There was a very sharp change in the nature of a research career. The “promising” young scientist’s publication rate grew by factors of five to ten; the number of applications a young researcher might make for post-doctoral work or an entry-level position from two or three to 50. Senior scientists were overwhelmed with receiving and sending reams of letters of recommendation, which thereupon became meaningless. The numbers of meetings in a given specialized subject, and the number of subjects with a formal meeting list, both grew by factors of ten or more. In many subjects one could “meet” nearly 52 weeks in the year, somewhere in the world, and leaders in the field were invited to all. Meetings almost inevitably led to publications. Most publications became tactical in this game of jockeying one’s way to the top; publications in certain prestige journals were seen as essential entry tickets or score counters rather than as serious means of communication. Great numbers of these publications were about simulations of dubious realism or relevance. Essentially, in the early part of the postwar period the career was science-driven, motivated mostly by absorption with the great enterprise of discovery, and by genuine curiosity as to how nature operates. By the last decade of the century far too many, especially of the young people, were seeing science as a competitive interpersonal game, in which the winner was not the one who was objectively right as to the nature of scientific reality but the one who was successful at getting grants, publishing in PRL, and being noticed in the news pages of Nature, Science, or Physics Today¹.

参考译文：

科研职业的性质发生了极其剧烈的变化。”前途无量”的年轻科学家发表论文的速率增长了五到十倍；年轻研究者申请博士后或初级职位的次数从两三次激增至五十次。资深科学家们疲于收发大量推荐信，这些信件随即变得毫无意义。特定专业领域的会议数量，以及拥有正式会议清单的学科数量，都增长了十倍以上。在许多学科领域，研究者几乎全年52周都能在世界某处”参会”，而该领域的领军人物则收到所有会议的邀请。会议几乎必然催生论文发表。在这场攀登顶峰的竞赛中，大多数论文发表都成了策略性手段；在某些权威期刊上发表文章被视为入场券或计分器，而非严肃的学术交流方式。这些出版物中有大量是关于现实性或相关性存疑的模拟研究。本质上，在战后初期，科研职业是由科学本身驱动的，主要动力来自于对伟大发现事业的全身心投入，以及对自然运行规律的真挚好奇。而到了该世纪最后十年，太多人——尤其是年轻人——将科学视为人际竞争游戏，在这场游戏中，胜者并非在科学现实本质上持客观正确观点的人，而是那些成功获得经费资助、在《物理评论快报》发表文章、并引起《自然》《科学》或《今日物理》新闻版面关注的人。

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