Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Trevor Tortomasi…
And I'm Nancy Sun.
In today's news:
Tiny cells remake themselves, scientists make a discovery, and one human pushes herself to a new limit.
All that and more, coming up next.
台灣科學家發現新的細胞分裂方式 Taiwanese Scientists Discover New Kind of Cell Division
Each living thing (生物) that you can see… is not just one thing.
That's because the living things you can see with your eyes, like animals and plants, are made up of many, many cells (細胞).
Cells are tiny living things that carry DNA.
Most cells are too small to see, but together, they make up (構成) bigger forms of life.
And cells can reproduce (繁殖) in different ways.
They can combine (結合) their DNA, to make one new cell.
Or they can split their DNA evenly (均勻地分裂), to make two cells that are exactly the same.
And for a long time, scientists thought these were the only two ways that cells could reproduce. 很久以來，科學家一直認為細胞只有這兩種繁殖的方式。
But recently, scientists in Taiwan were carefully watching (仔細觀察) the cells of a certain kind of fish, as it grew from a baby into an adult.
And they noticed that the fish cells were reproducing in a different way!
So they used a special computer system to tag (標籤) each tiny cell with a different color.
That way, they could see which cells reproduced first.
The scientists discovered that the cells were splitting their DNA quickly and unevenly (不均勻地分裂).
Now, they will continue to study it in other animals, too…
Because the more we learn about our cells, the more we learn about ourselves!
科學新發現 內耳絨毛細胞可以長回來 Scientists Discover Gene to Regrow Lost Ear Hair Cells
If you're listening to this episode of News Bites, then your ears should be working just fine.
But how exactly do our ears hear things?
Inside our ears, there are cells called "hair cells" (絨毛細胞).
Each hair cell has tiny hairs on it, which vibrate (震動) when sound hits our ears.
There are outer hair cells (外耳絨毛細胞), which catch the sound first.
And then there are inner hair cells (內耳絨毛細胞), which communicate the sound to our brains.
But there's one problem: Hair cells can't reproduce (不能繁殖).
Usually, cells in our bodies can reproduce, so if we lose some, we can make more.
But if we lose our hair cells, we lose our hearing (失去聽覺), and they can't grow back (長不回來).
Fortunately (幸好), scientists in the United States have recently discovered a way to make new hair cells.
When a new cell is growing, they can change one tiny piece of its DNA to make it become either an outer hair cell, or an inner hair cell. 新的細胞生長時，科學家可以稍微調整它們的DNA，讓它們變成外耳或是內耳絨毛細胞。
For now, the scientists are still only trying this on mice, until they say it is safe enough to try in humans.
But when scientists get better at making new hair cells, we could soon help people who have lost their hearing.
And all of this work is to help a few tiny cells in our ears, so that our brains can hear the sounds around us.
So, thank you for listening… but be sure to thank your ear hair cells for letting you listen, too!
單腿女跑者 打破馬拉松世界紀錄 One-Legged Woman Breaks Marathon Record
Many animals can run pretty quickly on four legs.
And some people can run pretty fast on two legs, as well!
But one woman has proven (證明了) that she doesn't need that many legs to be a runner.
Her name is Jacky, and she ran 104 marathons in 104 days… with only one leg!
First of all, no matter how many legs you have (不管你有幾條腿), a marathon is already very difficult to run.
That's because one marathon is 42 kilometers long.
And Jacky ran that far every single day!
Jacky lost one of her legs to cancer, so she replaced it with a prosthetic leg. Jacky之前因為癌症而失去一條腿，之後用義肢來代替。
The prosthetic leg makes it harder to run, but she showed us it's still possible.
And she says she still wants to run even more marathons, later this year!
So the next time you want to complain (抱怨) about walking somewhere… remember how many legs you have.
Or at least (至少) just be grateful it's not a marathon!
So, in today's News Bites:
Scientists in Taiwan used a special computer system to tag tiny fish cells with different colors.
And they noticed that some of the fish cells were splitting their DNA quickly and unevenly.
Now, scientists want to look for this new kind of cell division in other animals, too.
And,
Scientists in the United States have recently discovered a way to make "hair cells", which are the kind of cells in our ears that help us hear things.
When a new cell is growing, they can change one tiny piece of its DNA to make it become either an outer hair cell, or an inner hair cell.
And when scientists get better at this process, we could soon help people who have lost their hearing.
And,
One woman has recently run 104 marathons in 104 days… with only one leg.
She had lost one of her legs to cancer, and replaced it with a prosthetic leg.
She says she still wants to run even more marathons, later this year.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!