In today's news, with Trevor and Paz:
Taiwan gets better traffic technology, Nobel Prizes go to smart scientists, and a tiny brain plays a game.
Stay tuned for more on those stories, coming up next.
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有助於防止意外發生的交通科技
Traffic Technology Helps Prevent Accidents
On roads and streets all over the world, we have traffic lights (紅綠燈) and street signs (道路交通標誌) to help people understand where they can drive (開車，騎車).
But no matter how careful we are, there will always be dangerous drivers.
無論我們多麼謹慎，總是會有人危險駕駛。
So Taiwan's National Police Agency (警政署), or NPA, has bought some new traffic-monitoring equipment (交通監控設備).
Now, the NPA has better cameras (更好的照相機), so they can take higher-quality photos (品質更好的照片) to catch bad drivers.
They got infrared systems (紅外線攝影機), which can help them to see vehicles in dark tunnels (隧道).
And they got smart speed monitors (智慧型測速器), to know when people are driving too fast.
So far (到目前為止), the use of this technology has decreased (減少) the number of traffic accidents (交通意外、車禍) in Taiwan.
This year, there were 189 fewer accidents than last year.
今年交通意外的發生數量比去年少了189次。
That technology has helped a lot!
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2022年諾貝爾獎
This Year's Nobel Prizes
Every year in October, the Nobel Prize (諾貝爾獎) is given to people who help the world with their work or research.
There are six kinds of Nobel Prizes, and it is a great honor (偉大的榮譽) to receive any of them.
The first prize goes to scientists who do the most important work in physiology or medicine (醫學).
This year, it went to a scientist for his research on Neanderthals (尼安德塔人), which helps us understand more about DNA.
The second award is for physics (物理學), and this year's award (獎品) went to not just one, but three scientists!
Their work in quantum physics (量子物理學) helps us understand how tiny particles (粒子) can stay connected, even when they are far away from each other.
This year's third award, in chemistry (化學), was given to three more scientists, for their work with molecules (分子).
They found a new way to make molecules link together (連接在一起), which could help us make better medicine in the future.
The fourth award is for literature (文學), and this year it went to a French writer, for her stories about the struggles of French society (法國社會的掙扎).
The fifth award is the Nobel Peace Prize (諾貝爾和平獎), and it was given to a few people in Ukraine (烏克蘭), Belarus (白俄羅斯), and Russia (俄羅斯).
All of these people have been fighting for human rights (爭取人權) in their countries, during a very hard time in Europe.
The final award is for economics (經濟學), and it went to three people researching how banks (銀行) work in a financial crisis (金融危機).
A lot of this work is hard for people to understand, but all of it teaches us about ourselves and the world around us.
And who knows? Someday, you might make an important discovery, too!
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腦細胞會打乒乓球電動
A Dish of Brain Cells Learns to Play "Pong"
Inside your head, there are more than 100 billion brain cells (一千億個腦細胞).
And whenever you think about something new, it's because your brain cells are connecting with each other (互相連結起來)!
Of course, with that many brain cells, you can think about things that are very complicated (複雜), like math, art, and languages.
But animals with smaller brains can't make these connections (連結), and so they can't think about the same things we do.
So, in order to understand how these cells connect to make thoughts (想法), scientists have created a tiny brain, with only 800,000 brain cells (八十萬個腦細胞).
And they taught it to play a video game!
Researchers in Australia put brain cells into a small dish, with a machine to give them signals (訊號).
Then they gave it a simple video game, called "Pong", where it just needs to hit a ball to win.
Of course… the tiny brain was not very good player (玩家).
So the scientists made a way to give it feedback (反饋), to help it learn how to play better.
And the feedback worked… in about five minutes!
這些腦細胞在5分鐘內就學會如何把遊戲打得更好！
And, to be honest (老實說), the tiny brain still wasn't a very good gamer.
But now, scientists want to keep making these tiny brains think harder, to find out more about how brains learn new things.
Because that's what brains do… they learn new things!
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So, in today's News Bites:
Taiwan's National Police Agency, or NPA, has bought some new traffic-monitoring equipment.
Now, the NPA has better cameras, infrared systems, and smart speed monitors, to know when people are driving too fast.
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And,
Every year in October, the Nobel Prize is given to people who help the world with their work or research.
There are six kinds of Nobel Prizes, and it is a great honor to receive any of them.
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And,
Scientists have created a tiny brain, and taught it to play a simple video game.
They even found a way to give it feedback, to help it learn how to play better.
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And that's today's episode of News Bites!