科学美国人60秒：人工智能嗅出不安全食物
燕山大学 刘立军 供稿
【TRANSCRIPT】
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.
The Food and Drug Administration has to recall hundreds of foods every year. Like cookie snack packs with chunks of blue plastic hiding inside, Salmonella-tainted (受沙门氏菌感染的) taco seasoning or curry powder laced with lead.
It can take months before a recall is issued. But now researchers have come up with a method that might fast-track that process, leading to early detection and, ultimately, faster recalls.
The system relies on the fact that people increasingly buy foods and spices online. And people tend to write reviews of products they buy online - which are like bread crumbs to food-safety officials sniffing out dangerous products.
The researchers linked FDA food recalls from 2012 to 2014 to Amazon reviews of those same products. They then trained machine-learning algorithms to differentiate between reviews for recalled items and reviews for items that had not been flagged.
And the trained algorithms were able to predict FDA recalls three quarters of the time. They also identified another 20,000 reviews for possibly unsafe foods - most of which had never been recalled. The results are in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
The World Health Organization estimates that 600 million people worldwide get sick annually from contaminated food, and more than 400,000 people die from it. "So having tools that enable us to detect this a lot faster and hopefully investigate and do recalls faster will be useful not just in the U.S. but in other countries around the world as well." Study author Elaine Nsoesie of Boston University.
She did add one caveat: even recalled products can still get five-star reviews. So stars alone don’t tell the whole sickening story. The proof, unfortunately, may still be in the pudding.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American - 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
【VOCABULARY】
1. curry n. 咖喱。例如：a chicken curry 一道咖喱鸡
2. sniff out: to discover or find sb. / sth. by using your sense of smell 嗅出。例如：The dogs are trained to sniff out drugs. 这些狗是经过训练的嗅毒犬。
3. algorithm n. 算法；计算程序
4. flag v. to put a special mark next to information that you think is important 标示（重要处）。例如：I've flagged the paragraphs that we need to look at in more detail. 我已用特殊记号标出我们需要更详细考虑的段落。
5. caveat n. (formal, from Latin) a warning that particular things need to be considered before sth. can be done 警告；告诫
6. in the pudding: (saying) you can only judge if sth. is good or bad when you have tried it 只有通过实践才能判断事物的好坏
【QUESTIONS】
Read the passage. Then listen to the news and fill in the blanks with the information (words, phrases or sentences) you hear.
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.
The Food and Drug Administration has to (Q1) _______________________________ every year. Like cookie snack packs with chunks of blue plastic hiding inside, Salmonella-tainted taco seasoning or curry powder laced with lead.
It can take months before a recall is issued. But now researchers have come up with a method that might fast-track that process, leading to (Q2) ____________________ and, ultimately, faster recalls.
The system relies on the fact that people increasingly buy (Q3) __________________ online. And people tend to write (Q4) ______________________ of products they buy online - which are like bread crumbs to food-safety officials sniffing out (Q5) _____________________________.
The researchers linked FDA food recalls from 2012 to 2014 to Amazon reviews of those (Q6) ______ products. They then trained machine-learning algorithms to (Q7) _______________ between reviews for recalled items and reviews for items that had not been flagged.
And the trained algorithms were able to predict FDA recalls (Q8) ____________________ of the time. They also identified another 20,000 reviews for possibly unsafe foods - most of which had never been recalled. The results are in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
The World Health Organization estimates that 600 million people worldwide get sick annually from (Q9) _______________________ food, and more than 400,000 people die from it. "So having tools that enable us to detect this a lot faster and hopefully investigate and do recalls faster will be useful not just in the U.S. but in other countries around the world as well." Study author Elaine Nsoesie of Boston University.
She did add one caveat: even recalled products can still get five-star reviews. So stars alone don’t tell the whole sickening story. The proof, unfortunately, may still be (Q10) ___________________.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American - 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
【KEY】
Read the passage. Then listen to the news and fill in the blanks with the information (words, phrases or sentences) you hear.
This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.
The Food and Drug Administration has to (Q1) recall hundreds of foods every year. Like cookie snack packs with chunks of blue plastic hiding inside, Salmonella-tainted taco seasoning or curry powder laced with lead.
It can take months before a recall is issued. But now researchers have come up with a method that might fast-track that process, leading to (Q2) early detection and, ultimately, faster recalls.
The system relies on the fact that people increasingly buy (Q3) foods and spices online. And people tend to write (Q4) reviews of products they buy online - which are like bread crumbs to food-safety officials sniffing out (Q5) dangerous products.
The researchers linked FDA food recalls from 2012 to 2014 to Amazon reviews of those (Q6) same products. They then trained machine-learning algorithms to (Q7) differentiate between reviews for recalled items and reviews for items that had not been flagged.
And the trained algorithms were able to predict FDA recalls (Q8) three quarters of the time. They also identified another 20,000 reviews for possibly unsafe foods— most of which had never been recalled. The results are in Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
The World Health Organization estimates that 600 million people worldwide get sick annually from (Q9) contaminated food, and more than 400,000 people die from it. "So having tools that enable us to detect this a lot faster and hopefully investigate and do recalls faster will be useful not just in the U.S. but in other countries around the world as well." Study author Elaine Nsoesie of Boston University.
She did add one caveat: even recalled products can still get five-star reviews. So stars alone don’t tell the whole sickening story. The proof, unfortunately, may still be (Q10) in the pudding.
Thanks for listening for Scientific American - 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.