s headquarters in Oakland, California. And when he isn’t doing that, he travels, buying Edy’s in supermarkets all over the country so that he can check for perfect appearance, texture, and flavor.
After I interviewed Harrison, I realized that the life of an ice cream taster isn’t all Cookies ’n Cream — a flavor that* he invented, by the way. No, it’s extremely hard work, which requires discipline and selflessness. For one thing, he doesn’t swallow on the job. Like a coffee taster, Harrison spits. Using a gold spoon to avoid “off” flavors, he takes a small bite and moves it around in his mouth to introduce it to all 9,000 or so taste buds. _ Next he smack-smack-smacks his lips to get some air into the sample. Then he breathes in gently to bring the aroma up through the back of his nose. Each step helps Harrison evaluate whether the ice cream has a good balance of dairy, sweetness, and added ingredients 一 the three-flavor components of ice cream. Then, even if the ice cream tastes heavenly, he puts it into a trash can. A full stomach makes it, impossible to judge the quality of the flavors.
During the workweek, Harrison told me that he has to make other sacrifices, too: no onions, garlic, or spicy food, and no caffeine. Caffeine will block the taste buds, he says, so his breakfast is a cup of herbal tea. _ This is a small price to pay for what he calls the world’s best job. _ Harrison’s family has been in the ice cream business in one way or another1 for four generations, so Harrison has spent his entire life with it2. However, he has never lost his love for its cold, creamy sweetness. _ He even orders ice cream in restaurants for dessert. On these occasions3, he does swallow, and he eats about a quart (0.95 liters) each week. By comparison4, the average person in the United States eats 23.2 quarts (21. 96 liters) of ice cream and other frozen dairy products each year. Edy’s ice cream is available in dozens of flavors. So what flavor does the best-trained ice-cream taster in the country prefer? Vanilla! In fact, vanilla is the best-selling variety in the United States. However, you should never call it plain vanilla. “It’s a very complex flavor,” Harrison says.
第七篇 冰淇淋品尝师一一一份甜蜜的职业
约翰·哈瑞森拥有一份可能是美国人最想要的工作。他是一名职业的冰淇淋品尝师，供职于美国最畅销的冰淇淋品牌之一Edy’s Grand Ice Cream。哈瑞森已经给味蕾投保了100万美元。他每天要在位于加州奥克兰的Edy’s总部尝试60种冰淇淋样品。休假时，他会去旅行，并且到全国各地的超市买来Edy’s产品，以便检査外观，质地和口味是否完美。 在采访完哈瑞森之后，我发现一个冰淇淋品尝师的生活并不像他发明的奶油曲奇味雪糕那样甜。这是一个需要克制和无私的艰难工作。
首先，工作时他不能咽下冰淇淋，只能像咖啡品尝师那样吐出。为了避免其他味道的混入，他用金制的汤匙舀取冰淇淋，咬一小口在口中搅动，让大约9 000个味蕾全部都能感觉到味道，然后他不断咂嘴唇好让空气进入口中。接着，他轻轻吸一口气，让冰淇淋的芳香窜入鼻中。每一个步骤都有助于哈瑞森判断出这款冰淇淋的牛奶、甜度和添加剂这三种成分是否已达到完美的平衡。即使这个冰淇淋尝起来极其美味，他接下来也会把它扔到垃圾桶里。饱腹感是不可能判断出口味的品质的。
哈瑞森告诉我说，在工作周，他也不得不做出很多牺牲：不能吃洋葱、大蒜或辣的食物以及含咖啡因的食物。因为咖啡因会限制味蕾，所以他早饭时只喝一杯花草茶。这只是他为了自己口中世界上最好的工作所付出的一个小代价。
哈瑞森的家族中已经有四代人以这样或那样的方式在冰淇淋行业工作，所以他已经为此付出了一生。但他并没有失去对这种凉爽油腻的甜品的爱。他甚至会在餐厅中点冰淇淋作为甜品。在这些时候，他会咽下它们，他每周大概会吃掉一夸脱（0.95升）的冰淇淋。而美国普通人平均每年要吃掉23.2夸脱（21. 96升）的冰淇淋和其他冰冻奶制品。
Edy’s的冰淇淋有几十种口味。哪种口味才是这个国家最有经验的冰淇淋品尝师的最爱呢？香草味的！事实上，香草口味是全美最畅销的。但是，你不能称它是纯香草口味。“这是个很复杂的口味，”哈瑞森说道。 第八篇 Watching Microcurrents Flow
We can now watch electricity as it flows through even the tiniest circuits. By scanning the magnetic field generated as electric currents flow through objects, physicists have managed to picture the progress of the currents . The technology will allow manufacturers to scan microchips for faults, as well as revealing microscopic defects in anything from aircraft to banknotes. Gang Xiao and Ben Schrag at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, visualize the current by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object and faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote or bacteria in a water sample
. Their sensor is adapted1 from an existing piece of technology that is used to measure large magnetic fields in computer hard drives.2 “We redesigned the magnetic sensor to make it capable of measuring very weak changes in magnetic fields,” says Xiao. The resulting device is capable of detecting a current as weak as 10 microamperes , even when the wire is buried deep within a chip, and it shows up features as small as 40 nanometers across.
