最近在B站发现一个精品外刊学习和解析的博主【妈妈不用担心我的英语】，分享的雅思外刊非常棒，对于要考雅思或者考研的人来说是一个非常不错提升英语阅读的渠道，但是提供的外刊文章都是PDF格式的，布局排版不大好打印，这里将文章摘抄到Word文档并重新排版方便打印【文档下载链接在末尾查看下载】
Rethinking the “Western” revolution in science
global cultural and geopolitical roots in Europe’s scientific breakthroughs
Historian James Poskett sees modern science as the product of ceaseless ross-cultural, geopolitical transformations. In his new book, Horizons, Poskett argues that the so-called “Western” revolution in science was actually the result of global transcultural and transregional interactions ,all triggered by global socio-cum-geopolitical shifts. He brings his model of transculturation and global geopolitics transformations to bear on nearly every major breakthrough in modern science, from Newton’s physics to Lavoisier’s chemistry to Mendel’s genetics. The result is a bold new interpretation of the history of the field.
Take, for example, the work of Copernicus. Poskett locates Renaissance astronomy within the much larger context of the expansion of Islam in North Africa and Eurasia. Islam, he reveals, demanded great accuracy in the observations of solar, lunar, and planetary movements, which were used to organize ritual calendars and sanction political power. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 triggered an influx of texts, exiles, and learned captives into Europe, and Copernicus drew on these resources when formulating his heliocentric theory of the Universe. It was therefore, in Poskett’s estimation, the combined effort of many scholars, rather than the work of a lone genius, that led to the demise of Aristotelian and Ptolemaic geocentric models。
Similarly, Poskett demonstrates how all the key evidence Isaac Newton relied on to revitalize physics came from comparative studies conducted in equatorial and Arctic locations. To reach isolated islands in the Pacific to obtain such data, nations needed considerable seafaring capabilities. Ultimately, Poskett argues,it was the Atlantic slave trade that made the accumulation of evidence for Newtonian physics possible.
According to Poskett, 19th-century industrialization, nationalism, settler colonialism, and imperialism drove the development of evolutionary biology, particularly Darwinian natural selection. The idea of evolution as the survival of the fittest was a trope that informed the development of national armies and frontier societies. Nineteenth-century Argentina, Russia, Japan, and China, he notes, excelled in paleontology and evolutionary biology
It was the pursuit of communication in scattered imperial polities that led to breakthroughs in telegraphy and radio, particularly in Russia, Japan, and China, argues Poskett. The rush to industrialization in the 19th century, in turn, sparked much research in chemistry. During this period, the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev spearheaded inquiries into the periodic table, and the Japanese physicist Hantaro Nagaoka headed up efforts that led to the first model of the atom.
Poskett sees Marxist ideologies and Cold War conflict as two of the main forces behind the global spread of relativity, quantum mechanics, and genetics. The new physics advanced by Einstein and Bohr was received by Bolshevik radicals in Russia as a welcome challenge to bourgeois complacency, he argues. Nationalists and republican radicals in India and China also embraced these ideas with gusto. Meanwhile, the fear of famine and atomic warfare during the Cold War greatly facilitated the spread of population and agricultural genetics in Mexico, China, and India.
Poskett’s main contribution with this book is to demonstrate that “European” knowledge has long been the result of global efforts and that science is intimately attached to colonialism, capitalism, slavery, industrialization, and geopolitical conflict. Poskett offers countless examples of non-European scientists whose research changed the sciences in radical new ways.
Yet, for all his sharp insights, Poskett remains firmly grounded in Eurocentric teleologies. In his account, science moves through familiar European markers of progress: Copernicanism, Newtonianism, Linnaean natural history, Maxwellian electromagnetism. And nearly all the nonEuropean innovators he highlights first trained in either European or US institutions. Nor does he question the Eurocentric assumptions that underlie the historiographical categories that are traditionally used to organize the history of science (the print revolution, the Republic of Letters, the public sphere, the Enlightenment, democracy, and the Industrial Revolution). Despite these shortcomings, Horizons is nevertheless a challenging book that deserves a wide readership.
1
ceaseless adj. 不断的，不停的 (cease v. 停止)
(The company has decided to cease all UK operations after this year.)
trigger n. 板机；起因，诱因； v. 引起，触发
(Music triggers the production of dopamine.)
-cum- used to join two nouns, showing that a person or thing does two things
or has two purposes (This is my bedroom-cum-study.)
transculturation n. 文化嫁接
bear on 与…有关 (to be connected or related to sth)
bold adj. 大胆的；冒失的
interpretation n. 理解，解读，解释 (an explanation or opinion of what sth means)
(interpret v.)
