The discourse of science in our increasingly global world has remained highly cultural, but there has not been a great deal of research into what constitutes the cultural components of such discourse. A contrastive reading of some English and French scientific publications and documentaries, some translated from English, suggests that cultural markers are not simply related to structural organisation or terminology, but that cognitive processes are also involved, with French scientists being still largely rationalist, personal and deductive while American or English ones tend to be more empirical and collective-minded. Viewed in this way, the discourse of science requires mediation rather than translation from one language into the other, and the translator's contribution to scientific discourse in the target language could be considered as highly influential.