At present, engineers looking for defects in a chip have to peel off the layers and examine the circuits visually; this is one of the obstacles to making chips any smaller . But the new magnetic microscope is sensitive enough to look inside chips and reveal faults such as short circuits, nicks in the wires or electro migration — where a dense area of current picks up surrounding atoms and move them along. “It is like watching a river flow,” explains Xiao.
As well as scanning tiny circuits, the microscope can be used to reveal the internal structure of any object capable of conducting electricity.3 For example, it could look directly at microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage, faults in the metal strip of a
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forged banknote or bacteria in a water sample . The technique cannot yet pick up electrical activity in the human brain because the current there is too small, but Xiao doesn’t rule it out4 in the future. “I can never say never,” he says.
Although the researchers have only just made the technical details of the microscope public, it is already on sale,5 from electronics company Micro Magnetics in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is currently the size of a refrigerator and takes several minute to scan a circuit, but Xiao and Schrag arc working to shrink it to the size of a desktop computer and cut the scanning time to 30 seconds .
第八篇 观察微电流流程
现在电流流过哪怕是昀窄的电路时我们都能看到。物理学家们通过扫描电流通过物体时产生的磁场而绘出电流运行图。这种技术可以使制造者扫描微芯片上的错误，同时可以找出从飞行器到钞票等物上的细微缺陷。
罗德岛州普罗维登斯的布朗大学的GangXiao和BenSchrag通过测量一个物体的磁场内的细微变化并把信息转化成显示每一点电流强度的彩色图片而使电流显现。
他们的传感器是由现有的用于测量电脑硬盘的大磁场的技术配件改造而成的。Xiao说：“我们重新设计了磁性传感器使它能够测量磁场中非常微弱的变化。”
重新设计完的装置能够探测微弱到10微安培的电流，甚至是当电线深藏在芯片中的时候，它也能够显示出直径只有40毫微米长的图案。
目前，那些在芯片中寻找缺点的工程师们必须要剥掉表皮目测电路。这是使芯片变得更小的阻碍之一。但是新的磁性显微镜非常敏感，能够看到芯片内部，找出短路、电线的裂痕或电迁移等缺点，电迁移是指电流强大的区域吸引周围的原子并使它们移动。Xiao解释说：“那就像看着一条河水在流淌。”
显微镜不仅能够扫描微小的电路，还可以用于找出能够导电的物体的内部结构。例如，它能够直接看到飞机机身上的极细微的裂缝、伪钞的金属条上的缺点或者水样中的细菌。这种技术还不能提取人脑中的电活动，因为那里的电流太小了，但是Xiao并没有排除将来实现它的可能。他说：“我永远不会说永远不能。”
尽管研究者刚刚公开电显微镜的技术细节，马萨诸塞州Fall河的微磁电子设备公司已经在出售它了。目前它大约像冰箱那么大，而且要用几分钟扫描一个电路，但是Xiao和Schrag正在努力使它缩小到台式计算机那么大，把扫描时间缩短到30秒。
第九篇 Lightening Strikes
Three years ago a bolt of lightning all but destroyed Lyn Miller’s house in Aberdeen—with her two children inside. “There was a huge rainstorm,” she says, recalling the terrifying experience. “My brother and I were outside desperately working to stop floodwater from coming in the house. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground by an enormous bang. __When I picked myself up, the roof and the entire upper storey of the house had been demolished. The door was blocked by rubble, but we forced our way in and found the children, thankfully unharmed. Later I was told to be struck by lightning is a chance in a million.” In fact, it’s calculated at one chance in 600,000. Even so, Dr Mark Keys of AER Technology, an organisation that monitors the effects of lightning, thinks you should be sensible. “I wouldn’t go out in a storm—but then I’m quite a careful person.” He advises anyone who is unlucky enough to be caught in a storm to get down on the ground and curl up into a ball, making yourself as small as possible.
