- TikTok sued for 'wreaking havoc' on teen mental health
- As bird flu outbreak expands in California, dairy farms report it’s worse than they expected
- Museum’s beer can artwork accidentally thrown in trash by staff member
- This is the world’s smallest Rubik’s Cube. And it actually works
- Dolphins ‘smile’ at each other when they play and to avoid misunderstanding, study finds
- Scientists grow mystery tree from 1,000-year-old seed
TikTok sued for 'wreaking havoc' on teen mental health
TikTok 因「嚴重傷害」青少年的心理健康而被起訴
Health
More than a dozen states in the US have sued TikTok, accusing the social media platform of helping to drive a mental health crisis among teenagers. New York Attorney General Letitia James said young people across the country had died or been injured doing TikTok "challenges" and many others were feeling "more sad, anxious and depressed because of TikTok's addictive features". She cited a 15-year-old boy, who died in Manhattan while “subway surfing” - riding on top of a moving subway car. His mother later found TikTok videos of such activity on his phone, she said. “TikTok claims that their platform is safe for young people, but that is far from true," Ms.James said in a statement announcing the action. The lawsuit asks the court to bar TikTok from such conduct and seeks financial penalties. Regulators have launched similar cases against Facebook and Instagram for their impacts on young people's mental health.
---from BBC
美國超過十二個州已對 TikTok 提起訴訟，指控這個社交媒體平台助長了青少年的心理健康危機。 紐約州檢察長Letitia James表示，全國各地的年輕人因參與TikTok上的「挑戰」而受傷、甚至喪生，許多人更因TikTok成癮變得「更加悲傷、焦慮和抑鬱」。 她提到了一名15歲的男孩，他在曼哈頓因爲「地鐵衝浪」——在移動中的地鐵車頂上騎車——而死亡。後來他的母親從他手機的TikTok上發現此類活動影片。 「TikTok 聲稱他們的平台對年輕人是安全的，但事實遠非如此。」James在宣朗這起訴訟的聲明中說道。 該訴訟要求法院禁止TikTok進行此類推廣行為，並要求其支付罰款。 監管機構也已經對Facebook和Instagram提起類似的訴訟，指控其對年輕人心理健康的影響。
---摘錄翻譯自BBC
As bird flu outbreak expands in California, dairy farms report it’s worse than they expected
隨著禽流感在加州爆發，乳品農場通報，疫情比他們想像的更糟
Health
A third farmworker has tested positive for bird flu in California, according to the state’s health department. If confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this would be the 17th human case of H5N1 flu in the US since March, when the virus was first detected in cows. It comes as farmers and veterinarians in California are warning that the infection seems to be striking herds more severely than it has in other states, leading to higher percentages of sick and dead cows in affected herds. While public health officials are taking the infections in stride, outside experts say each new human infection is a sign that the outbreak is not under control and that the people who are working with cattle and other sick animals are not being adequately protected. Even as investigators are ramping up their efforts to follow the spread of the virus in California, farmers there are warning that the H5N1 infection in their herds is more severe than previously reported. Scientists would better be able to tell if genetic changes to the virus might be playing a role, they say, if state and federal officials would publicly share more information about the genetics of the viruses they’re finding and do it more quickly.