2.
Renaissance [ˈrenəsɑːns] n. 文艺复兴
context n. 背景，环境，上下文，语境(the situation within which sth exists
or happens, and that can help explain it)
(Hybrid forms of work and play can provide optimal contexts for learning.)
Islam n. 伊斯兰教 Eurasia [jʊˈreɪʒə] n. 欧亚大陆
lunar adj. 月亮的，月球的
(lunar calendar / lunar surface / lunar eclipse)
planetary [ˈplænəteri] adj. 行星的
ritual n. 仪式 (the sense of ritual)
(Coffee and the newspaper are part of my morning ritual.)
sanction n. 制裁，惩罚
Constantinople [ˌkɑːnstæntəˈnoʊpl]n. 君士坦丁堡
influx n. 大量涌入 exile n.&v. 流放； n. 流放者
captive n. 俘虏
draw on 利用(to use information or your knowledge of sth to help you do sth)
(His novels draw heavily on his childhood.)
heliocentric [ˌhiːliəˈsentrɪk] adj. 以太阳为中心的
demise [dɪˈmaɪz] n. 死亡，终止
Aristotelian [ˌærɪstəˈtiːliən] adj. 亚里士多德的
Ptolemaic [,tɔli'meiik] adj. 托勒密的
geocentric [ˌdʒiːoʊˈsentrɪk] adj. 以地球为中心的
3.
revitalize v. 使复兴，使恢复元气 (to give new life or energy to sth)
(A variety of polices have been implemented to revitalize the economy.)
comparative adj. 相比的，相对而言的 (Comparatively adv.)
(She’s a comparative newcomer to the company.)
(She’s carrying out a comparative study of health in inner cities and rural areas.)
equatorial [ˌiːkwəˈtɔːriəl] adj. 赤道的 (equator n. 赤道)
considerable adj. 相当大的，相当多的，相当重要的(large in extent or degree)
(The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius.)
seafaring n. &adj. 航海 ultimately adv. 最终地
accumulation n. 积累(物) (accumulate v.)
(Customers can accumulate points for reusing bags and recycling cans.)
4.
colonialism [kəˈloʊniəlɪzəm] n. 殖民主义
imperialism [ɪmˈpɪriəlɪzəm] n. 帝国主义
Darwinian [dɑːˈwɪniən] n. &adj. 进化论者，达尔文主义者
trope n. 比喻，修辞
frontier n. 边境，边远地区；前沿
excel in 擅长
paleontology [ˌpeɪliɑːnˈtɑːlədʒi] n. 古生物学
5.
scattered adj. 分散的，零散的
imperial [ɪmˈpɪriəl] adj. 帝国的
polity [ˈpɑːləti] n. 政体，政治组织
telegraphy [təˈleɡrəfi] n. 电信，电报
in turn 反过来
spearhead n. 矛头，先锋； v. 带头，做先锋
periodic [ˌpɪriˈɑːdɪk] adj. 阶段性的； 元素周期表的
head up 带领
6.
Marxist n.&adj. 马克思主义者 relativity n. 相对论
radical adj. 根本的，彻底的； n. 激进分子
(These people have very radical view.)
bourgeois [ˌbʊrˈʒwɑː] n.&adj. 中产阶级 complacency [kəmˈpleɪsnsi] n. 自满
gusto n. 爱好 (with gusto/ with great gusto)
famine [ˈfæmɪn] n. 饥饿，饥荒
(The price of sudden climate change, in famine, disease and suffering, was often high.)
warfare n. 战争
facilitate v. 使容易，使便利，推动，促进(to make sth possible or easier)
(Positive emotions facilitate the creative aspects of learning and negative emotions inhibit it.)
7.intimately adv. 亲密地
8.
firmly adv. 坚决地，坚定地
grounded adj. 理性的，理智的
teleology [ˌtiːliˈɑːlədʒi] n. 目的论
Linnaean [lɪˈniːən] adj. 林奈的(瑞典博物学家Linnaeus)
electromagnetism [ɪˌlektroʊˈmæɡnətɪzəm] n. 电磁学
innovator [ˈɪnəveɪtər] n. 改革者，创新者
underlie v. 构成…的基础
historiographical n. 史料
category n. 种类
nevertheless adv. 然而
(I knew a lot about the subject already, but her talk was interesting nevertheless.)
readership n. 读者人数，读者群
(The magazine hopes to attract a much wider readership.)
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