Lightning is one of nature’s most awesome displays of sheer power. __No wonder the ancient Greeks thought it was Zeus, father of the gods, throwing thunderbolts around in anger.250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, the American scientist and statesman，proved that lightning is a form of electricity, but scientists still lack a complete understanding of how it works.
Occasionally there are warning signs.Positive electrical charges streaming upwards from trees or church spires may glow and make a buzzing noise, and people’s hair can stand on end. And if you fear lightning, you’ll be glad to know that a company in America has manufactured a hand-held lightning detector which can detect it up to 70 kms away, sound a warning tone and monitor the storm’s approach.
Nancy Wilder was playing golf at a club in Surrey when she was hit by a bolt of lightning. Mrs Wilder’s heart stopped beating, but she was resuscitated and, after a few days in hospital, where she was treated for bums to her head, hands and feet, she was pronounced fit again. Since that time，she has been a strictly fair weather golfer1. _In fact, a golf course is one of the most dangerous places to be during a thunderstorm._ The best place to be is inside a car!
The largest number of people to be struck by lightning at one time was in September 1995 when 17 players on a football pitch were hit simultaneously. The most extraordinary aspect of the strike was the fact that 11 of the victims—seven adults and four children—had burn patterns of tiny holes at 3 centimetre intervals on each toe and around the soles of their feet.
Harold Deal, a retired electrician from South Carolina, USA, was struck by lightning 26 years ago. He was apparently unhurt, but it later emerged that the strike had damaged the part of the brain which controls the sensation of temperature. _Since then the freezing South Carolina winters haven’t bothered Harold, since he is completely unable to feel the cold._
Animals are victims of lightning too2．Hundreds of cows and sheep are killed every year, largely because they go under trees. In East Anglia in 1918, 504 sheep were killed instantaneously by the same bolt of lightning that hit the ground and travelled through the entire flock. Lightning is also responsible for starting more than 10,000 forest fires each year world-wide.
第九篇 雷击
三年前，一道闪电几乎将林恩·米勒在亚伯丁的房子夷为平地，当时她的两个孩子还在屋里面。“那是一场暴风雨”，林恩回忆那场可怕的经历时说道，“我和我的兄弟当时正在外面，拼命阻止雨水流进屋子里。突然，我被巨大的爆炸击倒在地。当我爬起来的时候，房子的屋顶和顶楼都不见了。门被碎石堵住了，我们强行把门打开，找到了我的孩子，谢天谢地他们没有受伤。过后我得知，被闪电击中的概率是百万分之
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一。”事实上，有人计算过被闪电击中的概率是六百万分之一，虽然如此，AER技术中心的马克·凯斯博士还是认为，人们面对闪电的时候应该小心，AER技术中心是一个专门监控闪电影响的组织，马克说：“我不会在暴风雨的天气到户外去——：我是一个特别小心的人。”他还建议，要是不幸在户外遇到暴风雨，一定要趴在地上，蜷成球状，使自己的身体尽可能地缩小。
闪电是大自然绝对力量最可怕的展现方式之一，难怪古希腊人认为雷电产生是因为众神之父宙斯发怒了，并向周围投掷闪电。250年前，美国科学家和政治家本杰明·富兰克林证明了闪电是一种电，但是科学家仍然不完全清楚它的形成机制。 有时，闪电的到来有一些预兆。正电荷顺着树木或教堂尖顶向上流动的时候可能会有发光现象，并伴随着嗡嗡的噪声，人们的头发还可能会直立起来。如果你害怕闪电，那么有一个好消息，美国的一个公司生产了一种手持的闪电探测器，最远能够探测到70千米以外的闪电，并通过发出声音警报来提醒人们风暴的到来。
南希，怀尔德被闪电击中的时候正在萨里的一个俱乐部打高尔夫球。被闪电击中后，她的心跳停止了，但随后她被救了回来。接下来的几天她都待在医院，治疗头上、手上和脚上的烧伤，直到康复出院。从那时起，她便只在晴朗的天气才打高尔夫。事实上，高尔夫球场是暴风雨天气最危险的地方之一，而最好的地方是汽车里。
在1995年9月发生了一起多人被闪电击中的事件，17名足球运动员在赛场上同时被击中。最惊人的是，死者中的11人——包括7名成人和4名儿童——在每个脚趾和脚底上都有烧伤的小洞图案，每个洞相距3厘米。
哈罗德，迪尔是美国南卡罗莱纳州的一名退休电气技师，26年前，他被闪电击中。当时他看上去没有受伤，但是后来人们发现这次雷击损坏了他大脑中控制温度感受的部分。从那之后，南卡罗莱纳州寒冷的冬天就再也没让哈罗德发愁过，因为他已经完全感受不到寒冷。 动物们也会成为雷击的牺牲品，每年都有数百头牛羊死于雷击，多数情况下是因为它们总是在下雨的时候躲在树下。1918年在东盎格利亚，一道闪电谅过整个羊群，一下杀死了504只羊。闪电每年还在世界范围内引发10000多场火灾。 第十篇 How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear
Most people think of Beethoven’s hearing loss as an obstacle to composing music. However, he produced his most powerful works in the last decade of his life when he was completely deaf.
