From time to time questions come: but how many database Sci-Hub scientific articles in Russian, Kazakh, Korean and other languages? The answer is disappointing: very small, as almost all modern science speaks English; English goes more than 98% of the publications in top scientific journals. As English has managed to become the universal language of science? It says the American historian Michael Gordin in his book "The Tower of Babel science: How does science before and after the global English» (Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done before and after Global English, 2015)

According to linguists, English is not very easy either somehow specially sharpened for science. The reasons for his take-off for the most part geopolitical. However, only 100 years ago, it was difficult to predict what will dominate science is English, although even then it is one of the three most popular languages, along with French and German.

This "triumvirate" scientific languages emerged in Europe after the decline of Latin. The scientists of modern times gradually allowed more Latin and published in their native language. One of the causes of nationalization was the fact that in this way the scientists of that time it was easier to find a sponsor. This was the motivation of Galileo, when he switched to Italian to Latin, and Newton, when he began to write in English.

By the 19th century, scientists needed to know the three major European language to do the work, the number of publications on each of them was about the same. However, science is actively developed in many countries, and there were fears that in the future in order to stay abreast of all the discoveries, you will need to learn Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Scandinavian and even Japanese and Slavic languages. The course of events greatly altered first, and then the Second World War, followed by French and German were actually killed and the main language of Western science is English.

But at the same time he has a strong competitor and a Russian. Author of the book in addition to the history of science is also a specialist in the history of nuclear weapons, and Russia. Therefore, as many as four out of the eleven chapters are devoted to the history of research of the Russian language. Gordin leads the statistics that in 1913 the number of scientific publications in Russian was only 2.5%, in 1940 it grew to 14%, in 1958 the number of Russian articles in the field of chemistry came in second place after English, ahead of French and German together, but 1970 in Russian already came out 23% of all scientific journals in chemistry - the same as in English. Chemistry was not an exception: according to estimates of the American Geological Institute, at the beginning of the 1960s the Soviet Union produced 29% of world literature on geology, and the US - only 23%.

Language success reflects not only in the form of interest paper: Russian began to study graduate American universities in as a compulsory foreign language. For example, at MIT began to teach a one-year course specifically designed to teach students to read scientific articles in Russian. "The need to read in Russian in chemistry to increase" and "Technical Russian - necessity" wrote US researchers.

This rise was due, I think, including the fact that, unlike the imperial power of the CPSU did not encourage the publication of scientific articles in a foreign language. This is explained not only by the desire to preserve some kind of opening secret, but also self-esteem of the state: if the Western countries do not publish their scientific journals in Russian, why the Soviet Union should publish in English?

After the fall of the USSR English occupied a monopoly position in science. The author wonders how such a monopoly - a positive phenomenon? "German scientists, for example, has to make a difficult choice between identity and communication, between the spread of research results and support of magazines and educational institutions in their own language,"

Indeed, as a strong brake on the development of science in a country can become a foreign language? It is logical to assume that if the science is part of the native language and culture, then develop it should be much easier than when it is perceived as bringing outside. Another interesting question is, if we take into account the hypothesis of linguistic relativity (The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis ) according to which the number of language determines thinking, then the restriction of science in one language can limit its development.

Conversely, the ideas contained in any language can not get their development, if the science is done in a foreign. As wrote the French philosopher Michel Foucault's "Science - it's well-organized languages in the same extent that the language - this is not developed science," In France, in this regard, often used the metaphor of "cultural genocide" saying that "to deprive the French his role as scientific is a national tragedy with great consequences "and even calling for resistance. Some philosophers have proposed the term "epistemitsid" to refer to the process of globalization, in which there is the eradication of domestic sciences.

As said Laurent Lafforg, winner of the Fields Prize 2002: the French school of mathematics retains its originality and strength in the extent to which it maintains its relationship with the French language ... and people will still learn French to understand the mathematics. There is obviously an idea that language can be confined to the knowledge of some areas, and on the other hand, neprisposoblen for others.

On the other hand, throughout history did not stop trying to create an artificial universal language, common to all, and the most suitable for science. Finally, another view is that science itself is a kind of universal language.

What we can expect in the future? Will the English language as the main language of science, or lose its status as a geopolitical decline of America as happened with the German in the first half of the XX century? The author notes that it is hardly possible to expect expansion in China: the Chinese prefer to publish in English. In an article published in 1962, it states: "It is reasonable to assume that eventually the number of contributions to the scientific knowledge of the different countries will be roughly proportional to their population, and all articles will be published in their own language"