TED2005
Luca Turin: The science of scent
卢卡都灵：气味背后的科学
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令人神魂颠倒的香水蕴含着什么样的科学？生物物理学家卢卡·都灵用精准和充满魅力的语言，为大家解释气味的分子组成及其背后的艺术。
Luca Turin - Nose
Biophysicist Luca Turin studies the science of smell. He's the author of Perfumes: The Guide, and the subject of Chandler Burr's 2003 book The Emperor of Scent. His next project: developing an artificial nose. Full bio
Biophysicist Luca Turin studies the science of smell. He's the author of Perfumes: The Guide, and the subject of Chandler Burr's 2003 book The Emperor of Scent. His next project: developing an artificial nose. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
The fragrance that you will smell, you will never be able to smell this way again.
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一会你们将闻到一款香水 它会带给你们绝无仅有的体验
00:16
It’s a fragrance called Beyond Paradise,
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这款香水叫做“霓采天堂”
00:19
which you can find in any store in the nation.
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在全国各大商场都能买到
00:22
Except here it’s been split up in parts by Estée Lauder
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但是今天在这里 香水被分解成几部分
00:26
and by the perfumer who did it, Calice Becker,
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这项工作是由雅诗兰黛公司和香水调配者 凯莉斯·贝克尔完成的
00:29
and I'm most grateful to them for this.
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我十分感谢他们
00:30
And it’s been split up in successive bits and a chord.
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香水被分解成连续的几个小部分和一个香水和弦
00:34
So what you’re smelling now is the top note.
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现在你们闻到的是香水的“前味”
00:36
And then will come what they call the heart, the lush heart note.
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接下来是“中味” 甜味香料
00:40
I will show it to you.
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我展示给你们看
00:43
The Eden top note is named after the Eden Project in the U.K.
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“前味”伊甸清雾是根据英国的伊甸园计划命名的
00:46
The lush heart note, Melaleuca bark note -- which does not contain any Melaleuca bark,
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“中味”甜味香料 还有“后味”白千层树树皮 -- 其中并不含白千层树树皮
00:51
because it’s totally forbidden.
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因为那是被禁止的
00:54
And after that, the complete fragrance.
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最后就是完整的香味了
00:57
Now what you are smelling is a combination of --
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现在你们闻到的是一个组合
01:00
I asked how many molecules there were in there, and nobody would tell me.
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如果我想问组合里有多少个分子 没有人可以告诉我
01:04
So I put it through a G.C., a Gas Chromatograph that I have in my office,
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于是 我用我办公室里的气相色谱仪做了一下检测
01:09
and it’s about 400.
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发现大约有400个
01:12
So what you’re smelling is several hundred molecules
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所以你们现在闻到的是几百个分子
01:15
floating through the air, hitting your nose.
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弥漫在空气中 钻进你的鼻子里
01:18
And do not get the impression that this is very subjective.
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不要觉得气味是十分主观的
01:22
You are all smelling pretty much the same thing, OK?
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你们闻到的差不多都是一样的
01:26
Smell has this reputation of being somewhat different for each person.
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人们总是认为同一种气味对不同的人来说是不一样的
01:30
It’s not really true.
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这个想法并不正确
01:31
And perfumery shows you that can’t be true,
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一款香水就会证明 的确不是这样的
01:33
because if it were like that it wouldn’t be an art, OK?
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因为那样的话 制造香水就不算一门艺术了
01:39
Now, while the smell wafts over you, let me tell you the history of an idea.
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现在 趁着香味还萦绕在你们周围 我来为你们介绍一个想法形成的过程
01:43
Everything that you’re smelling in here
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现在你所闻到的
01:47
is made up of atoms that come from what I call
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都是由这样一些原子组成的 他们来自 被我称为
01:49
the Upper East Side of the periodic table -- a nice, safe neighborhood.
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元素周期表“上东区”的地方 -- 一个美好而安全的街区
01:52
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
01:56
You really don’t want to leave it if you want to have a career in perfumery.
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如果你想从事香水业 你一定不想离开这个地方
01:59
Some people have tried in the 1920s
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十九世纪二十年代 有一些人
02:01
to add things from the bad parts, and it didn’t really work.
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尝试在香水中添加来自“坏街区”的原子 没有成功
02:05
These are the five atoms from which just about everything
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这五个原子 可以组成
02:07
that you’re going to smell in real life, from coffee to fragrance, are made of.
