This review paper analyses the essential conditions for defining scientific translation as one of the distinct subfields of the Translation Studies that is currently given growing research attention. The main objective is to highlight the development of scientific translation studies as a subtype of specialised non-literary translation. Our research revises the views of the leading scientific translation theorists concerning the necessity and possibility of formation of a special theory of scientific translation, with criteria and research principles analysed. The article summarizes the translation relevant features of the language of science that play a significant role in defining major problems of translating scientific texts (lexical, grammatical, stylistic and genre, textual problems). Selected difficulties are illustrated by an example of the Ukrainian physics text rendered into English, with the analysis of translator’s solutions that helped bridge these difficulties and bring the translated text in conformity with the target language norms, with regard to the scientific English regulations. The paper outlines the scope and perspectives of scientific translation as a separate research area within the translation science that is highly likely to evolve with time into a special theory of scientific translation.