TED演讲：气味背后的科学(9)

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　　In other words, I've taken off-the-shelf components³, and I've made a spectroscope.  换句话讲，我用现成的部件做成了一个分光镜。

　　What's nice about this idea, if you have a philosophical⁴ bent⁵ of mind, is that then it tells you that the nose, the ear and the eye are all vibrational⁶ senses.  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它告诉你，鼻子、耳朵、眼睛可以感知震动。

　　Of course, it doesn't matter, because it could also be that they're not.  当然，这关系并不大，因为他们不能感知震动也是有可能的。

　　But it has a certain -- it has a certain ring to it which is attractive to people who read too much 19th-century German literature. 但是，它有一定的，这个理论对某些人来说有一定的吸引力，对阅读了太多十九世纪德国文学的人来说有吸引力。

　　And then a magnificent thing happened: I left academia and joined the real world of business,  于是发生了一件绝妙的事情，我离开了学术界，到现实世界经营起生意，

　　and a company was created around my ideas to make new molecules⁷ using my method, along the lines of, let's put someone else's money where your mouth is.  一个公司在我的想法的基础上建成了，用我的方式合成新分子，依照这样一个理念：用别人的钱来喂自己的嘴。

　　And one of the first things that happened was we started going around to fragrance⁸ companies asking for what they needed, 最开始发生了一件事情，我们来到香水公司问他们需要什么，

　　because, of course, if you could calculate smell, you don't need chemists.  因为如果你能计算气味的话，当然也就不需要化学家了。

　　You need a computer, a Mac will do it, if you know how to program the thing right, OK?  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。

　　So you can try a thousand molecules, you can try ten thousand molecules in a weekend,  你可以试一千个分子，也可以一个星期试一万个分子，

　　and then you only tell the chemists to make the right one. 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。

　　And so that's a direct path to making new odorants. 这是制造新气味的直接方式。

　　And one of the first things that happened was we went to see some perfumers in France -- and here's where I do my Charles Fleischer impression -- and one of them says,  最开始发生的事情是我们去法国见香水师，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，其中一个人说，

　　"You cannot make a coumarin." He says to me, "I bet you cannot make a coumarin." “你一定合成不出香豆素。”他对我说，“我打赌你肯定合成不出香豆素。”

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