花百萬英鎊的囧研究：木星炸薯條最好吃！

Some scientists struggle to observe the most distant stars, while others have spent decades calculating the probability that habitable planets exist elsewhere in our galaxy. For a pair of Greek researchers, there was a more pressing problem: is it possible to cook chips in space?

有些科學家致力于觀測最遠的星球，有些科學家花費數十年時間思考在銀河系內其他星球定居的可能性，而對于這群希臘研究者來說，他們思考的問題更為棘手：人類可以在太空里炸薯條嗎？

The team, from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, have confirmed that chips can be fried — quicker and crunchier, in fact — at three times the normal gravitational force, in conditions equivalent to those on Jupiter.

這支來自亞里士多德大學的研究隊伍研究發現，在太空里炸薯條是可行的，而且更酥脆，炸熟也更快——如果你是在三倍于地球的引力環境中炸薯條的話，比如在木星上。

However, achieving a pleasingly crispy exterior may be more challenging in the reduced gravity conditions on Mars or the Moon, they predict. Thodoris Karapantsios, a chemical engineer who led the study funded by the European Space Agency, devised a hyper-gravity simulator for chips by building a rotating industrial fryer capable of producing centrifugal forces equivalent to nine times the Earth's gravity.

然而專家們預測，在火星或月球這樣的低引力環境中，找到適宜炸出酥脆薯條的環境就有點困難了。化學工程師索佐瑞斯·卡拉帕特希奧斯是這個由歐洲太空總署資助的研究項目的領頭人，他建造了一臺能夠產生高達地球引力9倍的高引力的旋轉工業油炸鍋，通過這臺超引力模擬器來炸薯條。

In normal conditions, bubbles form in the potato as it fries, which move to the surface because of gravitational forces once they reach a critical size. This process happens more quickly in high-gravity conditions, improving the rate that heat is transferred from the oil to the potato.

在通常情況下，被油炸膨脹的薯條受到的引力作用減少，會漂浮到油鍋表面，漂浮的薯條之間亦會出現氣泡。在高引力環境下，熱量從油傳遞到土豆條的速度更快，薯條漂浮到表面的速度也就更快。

In 3g conditions the potato fried twice as quickly as usual and its crust reached its maximum thickness. Any further increase in gravity levels did not improve the chip'scrispness, the researchers found, leading to the conclusion that Jupiter is probably the most efficient place in the solar system to make chips （aside from the fuel required to get there）。

在3倍引力的作用下，薯條炸熟的速度比一般情況下要快一倍，薯條表面的酥皮也達到了最厚的厚度。研究者發現，如果在3倍引力的基礎上繼續增加引力，則對薯條的酥脆程度無益。由此可以得出結論，木星很可能是太陽系中最適合炸薯條的宇宙環境（如果不考慮為了到達火星而需要消耗的燃料的話）。

In a taste experiment, student volunteers were unable to tell the difference between normal and the hyper-gravity chips.

在一項口感實驗中，參加實驗的學生們未能分辨出普通薯條和高引力環境炸出的薯條之間的區別。

The next step will be to rerun the experiment in low-gravity conditions.

下一步，研究者們將在低引力的太空環境中再次進行實驗。

Professor Karapantsios predicts that the chips are likely to be unpleasantly soggy. In zero gravity there is no force causing the air bubbles to detach from the chip.

卡拉帕特希奧斯教授預測，低引力環境下炸出的薯條會不夠酥脆。在零重力條件下，土豆條中的空氣氣泡根本無法排出。