks among science's most celebrated anecdotes, and it can now be read in the faded cursive script in which it was recorded by William Stukeley, Newton's contemporary.

有关牛顿与苹果的轶事一直是科学界最著名的传说。现在我们终于可以从一份由牛顿同时代的威廉-斯图克利所撰写的一份退色的手稿中一睹其详了。

Royal Society librarian Keith Moore said the apple story has resonated for centuries because it packs in so much - an illustration of how modern science works, an implicit reference to the solar system and even an allusion to the Bible.

英国皇家学会图书馆长基思-摩尔说，几百年前那个苹果的故事之所以能够引起广泛的反响，是因为这份手稿中的这样一些因素：第一，这是一份解释什么是现代科学的著作；第二，它涉及到了对太阳系的探索；第三，而且甚至还提到了圣经。

When Newton describes the process of observing a falling apple and guessing at the principle behind it "he's talking about the scientific method," Moore said.

摩尔认为，当牛顿描述他关注一只跌落的苹果并猜测其背后隐藏着的科学原理时，"他实际上是在探讨关于科学研究的方法。"

"Also the shape of the apple recalls the planet - it's round - and of course the apple falling from the tree does indeed hark back to the story of Adam and Eve, and Newton as a religious man would have found that quite apt."

摩尔说："而且，这苹果的外形，会使人想到地球-它们都是圆球状-而且，自然而然地，从树上落下的苹果会使人联想到亚当和夏娃的故事，而牛顿作为一名教徒，这样的联想是顺理成章的。"

The incident occurred in the mid-1660s, when Newton retreated to his family home in northern England after an outbreak of the plague closed the University of Cambridge, where he had been studying.

牛顿的故事发生自1660年代中期，因瘟疫爆发剑桥大学被迫关闭，牛顿回到他英格兰北部的家乡之后，一直在进行他的研究。

Stukeley's manuscript recounts a spring afternoon in 1726 when the famous scientist shared the story over tea "under the shade of some apple trees."

据斯图克利的手稿记载，在1726年一个春天的下午，这位著名的科学家边喝茶边"在几棵苹果树下的荫凉里"谈论往事。

Stukeley wrote that Newton told him the notion of gravity popped into the scientist's mind as he was sitting in the same situation.

斯图克利写道，牛顿告诉他，当年正是在这样的情景中，正是在苹果树下，他的脑子里迸发出了地球引力的概念。

"It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself ... Why should it not go sideways, or upwards? But constantly to the earth's center?" Stukeley wrote. "Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in matter."

"这个概念是由一只苹果的跌落引发的，因为这引起了他的苦思冥想--他问自己，为什么那苹果总是垂直地落到地上，为什么苹果不是斜着下落或向上飘升，而总是向着地球的中心方向降落？"斯图克利写道，"毫无疑问，理由只能是地球在吸引着那苹果。事实上，必然存在着一个牵引的力量。"

Stukeley's account on the Royal Society's Web site joins notes from Newton's 17th-century scientific rival Robert Hooke - documents that were lost for several hundred years before their recent discovery in a house in England.

英国皇家学会网站所展示的斯图克利的手稿链接了牛顿时代-17世纪另一位科学泰斗，也是牛顿的学术对手的罗伯特-虎克的笔记本，这件文物被丢失了几百年后，不久前在英格兰的一栋房子里被发现。

Users can flip through both documents using the same page-turning software used to browse Leonardo's sketches and Jane Austen's early work on the British Library's site.

除了上面说的这两份古老的文件，网络用户也可以使用同样的翻页软件（page-turning）去大不列颠图书馆网站翻阅达芬奇的素描手稿和简-奥斯汀早期的著作。

The Royal Society, an academy of scientists founded in 1660 to discuss and spread scientific knowledge, is marking its 350th anniversary this year by putting more than 60 of its most important scientific papers online.

英国皇家学会是一个科学家学术机构，成立于1660年，以探讨和传播科学知识为宗旨。在纪念成立350周年之际，该学会在网上推出60多件重要的科学文献。