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科学研究的技术-E.B. Wilson的An Introduction to Scientific Research
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科学研究的技术
-E.B. Wilson的An Introduction to Scientific Research
2007.12.12
科学研究的艺术和技术
每一个行当都有自己的套路。所谓内行看门道，外行看热闹，内行看的就是所谓的套路。
这些套路如果是关于思想和思考方法的形而上的东西，大概会被称为艺术；如果是属于比较具体的实际的方法和技巧这些形而下的东西，大概会被称为技术。任何一个人如果要在一个行当里面有基本的地位，先要学习的是形而下的技术和技巧，同时要不断地体会和掌握形而上的思想和艺术。
关于如何做一个科学家，美国国家科学院1995年专门出版一本不到30页的小册子《On being a scientist:Responsible conduct in research》。这本书也有科学出版社出版的中文版。不过这本书主要讲了一些基本的规范和原则，相比之下还是比较概略，没有太多的具体内容和例子，主要还是形而上的和比较原则性的东西。
On being a scientist一书第二版的英文和法文pdf版下载链接：
http://www.reflexives-lpr.org/webadmin/documents/On_being_a_scientist.pdf
科学出版社出版中文《怎样当一名科学家》的pdf版下载链接：http://smkxxy.swu.edu.cn/attachment/070917/334535c75c.pdf
在《On being a scientist:Responsible conduct in research》中写道：
An early but still excellent book on experimental and statistical methods for data reduction is E. Bright Wilson's An Introduction to Scientific Research (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1952). A more general book from the same period that remains useful today is The Art of Scientific Investigation by W. I. B. Beveridge (Third Edition, Vintage Books, New York, 1957).
这里提到的Wilson和Beveridge的两本书都是科学经典。所谓经典，并不是每个人都必须通读，但的确是需要每个人都知道和最好常常翻翻的那些东西。
在前一个博文《科学研究的艺术》中我介绍了贝弗里奇（W. I. B. Beveridge）的两本书和链接。贝弗里奇的这两本书有更多的例子和具体的分析，但总体来说其中还是主要关于科学研究的思想和方法的形而上问题。在下面要介绍的E. Bright Wilson,Jr在1952年出版的An Introduction to Scientific Research，完全是一本关于科学研究的具体的形而下内容的书籍。
Amazon网站上一位对形而上问题感兴趣的读者对该书做出非常了以下失望的评价。这足以证明其形而下的程度，完全符合兄弟连的战士们在科学前线上作战手册和指南的要求。那个评价是：
Before I bought this book, I think this book is about the philosophical account on the scientific research. After I bought this book, then what? I was very disappointed, this book is just about the practical application of experimental design in scientific research. Thus, the more apt title for this book is "Application of Experimental Design in Scientific Research".
Amazon上An Introduction to Scientific Research一书的信息和链接：http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Scientific-Research-Bright-Wilson/dp/0486665453
谁是E.B. Wilson
E. Bright Wilson （1908.12.18-1992.7.12）是分子光谱学家，Harvard大学化学系的物理化学教授，诺贝尔化学奖获得者Linus Pauling的学生，诺贝尔物理学奖获得者Kenneth Wilson的父亲，1976年的美国国家科学奖章（National Medal of Science）获得者。Wilson和Pauling在1935年出版的Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry是原子分子物理和化学领域的经典，影响了之后的好几代科学家。Wilson和J. C. Decius, and Paul C. Cross合写的Molecular Vibrations: The Theory of Infrared and Raman Vibrational Spectra是研究分子光谱学领域的基本参考书。
E.B. Wilson的简历链接：http://www.chemheritage.org/exhibits/ex-oral-detail.asp?ID=61&Numb=1
Amazon上Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry一书的信息和链接：http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Quantum-Mechanics-Applications-Chemistry/dp/0486648710/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197454770&sr=1-1
Amazon上Introduction to Quantum Mechanics with Applications to Chemistry一书的信息和链接：http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Vibrations-Infrared-Vibrational-Spectra/dp/048663941X
E.B. Wilson在1942-1944年二战期间，是美国Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution的水下爆炸研究实验室的主任（Research Director, Underwater Explosives Research Laboratory）。1944-1946年间，Wilson是美国国家防卫研究委员会（NDRC-National Defense Research Committee）二部（Division 2）的主任。1952-1953年，Wilson是美国国防部武器系统评估小组成员（Department of Defense Weapons System Evaluation Group）。他的这些经历，可能和他1930年代曾在Alfred Lee Loomis的Tuxedo Park实验室中做过研究的有关。很多和Loomis实验室有关的人都成为了二战和二战后美国最有影响的科学家和科学政策与管理方面的重要人物。有关Alfred Lee Loomis其人和他的Tuxedo Park实验室的传奇，请见我前一段时间的博文《历史上伟大的“民科”(2)－Alfred Lee Loomis－最后一位伟大的“民科”》。
我的博文《历史上伟大的“民科”(2)》链接： http://sciencenet.cn/blog/user_content.aspx?id=294
