時差N小時:饑餓的千層面 Hungry Lasagna

So you made lasagna last night, and it was delicious.

你昨晚做了千層面，之后享用了一頓大餐。

You saved the leftovers by wrapping aluminum foilover the top of the pan, and putting it in the fridge.

大快朵頤之后，你將剩下的千層面用鋁箔紙包好放入冰箱中。

When you get hungry today, you go to look for thatlasagna, but it looks like the lasagna was gettinghungry too!

今天你餓的時候，便去拿昨天吃剩的千層面，但是你會發(fā)現(xiàn)千層面似乎也餓了!

It's eaten tiny holes in the aluminum foil that wascovering it.

包裹它的鋁箔紙上出現(xiàn)了一個個的小洞，好像被咬過一樣。

Why does this happen?

為什么會這樣呢?

A listener asked this question and we'll find the answer on today's moment of science.

一位聽眾問到了這個問題，我們將在今天的科學一刻中為你解答。

There are really two things responsible for those holes in the aluminum foil: the acidic natureofthe lasagna and some curious properties of aluminum.

鋁箔上出現(xiàn)這些洞有兩個原因:一個是千層面本身具有酸性，另一個就是鋁具有一些非常奇特的屬性。

Lasagna gets most of it's acid from the tomatoes in its sauce.

千層面的酸性主要是來自醬汁中的番茄醬。

Almost everything you eat is at leastslightly acidic, but tomatoes are especially so.

幾乎你吃的每樣東西都會至少呈輕微酸性，而番茄的酸性尤為明顯。

This acid wouldn't be a problem for a glasscontainer, or stainless steel, or plastic wrap, or formost of the materials we use to store andprepare food.

這種酸對玻璃容器，不銹鋼，塑料袋或大多數(shù)我們用于儲藏和準備食物所用的材料都不會產(chǎn)生任何影響。

Aluminum, though, is especially vulnerable to acid.

但鋁卻非常容易受到酸的侵蝕。

Here's why.

這就是原因。

Most metals form a protective layer on their surface called an oxide layer.

大多數(shù)金屬會在表面生成一種叫做氧化層的保護膜。

Aluminum forms an oxide layer too, but it is very thin, allowing the tomato's acid to easilybreak through.

鋁金屬也會形成氧化層，但是這層膜很薄，番茄中的酸能輕易腐蝕透。

This lets the tomato sauce dissolve the aluminum, and it creates grey or black chemicalsontop of the lasagna that taste very bad.

由此番茄醬就會溶解鋁，在千層面上產(chǎn)生一種灰色或黑色的化學物質(zhì)，會使千層面變得非常難吃。

The same thing can happen if you use aluminum cookware for acidic sauces.

如果用鋁制廚具來做酸味兒醬料，也會發(fā)生相同的情況。

Sauce made in an aluminum pot will be grayer and not as tasty as sauce made in othercookware.

鋁制鍋所做的醬料顏色看起來會更灰些，吃起來也不如其他廚具所做的醬料味道好。