Shownotes Transcript
Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Trevor Tortomasi…
And I'm Ryan Drillsma.
In today's news:
Faster boats to Matsu, living robots, and new music on the radio.
All that and more, coming up next.
台灣到馬祖的新渡輪 New Ferry between Taiwan and Matsu
Have you ever been to Taiwan's Matsu Islands?
Because they're islands, you can only get there by flying in a plane, or riding on a boat.
Unfortunately, there is only one airline (航空公司) that flies to Matsu.
And it often has problems with very thick fog (濃霧).
And since the Matsu islands are actually closer to Mainland China than they are to Taiwan, taking a boat can be a very long journey! 因為馬祖很接近中國大陸，坐船去馬祖真是很長的旅程！
Right now, taking a boat from Taiwan to Matsu can take as long as ten hours.
But a boat company is getting ready to make the trip to Matsu shorter, with a faster ferry (更快的渡輪)!
The company says the faster ferries will cut the journey down to just three hours. 公司表示，這艘快船能夠把旅程減短到三個小時左右。
The boats were built in Singapore, and cost about 500 million NT (五億台幣).
They're about 50 meters long (長五十公尺), and can travel at around 75 kilometers per hour (時速七十五公里).
And each ferry will be able to carry almost 300 passengers (乘客)!
The boats will travel between Taipei Harbor (台北港) to Matsu's Nangan (馬祖的南竿).
One ride will cost around 1,700 NT (一千七百台幣).
And the company says the shorter trips to Matsu are planned to start in April of 2022.
Taking a ferry to the Matsu islands sounds like a great opportunity (機會) to go somewhere new, while you feel the fresh ocean air.
It's important to remember, though, that there will only be about three or four rides per week…
So make sure you don't miss your boat!
世界第一個機器生物 現在能夠繁殖 World's First Living Robots Can Now Reproduce
Last year, scientists created the world's first "living robots" (活的機器生物).
They're called "xenobots", and they're less than 1 millimeter wide (寬度一毫米)!
The xenobots are made from the stem cells from one kind of African frog. 這些機器生物是用一種非洲青蛙的幹細胞做成的。
When scientists get about 3,000 of these cells together, they turn into little round organisms (圓球狀的有機體).
Scientists can then use a supercomputer to organize (集合) these little round xenobots, and tell them what to do.
Then the bots can move, work together, and even heal themselves (可以治療自己)!
But that's not all…
Scientists say the little xenobots can now reproduce (繁殖)!
We have only seen this reproducing happen with tiny things like molecules… but never in something as big as these xenobots! 這是我們第一次看到機器生物這麼大的東西繁殖！
The whole project uses both molecular biology (分子生物學) and artificial intelligence (人工智慧).
But are they really robots?
One scientist in the project says, it doesn't matter what something is made from, that makes it a robot or not.
He says, as long as the thing we create can move by itself and do things for us, we can call it a robot.
Whether or not you agree (不管你同不同意), this technology is still very new, and scientists say they don't know what to use it for yet.
But the future may be filled with tiny robots that we can't even see!
美國廣播電台挺泰勒絲 Iheartradio Backing Taylor Swift
A huge radio station is throwing its full support behind a singer.
IHeartRadio is the biggest radio network (廣播網) in the U.S.
They say that they will only play Taylor Swift's version of her music in the future.
Taylor has been remaking her old albums, in order to keep full control of them.
美國最大的網路電台IHeartRadio說它會支持泰勒絲的新音樂。
Taylor has already re-released her own version of two albums, Fearless and Red.
Taylor is re-recording her music after the original masters (母帶) were sold off without her permission.
IHeartRadio says that from now on, whenever Taylor releases a new version of an old track, the network will immediately replace the old version in their system.
IHeartRadio說以後泰勒絲一發行新版本的舊歌，它會馬上把舊版本換掉。
So, in today's News Bites:
One boat company is getting ready to offer faster ferry trips to the Matsu islands.
The company says the faster ferries will cut the journey down to just three hours.
The shorter trips to Matsu are planned to start in April of 2022.
And,
Last year, scientists created the world's first "living robots".
And they say these little xenobots can now reproduce!
We have only seen this reproducing happen with tiny things like molecules… but never in something as big as these xenobots!
And,
The radio station IHeartRadio is throwing its full support behind Taylor Swift.
IHeartRadio is one of the biggest radio stations in the U.S.
They say that they will only play Taylor Swift's version of her music in the future.
And that's today's episode of News Bites!