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从咖啡到香水 现实生活中你所能闻到的一切
02:13
The top note that you smelled at the very beginning,
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你们最开始闻到的“前味”
02:15
the cut-grass green, what we call in perfumery -- they’re weird terms --
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用香水专有名词说 就是割下来青草的香味 听起来很奇怪
02:19
and this would be called a green note,
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这一类被称为绿叶调
02:21
because it smells of something green, like cut grass.
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闻起来像绿色的东西 比如割下来的青草
02:23
This is cis-3-hexene-1-ol. And I had to learn chemistry on the fly
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它的成分是顺3己醇 我可是在匆忙之中学的化学
02:30
in the last three years. A very expensive high school chemistry education.
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过去的三年里 在一所十分昂贵的中学的化学课上学的
02:36
This has six carbon atoms, so "hexa," hexene-1-ol.
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它有六个碳原子 所以写作“hexa”: 己醇
02:40
It has one double bond, it has an alcohol on the end,
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有两个双键 在一端有一个乙醇
02:44
so it’s "ol," and that’s why they call it cis-3-hexene-1-ol.
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这就是全部 就是为什么大家称之为顺3己醇
02:47
Once you figure this out, you can really impress people at parties.
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一旦你弄清楚它的结构 你就可以在派对上卖弄了
02:50
This smells of cut grass. Now, this is the skeleton of the molecule.
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它闻起来就像割下来青草 这就是分子的骨架
02:54
If you dress it up with atoms, hydrogen atoms --
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如果再给它配上其他原子 比如说氢原子
02:57
that’s what it looks like when you have it on your computer --
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在电脑上模拟看上去是这样
02:59
but actually it’s sort of more like this, in the sense that the atoms have a certain
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但实际上看上去是这样的 就某种意义来说
03:03
sphere that you cannot penetrate. They repel.
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原子有某种不为人们所理解的性质 -- 他们相互排斥
03:06
OK, now. Why does this thing smell of cut grass, OK?
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好了 现在 为什么这个东西闻起来像割下来的青草呢
03:12
Why doesn’t it smell of potatoes or violets? Well, there are really two theories.
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为什么闻起来不像土豆 或者紫罗兰 有两种理论
03:18
But the first theory is: it must be the shape.
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第一种理论认为: 一定是形状在起作用
03:22
And that’s a perfectly reasonable theory in the sense that
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这是一个完美的理论
03:24
almost everything else in biology works by shape.
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因为在生物领域 形状在几乎所有东西中都起着一定作用 唯独这个是例外
03:26
Enzymes that chew things up, antibodies, it’s all, you know,
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酶用来消化 抗生素是用来做什么的你们都知道
03:30
the fit between a protein and whatever it is grabbing, in this case a smell.
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蛋白质和它抓住的东西配成一对 在这种情况下它抓住的是气味
03:36
And I will try and explain to you what’s wrong with this notion.
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我会试着解释为什么这个概念是错误的
03:39
And the other theory is that we smell molecular vibrations.
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另一个理论是 我们闻到的是分子的震动
03:42
Now, this is a totally insane idea.
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这是一个离谱的想法
03:44
And when I first came across it in the early '90s, I thought my predecessor,
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九十年代初 我第一次接触到这个理论的时候
03:48
Malcolm Dyson and Bob Wright, had really taken leave of their senses,
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觉得我的前辈 麦肯戴森和鲍勃怀特 肯定是失去理智了
03:51
and I’ll explain to you why this was the case.
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我待会会解释为什么我是这样的想的
03:54
However, I came to realize gradually that they may be right --
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但是 我逐渐意识到他可能是对的
03:57
and I have to convince all my colleagues that this is so, but I’m working on it.
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我必须说服我所有的同事 这个理论是对的 我正在努力这样做
04:00
Here’s how shape works in normal receptors.
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这里展示的是 形状是如何对通常的感受器起作用的
04:06
You have a molecule coming in, it gets into the protein, which is schematic here,
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一个分子进来 进到蛋白质里 图中所示意的就是蛋白质
04:11
and it causes this thing to switch, to turn, to move in some way
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它让这个东西转变 旋转 向某个方向移动起来
04:16
by binding in certain parts.
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通过合并某些部分
04:20
And the attraction, the forces, between the molecule and the protein
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分子和蛋白质之间的互相吸引和作用力
04:22
cause the motion. This is a shape-based idea.
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造成了运动 这是基于形状理论的想法
04:27
Now, what’s wrong with shape is summarized in this slide.
