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Ever taken a bite of something, like broccoli or kale, and thought: "Whoa that's bitter!"?
啃一口花椰菜或羽衣甘蓝，你会觉得：“哇，好苦啊！”？
Multiply that feeling many, many times over and you've got denatonium, the most bitter compound we know of.
反复多次叠加这种感觉，你会得到苯甲地那铵，人类已知的最苦的化合物。
And it was discovered totally by accident.
它的发现完全是个意外。
Back in 1958, researchers at a Scottish pharmaceutical company were experimenting with the anesthetic lidocaine.
回到1958年，一家苏格兰医药公司的研究人员在用利多卡因麻醉药做实验。
You may have heard of it, it's often in those gels that you can use to help cool the pain of a sunburn.
你可能听过这种物质，在那些帮助修复晒伤的凝胶中常见。
And it's frequently used by doctors and dentists because a quick injection of the stuff makes a small area of the body wonderfully numb.
医生和牙医也经常使用它，因为快速注射这种物质可以让身体的一小块区域失去知觉。
That's because it stops up the channels in neurons that allow sodium ions to flow in and out.
那是因为这种物质可以堵塞神经元中的通道阻止钠离子的流动和流出。
When these sodium channels can't open and close properly, the neurons aren't able to send pain signals to your brain.
当这些钠离子通道紧闭不同时，神经元无法将疼痛信号传递至大脑。
And that's great, because no one needs to feel what's going on when their wisdom teeth are being removed.
这样很棒，因为拔智齿的时候，没人需要感受这种感觉。
Since lidocaine is incredibly useful, the drug researchers were trying to see if they could find something similar that worked even better.
既然利多卡因超级有用，药品研究人员想看看他们是否能够找到比它更有效的类似物质。
But when they added a benzyl group to it, they ended up with something different, a compound that we call denatonium.
但是当他们往里边添加苄基后，他们得到了一种不同的化合物—苯甲地那铵。
It isn't a better numbing agent, but it does bind a different family of proteins better than lidocaine does: taste receptors.
它并不是一种更有效的麻醉剂，但它确实含有一组不同但比利多卡因更好的蛋白家族：味觉感受器。
Specifically, it binds to bitter taste receptors in the Taste 2 Receptor or TAS2R family.
明确来说，它捆绑的苦味感受器属于苦味受体家族。
Humans have more than forty different TAS2Rs, several of which bind to denatonium.
人类有40多种不同的苦味受体，其中有几种和苯甲地那铵相关联。
But that doesn't completely explain its bitterness.
但是这并不能完全解释其苦味。
Scientists think it might retain some of it's lidocaine-like ability and block ion channels to create its super bitter taste.
科学家们认为它或许保留有一些和利多卡因类似的能力并阻止离子通道产生超级苦涩的味道。
But they're not sure. What they are sure of, though, is that it's really, really, really bitter.
但是他们并不确定。他们能肯定的是它真的非常非常非常的苦。
Denatonium, in its marketed form "Bitrex," has held the Guinness World Record for bitterest substance for half a century.
苯甲地那铵的市场推广形式是“苯酸苄铵酰胺”，半个世纪以来，它一直是最苦物质吉尼斯世界纪录的保持者。
And that's because humans can taste it in solutions at really, really low concentrations, just a few parts per million.
那是因为人类可以在浓度非常非常低的溶解剂（仅百万分之一）中尝到这种物质。
A sugar cube-sized amount of it can make an entire Olympic-sized swimming pool taste gross.
一块方糖大小的苯甲地那铵可以让整个奥运规模的泳池里的水变味。
And yet, you probably have it in your home without even knowing it. It's odorless and colorless, so it doesn't affect how products look or smell.
但你的家里可能有这种物质，而你甚至不知道。它是无色无味的，所以不会影响产品的外形或味道。
And outside of being bitter, it's considered unreactive, so it's basically non-toxic and isn't destroyed by water or most other chemicals.
外表苦涩的它被认为是惰性物质，因此它基本上是无毒的，也不会被水或大部分其他化学物质所摧毁。
All of which makes it the ideal stuff to put in or on things you don't want people to swallow.
这所有的特质让它成为了一种防止人们吞食的理想添加物。
You might have heard about the big fuss in 2017 when Nintendo released their new Switch game cartridges, for example,
例如，在2007年，你或许听说了任天堂发布了新Switch游戏机，
because they'd laced them with denatonium and apparently everyone noticed.
他们在卡带上涂了苯甲地那铵，显然大家都注意到了这一点。
My question: Why were adults licking nintendo games in the first place?
我是想问：为什么成年人会去舔任天堂游戏机？
You can also find denatonium in special nail polishes designed to help stop people from biting their nails.
你还可以在一种为帮助防止人们啃指甲的特质指甲油中发现这种物质。
And it's added to everything from liquid dish detergent to industrial alcohol and antifreeze to keep people especially children, safe.
所有东西，从洗洁精到工业酒精和防冻剂都添加了这种物质以保证人们，尤其是儿童的安全。
It's even used in rat poison, turns out that rat tongues are about 30,000 times less sensitive to denatonium than we are,
甚至在杀鼠剂中都有，事实证明人类舌头对苯甲地那铵的敏感度是老鼠的约30000倍，
so it doesn't scare them off. And its effects aren't restricted to your tongue.
所以这吓不到它们。它的影响不仅仅局限于舌头。
You have similar taste receptors in your gut,
肠道中也有类似的味觉感受器，
and scientists have found that directly injecting denatonium solutions into stomachs can slow the digestion process,
科学家们发现将苯甲地那铵直接注射进胃部可以减缓消化过程，
increase feelings of fullness, and even help lower blood sugar levels.
增加饱腹感，甚至可以帮助降低血糖含量。
So they're investigating whether denatonium, or something like it, can help treat overeating or diabetes.
所以他们正在调查苯甲地那铵或其他类似物质是否可以帮助治疗过度饱食或糖尿病。
And taste receptors are also present on the smooth muscles of your airways.
呼吸道的平滑肌上也有味觉感受器。
So, inhaling denatonium can lead to bronchodilation, the expansion of your airways that leads to increased airflow.
所以吸入苯甲地那铵可以使支气管扩张，扩张你的呼吸道，增加气流。
And ultimately, that means further research on denatonium could help people breathe easier.
最终这意味着对苯甲地那铵的进一步研究可以帮助人们呼吸顺畅。
Turns out there are a lot of great ways to use super bitter compounds.
事实证明使用这种超苦化合物质的方式有很多种。
Who would have thought something so revolting could do so much good?
谁会想到这么讨厌的物质可以带来那么多好处呢？
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow! And thanks as always to our patrons on Patreon.
感谢收看本期《科学秀》！一如既往地感谢Patreon的赞助人们。
Without your support, we wouldn't be able to make tasty nuggets of science wisdom like this video.
没有大家的支持，我们就不能制作出干货满满的视频。
If you'd like to learn more about how you can help support us while sweetening your SciShow experience,
如果你想了解如何支持我们并丰富自己《科学秀》体验，
you can head over to Patreon.com/SciShow to lean more about joining our community of patrons.
请登录Patreon.com/SciShow了解更多关于加入我们赞助人社区的信息。
