一瓶子回憶芳菲

The Fragrance of Memories

Have you ever remembered something with yournose? Maybe the smell of hot dogs gets you daydreamingabout being at a baseball game. Or the smell ofburnt marshmallows^[棉花糖] reminds you of a nightaround a campfire. Scientists know that the senseof smell can trigger^[觸發] powerful memories.Wouldn’t it be cool to somehow bottle thosememories?

That’s exactly what Mark Crames tries todo. His company， Demeter Fragrance， makes morethan 200 scents^[香味]. “Imagine every smell inthe world as a musical note. We try to combinethose notes to make a melody.” He haseven created perfumes inspired by thunderstormsand earthworms^[蚯蚓]!

Everyday smells mean different things todifferent people. “A perfume we call PoisonIvy might remind you of being itchy^[發癢的] andmiserable^[痛苦的]，” Crames says. “But it could make yoursister think of a great time at summer camp.”

Crames captures aromas^[香氣] using a high-techmethod called headspace^{[頂部空間]} technology. Aperfumer takes the source of an aromaand puts it into an airtight container ^{[氣密容器]}.The aroma molecules ^[分子] are collect-ed from the air and analyzed. A chemist^[藥劑師]then matches those molecules to ingredients[成分] in afragrance library.

But not every smell can be easily copied. “One ofour most requested perfumes is puppy’s breath，” hesays. “But it is so chemically complicated that it’svery tough to capture.”

What scents would youlike to bottle? A circus ^[馬戲團] ?Grandma’s spooky^[怪異的] basement? Crames may be able to capture your menories，so you can just take a whiff^[吸] when you feel like remembering!

你試過用鼻子來記事情嗎？也許熱狗的香味會讓你發一場仿如置身棒球比賽的白日夢。又或者，燒棉花糖的味道使你憶起一個篝火之夜。科學家們現在知道嗅覺能觸動強烈的回憶。要是能把這些回憶存在小瓶子里不是很棒嗎？

馬克·克拉姆正致力于這個方面。他的“帝門特香水公司”制作了兩百多款香型。“不妨把世上的每種味道都想像成一個音符。我們嘗試將這些音符組合起來，譜寫成一首曲子。”他甚至還創造出靈感源自雷雨和蚯蚓的香水！

日常氣味對不同的人來說意味著不同的東西。“有一款名為‘致命常春藤’的香水可能使你感覺渾身發癢，很不舒服，”克拉姆說。“但它也可能會讓你姐姐聯想到夏令營的美好時光。”

克拉姆用“頂部空間技術”這種高科技來獲取香味。香水師萃取出香源，將它放入氣密容器中，再從空氣中收集香氣分子并加以分析。然后藥劑師就會把這些分子與香水庫中的成分進行匹配。

但并不是每種氣味都能被輕易復制。“其中一種最多人詢問的香水就是小狗的撲哧喘氣，”克拉姆說。“但是它的化學組成相當復雜，所以很難獲取。”

你想儲存什么樣的氣味呢？馬戲團？還是奶奶那詭異的地下室？克拉姆或許能幫你捕捉回憶，因此當你想重拾記憶時，只需用鼻子輕輕一吸！