科学美国人60秒:Chocolate Makers Cut Fat with Electricity

Chocolate may appear to have little in common with crude oil. But production for consumers requires that both substances travel through pipes. And the thicker—that is, the more viscous—they are, the more likely they'll clog up those pipes. So physicists at Temple University in Philadelphia have devised an unusual solution to avoid that sticky situation: apply an electric field.
巧克力似乎与原油毫无共性。生产消费者所需要的产品都通过管道来运输，并且管道越厚，粘性就相对越大。它们就越有可能堵塞管道。因此费城坦普尔大学的物理学家们已经设计出一种不同寻常的解决方案，以避免出现棘手的情况：施加电场。

The process relies on a concept called electrorheology, in which a fluid can morph from a liquid to a JELL-O–like consistency, or the other way around, in an electric field. The field causes particles in the fluid, like paraffin and asphalt particles in crude oil, or cocoa and milk solids in chocolate, to act like tiny bar magnets, and line up into chains.
该过程基于一种化学概念，称为电流变，在该过程中，流体可以从液体转换成像果冻一样粘稠。或者在电场中，呈现相反地状态。电场导致流体中的粒子像微小条形磁铁一样，排队成链，如在原油中的石蜡和沥青颗粒，或巧克力中的和谐或奶干物质。

And the team's latest finding could be a boon for the production of low-fat chocolate. Because cutting the fat content of chocolate tends to jam the pipes—the Augustus Gloop effect. [Willy Wonka clip]
并且该团队的最新发现对于低脂巧克力的生产可能会是一大福音。因为降低巧克力中的脂肪含量往往会堵塞管道——奥古斯塔斯·格鲁普效应。

But that blockage can be cleared by applying an electric field of 1600 volts per centimeter, parallel to the chocolate's flow. The effect would allow chocolatiers to cut cocoa butter by 10 to 20 percent and still not clog the pipes. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Rongjia Tao et al., Electrorheology leads to healthier and tastier chocolate]
但是管道堵塞可以通过施加电场1600伏特/厘米来清除，与巧克力的电流相平行。这一结果可以允许生产商减少10 - 20%的和谐脂并且还不会堵塞管道。这项研究发表在美国国家科学院院刊上。

The authors claim the resulting chocolate has a stronger cocoa flavor, and tastes quite, "wonderful." And since the study was funded in part by the Mars Chocolate company—and other chocolate makers are interested—the researchers say the tech may be commercialized within a year. At which point you can judge for yourself whether electric fields really make a better bar. Or if the taste is shocking.
作者们表示由此产生的巧克力具有较强的和谐香味并且味道好极了。由于这项研究的部分资金由火星巧克力公司以及其他感兴趣的巧克力制造商资助，研究人员声称，这项技术可能在一年之内实现商业化。此时你可以自己判断，是否可以通过电场使酒吧生意变得更红火，如果味道很糟糕。