一詞日曆：米飯在冰箱放太久，吃了竟然有生命危險

2019.04.06

週六 Saturday

proliferate /prə'lifəreit/ 

v. 激增

圖片來源：視覺中國

If meat is left out on the counter for too long, we all know we need to throw it out. But what about rice or pasta?

如果肉在櫃檯上放太久，我們都知道我們要扔掉它。但是米飯和意大利麪呢?

Although that carby goodness might seem harmless after sitting on the bench for a bit, you'll probably think twice about it once you hear about the bacterium Bacillus cereus.

如果這兩種碳水化合物的食物只在櫃子裏擺了一會兒，似乎是無害的，但一旦你聽說過蠟樣芽孢桿菌，你可能會三思而後行。

It's not a particularly rare germ. B. cereus will happily live wherever it can – soil, food, or in the gut.

它並不是什麼罕見的微生物。蠟樣芽孢桿菌會開心地出現在任何它能存活的地方——土壤、食物、或者在腸道里。

"The known natural habitats of B. cereus are wide-ranging, including soil, animals, insects, dust and plants," Anukriti Mathur, a biotechnology researcher at the Australian National University, explained to Science Alert.

澳大利亞國立大學的生物技術研究員Anukriti Mathur向《科學警報》雜誌解釋說:“已知的蠟狀芽孢桿菌的分佈區域範圍很廣，包括土壤、動物、昆蟲、灰塵和植物。”

"The bacteria will reproduce by utilising the nutrients from the food products [..] including rice, dairy products, spices, dried foods and vegetables."

他說:“這些細菌會利用食物中的營養物質繁殖。包括大米、奶製品、香料、乾糧和蔬菜。”

Some strains of this bacterium are helpful for probiotics, but others can give you a nasty bout of food poisoning if given the ability to grow and proliferate - such as when you store food in the wrong conditions.

這種細菌的一些菌株對益生菌有幫助，但如果賦予它們生長和增殖的能力，比如當你儲存食物條件不當時，其他菌株會給你帶來嚴重的食物中毒。

In 2005, one such case was recorded in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology - five children in one family got sick from eating four-day-old pasta salad.

2005年，《臨牀微生物學雜誌》記錄了一例這樣的病例——一家的5個孩子因爲吃了放了4天的意大利麪沙拉而患病。

According to the case study, pasta salad was prepared on a Friday, taken to a picnic on Saturday. After coming back from the picnic it was stored in the fridge until Monday evening, when the kids were fed it for dinner.  

根據對案例的研究，意大利麪沙拉是在週五做的，週六帶去野餐。野餐回來後，它被貯藏在冰箱裏，直到週一晚上，才把它拿出來給孩子們當晚飯。

That night the children began vomiting, and were taken to hospital. Tragically, the youngest child died; another suffered from liver failure but survived, and the others had less severe food poisoning and could be treated with fluids.

當晚孩子們開始嘔吐，被送往醫院。不幸的是，最小的孩子死了；另一個小孩肝功能衰竭，但活了下來，剩下幾個孩子的食物中毒程度較輕，可以補液治療。

今日詞彙

proliferate /prə'lifəreit/ 

v. 激增

這個詞的基礎意思是“激增”，並不侷限於生物學中的迅速繁殖。

很多非生物的東西也能用proliferate來形容：

Books and articles on the subject have proliferated over the year.

過去幾年來，論及這一問題的書和文章大量涌現。