Hi everyone, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Hope Ngo.

In today's news:

3D printing helps cancer patients, and hot pot oil makes planes fly.

And in today's Tasty Tidbit…

Learning English does take some work, but learn this one word, and you can use it in hundreds of different ways! Hear all about it at the end of the episode.

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3D列印口顎彌補物

Taiwan's First 3D-printed Prosthetic Jaw.

3D printing is used a lot in making prosthetics (義肢).

In the past, making prosthetics was very expensive.

They had to be custom-made for every user.

Each user's prosthetic was different.

It took a lot of time and effort.

But now, 3D printing helps make prosthetics in a much shorter time.

And they can be made with very detailed specifications (規格).

Recently, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI 工研院) and Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital (KVGH 高雄榮總) worked together on a project.

They developed Taiwan's first 3D-printed prosthetic jaw.

The prosthetic jaw would help oral cancer patients (口腔癌病患).

Some experts say around 10,000 people in Taiwan are diagnosed (診斷) with oral cancer every year.

Around 60% of these people have to undergo reconstructive (重建) surgery of their jaw.

This type of surgery usually involves using the patient's leg bone to build back the jaw.

But doing this means it can be harder for the patient to move around after the surgery.

And the shape of the leg bone is very different from the jaw bone.

This means patients will look different.

And it could change the way they eat and speak.

Many patients who had this surgery could only eat liquid food (流質食物).

Now, all this may change because of 3D printing.

ITRI and KVGH made a 3D-printed jaw using titanium (鈦金屬).

ITRI tested the jaw more than 500 million times.

They had to check the "bite" of the jaw, to make sure the jaw fitted and worked properly.

Testing began in 2019, and there are currently 9 patients who are using the 3D-printed jaws.

None of these nine patients complained of their device coming loose.

超過50%的病患已經恢復咀嚼的能力。

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火鍋廢油飛上天

Leftover Hot Pot Oil Gets Second Life as Aviation Fuel

Did you know that oil from your hot pot could power a plane?

That is exactly what the Sichuan Jinshang Environmental Technology company is doing.

They collect leftover hot pot oil.

Then they export it to be turned into aviation (航空) fuel.

The city of Chengdu (成都) produces 150,000 tons (公噸) of leftover oil each year.

The company collects the oil from various restaurants around the city.

At the restaurant, the leftover oil is first poured into a special filter (過濾器) that separates oil from water.

Then, collectors arrive to pick up the cans of red grease.

The oil is sent to Jinshang's treatment plant (處理廠) on the outskirts of the city.

There, the oil is further refined (精煉) to get rid of impurities (雜質) and water.

The oil becomes a yellowish industrial-grade oil.

That oil is then sent to clients that further process it into "sustainable aviation fuel." (SAF 永續航空燃料)

SAFs can reduce CO2 emissions by 80 %.

All this is part of efforts to reduce food waste.

各國政府也在努力減少食物的浪費。

We can all do more to help cut food waste, if we avoid buying or ordering more food than we can eat.

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So, in today's News Bites:

The Industrial Technology Research Institute and Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital have made Taiwan's first 3D-printed prosthetic jaw.

The prosthetic jaw would help oral cancer patients.

Testing began in 2019, and there are currently 9 patients who are using the 3D-printed jaws.

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And,

A company in China is turning leftover hot pot oil into aviation fuel.

SAFs can reduce CO2 emissions by 80 %.

All this is part of efforts to reduce food waste.

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趣味小點

Tasty Tidbit

In today's Tasty Tidbit, the word with the most meanings in English is only three letters long!

According to the Guinness World Records, the word "set" has the most meanings in the English language. It has 430 different meanings, listed in the dictionary! It can be used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. For example, you could say "I set my alarm clock", or "He's set for life", or "The sun set over the horizon".

But another three-letter word also has hundreds of meanings…"run"! For example, "The dog runs away", or "The government runs the country", or "The river runs through the valley".

Which English words boggle your mind?

If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit, to [email protected], and you might hear your voice at the end of an episode.

Tune in again next time, for an all new episode of News Bites!