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这张幻灯片总结了为什么形状理论是错误的
04:31
The way --I expect everybody to memorize these compounds.
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这种方式 -- 我希望每一个人把这些化合物都记住
04:36
This is one page of work from a chemist’s workbook, OK?
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这是一个化学家工作手册中的一页
04:41
Working for a fragrance company.
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他为一家香水公司工作
04:43
He’s making 45 molecules, and he’s looking for a sandalwood,
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他要制造45个分子 他正在寻找檀香料
04:46
something that smells of sandalwood.
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就是闻起来像檀香木的东西
04:47
Because there’s a lot of money in sandalwoods.
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因为檀香木很贵
04:49
And of these 45 molecules, only 4629 actually smells of sandalwood.
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在这45个分子之中 只有编号为4629的闻起来像檀香木
04:56
And he puts an exclamation mark, OK? This is an awful lot of work.
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于是他在上面标注了一个感叹号 这个工作量很大
04:59
This actually is roughly, in man-years of work, 200,000 dollars roughly,
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这大概是一个人好几年的工作量 大约需要20万美金
05:04
if you keep them on the low salaries with no benefits.
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在低酬劳和没有福利的条件下 是20万美金
05:08
So this is a profoundly inefficient process.
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如此 这是一个效率极低的过程
05:10
And my definition of a theory is, it’s not just something
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我认为“理论”不仅是可以
05:13
that you teach people; it’s labor saving.
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拿来教授别人的东西 同时也是节约劳动力的东西
05:15
A theory is something that enables you to do less work.
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一个理论可以使人们做更少的工作
05:18
I love the idea of doing less work. So let me explain to you why -- a very simple fact
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我喜欢少做工作这个想法 让我来解释为什么 一个非常简单的事实
05:24
that tells you why this shape theory really does not work very well.
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它会告诉你们为什么形状的理论并不成立
05:29
This is cis-3-hexene-1-ol. It smells of cut grass.
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这是顺3己醇 闻起来像割下来的青草
05:34
This is cis-3-hexene-1-thiol, and this smells of rotten eggs, OK?
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这是顺3己硫醇 闻起来像臭鸡蛋
05:41
Now, you will have noticed that vodka never smells of rotten eggs.
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现在 你们一定已经意识到 伏特加酒闻起来绝不像臭鸡蛋
05:46
If it does, you put the glass down, you go to a different bar.
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如果闻起来像的话 你就把杯子放下 去另外一家酒吧
05:50
This is -- in other words, we never get the O-H --
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这是 -- 换句话说 我们绝对不会
05:55
we never mistake it for an S-H, OK?
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把S-H错误地认为是O-H
05:58
Like, at no concentration, even pure, you know,
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无论是在什么样的浓度 甚至是纯的情况下
06:01
if you smelt pure ethanol, it doesn’t smell of rotten eggs.
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如果你闻到纯的乙醇 它闻起来绝对不像臭鸡蛋
06:04
Conversely, there is no concentration at which the sulfur compound will smell like vodka.
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相反 无论在什么浓度下 硫化合物会闻起来都不会像伏特加酒
06:11
It’s very hard to explain this by molecular recognition.
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用分子识别来解释这个问题 难度很大
06:15
Now, I showed this to a physicist friend of mine who has a profound distaste
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我把问题拿给我的一个物理学家朋友看 他一点也不喜欢生物
06:17
for biology, and he says, "That’s easy! The things are a different color!"
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他说 这太简单了 两个东西的颜色不一样啊
06:21
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
06:26
We have to go a little beyond that. Now let me explain why vibrational theory has
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我们需要进一步深入 现在我来解释
06:31
some sort of interest in it. These molecules, as you saw in the beginning,
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为什么震动理论有一定的道理 这些分子 正如你们开始时看到的
06:35
the building blocks had springs connecting them to each other.
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是基本组成 它们之间有弹簧连接着
06:37
In fact, molecules are able to vibrate at a set of frequencies
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事实上 分子可以在一定的频率下震动
06:40
which are very specific for each molecule and for the bonds connecting them.
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每一个不同的分子和不同的连接方式 都有特定的频率
06:44
So this is the sound of the O-H stretch, translated into the audible range.
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所以 这是O-H键发出的声音 转化成人耳可以听到的频率
06:53
S-H, quite a different frequency.
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S-H键 有十分不同的频率
06:55
Now, this is kind of interesting, because it tells you
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现在看来 这十分有趣 因为它告诉你
06:59
that you should be looking for a particular fact, which is this:
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你应该寻找一个独特的事实 事实是:
07:02
nothing in the world smells like rotten eggs except S-H, OK?
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除了S-H以外 没有其他东西闻起来像臭鸡蛋
07:06
Now, Fact B: nothing in the world has that frequency except S-H.
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第二个事实就是 除了S-H 没有其他东西有那样的频率
07:13
If you look on this, imagine a piano keyboard.
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如果你看到这些 想象一下钢琴的键盘
07:15
The S-H stretch is in the middle of a part of the keyboard
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S-H键是在键盘的中间部分
07:19
that has been, so to speak, damaged,
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可以说键盘的那部分损坏了
07:21
and there are no neighboring notes, nothing is close to it.
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也没有其他的音符挨着它
07:24
You have a unique smell, a unique vibration.
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你得到的是一个独特的味道 一种独特的震动
07:26
So I went searching when I started in this game
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在这个游戏的最初 我就开始寻找
07:28
to convince myself that there was any degree of plausibility
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说服我自己 这个理论有一定的合理性
07:31
to this whole crazy story.
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这整个故事有点疯狂
07:33
I went searching for a type of molecule, any molecule,
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我开始寻找一种分子 任何分子
07:36
that would have that vibration and that -- the obvious prediction
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会有那种震动的分子 -- 明显地 我预测
07:41
was that it should absolutely smell of sulfur.
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那种分子一定闻起来像硫
07:43
If it didn’t, the whole idea was toast, and I might as well move on to other things.
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如果闻起来不像 那么整个想法就是糟糕透顶 我最好还是去做别的事情
07:49
Now, after searching high and low for several months,
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在到处寻找几个月后
07:53
I discovered that there was a type of molecule called a Borane
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我发现有一种叫做硼烷的分子
07:58
which has exactly the same vibration.
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和硫有一模一样的震动
08:00
Now the good news is, Boranes you can get hold of.
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好消息是硼烷是可以获取的
08:03
The bad news is they’re rocket fuels.
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坏消息是 它是火箭燃料
08:06
Most of them explode spontaneously in contact with air,
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大部分情况下 它们在遇到空气的瞬间就会爆炸
08:09
and when you call up the companies, they only give you minimum ten tons, OK?
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而且 你打电话向公司询问 他们会告诉你你最少要买10顿
08:13
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
08:16
So this was not what they call a laboratory-scale experiment,
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所以这不是一个实验室规模的实验
08:19
and they wouldn’t have liked it at my college.
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我所工作的学院也不会喜欢这个主意
08:21
However, I managed to get a hold of a Borane eventually, and here is the beast.
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无论如何 我最终得到了一些硼烷 这就是那个"怪物"
08:29
And it really does have the same -- if you calculate,
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结果和我预期的一样 -- 如果你计算
08:31
if you measure the vibrational frequencies, they are the same as S-H.
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如果你计算振动频率 它的和S-H的一样
08:35
Now, does it smell of sulfur? Well, if you go back in the literature,
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现在 来看看它闻起来像不像硫 如果你去查文献
08:40
there’s a man who knew more about Boranes than anyone
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会发现有一个人比历史上任何人都更了解硼烷
08:43
alive then or since, Alfred Stock, he synthesized all of them.
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阿尔弗雷德·斯托克 他用人工的方法合成过所有的硼烷类物质
08:48
And in an enormous 40-page paper in German he says, at one point --
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在他用德语写成的 长达40页的论文中 他曾说
08:54
my wife is German and she translated it for me --
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我太太是德国人 她为我翻译了一下
08:57
and at one point he says, "ganz widerlich Geruch,"
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他曾说 “ganz widerlich Geruch”
08:59
an "absolutely repulsive smell," which is good. Reminiscent of hydrogen sulfide.
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意思就是“绝对令人厌恶的味道” 很好 让人想起硫化氢
09:05
So this fact that Boranes smell of sulfur
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硼烷闻起来像硫这一事实
09:08
had been known since 1910, and utterly forgotten until 1997, 1998.
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自从1910年人们就知道了 但是却全然被大家遗忘了 直到1997年 1998年
09:15
Now, the slight fly in the ointment is this: that
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现在唯一的不足就是
09:19
if we smell molecular vibrations, we must have a spectroscope in our nose.