和中国一样，美国的军事和国防高科技的发展，自己国家最好的科学家都起到了非常大的作用。大概也只有象Wilson这样能够在具体的研究和高层次的科学组织和管理上同时具有丰富经验和创造性的人，才能够高屋建瓴地写出An Introduction to Scientific Research这种经典来。这和我们一般看到的“SCI论文攻略”或“如何进行科学研究”的“行家”经验，不可同日而语，等量齐观。
Wilson版本的科学研究的“技术”
E.B. Wilson的An Introduction to Scientific Research一书，是他1950年左右在英国牛津大学学术休假期间写的，于1952年出版第一版。在1990年专门出版平装经典书籍的Dover出版公司出版了该书的平装版。这本书目前还没有中文版，或许有好事者能够勉力为之。不过这本书的Dover版售价也才￥11.95，如果世界图书公司能够引进到中国出版英文版，或许三、五十元人民币就能搞定。（注：抱歉。经网友si laser提供信息，本书已有中文版。科学研究方法论/(美)威尔逊(Wilson,E.B.)著 石大中等译，上海科技文献出版社, 1988.3 。）
这本书的价值在于它的基本内容经历了半个世纪的时间仍然具有很好的指导价值。在1990年该书的Dover平装版的出版的时候，82岁高龄的Wilson写下了如下的再版序言：
Most of the topics discussed in this book are sufficiently fundamental that they have changed very little as a result of the passage of time. There are, however, two areas where this statement is not even approximately true. There are electronics and the development of faster and faster digital computers. Pogress has been so rapid in these fields that we have to face to face the fact that obsolescence has overtaken much of what was originally written for chapter 2 and 12. Library use and the building of data banks are being revolutionalized by the availability of more and more powerful computers and their use for the storage and retrieval of information. Slide rules, for another example, are now only good for museums. The successive development of mechanical calculators, then vacuum tube-based types, followed by tansistors and integrated circuits, has totally altered the ways in which numbers can be stored and manipulated. Pencil and paper simply cannot compete with silicon chips carrying the equivalent of more than a million transistors.
要了解An Introduction to Scientific Research一书中究竟包含些什么内容，请浏览一下本博文后面的全书章节目录。从各章节的内容和篇幅可以了解到实验科学的传统中究竟哪些因素和问题值得注意。书中各章不仅有详尽的参考文献，还包括很多具体的问题的例子。
其中的很多内容，相信任何一个有研究经验的人都可以从自己的亲身经历中有所体会和认识。我不觉得任何一个人一定需要完整通读这本书才可以作科研，但是将它作为一本工具书和参考书，遇到问题或思路不清时经常翻翻，应该会很有帮助。
本书的作用，正如Wilson在Introduction中所说：
Scientific work, by its very nature, cannot be reduced to a routine process, but this makes it certain that there is much room for improvement in efficiency. Furthermore, skilled and experienced workers usually learn many procedures only after years of actual practice. No book can completey replace experience, but much knowledge gained this hard way can be transfered to others via the printed page.
关于本书的宗旨和适用性，Wilson在其第一版前言中有充分的说明。他说：
Few readers of this preface will need to be convinced of the enormous importance of scientific research in our present-day civilization or of the magnitude of the effort which is being expended in this activity. Any-one who has tried to do research also knows that it is in general a highly inefficient endeavor. An exploration into the unknown cannot be planned in advance with the precision of a mass-production process. Nevertheless, some investigators are far more effective than others and make fewer wrong decisions at the innumerable crossroads which are reached daily during the course of a typical research problem. We have no way of acquiring the inborn wisdom which is mostly responsible for their success, but perhaps there are a few techniques which we can learn from them.
This book is an attempt to collect in one place and to explain as simply as possible a number of general principles, techniques, and guides for procedure which successful investigators in various fields of science have found helpful. The emphasis is entirely on the practical rather than the philosophical or psychological aspects. Topics have been included only if they appeared to be useful to working scientists in more than one field. As a consequence the coverage is necessarily broad rather than deep.
