On the way home from the grocery, you get delayedso much that the frozen meat you’ve bought thawsout. The question for this Moment of Science isshould you refreeze it? We’ve been told by reliableauthorities that it’s not good to refreeze uncookedmeat. Why not? If freezing the meat in the firstplace helps preserve it, why doesn’t this work thesecond time around? The answer to this question liesin the fact that all food has some bacteria in it, butnormally not enough to hurt us. We freeze uncookedmeat so that bacteria will not grow in it. Butfreezing does not kill all the bacteria that are already there, it just puts them in a kind ofsuspended animation. When the meat is thawed the bacteria come back to life and beginreproducing.

【生词注释】

Delayed adj.延时的, 拖延的

thaw out 融化

refreeze v. 再次冰冻

uncooked adj. 未煮过的

bacteria n.细菌

suspended animation 暂停生长

reproduce v.繁殖

【参考译文】

从商店回家的路上，你的行程延误了，因为你刚买的冷冻肉开始融化。这今天的《科学时刻》的问题是我们是否应该再次冷冻肉?权威人士已经告我们再次冷冻肉，这种做法并不好。为什么呢?如果第一次冷冻肉能保存肉，为什么第二次冷冻就不行呢?问题的答案在于所有食物中都有细菌，但是细菌的数量还不至于伤害我们。我们将未煮过的肉冷冻，那样里面的细菌都不会生长。但是冷冻并不会杀死里面所有的细菌，只是抑制细菌暂停生长。当冻肉开始融化时，细菌又复活了，重新开始繁殖。