---from CNN
根據加州衛生部門的說法，該州第三名農場工人的禽流感檢測呈現陽性。如果美國疾病控制與預防中心(CDC)證實，這將會是自今年三月以來，在美國發現的第17例人類H5N1流感病例。當時該病毒在乳牛身上首次被檢測出來。 同時，加州的農民和獸醫警告，這種感染似乎比境內其他州的情況來的更加嚴重，受影響的牛群中，生病和死亡的乳牛比例居高不下。 雖然公共衛生官員對這些感染的反應較為冷靜，但外部專家表示，每新增一個人類感染病例，都表明疫情未得到控制，與牛隻或其他生病動物接觸的工人也未得到充分保護。 儘管調查人員正努力追蹤病毒傳播的情況，當地農民不斷警告說，加州牛群中的 H5N1感染比之前報告的更加嚴重。 科學家們表示，如果州政府和聯邦官員能夠更快公開分享他們發現的病毒基因信息，他們將能夠更好地判斷病毒的基因變化是否起到了作用。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Museum’s beer can artwork accidentally thrown in trash by staff member
博物館的啤酒罐藝術品不小心被員工當成垃圾丟掉
Culture
A lift technician at a museum in the Netherlands mistakenly threw away a piece of artwork made to look like two empty beer cans. “All the good times we spent together” by French artist Alexandre Lavet may look like it belongs in a trash can at first glance, but closer inspection reveals it is in fact “meticulously hand-painted with acrylics, with each detail painstakingly replicated,” the LAM Museum said in a statement earlier this month. The worker, who the museum said was covering for the regular technician, could perhaps be forgiven their error given the fact that the beer cans were displayed in a glass lift shaft, as though they were left behind by construction workers. Modern art has a history of misunderstandings and mishaps. Last year, an artwork consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall was eaten by a hungry visitor to a gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The fruit was in fact a famous work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan titled “Comedian,” which went viral when it sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019.
---from CNN
荷蘭一間博物館的一名電梯技術人員誤將一件看似兩個空啤酒罐的藝術品丟棄。 這件名為《我們一起度過的所有美好時光》（All the good times we spent together）的作品是法國藝術家Alexandre Lavet的創作。該作品乍似應該被丟進垃圾桶，但仔細觀察會發現，這其實是「用丙烯顏料精心手繪，且每個細節都被精心複刻」的藝術品，荷蘭LAM博物館稍早在一份聲明中表示。 這名技術員當時正接替往常的負責人員。這些啤酒罐被放置在玻璃電梯井中，看起來像是建築工人所遺留的物品，因此他的失誤之舉或許可以理解。 現代藝術經常出現意外和誤解。 去年，韓國首爾一名飢餓的遊客吃掉了一件由一根香蕉和膠帶貼在牆上的藝術品。這根香蕉實際上是義大利藝術家Maurizio Cattelan的著名作品。名為《喜劇演員》（Comedian）。這件作品曾在2019年12月的邁阿密海灘巴塞爾藝術展上以12萬美元成交而引發廣泛關注。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
This is the world’s smallest Rubik’s Cube. And it actually works
這是世界上最小的魔術方塊，而且它真的可以轉
Culture
Japanese toymaker MegaHouse has unveiled a miniature Rubik’s Cube — one so tiny that you might need a pair of tweezers to solve it. Each face of the cube, which is made from aluminum, measures about five millimeters (around 0.2 inches) across. It was made available for pre-order on the manufacturer’s website on Thursday, with deliveries expected next April. Guinness World Record confirmed the micro-cube as the world’s smallest rotating puzzle cube in August. The release coincides with the 50th anniversary of the rotating puzzle, which counts amateur hobbyists and professional mathematicians among its huge following. Over 500 million cubes have been sold since Hungarian inventor Ernő Rubik created it in 1974.
