【推荐1】Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (人工智能), also called AI, and the rapid using of robots across different industries are causing the fear of jobless growth. Reponses (回应) to these developments have focused on what to do to ensure that robots don’t steal jobs.

Bill Gates, for example, has called for the taxing of robots that take away jobs. This has led to responses from leading economists, such as Larry Summers, who argues against the idea, saying that robots are job creators and that the idea of taxing them is absolutely wrong. Another idea is to use a basic income for all—the idea that everyone receives a minimum income—to pay for the impact of technological unemployment (失业). This idea also causes arguments.

The focus on these arguments is misplaced. Jobs are not created or lost because of a single technology, but because of the business models designed to make use of the power of the technology.

Maybe, we’ve seen a similar example in history, with recorded music in the last century. It wasn’t the 1930s recording technology itself that threatened (威胁) the jobs of live musicians (音乐家). It was its combination with radio broadcasting, jukeboxes (点唱机) and the way businesses operated that led to job losses. Hotels, restaurants and bars replaced live musicians with jukeboxes. A single recording could be played over and over without requiring the appearance of musicians.

As I argue in Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies, the early recording of music destroyed the jobs of some live musicians and made them make less money than before. The social objections (反对) became larger about monopoly (垄断) power and less about the technology itself.

【推荐2】 Earthquake rescue robots have experienced their final tests in Beijing. Their designers say with these robots, rescuers will be able to save lives during an earthquake. This robot looking like a helicopter, is called the detector-bot. It’s about 4 meters long, and it took about 4 years to develop the model. Its main functions (作用) are to collect information from the air, and send goods of up to 30 kilos, to people trapped by an earthquake.

This robot has a high definition 360 degree panoramic (全景) camera. It can work day and night and will also be able to send the latest pictures from the quake area.

Dr. Qi Juntong, Chinese Academy of Science, said, “The most important feature of this robot is that it doesn’t need a distant control. We just set the destination (目的地) information on it, and then it takes off, and lands by itself. It flies as high as 3,000 meters, and as fast as 100 kilometers per hour.”

This robot has a different function — it can change as the environment changes. Its main job is to search for any signs of life in places where human rescuers are unable to go.

As well as a detector (探测器) that finds victims and detects poisonous gas, a camera is placed in the 40 centimeter long robot, which can work in the dark.

Another use for the rescuers is the supply part, with its 10 meter long pipe. People who are trapped in the ruins, will be able to get supplies including oxygen and liquids.

Experts have said that the robots will enter production, and serve as part of the national earth-quake rescue team as soon as next year.

【推荐3】When people think of a typical mineral mine, it’s probably underground. It’s unlikely that the picture of plants and soft greenery would cross their minds. Now, new explorations into phytomining (植物采矿) may change that viewpoint. Instead of traditionally mining metals from rocks, phytomining uses plants as an alternative source for them. Using plants to extract metals can have significant environmental benefits over rock mining.

Phytomining was first studied in 1983, but it hasn’t yet been adopted by the metals industry. In 2004, Indonesian soil scientist Tjoa took her research to Sorowako, a small town in Indonesia with one of the largest nickel (镍) mining areas, to look into plants that continued to live after years of mining. She brought samples back to her lab and found that these super plants were more than just surviving — they were growing.

The plants were absorbing and storing nickel from the soil. Large amounts of metals kill most plants, but these, known as hyper-accumulators (超富集植物), were learning to adapt. If these plants were storing metal, that meant science could find a way to extract the minerals for use and quite frankly, scientists easily did. When the shoots are harvested and burned, the metals are separated from the plant material in the ashes.

Tjoa returned to Sorowako and spent years searching for new hyper-accumulator species. After a plant is considered a possibility, there’s a simple test paper that turns pink when placed against the leaf of a hyper-accumulator plant. Two local Indonesian plants were found but there are many others still to be discovered.

Tjoa’s research caught the attention of Bijasksana, a professor of rock magnetism. Together they designed an experiment to understand magnetic susceptibility (磁化率) when plants accumulate more nickel. Their research led to the discovery of two new species of hyper-accumulators. Besides, this research serves as the basis for the potential that plants can give to the mining industry, offering great advantages to our ecosystem and toward building a more sustainable future.

【推荐1】Plays are an important part of British culture. The West End theatre district in London is the best place to watch a professional play, but acting also takes place in every school and village hall across the country.

There are over 2,500 non-professional drama groups in the UK today and they are an active part of community life. people from all walks of life take on acting roles in addition to their regular jobs. They do it for fun, for the love of acting and as a way to meet new people.

Not everyone in a drama club is a skilled actor, but enthusiasm(热情)is considered to be more important than talent. Friends, family members and neighbours enjoy getting together to watch the final performance and telling the people they know to “break a leg(走运)”. It’s a great way of bringing communities together. Also, in many rural parts of Britain, non-professional theatre is the only chance people have to see plays for miles around.

Many people get a taste for acting at school. Every school puts on a play at least once per year, usually at Christmas, and parents love coming to watch their children perform. Ask any British person and they’re sure to have happy memories of being in their school’s Christmas play, whether they played the role of Mary or Joseph or perhaps even a sheep or a donkey.

Another Christmas theatre tradition is the pantomime(舞剧). Pantomimes are a type of musical comedy for families .the audience is encouraged to participate in the performance-singing along with the music and shouting to the actors. Pantomimes are really fun to watch, especially for children.

British people love going to the theatre, professional or not, and many of them also enjoy performing. If you have the chance, go and see a play in the UK.

【推荐2】Heart disease is one of the major killers in the world today. Many who suffer from it must have heart transplants (移植). However, it’s difficult to get a suitable heart donation, and even if a patient survives the wait, his or her body often rejects (排斥) the heart.

But there is now new hope for sufferers of heart disease. According to a study published in the journal Advanced Science, researchers from Israel’s Tel Aviv University printed a 3D human heart on April 15.

“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart,” professor Tal Dvir told CNN.

Unlike the previous 3D-printed heart structure, the new heart is complete with cells, blood vessels (血管), chambers (心室) and other structures a heart needs to function normally. But scientists still have more to figure out before the 3D-printed heart can be fitted into the body. For one thing, the experimental heart is only the size of a thumb (拇指). And, although it can contract (收缩) like a muscle, it cannot pump out blood like a real one. At present, the heart prototype (样品) is like a tiny airplane that has all of the right parts, but can’t fly.

However, the development is still regarded as a major breakthrough in medicine.

In the experiment, the researchers turned human fat tissue (脂肪组织) into human heart tissue with stem cell (干细胞) technology. The tissue was then turned into “bio-ink” for a 3D printer to ensure that tissue in the heart came from the patients themselves. So ideally, if it were to be placed in the body of someone in need of a transplant, there would be less risk of organ rejection.

“Patients will no longer have to wait for transplants or take medications to prevent their rejection,” researchers told USA Today. “Instead, the needed heart will be printed, fully personalized (个性化的) for every patient.”

But the scientists think that 3D printing can be used to create other human organs. They foresee a time when the 3D printing of organs will be an everyday medical practice.

“Maybe, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world and these procedures will be conducted routinely,” Dvir said.