The main contention in this paper is that the process of communicating scientific knowledge could be compared to the role of the translator as communicator (Hatim & Mason, 1997). Like the translator, the task of the scientist is to encode –or metaphorically 'translate'- the conceptualizations of science into a very restricted register with particular linguistic, pragmatic, and ideological conventions. The present analysis also shows how discourse is ultimately subject to certain social restrictions established by the institutional matrix. Like the translator, the scientist should also develop awareness of the complexities of the sociology of the language when communicating specialized knowledge.