---from CNN
日本玩具製造商MegaHouse推出了一款迷你版的魔術方塊——這款魔術方塊小到可能需要使用鑷子來解開。 由鋁製成的魔術方塊，每面大約只有5毫米（約0.2英寸）寬。本週四在MegaHouse的網站上開放預購，預計將於明年4月開始交貨。 今年8月，它被金氏世界紀錄認證為全球最小的魔術方塊。 這次發售恰逢魔術方塊誕生的50週年，這種旋轉拼圖在業餘愛好者和專業數學家間廣受歡迎。自匈牙利發明家Ernő Rubik於1974年將魔術方塊創造出來後，全球已經賣出了超過5億顆。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Dolphins ‘smile’ at each other when they play and to avoid misunderstanding, study finds
研究發現，海豚玩耍時會透過「微笑」來避免誤會
Sciences
For humans, flashing a smile is an easy way to avoid misunderstanding. And, according to a new study, bottlenose dolphins may use a similar tactic while playing with each other. The study, which was published Wednesday in the journal iScience, found that dolphins make an open-mouthed expression, comparable to a “smile,” during their play. To conduct the research, a group of scientists from institutions in Italy and France observed 11 dolphins at the Zoomarine Rome and another 11 at Planète Sauvage in western France playing with each other, their human trainers, and on their own. The researchers found that the marine mammals “smiled” almost always when they were in their playmate’s field of view, and their playmate “smiled” back one third of the time. This suggests it is a form of communication, they said, hypothesizing that by “smiling” at each other, the dolphins could stop their games from descending into a real fight due to miscommunication. But although their expression resembles a smile to humans, dolphin-communication expert Heather Hill, a professor of psychology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, who wasn’t involved in the study, cautions against extrapolating too much.
---from CNN
對人類來說，微笑是一種避免誤解的簡單方式。而根據一項新研究，寬吻海豚在彼此玩耍時也可能使用類似的策略。 海豚在玩耍時會做出一種張嘴的表情，類似於「微笑」。這項研究於週三發表在《iScience》期刊上。 為了進行這項研究，來自義大利和法國的科學團隊找到了位於羅馬Zoomarine和法國西部Planète Sauvage中的11隻海豚，觀察牠們在與其他海豚、人類訓練師以及獨自玩耍時的行為。研究人員發現，當海豚在玩伴的視線範圍內時，幾乎總會「面帶微笑」，而牠們的玩伴則有三分之一的時間也會以微笑回應。他們認為這可能是一種交流方式，推測透過「微笑」，海豚可以避免在遊玩中因誤解而演變成真實的打鬥。 儘管這種表情對人類來說看起來像是微笑，但並未參與研究的海豚溝通專家、德州聖瑪麗大學心理學教授Heather Hill提醒，不應該過度推測。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
Scientists grow mystery tree from 1,000-year-old seed
科學家用來自1000年前的種子種出了神秘樹木
Sciences
“Jurassic Park,” and its genetically modified dinosaur escapees, is pure science fiction — it’s never going to happen. But it doesn’t mean that scientists aren’t interested in bringing the past back to life in some form. In the 1980s, archaeologists unearthed a pristine seed in a cave in the Judean Desert. Decades later, Dr. Sarah Sallon, founder of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center in Jerusalem, formed a different study team that planted it to see what would happen. To the researchers’ surprise, five weeks later up popped a tiny shoot, a fragment of which the scientists were able to date: The seed was a staggering 1,000 years old. Remarkably, the tree thrived and now stands 10 feet (3 meters) tall, although it has never flowered or produced fruit. Using DNA sequencing, the researchers identified the mystery tree as part of the Commiphora genus, but its exact species is unknown and likely extinct. The team believes it might have a link to a healing plant mentioned in the Bible.
---from CNN
《侏羅紀公園》與基因改造恐龍逃脫的情節是純粹的科幻——這不會真正的發生。但是這並不意味著科學家對於重現過去物種失去了興趣。 1980年代，考古學家在猶地亞沙漠的一個洞穴中挖出了一顆保存完好的種子。數十年後，耶路撒冷Louis L. Borick天然藥物研究中心創始人Sarah Sallon博士組建了另一個研究團隊，並種下這顆種子，想看看會發生什麼事。 令研究人員驚訝的是，五週後，一個小芽長了出來，科學家對其進行定序：這顆種子竟然已有一千年的歷史。 不可思議的是，這棵樹依然持續生長，如今已有10英尺（約3公尺）高，儘管它至今從未開花或結果。 通過DNA測序，研究人員確定這棵神秘的樹屬於沒藥樹屬（Commiphora），但無法確認其確切的物種，推測該物種已經滅絕。該團隊認為這可能與聖經中提到的一種具有療效的植物有關。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN