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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.

They say you should take the bitter with the sweet. But if you're not a big fan of bitter, chemists have just the loophole for you. Oh, you'll still have to take the bitter. But you won't have to taste it. Because scientists have concocted¹ a new and improved "bitter blocker." They touted² their triumph at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Our taste buds allow us to detect sweet and sour, salty and savory³, and, of course, bitter. Of that set of taste sensations, bitterness, most agree, is the most disagreeable. And we can thank (or blame) evolution. We likely find bitter bad because many toxic⁴ substances are bitter. So an aversion to bitter may have helped our ancestors survive.

Problem is, plenty of healthful foods are bitter, too. Take broccoli⁵ and kale. (Please.) The standard solution, drowning out the bitter with butter, sort of cancels out the veggies' health food status.

Rather than getting rid of the bitter, chemists came up with a compound that simply blocks our receptors for the bitter molecules⁶, and our ability to taste them. So you may not need that spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. Or the broccoli.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkin.

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收听单词发音

1 concocted
v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造
参考例句：
The soup was concocted from up to a dozen different kinds of fish. 这种汤是用多达十几种不同的鱼熬制而成的。 Between them they concocted a letter. 他们共同策划写了一封信。来自《简明英汉词典》

2 touted
v.兜售( tout的过去式和过去分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报
参考例句：
She's being touted as the next leader of the party. 她被吹捧为该党的下一任领导人。 People said that he touted for his mother and sister. 据说，他给母亲和姐姐拉生意。来自辞典例句

3 savory
adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的
参考例句：
She placed a huge dish before him of savory steaming meat.她将一大盘热气腾腾、美味可口的肉放在他面前。 He doesn't have a very savory reputation.他的名誉不太好。

4 toxic
adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的
参考例句：
The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。 There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

5 broccoli
n.绿菜花，花椰菜
参考例句：
She grew all the broccoli plants from seed.这些花椰菜都是她用种子培育出来的。 They think broccoli is only green and cauliflower is only white.他们认为西兰花只有绿色的，而菜花都是白色的。

6 molecules
分子( molecule的名词复数 )
参考例句：
The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。 Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。