Naturally a physical chemist cannot claim to be able to write a book equally useful in all the sciences. Nevertheless, many of the topics treated have been found useful by others in such diverse fields as agriculture, industrial and military research, biology, and medicine as well as in the physical sciences.
Much of the material should be understandable to a college senior, but the book is more specifically intended for students beginning research and for those more experienced research workers who wish an introduction to various topics which were not included in their training. The mathematical treatments have been kept as elementary as possible but are given where they seemed required.
因为After all, the proof of the pudding is in the eating，我在这里大段引用再多也没有用。关于研究的具体经验，大家需要的是自己去读、去想，和在自己的工作中体会。
书中语录
下面从书中摘抄一些值得思考的句子，虽九牛一毛，或许可以帮助没有看到书的读者管窥。
1. Many scientists owe their greatness not to their skill in solving problems but to their wisdom in choosing them. It is therefore worth considering the points on which this choice can be based.
2. The most rewarding work is usually to explore a hitherto untouched field. These are not easy to find today. However, every once in a while some new theory or new experimental method or apparatus makes it possible to enter a new domain.
3. Another question which is worth asking before undertaking a new problem is :"Why should I, among all the scientists of the world, be the one to do this job?"
4. No one can be so obstructive of progress as the "expert" who has worked all his life on a single subject.
5. The greatest difficulties, and consequently the greatest losses in efficiency, occur when secrecy, either military or industrial, is involved. Science simply does not flourish under such circumstances.
6. It is hard for him to understand that a research on momomolecular films on water, such as Langmuir's, can lead to improved equipment for showing the motion picture Gone with the Wind。
7. It often occurs that a man who has opened a new field of science comes to feel that this is his own private domain, in which trespassers are not welcome. ...Nevertheless, it cannot be accepted as a part of approved scientific etiquette, because to do so would retard or stifle progress.
8. The first of these is to find out if the information which is the object of the proposed research is already available. The second is to acquire a broad general background in the given field.
9. The advice of an expert is particularly useful here, but again negative statements should be used with caution.
10. Science begins with the observation of selected parts of nature.
11. Observation implies selection.
12. Many nonscientists are excellent observers, but there are certain points emphasized more in scientific observation. One of the mostimportant of these is the immediate recording of the data in a notebook. An experimental scientist without his notebook is off duty.
13. A scientific observer is never afraid to allow others to view the phenomena in which he is interested.
14. A feature of scientific observation is a tendency to be quantitative. Numbers are used as part of the description where possible.
15. An explanation that does not increase man's power over nature may be psychologically useful, but is not to be considered in the same class as one which does lead to an increased ability to predict or control future events. Prediction and control are important aims of science.
16. The possibility of constructing hypotheses rests on the assumption that ther is some order in nature.
17. The basic method of science is generalization, or induction. This is the process of drawing inferences about a whole class from observations on a few of its members.
18. When a hypothesis has been devised to fit the observed facts, it becomes possible to apply the rules of formal logic and deduce various consequences. Logic does not enter science until this stage is reached.
19. Before planning actual experiments, the investigator should obviously have a good basic understanding of the nature of the problem and of any relevant theory associated with it. ...The experimenter will next be wise if he analyzes his problem and is thereby enabled to cast it into the simpest form.
20. It is rather poor policy to carry out an experiment without a clear-cut idea in advance of just what is being tested.
21. All science rests on the idea that similar events occur in similar circumstances.
22. In every scientific investigation the problem of smapling is one of the first which must be solved.
23. The wise choice of experimental material may greatly reduce experimental difficulties. For example,...
24. Controls are particularly necessary in medical research and many useless treatments have obtained a foothold because of alleged "experiments" which in fact gave misleading results because no contorls were employed.
25. If one doubts the necessary for controls, reflect on the statement:"It has been conclusively demonstrated by hundreds of experiments that the beating of tom-toms will restore the sun after an eclipse."
26. The experimenter who does not know the quantitative possibilities is unlikely to make decisions correctly.
27. An experimenter may not be able to carry out all the operations of an expert mechanician, glass blower, optical worker, etc., but it is very much to his advantage to have a good working knowledge of the methods which these articans must use in fabricating the parts of his apparatus.
