问答题
The initial fund of general scientific knowledge is an
invaluable asset (财产), but the young research worker should have no illusion(错觉)
about how little it is compared with what he or she should acquire during
succeeding years. As to the precise value of this initial fund of knowledge,
this depends to a great degree on how it has been acquired and on who has been
imparting(传授) it. 46){{U}}Young scientists cannot realize too soon that existing
scientific knowledge is not nearly so complete, certain and unalterable as many
textbooks seem to imply.{{/U}} The original papers of great scientists describing
their discoveries and explaining their theories are never as rigid and
self-confident as the resumes(摘要说明)of these discoveries and theories in
textbooks by other men often suggest. Young scientists consulting these original
works will find in them "it appears that", "it probably means", "it seems likely
that", more than once, as expressions of elements of doubt which great men felt
and honestly put on record. 47){{U}}Many statements which have appeared in
textbooks as universal and absolute truths have, in their original form, been
put for word as only approximately true, or true only in certain
circumstances.{{/U}}
Immediately upon starting on the first
serious piece of research, a young scientist must therefore do two things.
48){{U}}The first of these should be a careful reading of original papers or books
relating to the problem, written by investigators whose technique and judgement
he can trust.{{/U}} While reading these publications in a most attentive and
receptive manner, the young scientist must not fall into the error of placing in
them a greater confidence than their author would wish him to do. 49){{U}}No great
scientist ever wants his pupils to be mere gramophone records, faithfully
reproducing his remarks, never questioning anything, never wanting to add to or
subtract from what he has given them.{{/U}}
The second thing a
young scientist must do, almost but not quite simultaneously with the first, is
to proceed with observations and experiments. 50){{U}}The initial observations and
experiments will be failures, but they will help the development of appropriate
experimental technique, and they will give a greater understanding of the
literature the young scientist is studying.{{/U}}