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Science and technology
科學技術
Crowdfunding science
集資科技
Many a mickle makes a muckle
積跬步致千里
These days, anyone can be a scientific philanthropist
眼下人人都是科技慈善家
NECESSITY, so the proverb has it, is the mother of invention.
有句諺語說得好：沒有需求，就沒有發明。
And science is nothing if not inventive.
科技失去了創新，就變得一文不值了。
So, as conventional sources of money get harder to tap, some of science's more creative minds are turning elsewhere.
所以，當無法輕易獲得傳統的經濟支持時，一些有創造力的科研人員便開始尋求新的資金來源。
Philanthropic sponsorship of science, particularly in the form of expensive pieces of kit such as large telescopes, or sponsorship for expeditions to far-off places, has been around for centuries.
科技慈善資助已有幾個世紀的歷史，資助形式多為捐贈大型光學望遠鏡之類的昂貴儀器，或者是為偏遠地區的探險提供贊助。
But the internet now permits what might be thought of as microphilanthropy.
不過在網絡的幫助下，如今微慈善也成為可能。
Through a technique called crowdfunding, in which members of the public donate small sums to projects they like the look of, the possibility of scientific philanthropy has been extended to those of more slender means.
基于一種名為眾基金的技術，公眾可以給他們看重的項目捐贈小額資金，科技慈善事業已擴大到微薄資金來源。
On October 4th, for example, Ethan Perlstein, a pharmacologist at Princeton University, launched a bid on a site called RocketHub to collect 25,000 to study the effect of drugs such as methamphetamine on the brain.
例如，普林斯頓大學的藥理學家伊桑?浦斯汀，10月4日就在一家名為火箭中心的網站公開招標，募集25000美元的資金用于研究甲基苯丙胺等藥物對大腦疾病的療效，
He has until November 18th to raise the money.
招標將截止于11月8日。
Kristina Killgrove, an anthropologist at the University of West Florida, has already raised over 12,000 on RocketHub to examine the DNA of Roman skeletons.
克里斯蒂娜科爾戈薇是西佛羅里達大學的一名人類學家，她就通過火箭中心網站募集了12000美元用于自己對羅馬骸骨的DNA檢驗。
And on another crowdfunding site, Petridish, the California Academy of Sciences offered to name any new species of ant discovered during a conservation project in Madagascar after those who donate more than 5,000 to the enterprise.
培養皿網是另一個融資網站，加州科學院就因為通過該網站獲得了5000多美元的項目基金，他們完成了為馬達加斯加保護項目中發現的螞蟻新物種命名的工作。
Although the crowdfunding of science is not raising the sorts of sums sometimes attracted by those with ideas for things like video games, it has already spawned a couple of specialised platforms of its own.
盡管科技融資不再是只有類似電子游戲的項目才能拿得到資金，但融資過程還是形成了自己的專業平臺。
Petridish is one.
培養皿網就是一例。
Another is called Microryza.
Microyza也是一個代表網站。
And academic institutions are starting to follow the lead taken by the CAS.
學術機構都開始模仿加州科學院，募集資金。
The University of California, San Francisco, has made a deal with a site called Indiegogo that will allow the university's charitable status to make money donated via Indiegogo tax deductible.
加利福尼亞大學舊金山分校與Indiegogo網站達成協議，提高了他們的會員慈善等級，可以使經網站募集的資金免稅。
It will launch the first such project later this month.
這個月晚些時候將啟動他們的第一個項目。
Donors can expect no revenue if a crowdfunded science project is successful, of course.
捐贈人肯定沒想著融資的科學項目成功后他們會獲得任何收入。
But they can expect to be kept up to date with progress.
但他們可以獲悉實驗的進度。
Dr Perlstein has promised to upload all data from his experiments onto a website, for his sponsors to look at.
浦斯汀博士就承諾會把實驗中的所有數據上傳到網站，供捐贈人查閱。
And even those who are not immortalised in the myrmicine literature, as the CAS proposed, may still get a warm glow from the feeling that they are making a contribution to the advancement of knowledge in a way which was previously open only to philanthropists with rather fatter wallets.
在加州科學院的項目里，即使這些捐贈人不會因切葉蟻屬文獻而流芳千古，但能讓他們看到自己為知識進步做出了貢獻感到欣慰，因為之前，這種方式只屬于那些錢包更鼓的捐贈人。
