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Science and Technolgy.
科技。
A fishy tale.
小小魚尾，幾掀狂瀾。
This engraving, of a flying fish, almost changed the course of history. It is one of a set from John Ray's and Francis Willughby's book "Historia Piscium", published in 1686 by the Royal Society and recently put online by them for the edification of scholars everywhere. The society, which today proudly describes itself as the world's oldest scientific academy (it was founded in 1660), was almost bankrupted by the expense of the high-quality illustrations in what was regarded at the time as a leading natural-history text, but which unfortunately failed to sell as well as its publishers had hoped. As a result, no money was left over for another publication, "Principia Mathematica", by Isaac Newton. That the most important volume in the history of physics, which described the laws of motion and of gravity, saw the light of day the next year was, in the end, due to the deep pockets of Edmund Halley, of comet fame. Halley was the son of a wealthy soapmaker and he stumped up much of the cost himself.
這幅飛魚雕版畫幾乎轉變了歷史進程。它是約翰·雷（John Ray）和弗朗西斯·維魯格比（Francis Willughby）的著述《魚類溯源》中的組圖之一，該書于1686年由英國皇家學會出版，并于近日上傳到互聯網，以饗五州學者。英國皇家學會始創于1660年，如今自豪地稱自己為世界上最古老的科學學會。然而當時，它卻幾乎面臨破產，就是原因上述高質量的插圖（當時被認定為頂尖的自然歷史文本）耗資甚巨，學會認為插圖文本會暢銷，而不幸地是，事實證明并非如此。結果，對于另一鴻篇巨著—牛頓的《自然哲學的數學原理》，學會只能愛莫能助了。《自然哲學的數學原理》是一本物理學史上首屈一指的鴻篇巨制，一部描述運動規律和萬有引力的鴻篇巨著。為此，艾德蒙德·哈雷（Edmund Halley）給予了鼎力資助，次年這一巨著終于呈現在世人面前。艾德蒙德·哈雷本人因發現哈雷彗星而名垂青史。他是富有的肥皂生產商的兒子，捐助了大部分出版費用。
