Expensive perfumes (香水) come in tiny bottles, but many hide a whale­sized secret.

　　To perfect a particular smell, perfume­makers often use an ingredient that comes from

　　sperm whales, called ambergris.

　　But using ambergris, which helps a perfume last longer, is

　　strongly opposed by many people who think it is wrong to kill whales just so we can smell sweet.

　　Joerg Bohlmann is neither a perfumer nor a whale expert. He's a plant biologist at the University

　　of British Columbia in Canada. But his discovery of a new plant gene (基因) might push whales

　　out of the perfume business.

　　The gene comes from fir trees, found throughout North America and commonly used as

　　Christmas trees.

　　The trees produce a chemical that can be used in perfume in place of

　　ambergris—but with_a_catch.

　　“There's a problem that many people wouldn't consider. In the tree, the chemical is mixed

　　with many others. That makes separation a challenge，” Bohlmann says. “It's like trying to isolate

　　sugar from a biscuit.”

　　This is where science becomes useful. When Bohlmann learned that fir trees produce the

　　ambergris­like chemical, he decided to use his gene know­how to find the instructions for how to

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