科学美国人60秒 SSS 研磨粗糙一些 咖啡口感可能更佳

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是凯伦·霍普金。

Making a cup of coffee isn't rocket science. But a new study shows that a background in math and analytical¹ chemistry doesn't hurt. Because researchers who applied² their skills in materials science and modeling to brewing³ espresso have made a grounds-breaking discovery: contrary to popular belief, using fewer beans and a coarser grind will give you a more consistent shot. Their work appears in the journal Matter.

煮咖啡并非尖端科学。但一项新研究表明，对于煮咖啡来说，拥有数学和分析化学背景并没有坏处。因为研究人员将材料科学和建模技术应用于煮咖啡后，获得了一个突破性发现：与普遍观点相反，少量咖啡豆和更粗糙的研磨会让咖啡口感更稳定。他们的研究成果发表在《物质》期刊上。

If you're a coffee aficionado⁴, you've no doubt noticed that some days, you may get a great espresso; other days, not so much. Even with the same coffee, the same machine, the same settings.

如果你是咖啡爱好者，无疑会发现有时浓咖啡的味道绝佳；而有时却不太令人满意。即使使用的是同一种咖啡豆、同一咖啡机和同样的设置。

To understand that variability, the researchers developed a mathematical model to explore how coffee is extracted or dissolved as water passes through the bed of grounds.

为了了解这一变化性，研究人员开发了一个数学模型，以探索当水冲过咖啡粉床时，咖啡被萃取和溶解的方式。

"Basically, what we did was to start by writing down some equations, which apply to just a single ground."

“基本上，我们是从写下仅适用于单个粉床的方程式开始。”

Jamie Foster, a senior lecturer in mathematics and physics at the University of Portsmouth.

朴茨茅斯大学的数学和物理高级讲师杰米·福斯特说到。

"So it's a less intimidating⁵ task, because in a real coffee bed, you've got millions and millions of particles that are packed together in this very complicated way. And so a more tractable⁶ problem is to write down the equations on a single ground."

“这个任务不怎么吓人，因为在真实的咖啡粉床中有数百万颗粒以这种非常复杂的方式聚集在一起。因此，写出针对单个粉床的方程更容易解决。”

To model the entire coffee bed, Foster and his colleagues copied that equation millions of times, stirred in a bit more math and then poured on the theoretical water.

为了模拟整个咖啡床，福斯特及其同事将方程式复制了数百万次，再搅入一点数学知识，然后注入理论水。

"The model tells us what we should expect in an ideal situation when all of the coffee is being contacted by all of the water equally."

“模型显示，在理想情况下，在所有咖啡被所有水均匀接触时，我们应该期待的效果。”

Christopher Hendon, a computational chemist at the University of Oregon, who also took part in the study.

俄勒冈州大学的计算化学家克里斯托弗·亨登也是这项研究的参与者。

"And indeed, the model describes reality very well for particular grind settings, where there is a sufficient amount of large particles so the water can flow freely through that bed. But when you grind sufficiently⁷ fine, that's when we started to see, in real life, a divergence⁸ from the expectation that the model was telling us."

“模型充分描述了颗粒研磨的真实设置情况，即放入数量充足的大颗粒时，水就可以顺畅地流过粉床。但当你将咖啡豆研磨得足够细时，就会开始发现，你预想的情况和模型显示的情况存在偏差。”

With the fine grind, some shots were stronger than predicted. But some were considerably⁹ weaker, which flies in the face of conventional wisdom.

精细研磨咖啡豆后，咖啡口味有些比预想的浓郁。但有些味道却相当淡，这与传统观点背道而驰。

"The thinking, if you want a stronger cup of coffee, is, well, I'll grind it finer, because by doing that, I'll have smaller particles in my grounds, and the smaller particles will have a higher surface area. And so this high surface area allows for more rapid extraction from the grains."

“传统观点认为，如果想让咖啡口味更浓郁，就要把咖啡豆磨得更细，因为这样粉床上的颗粒会更小，继而接触面就更大。接触面积大，咖啡颗粒被萃取的速度就会更快。”

But what the researchers found is...

但研究人员的发现是：

"If you kind of overdo¹⁰ the grinding, what ends up happening is: the particles are so small, in fact, that they kind of clog¹¹ up the gaps where the water's trying to flow. And that actually hampers¹² the extraction rather than helping¹³ it."

“如果研磨过度，最后的情况会是：颗粒变得过小，以致于堵住水要流过的缝隙。这实际上是阻碍萃取，而不是有助于萃取。”

And the same is true for the amount of coffee you start with—so that less can, counterintuitively, end up tasting like more.

同样的道理也适用于开始时的咖啡量，与常识相反，少一点，最终尝起来会像更多。

"Since these articles came out, there has been a tremendous amount of activity on Twitter—arguing, discussing, just general excitement and interest in the project. And independent of whether this helps make more reproducible coffee or not, this is a tremendous success—that we have got millions of people to have read a scientific article and engage with science. That's a great success for scientific literacy."

“自从这些文章发表以来，推特上便出现了大量活动，人们对这个项目进行争论和讨论，这表明了人们对其的普遍兴奋和兴趣。无论是否有助于制造口味更具可复制性的咖啡，这都是巨大的成功，因为我们让数百万人阅读了科学文章，参与了科学研究。就培育科学素养而言，这是巨大成功。”

And we can all drink to that.

我们都可以为此举杯祝贺。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是凯伦·霍普金。

1 analytical   

adj.分析的；用分析法的

参考例句：

• I have an analytical approach to every survey.对每项调查我都采用分析方法。
• As a result,analytical data obtained by analysts were often in disagreement.结果各个分析家所得的分析数据常常不一致。

2 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

3 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

4 aficionado   

n.…迷；运动迷

参考例句：

• This is good news for postcard aficionado Drene Brennan.这对明信片迷杰纳•布雷南来说是个好消息。
• I'm a real opera aficionado.我是个真正的歌剧迷。

5 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

6 tractable   

adj.易驾驭的；温顺的

参考例句：

• He was always tractable and quiet.他总是温顺、恬静。
• Gold and silver are tractable metals.金和银是容易加工的金属。

7 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

8 divergence   

n.分歧，岔开

参考例句：

• There is no sure cure for this transatlantic divergence.没有什么灵丹妙药可以消除大西洋两岸的分歧。
• In short,it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

9 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

10 overdo   

vt.把...做得过头，演得过火

参考例句：

• Do not overdo your privilege of reproving me.不要过分使用责备我的特权。
• The taxi drivers' association is urging its members,who can work as many hours as they want,not to overdo it.出租车司机协会劝告那些工作时长不受限制的会员不要疲劳驾驶。

11 clog   

vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐

参考例句：

• In cotton and wool processing,short length fibers may clog sewers.在棉毛生产中，短纤维可能堵塞下水管道。
• These streets often clog during the rush hour.这几条大街在交通高峰时间常常发生交通堵塞。

12 hampers   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Prejudice sometimes hampers a person from doing the right thing. 有时候，偏见会妨碍人正确行事。
• This behavior is the opposite of modeless feedback, and it hampers flow. 这个行为有悖于非模态的反馈，它阻碍了流。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。