Being palmed off with a young whisky when expecting an 18-year-old single malt can be a glass-half-empty moment. But now scientists have developed an “artificial tongue” that might make such skulduggery a thing of the past.
在满怀等候地品味十八年陈酿单一麦芽威士忌时，喝到的倒是一杯昔时的新货，其实是件使人懊丧的工作。此刻，科学家们研发出了一种“人工舌头”，可让这类烦苦衷儿成为曩昔时了。
The team, based in Scotland, say their device can be used to tell apart a host of single malts – a move they say might help in the fight against counterfeit products.
这个苏格兰的团队宣称，他们发现的装配可以用来辨别良多种单一麦芽威士忌——如许便可以冲击那些赝品了。
"You could train your particular ‘tongue’ to know what one of these whiskies ‘tasted’ like, so that when the fake stuff came along it could identify it and when the real stuff came along it could confirm that it was the real stuff,” said Dr Alasdair Clark, the lead author of the research from the University of Glasgow.
来自格拉斯哥年夜学的阿拉斯代尔·克拉克博士是这项研究的首要作者，他说：“你能练习一种出格的‘舌头’，让它领会某一种特定的威士忌的味道，然后当它尝到赝品的时辰就可以辨别出来，尝到真货的时辰也能确认一下。”
Clark said the technology could be incorporated into a small, portable device and have a wide range of applications, from identifying poisons to environmental monitoring of rivers.
克拉克说，这项手艺可以整合进一个很小的便携装配中，利用规模也很是普遍，从试毒到监测河道水质都能干。
"Initially we thought of it more for sort of production line, quality control maintenance, [for example] if you are an apple juice company and you want to make sure that the apple juice you make on Tuesday is the same as the one that you made last week,” said Clark.
“最早我们是想把这项手艺用在出产线的质量节制上的，好比，你开了家出产苹果汁的公司，那你就得包管这周二出产的果汁和上周出产的尝起来是一样的，对吧？”
Writing in the journal?Nanoscale, the team describe how their artificial tongue is based on a glass wafer featuring three separate arrays, each composed of 2 million tiny “artificial taste buds” – squares about 500 times smaller than a human taste bud, with sides just 100nm long.
研究团队在《纳米标准》期刊上颁发了文章，描写了他们的“人工舌头”是若何搭建在一块玻璃薄片上的。这个玻璃片有三组自力的阵列，每组都包括200万个正方形的微型“人造味蕾”——每一个边长只有100纳米，是人类味蕾年夜小的五百分之一摆布。
There are six different types of these squares in the device, three types made from gold and three from aluminium. Each of the three arrays contain one type of gold and one type of aluminium square.
装备中有六种分歧的“方块”，三种由金制成，别的三种由铝制成。每个阵列都含有一种“金方块”和一种“铝方块”。
When light is shone on an array, it interacts with the electrons at the surface of the squares, resulting in dips in the reflected light which can be measured. These dips appear at slightly different wavelengths depending on which type of square the light interacts with.
当光照到一个阵列上时，会与这些方块概况的电子彼此感化，造成可以检测到的反射光下降。按照与光彼此感化的方块种类分歧，这些反射光的强度降落反应在略有分歧的波长上。
Crucially, these dips shift depending on the liquid surrounding the arrays. The upshot is that each liquid gives rise to its own “fingerprint” of measurements. That means the device can be used to tell apart different liquids – and even identify them if they have been recorded before – without revealing their makeup, rather like our own tongues do.
但更关头的是，这类反射光的降落会跟着阵列四周的液体分歧而转变。成果就是每种液体城市发生一种属于本身的“指纹”。如许装备就可以用来辨别分歧的液体了，若是液体特点之前被记实过，那末这个“舌头”就可以把它认出来。但实在它其实不知道这个液体里面到底有些甚么——就和我们本身的舌头一样。
"Your tongue can’t tell you what is in black coffee, but it knows what black coffee tastes like,” said Clark.
克拉克说道：“我们的舌头也不知道黑咖啡里有甚么，可是它能尝出来那就是一杯黑咖啡。”
While this “artificial tongue” is not the first to be made, the team say its arrangement of artificial tastebuds is a step up from previous approaches, making the device smaller and speeding up information gathering.
虽然这不是世界上第一个“人工舌头”，但研究职员宣称，他们的人工味蕾设计比以往的设计都更进一步——装配更小，搜集信息也更快了。
To test their device, the team covered their “artificial tongue” in seven different single malt whiskies in turn, as well as water, 40% vodka, and ethanol in water.
在测试中，研究职员把“人工舌头”放到了7种分歧的单一麦芽威士忌、水、40度的伏特加和酒精里。
The team found that the device produced a different pattern, or fingerprint, of results for each of the whiskies, allowing them to tell apart a range of drams including 12- and 18-year-old samples of Glenfiddich, 10-year-old Laphroaig and Glen Marnoch’s single malt Rum Cask. The team suggest this is due to tiny differences in the presence of various components – aromatic chemicals produced plants such as vanillin and terpenes.
研究团队发现，“人工舌头”给每种威士忌都天生了分歧的“模式”，或指纹，让研究团队可以或许辨别出12年和18年的格兰菲迪、10年的拉弗格和格伦·马诺奇的单一麦芽朗姆酒样品。研究职员指出，这类区分来自于分歧威士忌中的各类芬芳化合物成份，好比喷鼻兰素和萜烯的细小不同。
"Although [the whiskies’] chemical compositions are pretty similar, the way that we have designed the experiment means that we can still separate them out as separate entities,” said Clark.
克拉克说：“虽然构成这些威士忌的化学成份很是类似，但研究职员设计的尝试方式仍是能把它们区分出来。”