TED演讲：气味背后的科学(10)（打印版）

TED演讲：气味背后的科学(10)（在线收听）

　　Now, coumarin is a very common thing, a material, in fragrance which is derived from a bean that comes from South America. 香豆素是香水中一个十分平常的原料，从来自南美的豆子中提炼出来的。

　　And it is the classic synthetic aroma chemical, OK? 是一种经典的合成香料。

　　It's the molecule that has made men's fragrances smell the way they do since 1881, to be exact. 是男性香水的主要成分，确切地说是自1881年以来的主要成分。

　　And the problem is it's a carcinogen. So nobody likes particularly to -- you know, aftershave with carcinogens. 问题是香豆素是致癌的。没有人特别喜欢——含致癌物质的须后水。

　　There are some reckless people, but it's not worth it, OK? 确实有一些人不要命，但是也并不值得这样做。

　　So they asked us to make a new coumarin. 于是他们让我们合成香豆素。

　　And so we started doing calculations. 我们便开始计算。

　　And the first thing you do is you calculate the vibrational spectrum of coumarin, 第一件要做的事情就是计算香豆素的震动频率，

　　and you smooth it out, so that you have a nice picture of what the sort of chord, so to speak, of coumarin is. 计算完成就顺利多了，现在你有一张，可以说是香豆素“和弦”的图片。

　　And then you start cranking the computer to find other molecules, related or unrelated, that have the same vibrations. 然后你启动电脑寻找其他分子，相关的或者不相关的都可以，寻找那些有相同震动的。

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