Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Paz Bueno…
And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.
In today's news:
The maker of popular 3D face masks, rare ponies born in the UK, and bees learn odd and even numbers.
We'll tell you more about that, coming up next.
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台灣學者熱心助人 創造時尚口罩
A Taiwanese Academic's Passion to Help Creates Fashionable Face Masks
Wearing face masks (口罩) is part of our everyday lives these days.
Some experts say wearing the right kind of face mask is important to protect (保護) ourselves from COVID-19.
3D face masks are popular because they are not only safer than regular masks, but also more fashionable!
3D口罩很受歡迎，因為它不僅比普通口罩更安全，而且更時尚！
Did you know that the inventor (發明家) of the 3D face mask is Taiwanese?
Hsiao Yu-cheng is now an associate professor at Taipei Medical University.
蕭宇成是臺北醫學大學的一位副教授。
He invented (發明) the face masks and started selling them when he was a doctoral student (博士學生).
Air pollution inspired him to create the 3D design that can cover wearers' faces more effectively than the flat ones that were on the market.
空氣污染激發了他創造3D口罩的設計，可以比市場上的平面設計更有效地覆蓋佩戴者的臉部。
Even though he patented the face mask in Taiwan, China, and Japan in 2017, it wasn't very popular in the beginning because people found it hard to accept the weird shape.
雖然他在台灣、中國和日本申請了口罩的專利，他的設計一開始不是很受歡迎，因為大家很難接受這種奇怪的形狀。
He started selling them in South Korea, and the face masks became a huge hit (大受歡迎) among young women.
It became the trend (潮流) and slowly the masks also became popular in Taiwan.
Now, he lets other companies use his design for free.
He says he invented the mask to solve problems and felt happy when it became useful to help people.
Professor Hsiao says he can still invent new things.
He hopes to start new businesses while focusing on biomedical research, developing medical materials and nurturing innovative talents.
他希望能夠專注於生物醫學研究、開發醫用材料和培養創新人才的同時，開展新商業。
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罕見的小馬出生在英國
Rare pony foals are born in the UK
A rare breed of ponies has been born in a nature reserve.
一種稀有的小馬品種在自然保護區誕生。
A konik pony is a type of small, wild horse that originated from Poland (來自波蘭).
The word "konik" means "small horse" in Polish (波蘭語).
They are an endangered species of wild horse.
它們是一種瀕臨滅絕的野馬。
Twelve of these ponies were born at a nature reserve in Cambridgeshire, which is in the UK.
Many animals live on the reserve, including more than 9,000 species of plants, birds, and dragonflies.
保護區裡生活著許多動物，包括9000多種不同種類的植物、鳥類和蜻蜓。
The pony babies are so cute, and they are also very helpful for the environment!
The Konik ponies are special because the way they graze the land (吃草) has helped to create habitats (棲息地) for other animals at the reserve.
That means they can improve (改善) the nature reserve and allow more animals to live happily there.
As they walk, they leave water-filled hoof prints and piles of dung, which help attract new species of flora and fauna to the lowlands.
當他們走路時，會留下 充滿水的蹄印 和 成堆的糞便，有助於吸引新的植物和動物到低窪地區。
The Polish Konik ponies have been bred (養殖) since 2003.
There have been more than 200 foals (幼馬) born on the reserve in the last 20 years.
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蜜蜂可以學習奇數和偶數
Bees Can Learn Odd and Even Numbers
Bees are smarter than people think.
They use special dances to tell each other how far away food is and in what direction.
他們用特殊的舞蹈來告訴彼此食物有多遠，朝哪個方向。
Scientists even discovered that they can count (數)!
And new research shows that bees can even be trained to tell the difference between odd and even numbers!
新的研究表明，蜜蜂甚至可以被訓練來區分奇數和偶數！
Before this, humans were the only animals known to have this ability (能力).
In 2018, researchers in Australia (澳洲) discovered that bees can understand the idea of "zero".
That was a big surprise, since only animals like dolphins, monkeys, and some birds show that they understand "zero".
The same scientists later found out that bees can also add and subtract (加減法).
But the idea of odd and even numbers is different.
To train the bees, scientists used sugar water (糖水) and a sour liquid (酸液) to test the bees.
The scientists hung up cards with an odd or even number of shapes like triangles or circles.
科學家掛上有奇數或偶數形狀的卡片，如三角形或圓形。
If a bee flew to the right (正確的) card, it would get sugar water.
If it chose the wrong (錯誤的) card, it got sour liquid.
The researchers trained one group of bees to choose odd numbers, and another group to choose even numbers from 1 to 10.
They trained until the bees got it right 80% of the time.
When the researchers changed to cards with bigger numbers up to 40, the bees could still correctly choose between odd and even numbers.
當研究人員改用到 40 的卡片時，蜜蜂仍然可以選擇正確的奇數和偶數。
The scientists still don't understand how the bees got the correct answer.
But they believe that studying bees' brains can help us learn how to build better and faster computers.
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So, in today's News Bites:
The inventor of 3D face masks is Professor Hsiao Yu-cheng.
He made the design because he wanted to help protect people from air pollution.
His masks have become super popular, and he doesn't mind letting other companies use his design.
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And,
A rare breed of ponies has been born in a nature reserve in Cambridgeshire.
They are an endangered species of wild horse.
The Konik ponies are special because they can help to create habitats for other animals at the reserve.
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And,
Scientists discovered that bees can learn odd and even numbers.
They used sugar water and a sour liquid to train the bees.
The bees could recognize numbers up to 40!
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And that's today's episode of News Bites!