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如果我们闻到的是分子的震动 我们的鼻子里一定要有一个分光镜才行
09:24
Now, this is a spectroscope, OK, on my laboratory bench.
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这是一个分光镜 在我实验室的椅子上
09:29
And it’s fair to say that if you look up somebody’s nose,
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可以这么说 如果你观察一个人的鼻子内部
09:31
you’re unlikely to see anything resembling this.
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你不会看到任何类似这个的东西
09:34
And this is the main objection to the theory.
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这是反对这个理论的主要观点
09:36
OK, great, we smell vibrations. How? All right?
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好吧 我们闻到的是震动 怎么闻到呢
09:41
Now when people ask this kind of question, they neglect something,
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当人们问这个问题的时候 他们忽略了一些事情
09:43
which is that physicists are really clever, unlike biologists.
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物理学家都是很聪明的 不像生物学家
09:47
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
09:50
This is a joke. I’m a biologist, OK?
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这是玩笑话 我是生物学家 好不好
09:52
So it’s a joke against myself.
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这是一个自嘲的玩笑
09:53
Bob Jacklovich and John Lamb at Ford Motor Company,
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福特汽车公司的 鲍勃·捷克洛维奇 和 约翰·兰姆
09:56
in the days when Ford Motor was spending vast amounts of money
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在福特公司花大手笔
09:58
on fundamental research, discovered a way
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进行基础研究的时候 发现了
10:02
to build a spectroscope that was intrinsically nano-scale.
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制造纳米级分光镜的方式
10:06
In other words, no mirrors, no lasers, no prisms, no nonsense,
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换句话说 没有镜片 没有激光 没有棱镜 没有废话
10:09
just a tiny device, and he built this device. And this device uses electron tunneling.
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只是一个很小的设备 他们用电子贯穿制造出这样的仪器
10:14
Now, I could do the dance of electron tunneling,
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我其实可以给你们演示电子贯穿的过程
10:17
but I’ve done a video instead, which is much more interesting. Here’s how it works.
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但是我做了一个视频 这样更有意思一些 是这样的
10:22
Electrons are fuzzy creatures, and they can jump across gaps,
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电子是糊里糊涂的家伙 它们可以越过间隙
10:26
but only at equal energy. If the energy differs, they can’t jump.
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但只有在能量相同的情况下 如果能量不同 它们就跳不了
10:31
Unlike us, they won’t fall off the cliff.
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但是和我们不同 它们不会从悬崖掉下去
10:33
OK. Now. If something absorbs the energy, the electron can travel.
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好吧 现在 如果有什么东西把能量吸收了 电子就可以飞驰了
10:40
So here you have a system, you have something --
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现在你们已经了解了这个体系 要是有
10:43
and there’s plenty of that stuff in biology --
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生物界有很多这样的东西
10:44
some substance giving an electron, and the electron tries to jump,
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要是有一些物质可以提供电子 电子想要越过间隙
10:49
and only when a molecule comes along that has the right vibration
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只有在一个有匹配震动的分子出现时
10:53
does the reaction happen, OK?
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反应才会发生
10:55
This is the basis for the device that these two guys at Ford built.
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这是福特公司那两个制作的仪器的基本原理
10:59
And every single part of this mechanism is actually plausible in biology.
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实际上 这个机制的每一个步骤 在生物领域中都是可行的
11:06
In other words, I’ve taken off-the-shelf components,
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换句话讲 我用现成的部件
11:07
and I’ve made a spectroscope.
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做成了一个分光镜
11:09
What’s nice about this idea, if you have a philosophical bent of mind,
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如果你有点哲学的天赋 你会发现这个点子的绝妙之处在于
11:13
is that then it tells you that the nose,
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它告诉你 鼻子
11:15
the ear and the eye are all vibrational senses.
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耳朵 眼睛可以感知震动
11:18
Of course, it doesn’t matter, because it could also be that they’re not.
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当然 这关系并不大 因为他们不能感知震动也是有可能的
11:22
But it has a certain --
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但是 它有一定的
11:23
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
11:25
-- it has a certain ring to it which is attractive to people
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这个理论对某些人来说有一定的吸引力
11:29
who read too much 19th-century German literature.
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对阅读了太多十九世纪德国文学的人来说
11:33
And then a magnificent thing happened:
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于是发生了一件绝妙的事情
11:34
I left academia and joined the real world of business,
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我离开了学术界 到现实世界经营起生意
11:40
and a company was created around my ideas
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一个公司在我的想法的基础上建成了
11:43
to make new molecules using my method,
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用我的方式合成新分子
11:46
along the lines of, let’s put someone else’s money where your mouth is.
