童元方
如果要為科學的語言下一簡單的定義，即數學的語言。但落實在生活當中，用的是一般的語言，是盡量不用專業術語的語言，也就是科普知識傳遞時所使用的語言。如此，在生活當中，無論是科學，還是人文，都應該用一般的語言來表達。換言之，專業的內容，亦當用平常的語言來溝通。
先說萊特曼（Alan Lightman）。他原是麻省理工學院的物理係教授，研究領域是天文物理，後來又教寫作，從科技報告到文學創作。他是普林斯頓大學畢業，加州理工學院的博士，物理科班出身。除了物理論文之外，他的第一部文學作品是《愛因斯坦的夢》。封麵上清楚標示出“小說”（A _disibledevent=MC2這個數學式子所代表的時空觀念。即以小說的方式，來寫愛因斯坦的思想。用陳之藩的話來說，是“用毛筆在一團一團地塗雲。用雲的迷離來狀夢的迷離，用雲的變幻以象夢的變幻。他用幾十個夢渲染出幾十團雲，而他的筆所不到之處，正顯出他要畫的月來”。萊特曼的人文語言，已進入藝術的境界。
有一首英文詩，為約瑟夫（Tim Joseph）所作，題曰《統一場論》（United Field Theory），直指一科學的問題。下麵所引的中文版為陳之藩所譯：
In the beginning there was Aristotle，
And objects at rest tended to remain at rest，
And objects in motion tended to come to rest，
And soon everything was at rest，
And God saw that it was boring.
Then God created Newton，
And objects at rest tended to remain at rest，
But objects in motion tended to remain in motion，
And energy was conserved and momentum was conserved and matter was conserved，
And God saw that it was conservative.
Then God created Einstein，
And everything was relative，
And fast things became short，
And straight things became curved，
And the universe was filled with inertial frames，
And God saw that it was relatively general，
But some of it was especially relative.
Then God created Bohr，
And there was the principle，
And the principle was quantum，
And all things were quantified，
But some things were still relative，
And God saw that it was confusing.
Then God was going to create Ferguson，
And Ferguson would have unified，
And he would have fielded a theory，
And all would have been one，
But it was the seventh day，
And God rested，
And objects at rest tend to remain at rest.
當其始也，亞裏士多德出來，
靜者恒靜，
動者終歸於靜，
不久，萬物俱靜，
上帝看了一下：這多無聊。
於是上帝創造了牛頓，
靜者恒靜，
而動者恒動，
能量不滅，動量不滅，物質不滅，
上帝看了一下：這多保守。
於是上帝創造了愛因斯坦，
一切都是相對，
快者變短，
直者變彎，
宇宙中充滿了種種惰性架位，
上帝看了一下：這是普遍的相對，
可是其中有些特別的相對。