This is one of the most glorious cases of the triumph of will over adversity1, but his biographer, Maynard Solomon, takes a different view. _Solomon argues that Beethoven’s deafness “heightened” his achievement as a composer_. In his deaf world Beethoven could experiment, free from the sounds of the outside world, free to create new forms and harmonies.
Hearing loss does not seem to affect the musical ability of musicians who become deaf. They continue to “hear” music with as much, or greater, accuracy than if they were actually hearing it being played.
_Michael Eagar, who died in 2003,became deaf at the age of 21. He described a fascinating phenomenon that happened within three months: “my former musical experiences began to play back to me. I couldn’t differentiate between what I heard and real hearing.2 After many years, it is still rewarding to listen to these play backs, to ‘ hear’ music which is new to me and to find many quiet accompaniments for all of my moods. ” How is it that the world we see，touch，hear，and smell is both “out there” and at the same time within us? There is no better example of this connection between external stimulus and internal perception than the cochlear implant No man-made device could replace the ability to hear. However, it might be possible to use the brain’s remarkable power to make sense of the electrical signals the implant produces.
When Michael Edgar first “switched on” his cochlear implant, the sounds he heard were not at all clear. Gradually, with much hard work, he began to identify everyday sounds. For example, “The insistent ringing of the telephone became clear almost at once.”
The primary purpose of the implant is to allow communication with others. When people spoke to Eagar, he heard their voices “coming through like a long-distance telephone call on a poor connection.” But when it came to his beloved music, the implant was of no help. When he wanted to appreciate music, Eagar played the piano. _. He said, “I play the piano as I used to and hear it in my head at the same time. The movement of my fingers and the feel of the keys give added ‘ clarity’ to hearing in my head.5”
Cochlear implants allow the deaf to hear again in a way that is not perfect，but which can change their lives. Still, as Michael Eagar discovered, when it comes to musical harmonies, hearing is irrelevant_. Even the most amazing cochlear implants would have been useless to Beethoven as he composed his Ninth Symphony at the end of his life.
