Episode Details

Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites! I'm Ryan Drillsma… And I'm Trevor Tortomasi. In today's news: Seeds come back to earth, a bird goes on a long journey, and Taylor Swift joins TikTok. All that and more, coming up next. ________________________________ 台灣學生研究 去太空旅行的植物種子 Students Study Space Seeds One small step for a man, and one giant leap for… plantkind? Plant seeds that Taiwan sent into space have just returned to Earth. And students are now going to study them in an experiment (實驗). Some organizations (組織) are working together on a program called "Asia Herb in Space." The National Applied Research Laboratories, National Chung Hsing University, and Taiwan's Council of Agriculture wanted to see what would happen to seeds after they went to space. 國家實驗研究院，國立中興大學，以及農委會都想知道，去過太空的種子，回來之後會不會有什麼不一樣。 On December 7th, they put their seeds on a spaceship along with 10 different kinds of seeds from seven other countries. The seeds then headed into space for a seven-month stay at the international space station (國際太空站). The seeds Taiwan contributed to the project included sunflower, bell pepper, red quinoa, and moth orchid. 台灣提供實驗的種子包括向日葵、青椒、紅藜麥和小蝴蝶蘭。 The idea is to find out how different levels of gravity (重力) and radiation (輻射) in space affect plant growth. They arrived back on earth July 9th, and Taiwan's seeds were mailed back home on September 9th. Now, students from universities, high schools and junior high schools will study the seeds. They are going to plant them. To help them get prepared, National Chung Hsing University held online classes about how to properly take care of the plants they will produce. 10 high school teams will grow the moth orchids, and 30 junior high school teams will look after the bell pepper and red quinoa. 高中生種蝴蝶蘭，國中生照顧青椒和紅藜麥。 But do you know that every experiment needs a control? A "control" is usually something that has not been changed from how it would normally be. Scientists compare (比較) the control with other subjects in an experiment to see if it worked! And the control in this experiment is seeds that did not go to space. They are being given to elementary school students to grow. I can't wait to find out what they discover! 每個實驗都要有對照組來做比較，因此有些國小學生會培植沒有去過太空的種子。 ________________________________ 信天翁了不起的旅程 An Albatross' Amazing Journey 36 thousand kilometers is a long distance to travel. Especially in just a few months. That's almost as far as flying all around the world. But it's nothing to some birds! A professor in Southern Australia recently found that an albatross (信天翁) that landed there had flown all the way from South Georgia (南喬治亞). That's an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, and its closest country is Argentina (阿根廷). The professor also found the bird had visited the coasts (海岸) of South America and Africa on its journey. He knew this because a British researcher had put a tracking device on the bird. 他都知道這隻信天翁去了哪裡，是因為研究員在鳥身上裝設了追蹤儀器。 A tracking device is an electronic item that lets us know where something is. And it was put on the bird for conservation reasons; the researcher wants to help protect albatrosses from dying out. 研究人員希望保護這種鳥類不要滅絕。 Travelling 36 thousand kilometers is actually a rare thing, even for an albatross. Albatrosses are large sea birds and most fly between places in the southern part of the world. When they are at sea, they spend most of their time flying. They land to catch food. 信天翁白天一直飛，要吃東西時才會降落陸地。 At night they spend more time on the water, probably because is it harder to find food in the dark. But the Australian professor said less than five percent of those that live in South Georgia fly all the way to Australia. The bird's journey will help scientists learn more about how albatrosses move across the world for the future. 這隻鳥的足跡可以幫助科