científica

23:27 Apr 14, 2015 

I highlight that this text of Lindsay refers mainly and repeatedly to the Police (as an institution), and to "the police institutions".
And I believe it is this sense that I found in several references in En-US.
For example:
1. ("Scientific Police Work"): http://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/28/scientific-police-work-tra...
2. ("Scientific Police Investigation", Fred Inbau):http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scientific-police-investigat...
3. ("Fred Inbau, Criminologist...native of New Orleans"): http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/28/us/fred-inbau-89-criminolo...
4. ("The Scientific Police" (American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology)): https://archive.org/details/jstor-1132635

22:44 Apr 14, 2015 

There's a huge difference between 'police' and 'policing'. 'Policing' is about policy and practice. It's an abstract term. In English, 'police' are the people who walk the streets and ride around in cars, carry guns, arrest other people, and eat donuts. It cannot be stretched to apply in this case.

18:23 Apr 14, 2015 

I believe it could be something like this:
1st occurrence: "polícia moderna e científica" »» "modern and scientific police"
2nd occurrence: "polícia científica" »» "scientific police"
3rd occurence: "artigos técnicos e científicos" »» "technical and scientific articles/papers"
4th occurrence: "a ideia moderna e científica" »» "the modern scientific idea"

Basically:
1. ("scientific police"), 25.300: https://www.google.pt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&es...
2. ("technical and scientific articles"), 108.000: https://www.google.pt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&es...
3. ("technical and scientific papers"), 77.200: https://www.google.pt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&es...
4. ("the modern scientific idea"), 83.200: https://www.google.pt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&es...

16:44 Apr 13, 2015 

I had a look at your profile. As you never seem to have come near Brazil, you don´t seem to me an adequate judge to evaluate what is nonsense or not nonsense in Brazilian Portuguese. I have come across of late in this forum of a lot of English sentences which seem badly formulated but as a non native person don´t think I am the right person to evaluate them.
That´s it. I hope that if this discussion goes on someone else chimes in. I`m in the midst of a text, and I`m not going to interrupt my work again to answer you!

16:26 Apr 13, 2015 

Danik, Portuguese needs the equivalent of a 'Plain English' campaign, then nonsense like 'tecnico de reposição de stocks' for a shelf-filler would cease to exist. No way should these things be literally translated! As for 'artigos tecnicos e cientificos' what does that actually mean? Tecnico can at best be described as 'specialised'. It's all a continuation of the 'doutores e engenheiros' mentality.

On the translation here, I disagreed with your suggestion (nothing personal!) because using 'scientific' in this way applies that it is an accepted idiomatic expression using an adjective, which it isn't. That's why I agreed with Miriel's descriptive version.

16:18 Apr 13, 2015 

To understand them you have to have an idea as a translator, how language works in Portuguese speaking countries instead of just criticizing the use they make of the language.
Language is a product of different traditions.

16:03 Apr 13, 2015 

'tecnico' and 'cientifica/o' the two most overused words in the Portuguese language, and usually misapplied to things that aren't technical or scientific at all!