第十篇 如何让失聪的人更容易听见
大多数人把贝多芬的听力受损看作是他作曲的障碍。然而，他的最有力量的作品正是在他人生的最后十年里创作出来的，那时他完全失聪。
这是最值得称道的用意志战胜不幸的案例之一，但是他的传记作家梅纳德·所罗门却持不同的观点。梅纳德认为，贝多芬的失聪“促进了他作为作曲家的成就，在他完全失聪的世界里，他能摆脱外在世界声音的干扰，自由地创作新的表现形式与和声。”
听力受损似乎不会影响失聪的音乐家的音乐才能。他们能继续“听见”音乐，与他们能真正听见音乐相比，他们“听”得同样准确，甚至更准确。
2003年去世的迈克尔·伊加，在他21岁时失聪。他曾经描绘过一幅发生在三个月内的迷人的事情：“我之前的音乐经历开始在脑中回放，我无法区别真正听到的和曾经听过的东西。许多年以后，听到这些回放，“听见”对我来说是新鲜的音乐，为我所有的情绪找到伴唱仍然是有所收益的。”
内心的感受？把外在刺激和内在感知相结合的最好的例子就是耳蜗植入。没有任何人工的装置能代替听觉能力，但是，利用大脑非凡的能力来理解植入物产生的电信号还是有可能的。
当迈克尔·伊加最先“开启”题的人工耳蜗时，他听到的声音一点都不清楚。经过艰苦的努力，他渐渐地开始辨认出日常的声音，比如他说道“持续的电话响声几乎是立刻就变得清晰了。”
耳蜗植入最主要的目的就是能够与人交流。当人们与伊加交谈时，他能听到他们的声音“像是从接触不良的长途电话中传来的”。但是当听他钟爱的音乐时，耳蜗植入就毫无用处。每当伊加想要欣赏音乐时，他就开始弹钢琴。他说“我像往
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常那样弹奏钢琴，同一时间在头脑中就听见它。我手指的移动以及对琴键的感觉使得头脑中听到的声音更加“清晰”。 耳蜗植入让耳聪的人以一种不完美的方式再次听见声音，但是它改变了他们的生活。尽管如此，正如迈克尔·伊加发现的那样，当涉及到音乐和声时，听力就无关紧要了。甚至最完美的耳蜗植入对贝多芬在他生命的最后阶段创作第九交响曲也毫无用处。
第一篇 Captain Cook Arrow Legend
it was a great legend while it lasted，but DNA testing has finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook who died in the Sandwich Islands’in 1779. “There is no Cook in the Australian Museum，’’museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of Cook’S bone.But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its exhibition ，“Uncovered：Treasures of the Australian Museum,” which does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalani’opu’u in 1778.
Cook was one of Britain’s great explorers and is credited with discovering the“Great South Land，\770.He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands，now Hawaii。
The 1egend of Cook’s arrow began in 1824 when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams，a London surgeon and relative of Cook’s wife，saying it was made of Cook’s bone after the fatal fight with islanders. In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued until it came face=to-face with science.
DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone but was more likely made of animal bone。said Philp.
However, Cook’s fans refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered.as they say there is evidence not a11 of Cook’s body was buried at sea in 1 779.“On this occasion technology has won\，”said Cliff Thornton，president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain.“But I am sure that one of these days?one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.’’ 库克船长弓箭的传说
这本是个绝妙的传说，但DNA测试最终结束了这个长达两个世纪之久的古老故事。传说是关于一支据说是用1779年在桑伟奇群岛死去的英国探险家船长詹姆士库克的遗骨刻成的夏威夷弓箭。
在不久前DNA 证据宣布该弓箭并非来自于库克船长的遗骨时，奥大利亚博物馆收藏经理尤大书·菲利普说：“澳大利亚博物馆里并没有库克的遗骨。”但这并不能停止博物馆在展览会上展出弓箭。“考古发现：澳大利亚博物馆的宝藏”展览中的确还展示了一个在1778年夏威夷国王卡兰尼欧普送 给库克的一个羽毛斗篷。 库克是英国最伟大探险家之一，他在1770年发现了“南大陆”，也就是现在的澳大利亚。此后在桑伟奇群岛被棒击致死。 库克弓箭传说始于1824年，当时夏威夷国王卡莫哈莫哈在弥留之际将弓箭赐给了库克妻子的亲戚，一名伦敦外科医生威廉正当斯，并告诉他弓箭是在那次致命殴打后用库克的遗骨做成的。
在19世纪90年代，弓箭被交给澳大理亚博物馆。这个传说直到与科学直接接触才停止。
据菲利普说，澳大利亚和新西兰的试验室的DNA测试证实弓箭并非取材于库克的遗骨，而更可能来自动物的骨头。 但是，库克迷们却不肯放弃希望。他们期待库克传说之一将会被证明是正确，并且他人部分遗骨还会被发现。正如他们所说，有证据表明库克的遗骨并不是在1779年全都葬身大海了。库克船长协会的会长克利夫托马森在一个来自英国的声明中说：“在这个问题上，科技取得了胜利。我坚信某一天库克传说之一将会被证明是真的。”
第二篇 Avalanche and Its Safety
An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are among the biggest dangers in the mountains for both life and property.
All avalanches are caused by an over-burden of material, typically snowpack, that is too massive and unstable for the slope that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is likely to cause an avalanche, is a complex task involving the evaluation of a number of factors.
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