Hi there, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!
I'm Nancy Sun…
And I'm Trevor Tortomasi.
In today's news:
The smallest sundial, the biggest plant, and a top Kpop group goes to the White House.
All that and more, coming up next.
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毫芒藝術家陳逢顯製作世界最小【日晷】
Taiwan Craftsman Makes World's Smallest Sundial
Most of the time, when we think of world records, we think "BIG".
But some world records come in much smaller sizes.
A Taiwan craftsman (工藝師) has broken a Guinness World Record.
Chen Forng-shean (陳逢顯) has made the world's smallest sundial.
A sundial is something that uses the sun to tell us what time it is.
【日晷】是一個用太陽位置來得知每天時間的裝置。
It's basically a flat plate, and a pointer that stands up.
There are numbers on the plate.
When the sun shines on the sundial, the pointer casts a shadow (陰影).
And that shadow helps us know what time it is.
The last smallest sundial in the world was made by an artist in Italy in 1999.
It was 0.65 centimeters by 0.5 centimeters.
It could easily sit on a $1 NT coin.
And the French astronomical society asked Chen if he could make a sundial that was even smaller.
So Chen got to work.
He started with a grain of rice grown in Taiwan.
He used a magnifying glass (放大鏡).
Then he used a brush to draw lines and write tiny numbers on the rice.
He held his breath as he wrote.
Chen says he failed (失敗) many times.
But finally, he did it.
Chen's tiny sundial set a new record.
It was 0.5 centimeters by 0.3 centimeters.
It could probably fit onto your pinky nail (小指甲).
Chen's sundial broke the Guinness World Record for world's tiniest sundial.
台灣毫芒雕刻藝術家陳逢顯接受法國天文學會的邀請，成功打破金氏世界紀錄，做出全世界最小的【日晷】。
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澳洲海岸發現世界最大植物
World's Biggest Plant Found Off Australian Coast
And now…
From the world's smallest…
To the world's biggest!
Scientists think they may have found the biggest plant (植物) on Earth.
In the ocean off Western Australia, there is a large patch (一片) of seagrass.
The seagrass is called ribbon weed (澳大利亞海神草).
This patch of ribbon weed covers about 200 square kilometers.
That would cover most of Taipei City!
And scientists found that all this seagrass came from just ONE single seed (種子).
They wanted to learn more about the genes of ribbon weed.
And they wanted to know how many ribbon weed plants there were in the patch.
So they collected pieces of the seagrass from all different parts of the patch.
And they were shocked (震驚) when they found out, there was just one.
澳洲海岸被發現的1株海草竟長到200平方公里大。
The scientists say ribbon weed grows about 35 centimeters in a year.
So they think this ribbon weed grew for about 4,500 years to get to this size.
Scientists say ribbon weed is very strong.
It can grow in low or high temperatures.
And it can live in low or high levels of salt in the water.
Scientists say it is very resilient.
科學家說這株植物適應能力很強，在澳洲海裡各處截然不同的環境中生存下來。
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南韓天團BTS空降白宮
BTS Meets U.S. President Joe Biden
Kpop supergroup BTS has been all over the world.
But this is definitely a first-time for the band.
They went to the White House.
The White House is the official home and workplace of the president of the United States.
It's in Washington, D.C.
And the seven members of BTS met with U.S. President Joe Biden there.
And they spoke to reporters at the White House too.
BTS says they want to call on everyone to fight Asian hate.
BTS與美國總統拜登討論亞洲包容性、代表性與多元性，也公開呼籲停止種族歧視和相關犯罪行為。
They are reminding everyone that it's alright to have differences.
The band says everyone has their own history.
The group says they want to spread hope and positivity (正面).
They hope we can all respect and understand everyone as a valuable person.
The U.S. President also talked about BTS' visit on Twitter.
President Biden thanked BTS for helping to fight hate.
He says what they are doing matters.
美國總統拜登在推特上發文，感謝BTS為反仇恨所做的一切，他說這真的很重要。
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So, in today's News Bites:
A Taiwan craftsman has broken a Guinness World Record.
Chen Forng-shean has made the world's smallest sundial.
It could probably fit onto your pinky nail.
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Scientists may have found the biggest plant on Earth.
A large patch of seagrass in the ocean off Western Australia covers about 200 square kilometers.
That would cover most of Taipei City!
And all this seagrass came from just ONE single seed.
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And,
Kpop supergroup BTS visited the White House.
The seven band members met with U.S. President Joe Biden.
And they spoke about fighting hate, and respecting everyone as a valuable person.
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And that's today's episode of News Bites!