2月29日午间英语新闻：韩国科学家研发出粉色“牛肉大米”

South-Korean researchers create beef-infused super rice

韩国科学家研发出粉色“牛肉大米”

Scientists at South Korea’s Yonsei University have created a aromanew type of hybrid rice that not only has a meaty pink color but is also packed with beef protein and fat cells.

韩国延世大学（Yonsei University）的科学家们研发出了一种新型杂交大米，这种大米不仅呈现出肉质的粉红色，而且还富含牛肉蛋白质和脂肪细胞。

A team of researchers at the Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, managed to create a rice hybrid laced with beef protein and fat cells. The new pink rice has 8 percent more protein and 7 percent more fat than regular rice, and while it doesn’t yet taste like beef, it does carry a “unique blend of aromas, including a slight nuttiness and umami which are characteristics of meat”. Thanks to the integrated animal cells, this new pink rice could one day become a complete meal by itself, ensuring a sufficient, sustainable food supply for the whole world.

延世大学的一个研究团队成功研发出了一种含有牛肉蛋白质和脂肪细胞的杂交大米。这种新型粉色大米的蛋白质和脂肪含量分别比普通大米高出8%和7%。虽然吃起来没有牛肉味但它确实带有“独特的混合香味，包括肉类特有的轻微坚果味和鲜味”。由于融入了动物细胞，这种新型粉色大米有朝一日将能凭一己之力就成为完整的一餐，为全世界提供充足且可持续的食物来源。

So how does one go about infusing rice with beef? Well, knowing that lab-grown cells need artificial scaffolds to create tissue, researchers at Yonsei University decided that the porous nature of rice would make ideal scaffolding. To help the beef cells latch onto the rice grains, the latter were coated in fish gelatin and left to culture in a petri dish for up to 11 days.

那么他们是怎么想到将大米和牛肉结合在一起的呢？延世大学的研究人员知道，实验室培养的细胞需要人工基质才能生成组织，于是他们决定用大米，因为大米的多孔结构使其成为理想的培养基质。为了帮助牛肉细胞附着到米粒上，米粒上涂满了鱼明胶并放在培养皿中培养了长达11天。

The hybrid grains are more firm and brittle than natural grains, and when cooked they retain their traditional appearance. While the rice doesn’t really taste like beef yet, it “offers a pleasant and novel flavor experience,” and pairs well with a variety of dishes. For now, the percentage of protein in the hybrid rice is still relatively low. To actually replace meat, researchers would need to increase protein content significantly.

这种杂交大米的米粒比天然米粒质地更硬更脆，在烹煮时会保留传统的外观。尽管这种大米没有牛肉味，但是拥有“令人愉悦的新口感”，适合搭配多种菜肴食用。目前，这种杂交大米的蛋白质含量还相对较低。为了能替代肉食，研究人员将需要大幅提升这种大米的蛋白质含量。

重点词汇：

1.infuse

英/ɪnˈfjuːz/

美/ɪnˈfjuːz/

v.使充满（某种感觉），向……灌输（某品质）；冲泡（茶、药草等），浸渍；输注（药物等）

2.aroma

英/əˈrəʊmə/

美/əˈroʊmə/

n.芳香，浓香；（喻）气氛

3.umami

英/uːˈmɑːmi/

美/uːˈmɑːmi/

n.（食物的）鲜味

adj.鲜味的

4.scaffold

英/ˈskæfəʊld/

美/ˈskæfoʊld/

n.脚手架；鹰架；绞刑台

vt.给……搭脚手架；用支架支撑

5.porous

英/ˈpɔːrəs/

美/ˈpɔːrəs/

adj.多孔渗水的；能渗透的；有气孔的

6.latch

英/lætʃ/

美/lætʃ/

n.门闩，窗闩；<英>碰锁，碰簧锁；（电子）门闩线路，锁存器

v.闩上（门），用弹簧锁锁住（门等）；（电子）（装置）状态恒定；占有，抓住

Why some people like coriander and others think it tastes like soap

为什么会有“世界讨厌香菜日”？

International I Hate Coriander Day has been celebrated on February 24 each year since 2016, and is a chance for haters of this herb to unite and have a good old coriander bashing session with the kindred spirits they can find.

从2016年起，2月24日被定为世界讨厌香菜日，每年的这一天讨厌香菜的人们就会团结起来，借机一起痛击香菜。

Cilantro (another name for coriander) is one divisive herb: People either love it or hate it. Julia Child disavowed the stuff, claiming it had a soapy taste in 1955 — and the comparison stuck. Between 3% and 21% of people, depending on their location in the world, dislike cilantro for its soapiness.

人们对于香菜这种草本植物一直以来分歧不断：有人很爱，有人十分则反感。朱莉娅·查尔德在1955年就宣称自己无法忍受香菜，称其有一种肥皂味——这种说法一直持续到现在。根据地理位置的不同，大约3%到21%的人因香菜的“肥皂味”而厌恶它。

John Hayes, a sensory expert and professor of food science at Penn State, said: "Nobody knows exactly which genes are involved in cilantro preference." But in a large observational study a specific olfactory receptor gene, OR6A2, has been implicated.

宾夕法尼亚州立大学食品科学教授、感官专家约翰·海斯说：“没有人确切知道哪些基因与香菜偏好有关。” 但在一项大规模的观察性研究中，研究者证实了一种特定的嗅觉受体基因OR6A2与此有关。

A 23andMe team surveyed thousands of respondents about their cilantro preference and identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) associated with cilantro aversion. The SNP lies in a cluster of genes that code for olfactory receptors, researchers at the company reported in the journal Flavour in 2012. One of those genes encodes for the receptor OR6A2, which happens to specifically bind to aldehydes that give cilantro its specific odor, according to 23andMe.

23andMe公司的一个团队调查了数千名受访者对香菜的偏好，发现了一种与讨厌香菜相关的单核苷酸多态性。该公司的研究人员在2012年的《风味》杂志上报告称，SNP位于一组编码嗅觉受体的基因中。其中一个基因编码了受体OR6A2，而该受体恰好能与赋予香菜特殊气味的醛类物质发生特异性结合。

The 23and Me study also found that cilantro preference is likely heritable and varies by ethnicity, according to 23andMe's findings. Of the Southern and Northern European respondents, about 13% said cilantro tastes like soap. But only 8% of East Asian respondents and 4% of South Asian respondents were anti-cilantro.

23andMe公司的研究结果还发现，对香菜的偏好可能是可遗传的，并且因种族而异。在南欧和北欧受访者中，约13%的人表示香菜尝起来像肥皂。但只有8%的东亚受访者和4%的南亚受访者不喜欢香菜。

重点词汇：

1.coriander 

英/ˌkɒriˈændə(r)/

美/ˌkɔːriˈændər/

n.芫荽，香菜；芫荽籽

2.disavow

英/ˌdɪsəˈvaʊ/

美/ˌdɪsəˈvaʊ/

vt.否认，否定；抵赖；拒绝对……的责任

3.sensory

英/ˈsensəri/

美/ˈsensəri/

adj.感觉的，感官的

4.nucleotide

英/ˈnjuːklɪətaɪd/

美/ˈnuːkliətaɪd/

n.（生化）核苷酸

5.polymorphism

英/ˌpɒlɪˈmɔːfɪz(ə)m/

美/ˌpɑːlɪˈmɔːrˌfɪzəm/

n.多态性；多形性；同质多晶

6.aldehyde

英/ˈældɪhaɪd/

美/ˈældəˌhaɪd/

n.醛；乙醛

7.odor

英/ˈəʊdə(r)/

美/ˈoʊdər/

n.气味；名声