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.
在滿懷期待地品嘗十八年陳釀單一麥芽威士忌時，喝到的卻是一杯當年的新貨，實在是件令人沮喪的事情。現在，科學家們研發出了一種「人工舌頭」，可以讓這種煩心事兒成為過去時了。
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.
這個蘇格蘭的團隊聲稱，他們發明的裝置可以用來區分很多種單一麥芽威士忌——這樣就可以打擊那些假貨了。
"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.
來自格拉斯哥大學的阿拉斯代爾·克拉克博士是這項研究的主要作者，他說：「你能訓練一種特別的『舌頭』，讓它了解某一種特定的威士忌的味道，然後當它嘗到假貨的時候就能鑑別出來，嘗到真貨的時候也能確認一下。」
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.
克拉克說，這項技術可以整合進一個很小的便攜裝置中，應用範圍也非常廣泛，從試毒到監測河流水質都能幹。
"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.
「最早我們是想把這項技術用在生產線的質量控制上的，比如，你開了家生產蘋果汁的公司，那你就得保證這周二生產的果汁和上周生產的嘗起來是一樣的，對吧？」
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.
研究團隊在《納米尺度》期刊上發表了文章，描述了他們的「人工舌頭」是如何搭建在一塊玻璃薄片上的。這個玻璃片有三組獨立的陣列，每一組都包含200萬個正方形的微型「人造味蕾」——每個邊長只有100納米，是人類味蕾大小的五百分之一左右。
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.
設備中有六種不同的「方塊」，三種由金製成，另外三種由鋁製成。每一個陣列都含有一種「金方塊」和一種「鋁方塊」。
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.
當光照到一個陣列上時，會與這些方塊表面的電子相互作用，造成可以檢測到的反射光降低。根據與光相互作用的方塊種類不同，這些反射光的強度下降反映在略有不同的波長上。
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.
但更關鍵的是，這種反射光的下降會隨著陣列周圍的液體不同而變化。結果就是每種液體都會產生一種屬於自己的「指紋」。這樣設備就能用來區分不同的液體了，如果液體特徵之前被記錄過，那麼這個「舌頭」就能把它認出來。但其實它並不知道這個液體裡面到底有些什麼——就和我們自己的舌頭一樣。
"Your tongue can’t tell you what is in black coffee, but it knows what black coffee tastes like,」 said Clark.
克拉克說道：「我們的舌頭也不知道黑咖啡裡有什麼，但是它能嘗出來那就是一杯黑咖啡。」
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.
儘管這不是世界上第一個「人工舌頭」，但研究人員聲稱，他們的人工味蕾設計比以往的設計都更進一步——裝置更小，收集信息也更快了。
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.
在測試中，研究人員把「人工舌頭」放到了7種不同的單一麥芽威士忌、水、40度的伏特加以及酒精裡。
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.
研究團隊發現，「人工舌頭」給每種威士忌都生成了不同的「模式」，或者指紋，讓研究團隊能夠區分出12年和18年的格蘭菲迪、10年的拉弗格和格倫·馬諾奇的單一麥芽朗姆酒樣品。研究人員指出，這種區別來自於不同威士忌中的各種芳香化合物成分，比如香蘭素和萜烯的微小差別。
"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.
克拉克說：「儘管組成這些威士忌的化學成分非常相似，但研究人員設計的實驗方法還是能把它們區別出來。」