经济学人下载:集资科技 积跬步致千里

Science and technology
科学技术

Crowdfunding science
集资科技

Many a mickle makes a muckle
积跬步致千里

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.
有句谚语说得好：没有需求，就没有发明。

And science is nothing if not inventive.
科技失去了创新，就变得一文不值了。

So, as conventional sources of money get harder to tap, some of science's more creative minds are turning elsewhere.
所以，当无法轻易获得传统的经济支持时，一些有创造力的科研人员便开始寻求新的资金来源。

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.
科技慈善资助已有几个世纪的历史，资助形式多为捐赠大型光学望远镜之类的昂贵仪器，或者是为偏远地区的探险提供赞助。

But the internet now permits what might be thought of as microphilanthropy.
不过在网络的帮助下，如今微慈善也成为可能。

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.
基于一种名为众基金的技术，公众可以给他们看重的项目捐赠小额资金，科技慈善事业已扩大到微薄资金来源。

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，普林斯顿大学的药理学家伊桑?浦斯汀，10月4日就在一家名为火箭中心的网站公开招标，募集25000美元的资金用于研究甲基苯丙胺等药物对大脑疾病的疗效，

He has until November 18th to raise the money.
招标将截止于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.
克里斯蒂娜科尔戈薇是西佛罗里达大学的一名人类学家，她就通过火箭中心网站募集了12000美元用于自己对罗马骸骨的DNA检验。

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.
培养皿网是另一个融资网站，加州科学院就因为通过该网站获得了5000多美元的项目基金，他们完成了为马达加斯加保护项目中发现的蚂蚁新物种命名的工作。

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.
尽管科技融资不再是只有类似电子游戏的项目才能拿得到资金，但融资过程还是形成了自己的专业平台。

Petridish is one.
培养皿网就是一例。

Another is called Microryza.
Microyza也是一个代表网站。

And academic institutions are starting to follow the lead taken by the CAS.
学术机构都开始模仿加州科学院，募集资金。

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.
加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校与Indiegogo网站达成协议，提高了他们的会员慈善等级，可以使经网站募集的资金免税。

It will launch the first such project later this month.
这个月晚些时候将启动他们的第一个项目。

Donors can expect no revenue if a crowdfunded science project is successful, of course.
捐赠人肯定没想着融资的科学项目成功后他们会获得任何收入。

But they can expect to be kept up to date with progress.
但他们可以获悉实验的进度。

Dr Perlstein has promised to upload all data from his experiments onto a website, for his sponsors to look at.
浦斯汀博士就承诺会把实验中的所有数据上传到网站，供捐赠人查阅。

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.
在加州科学院的项目里，即使这些捐赠人不会因切叶蚁属文献而流芳千古，但能让他们看到自己为知识进步做出了贡献感到欣慰，因为之前，这种方式只属于那些钱包更鼓的捐赠人。