Dry Lake, Moon Water, Beethoven Hair

Hi there, it's time for another episode of News Bites! I'm Nancy Sun… And I'm Hope Ngo. In today's news: No water in Sun Moon Lake, but water on the moon, and the secrets held in Beethoven's hair. All that and more, coming up next. ________________________________ 乾旱導致日月潭觀光船擱淺 People Stranded on Sun Moon Lake It seems like extreme weather is becoming more common over the past few years. In recent years, central and southern Taiwan hasn't had a lot of rain in the winter. This has led to drought. This winter was also quite dry. Sun Moon Lake's water levels have fallen. The level is around 60 percent of capacity (容量). And this has caused some problems. The low water level caused a charter boat (包船) to run aground (擱淺) in the lake. This left 20 tourists stranded (困住). The Nantou Country Fire Department sent 2 firefighters in an inflatable (充氣) rescue boat. The firefighters could only take two or three people off the charter boat each trip. If they took too many people, the rescue boat might have run aground too. It took 10 trips to get all the stranded tourists to another boat, but no one got hurt. Some people say the boat was close to the "Nine Frogs" statue when it got stuck. The statue shows the water level in the lake. The lower the water level, the more frogs will be exposed (露出). Right now, all nine frogs are showing. And the lake bed is dry and cracked. 如果乾旱持續下去，2021年的"日月潭大草原"有可能再次出現。 We might have to wait until summer for the dry spell to cease. ________________________________ 月球發現新水源 Water on the Moon Humans have always dreamt about living on the moon. A discovery might have just brought us one step closer to fulfilling this dream. Scientists have found a new source of water on the moon. The water was found in tiny glass beads (玻璃珠子). The glass beads were taken during an earlier Chinese mission in 2020. The beads are really tiny. They are about one hair wide, or up to several hairs wide. And the water inside is just a miniscule (微量) amount. Some people are not sure if that tiny bit of water would be useful. The fact is, there are trillions (好幾兆) of these glass beads on the moon. These could make a lot of water. But why are there glass beads on the moon? These beads were made when meteorites (隕石) hit the moon. Things from the meteorites melted (融化), and then cooled. And they became glass beads. Some scientists say the water could be extracted (取出) by heating the beads. But scientists still need to study this idea, to see if the water would be safe to drink. 只要有水源，人類生活在月球上指日可待。 ________________________________ 貝多芬的頭髮解開了他的死因 Beethoven's Hair Holds Clues About his Death. Many people have heard about the famous German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. We know his famous music. And we know he slowly lost his hearing. Modern technology might not be able to tell us why he went deaf yet, but his DNA might tell us why he died. Many of Beethoven's friends kept locks of his hair. 許多貝多芬的朋友都有留一束他的頭髮。 Many people did this during Beethoven's time. These locks of hair provided DNA to help us learn more about his health. Scientists have tried other ways to get DNA from Beethoven's remains. But these did not work. Now, there are new ways of sequencing DNA (基因排序) from very old samples. And this helped scientists get Beethoven's DNA. Unfortunately, the researchers didn't find any genetic evidence explaining Beethoven's symptoms. But Beethoven's DNA shows he was genetically predisposed (易感染) to liver disease. It also showed that he had hepatitis B (B型肝炎). This might have led to his death at the age of 56. As technology advances, in a few years, we may learn more about people in history. ________________________________ So, in today's News Bites: Sun Moon Lake's water levels have fallen. The level is around 60 percent of capacity. The low water level caused a charter boat to run aground in the lake. ________________________________ Scientists have found a new source of water on the moon. The water was found in tiny glass beads. But scientists still need to study this, to see if the water would be safe to drink. ________________________________ And, Locks of Beethoven's hair have provided DNA to help us learn more about his health. The DNA shows he was genetically predisposed to liver disease. It also showed that he had hepatitis B. This might have led to his death at the age of 56. ________________________________ And that's today's episode of News Bites!