That's what Alex Tullo was wondering, so he let Babelfish and Google take a swing at a press release, in Portuguese, from the Brazilian chemical company Braskem. He posted the results on C&EN's Central Science, along with the company's own English translation. The results? Not good news for either service. "Babelfish and Google both make a mess of the first paragraph," Tullo writes. "Braskem’s translation wins hands down."