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依照这样一个理念: 用别人的钱来喂自己的嘴
11:50
And one of the first things that happened was
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最开始 发生了一件事情
11:54
we started going around to fragrance companies
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我们来到香水公司
11:56
asking for what they needed, because, of course,
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问他们需要什么 因为
12:00
if you could calculate smell, you don’t need chemists.
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如果你能计算气味的话 当然也就不需要化学家了
12:02
You need a computer, a Mac will do it, if you know how to program the thing right,
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你需要的是一台电脑 一台苹果电脑就成 如果你知道如何正确操作
12:06
OK? So you can try a thousand molecules,
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你可以试一千个分子
12:10
you can try ten thousand molecules in a weekend,
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也可以一个星期试一万个分子
12:13
and then you only tell the chemists to make the right one.
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然后只需告诉化学家 让他们去制造那一个正确的就可以了
12:16
And so that’s a direct path to making new odorants.
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这是制造新气味的直接方式
12:20
And one of the first things that happened was
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最开始发生的事情是
12:21
we went to see some perfumers in France --
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我们去法国见香水师
12:23
and here’s where I do my Charles Fleischer impression --
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那里给我留下了一个印象 就像是查尔斯·弗莱舍经历的一般
12:25
and one of them says, "You cannot make a coumarin."
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其中一个人说 你一定合成不出香豆素
12:29
He says to me, "I bet you cannot make a coumarin."
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他对我说 我打赌你肯定合成不出香豆素
12:32
Now, coumarin is a very common thing, a material,
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香豆素是香水中一个十分平常的原料
12:36
in fragrance which is derived from a bean that comes from South America.
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从来自南美的豆子中提炼出来的
12:39
And it is the classic synthetic aroma chemical, OK?
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是一种经典的合成香料♫
12:43
It’s the molecule that has made men’s fragrances
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是男性香水的主要成分
12:47
smell the way they do since 1881, to be exact.
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确切地说是自1881年以来的主要成分
12:50
And the problem is it’s a carcinogen.
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问题是 香豆素是致癌的
12:53
So nobody likes particularly to -- you know, aftershave with carcinogens.
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没有人尤其喜欢 他们的须后水里含有致癌物
12:59
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
13:01
There are some reckless people, but it’s not worth it, OK?
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确实有一些人不要命 但是也并不值得这样做
13:04
So they asked us to make a new coumarin. And so we started doing calculations.
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于是他们让我们合成香豆素 我们便开始计算
13:09
And the first thing you do is you calculate the vibrational spectrum
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第一件要做的事情就是计算香豆素的震动频率
13:12
of coumarin, and you smooth it out,
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计算完成 就顺利多了
13:13
so that you have a nice picture of what the sort of chord, so to speak, of coumarin is.
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现在你有一张 可以说是香豆素"和弦"的图片
13:19
And then you start cranking the computer to find other molecules,
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然后你启动电脑 寻找其他分子
13:25
related or unrelated, that have the same vibrations.
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相关的或者不相关的都可以 寻找那些有相同震动的
13:28
And we actually, in this case, I’m sorry to say,
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实际上 在这件事情上 我很遗憾地说
13:32
it happened -- it was serendipitous.
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我们找到了 是偶然间发现的
13:34
Because I got a phone call from our chief chemist
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我接到我们的一位首席化学家打来电话
13:37
and he said, look, I’ve just found this such a beautiful reaction,
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他说 听着 我刚刚发现一个完美的反应
13:42
that even if this compound doesn’t smell of coumarin,
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即使这个化合物闻起来不像香豆素
13:43
I want to do it, it’s just such a nifty,
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我也想用它 它闻起来实在太棒了
13:46
one step -- I mean, chemists have weird minds --
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只需要一步 我的意思是 化学家的头脑太古怪了
13:49
one step, 90 percent yield, you know, and you get this lovely
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一步 就可以得出90%的结果 你就找到了这么美好的
13:53
crystalline compound. Let us try it.
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水晶般透明的化合物 我们来试一试
13:55
And I said, first of all, let me do the calculation on that compound, bottom right,
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然后 我说 让我先计算一下那个化合物 右下角那个
13:59
which is related to coumarin, but has an extra pentagon inserted into the molecule.
