科学美国人60秒 SSS 为何奶酪散发的臭味 让人欲罢不能（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata .

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

Aged cheeses like Camembert or Taleggio produce a powerful stench: the funk of cabbage, mushrooms, sulfur, even smelly feet.

卡门培尔奶酪或塔莱乔奶酪等陈年奶酪会产生强烈的臭味:卷心菜、蘑菇、硫磺的臭味，甚至是臭脚的臭味。

“And those aromas are chemicals that are being kicked off, being emitted by the cheese, and that’s through the microbes that are living in the rind, as they slowly decompose the cheese.”

“这些味道是奶酪释放出来的化学物质，是通过奶酪外皮中的微生物释放出来的，这些微生物会慢慢分解奶酪。”

Benjamin Wolfe is a microbiologist at Tufts University. He says in addition to alerting our noses to the cheese, the aromas produced by certain microbes living in and on the cheese can feed and sculpt other members of the microbial garden living on the cheese.

本杰明·沃尔夫是塔夫茨大学的微生物学家。他表示，除了提醒我们的鼻子闻到奶酪的味道，还可以喂养和塑造奶酪上微生物花园的其他成员。

Wolfe and his colleagues identified the microbial interactions by growing various cheese-dwelling fungi and bacteria in separate but adjacent dishes in the lab. The microbes couldn’t touch—they could interact only via the volatile compounds they released.

沃尔夫和他的同事们（通过在实验室分离相邻培养皿中各种寄生于奶酪的真菌和细菌）来确定微生物之间的相互作用。微生物之间不能相互接触，它们只能通过释放的挥发性化合物进行相互作用。

“And when we did this screen, we quickly noticed there was this one bacterium, a Vibrio species, that really loved living in the aromas produced by the various fungi that you find in a typical wheel of camembert.”

“当我们做这个筛选时，很快注意到有一种细菌，即一种弧菌，它们真的喜欢寄居在各种真菌产生的气味中，你可以在一个典型的卡门培尔奶酪轮盘中找到这些真菌。”

Wolfe says the Vibrio bacteria may be able to actually eat the aromas—which, after all, consist of chemical compounds.

沃尔夫表示，弧菌可能真的能够消灭掉这些气味——毕竟，这些气味是由化合物组成的。

And the odor of the cheese may also switch on certain genetic pathways in the bacteria—pathways that regulate the bacteria’s ability to thrive in harsh conditions.

奶酪的气味也可能开启细菌的某些遗传途径——这些途径可以调节细菌在恶劣条件下的繁殖能力。

“It’s a backup plan: when things aren’t going well, and you’re starving, you can turn on this other pathway and still make a living but on these less ideal substrates that are around.”

“这是一个后备计划:当事情进展不顺利，你正在挨饿时，你可以打开另一条途径，仍然可以在周围这些不太理想的基质上生存。”

The end result is that the stench we perceive may also shape the microbiome of the cheese. The results appear in the journal Environmental Microbiology.

最终的研究结果是，我们感知到的臭气也可能塑造了奶酪的微生物群。研究结果发表在《环境微生物学》杂志上。

As for the practical outcomes of this research—well, it’s a little early for that.

至于这项研究的实际成果——嗯，现在还为时过早。

“We don’t necessarily do our science to make cheese better. Honestly, a lot of it is to figure out how cheese works.”

“我们并不一定要通过科学来让奶酪变得更好。老实说，这主要是为了弄清楚奶酪是如何产生的。”

In other words, he says, the tools of modern microbiology allow scientists to finally listen in to the conversations happening in these tiny cheese-rind communities.

他认为，换句话说，现代微生物学的工具让科学家们终于能够听到这些微小的奶酪皮群落中发生的对话。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata .

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。