28. Misunderstood or incomplete instructions are a serious sources of waste and delay.
这些都是很有启发和值得回味的句子，当然我们没有任何理由把其中的任何一句话在哲学和修辞学的层面上绝对化，作者也再三告诫大家要小心，不要那样做。
再摘下去我可能需要把整本书抄在这里，所以我必须停止，让大家有机会去自己阅读。我没有办法摘抄的是书中的很多非常具体和直接的内容，他们具体到会让非常注意细节的实验者也感到吃惊。比如下面的内容：
The comfort and convenience of the operator often make all the difference in an experiment. Scientific observation can be extremely tedious, tiring, and yet demanding of the highest degree of attention and thought.
It pays the later stages at least to collect the meters, switches, and controls in a convenient arrangement about a comfortable chair for the operator.
具体到了对实验操作者的舒适程度的考虑，还有什么比这更具体的呢？那些关于如何设计实验，如何处理和分析数据的内容，就更细致和具体了。
结论
我自己在做分子光谱相关的研究，所以E.B. Wilson也是我的偶像之一。我们经常要翻翻他的那本Molecular Vibration。今天下午我和学生还在查阅他在1938年的一篇早期的论文。但这些并不是我推崇他的这本An Introduction to Scientific Research的原因。
科学研究是非常具体的专业化的过程。我们常常接触的都是在哲学和抽象的层面上对科学研究的谈论，或者对研究结果的报道。对从事和即将从事科学研究的人们来说，研究中的具体经验、知识和方法才是他们每天需要的工具和武器，面包和黄油。
科学文化的建设和科学精神的培养只有在科学研究和生活的具体的和日常的细节中才能够体现出来。如果只是在哲学和精神层面上讨论科学文化和科学精神，比如很多人热衷于研究和了解的科学哲学或科学人文，而不能在具体的实践层面和操作层面上直接地运用和体会，那么所谓科学文化和科学精神都只能是空中楼阁和纸上谈兵。喜欢抽象概念的人们常常会排斥具体化的操作程序和工具，殊不知这些乃是保证任何一个行当和职业能够保持稳定和继续发展的基础和命脉，只有在这样的基础上任何抽象地概念才能够被贯彻和体现出来。研究者在研究前沿的具体的行动指南和规范，正如兄弟连的低级军官和士兵在前线的生存手册和条例，必须在最大程度上掌握和遵循，但又需要根据前线上具体的情况发挥自己的判断能力进行创造性的调整。
这些行动指南和规范是基本的，不高深的，所以往往为喜欢高谈阔论的人所忽略。好的研究训练无不是通过具体的研究过程去强化这些认识，并使之变成研究和思考中的习惯。实际的研究和研究训练过程中，导师并不会拿着这样的手册来让学生依葫芦画瓢，学生也并不一定要人手一册完全照章办理。但是，好的研究和训练和不好的研究训练存在的真正的区别，却很容易用这些具体的原则和规范衡量出来。一个好的军士长已经把抽象的军事原则内化并体现在他的日常行动和示范之中，并且时常能灵活发挥，一个差的军士长当然还只能照本宣科，笨拙地运用。但是，当我们在嘲笑照本宣科的军士长的时候，也最好不要迷信地认为那些完全没有正规训练的游击队会好得多，即使小米加步枪也会有取胜的时候。如果能把正规的训练和游击战的灵活性结合起来，恐怕才是最理想的。在我们的实践中，只怕是绝大多数人的正规训练不足，游击习气有余，不利于整体和大规模水平的提高和协调发展。
Wilson的这本书非常有参考价值之处，正是在于它不在哲学和精神层面谈论科学研究和科学文化，而是把它具体到科学研究的具体过程和细节思考中。它并不是这方面唯一的一本，但的确是最具有参考价值的一本。
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An Introduction to Scientific Research目录
作者：E.B. Wilson，Jr.
目录：
Page i-viii Prefaces and Introduction
Page 1-9 Chapter 1. The choice and statement of a research problem
Page 10-20 Chapter 2. Searching the literature
Page 21-35 Chapter 3. Elementary scientific method
Page 36-68 Chapter 4. The design of experiments
Page 69-126 Chapter 5. The design of apparatus
Page 127-150 Chapter 6. The excution of experiments
Page 151-168 Chapter 7. Classification, sampling, and measurement
Page 169-231 Chapter 8. The analysis of experimental data
Page 232-276 Chapter 9. Errors of measurement
Page 277-302 Chapter 10. Probability, randomness, and logic
Page 303-331 Chapter 11. Mathematical work
Page 332-353 Chapter 12. Numerical computations
Page 354-364 Chapter 13. Reporting the results of research
Page 365 Conclusion
Page 366-375 Index
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