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它和香豆素有一定的关系 但是比香豆素的结构多了一个五边形
14:05
Calculate the vibrations, the purple spectrum is that new fellow,
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计算它的震动频率 紫色的光谱代表的就是那个新发现的家伙
14:10
the white one is the old one.
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白色的部分 是以前的那个
14:11
And the prediction is it should smell of coumarin.
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我们的预测是 它闻起来应该和香豆素一样
14:15
They made it ... and it smelled exactly like coumarin.
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他们成功了 这个物质闻起来的确和香豆素一模一样
14:23
And this is our new baby, called tonkene.
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这就是我们新的宝贝 叫做汤克恩
14:28
You see, when you’re a scientist, you’re always selling ideas.
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你们看 科学家出售的是想法
14:30
And people are very resistant to ideas, and rightly so.
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然而 人们对新想法往往采取抵抗的态度 这也有一定道理
14:34
Why should new ideas be accepted?
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为什么要接受新的想法呢
14:36
But when you put a little 10-gram vial on the table in front of perfumers
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但是 当你把一个10克的小瓶放在香水师面前的桌子上
14:42
and it smells like coumarin, and it isn’t coumarin,
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它闻起来像香豆素 却又不是香豆素
14:44
and you’ve found it in three weeks,
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你用三个星期的时间 找到了它
14:46
this focuses everybody’s mind wonderfully.
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这迎合了每个人的心意
14:49
(Laughter)
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(笑声)
14:50
(Applause)
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(掌声)
14:56
And people often ask me, is your theory accepted?
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人们经常问我 你的理论被人们接受了没有
15:00
And I said, well, by whom? I mean most, you know -- there’s three attitudes:
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我说 被谁接受 我的意思是 -- 对我的理论有三种态度
15:05
You’re right, and I don’t know why, which is the most rational one at this point.
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你是对的 虽然我不知道为什么 这个态度是最理性的
15:09
You’re right, and I don’t care how you do it, in a sense;
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你是对的 某种程度上来说 我并不关心你是怎么做到的
15:13
you bring me the molecules, you know.
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你给我分子就好
15:14
And: You’re completely wrong, and I’m sure you’re completely wrong.
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还有 就是你完全错了 我十分肯定是你完全错了。
15:17
OK? Now, we’re dealing with people who only want results,
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今天 我们在和只在乎结果的人们打交道
15:20
and this is the commercial world.
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这是一个商业的世界
15:22
And they tell us that even if we do it by astrology, they’re happy.
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他们告诉我们 即便我们是用占星术得到的结果 他们也高兴
15:27
But we’re not actually doing it by astrology.
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但是 我们并没有利用占星术
15:30
But for the last three years, I’ve had what I consider to be
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在过去的三年里 我拥有
15:32
the best job in the entire universe, which is to put my hobby --
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我认为全宇宙最好的工作 也就是我的兴趣所在-
15:37
which is, you know, fragrance and all the magnificent things --
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你们都知道 就是 香水和其他美好的事情
15:39
plus a little bit of biophysics, a small amount of self-taught chemistry
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加上一点点生物物理学的知识 一些自学的化学知识
15:44
at the service of something that actually works.
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为真正可行的事业服务
15:46
Thank you very much.
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十分感谢
15:47
(Applause)
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(掌声)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Luca Turin - NoseBiophysicist Luca Turin studies the science of smell. He's the author of Perfumes: The Guide, and the subject of Chandler Burr's 2003 book The Emperor of Scent. His next project: developing an artificial nose.
Why you should listen
Biophysicist Luca Turin studies the science of smell. He's a leading proponent of the vibrational theory of smell -- the idea that when our noses pick up a scent, we're reacting to the vibrational properties of the molecule we're smelling. (This is in opposition to the shape theory of smell, which imagines smelly molecules fitting into conveniently shaped receptors in our noses.)
His work on olfactory reception and the prediction of what a particular molecule will smell like has led to an interesting line of work: designing new fragrances and flavor molecules, as part of the firm Flexitral, where he is CTO. Coming up, he'll be part of a team in Biomedical Engineering at MIT, headed by Professor Shuguang Zhang, to develop an artificial nose made with natural receptors as part of DARPA's just-launched RealNose program.
He's the author of several books on scent, including Perfumes: The Guide and The Secret of Scent, and is the subject of Chandler Burr's 2003 book The Emperor of Scent.
Luca Turin | Speaker | TED.com