Caiman Catch, Ozone Recovery, Cancer Vaccine Tests

News Bites

Yo, hey there! How ya doin'? We're here with this semester's FINAL episode of News Bites…

My name is Trevor Tortomasi…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

Let's have a look at today's news stories:

A reptile comes to dinner, nature is healing, and vaccine research continues.

More on that coming up in just a moment!

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晚餐被凱門鱷打斷

Dinner Interrupted by Caiman

Okay, here's a weird story…

Recently, a few people in Kaohsiung were having dinner together.

It was a normal night in the city, until suddenly (很突然)…

There was a caiman (凱門鱷), right there!

People reacted quickly, and ran to catch the caiman under a laundry basket.

旁邊的人反應很快，立刻跑去用衣服籃子罩住牠。

Then, they called a wild animal expert (野生動物專家) to come take it away.

So, wait, what's a caiman?

It's a lot like a crocodile (很像鱷魚), but smaller.

And this one was around 60 centimeters long.

But, most importantly…

Caimans are "non-endemic" in Taiwan (凱門鱷不是台灣原生動物), which means it is an animal that doesn't usually live here.

So, how did it get to the streets of Kaohsiung?

Animal specialists say it's because some people like to adopt (領養) new kinds of animals, to keep them as pets (寵物).

They say these people like reptiles (爬蟲類) because they are quiet, and don't need as much attention as dogs or cats.

But then, when these people don't want the animals anymore, they release them (把牠們解放) into forests, mountains, or even cities (城市).

This is irresponsible (不負責任的), and can be bad for plants and animals that are endemic to Taiwan (對台灣原生物種造成傷害).

It can be fun to have a pet animal… but always make sure you are ready to take care of it (要先確定你能照顧牠).

And watch out for caimans!

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臭氧層可能會在幾十年之內復原

Ozone Layer Could Recover Within Decades

If you've ever stayed outside for a long time, you know that too much sunlight (陽光) can hurt your skin.

That's because sunlight gives us something called ultraviolet radiation (紫外線輻射), or "UV rays".

UV rays can give us sunburn (曬傷), and can cause many problems for other living things.

Luckily, Earth's atmosphere (大氣層) helps to protect us!

That's because we have something called an ozone (臭氧層).

The ozone is a thin part of Earth's atmosphere that can stop most of the sun's UV rays.

臭氧層是地球大氣層裡面薄薄的一層，能夠阻止陽光中大部分的紫外線。

But many years ago, in the 1980s (一九八零年代), scientists found a big problem.

When they were studying the ozone, they found it had holes (洞), made by pollution (汙染).

So, countries around the world signed a contract, promising to stop using chemicals that can hurt the ozone.

發現臭氧層有洞之後，很多國家簽了合約，保證會停止使用某些會傷害臭氧層的化學物質。

And almost 40 years later, it's working!

快40年後，開始有效果了！

Scientists say that thanks to hard work from many countries, Earth's ozone should continue to recover (恢復).

But they also warn (警告) that we have to keep up the hard work, or we could make more holes.

Meanwhile, you should probably still use sunscreen (防曬霜)… just in case.

And the next time you're outside, look up and thank the ozone!

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英國今年開始測試癌症疫苗

U.K. Plans Cancer Vaccine Tests This Year

The last few years have been extra difficult, because of the COVID-19 pandemic (疫情).

But thanks to doctors and scientists around the world, we've created many new kinds of vaccines (疫苗).

In fact, because we worked so hard on vaccine research (疫苗研究)…

Scientists might be getting closer to making a vaccine for cancer (癌症疫苗)!

The new research uses the same mRNA technology that we can see in vaccines from Moderna (莫德納) and BioNTech (BNT).

They say the new vaccine would help a person's body fight cancer before it grows too much.

And scientists in the U.K. (英國) are working with BioNTech to develop it (發展).

They plan to start testing some cancer vaccines this year, and hope they can help at least 10,000 people by the year 2030.

That may not sound like a lot of people, but they want to make sure it's completely safe (安全).

We will definitely see more and more treatments (治療) like this in the future.

But, of course, we still have to stay healthy until then!

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So, in today's News Bites:

Some people in Kaohsiung were surprised to see a caiman while they were having dinner.

Animal experts say caimans are "non-endemic" in Taiwan, and this one was most likely released by a person who no longer wanted it as a pet.

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And,

Scientists say that thanks to hard work from many countries, Earth's ozone should continue to recover over the next few decades.

The ozone protects us from most of the sun's dangerous UV rays.

But scientists warn that we have to keep up the hard work, or we could make more holes in the ozone.

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And,

Scientists in the U.K. might be getting closer to making a vaccine for cancer.

They plan to start testing some cancer vaccines this year, and hope they can help at least 10,000 people by the year 2030.

The new research uses the same mRNA technology that we can see in vaccines from Moderna and BioNTech.

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And that's it for this semester of News Bites…

See you in February!

Uh, hear you? Talk to you! Uh, yeah, yeah, TALK to you later!