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TOKYO — Japan space agency officials on Sunday hailed the arrival of rare asteroid samples on Earth after they were collected by space probe Hayabusa-2 during an unprecedented mission.

In a streak of light across the night sky, a capsule containing the precious specimens taken from a distant asteroid arrived on Earth after being dropped off by the probe.

Scientists hope the samples, which are expected to amount to no more than 0.1 grammes of material, could help shed light on the origin of life and the formation of the universe.

"After six years of space travel, the box of treasures was able to land in Australia's Woomera this morning," Databus-2 project manager Yuichi Tsuda told a press conference.

The capsule carrying samples entered the atmosphere just before 2:30am Japan time (17:30 GMT Saturday), creating a shooting-star-like fireball as it entered Earth's atmosphere en route to the landing site Down Under.

A few hours later, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed the samples had been recovered, with help from beacons emitted by the capsule as it plummeted to Earth after separating from Hayabusa-2 on Saturday, while the fridge-sized probe was about 220,000 kilometres away.

"The capsule landed in perfect form, and the probe is moving on to another mission," Tsuda said.

The capsule, recovered in the southern Australian desert, will now be in the hands of scientists performing initial analysis including checking for any gas emissions.

It will then be sent to Japan.

Megan Clark, chief of the Australian Space Agency, congratulated the "wonderful achievement".

"2020 has been a difficult year all around the world" but the Hayabusa-2 helped "renew our faith in the world, and our trust [in] and appreciation" of the science of the outer universe, she said.

Samples with organic material? 

The samples were collected by Hayabusa-2, which launched in 2014, from the asteroid Ryugu, about 300 million kilometres from Earth.

The probe collected both surface dust and pristine material from below the surface that was stirred up by firing an "impactor" into the asteroid.

The material is believed to be unchanged since the time the universe was formed.

Larger celestial bodies like Earth went through radical changes including heating and solidifying, changing the composition of the materials on their surface and below.

But "when it comes to smaller planets or smaller asteroids, these substances were not melted, and therefore it is believed that substances from 4.6 billion years ago are still there", Hayabusa-2 Mission Manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters before the capsule arrived.

Scientists are especially keen to discover whether the samples contain organic matter, which could have helped seed life on Earth.

"We still don't know the origin of life on Earth and through this Hayabusa-2 mission, if we are able to study and understand these organic materials from Ryugu, it could be that these organic materials were the source of life on Earth," Yoshikawa said.

"We've never had materials like this before... water and organic matters will be subject to research, so this is a very valuable opportunity," said Motoo Ito, senior researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

Half of Hayabusa-2's samples will be shared between JAXA, US space agency NASA and other international organisations, and the rest kept for future study as advances are made in analytic technology.

More tasks for Hayabusa-2 

The work is not over for Hayabusa-2, which will now begin an extended mission targeting two new asteroids.

It will complete a series of orbits around the sun for around six years before approaching the first of the asteroids — named 2001 CC21 — in July 2026.

The probe will not get as close as it did to Ryugu, but scientists hope it will be able to photograph CC21 and that the fly-by will help develop knowledge about how to protect Earth against asteroid impact.

Hayabusa-2 will then head towards its main target, 1998 KY26, a ball-shaped asteroid with a diameter of just 30 metres.

When the probe arrives at the asteroid in July 2031, it will be approximately 300 million kilometres from Earth.

It will observe and photograph the asteroid, no easy task given that it is spinning rapidly, rotating on its axis about every 10 minutes.

But Hayabusa-2 is unlikely to land and collect samples, as it probably would not have enough fuel to return them to Earth.

LONDON — The fourth season of Netflix hit "The Crown" has stirred controversy in Britain, where its treatment of the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has been criticised for taking too much artistic licence.

The series about the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II has turned its focus in recent episodes to the doomed marriage between Charles and his first wife, the late Princess Diana.

In the most recent season, British actress Emma Corrin portrays the princess from her first meeting with Charles as the young Lady Diana Spencer in 1977.

As the show develops, she is forced to contend with an increasingly unhappy marriage and her husband's infidelity with his now wife Camilla Parker-Bowles.

But despite the series' huge popularity, show creator Peter Morgan has been accused of inventing storylines without warning viewers that they are in fact fiction.

This facet of "The Crown" has left viewers furiously fact-checking after watching.

And while writers of drama depicting real events routinely imagine scenes that could have taken place, for many critics, Morgan has gone too far.

'They were both victims'

Royal author Penny Junor told AFP the way the series shows Charles continuing his relationship with Parker-Bowles throughout his marriage was simply not true.

In fact, "they did not see one another for five years", said Junor, who has written a biography of Charles.

The show "makes Diana out to be a victim and Charles a villain" whereas "the truth is they were both victims", she said, adding that it was also untrue that Diana's bulimia coincided with the start of her relationship with Charles.

'Hatchet job'

Former Buckingham Palace press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, has described the show as a "hatchet job" against Charles.

Royal biographer Hugo Vickers, meanwhile, has called it "totally one-sided" in its depiction of Charles and Diana and has also taken issue with its portrayal of the queen's husband Prince Philip.

In one scene from the latest season, Philip tells Diana that if she breaks away from the royal family it won't end well.

"I hope that isn't a threat, Sir," she replies.

The scene, according to Vickers, "supports the scarcely credible rumours, still fuelled by the Internet, that Diana's fatal car crash in a tunnel in Paris in 1997 was a murderous 'hit'".

Other episodes have seen Philip refusing to kneel at the queen's coronation, depicted as a philanderer and being accused by his own father of being responsible for the death of his sister Cecile in a plane crash.

The storylines were described by Vickers, writing in the Daily Mail, as "as wrong, wrong, and monstrously wrong".

Drama not history

Historian and author Ioanis Deroide, however, said that he sees the show's portrayal of the relationship between Charles and Diana as "reasonable".

Deroide said the public response was due to the "emotional charge" that still surrounds events in the series — and with memories still fresh of Diana's ultimate demise.

Junor said she regretted the "damaging" storyline about Camilla and Charles, who has spent his life waiting to succeed his mother.

The couple has been largely rehabilitated in the public eye since their relatively low-key wedding in 2005.

"There are many people in Britain and across the world who will regard 'The Crown' as an accurate historical record... It is not history. It's drama," Junor added.

Disclaimer calls

The Mail on Sunday newspaper has called on Netflix to make it clear "The Crown" is a work of fiction.

The article received support from Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden who said he feared "a generation of viewers who did not live through these events may mistake fiction for fact".

Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the queen's late sister Princess Margaret, has also said the show has a "moral responsibility" to tell viewers it is a drama, not historical fact.

For Deroide, however, despite the "impressive mimicry", there is no way of mistaking the series and its star-studded cast, for a documentary.

"The Crown is just one element among many that will allow the British to make up their own minds about the royal family," he said.

"I don't think it alone can make Charles look like a nice guy or the other way around."

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing computers from calculators to thinking, decision-making systems.

After years of being a more or less theoretical topic, AI has become reality. Forget about Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” movie from 2001 that was merely entertainment, though with valid examples and illustrations of AI. The technology now is very much in self-driving vehicles, in the analysis of our online shopping and browsing habits on social media, and of course in advanced banking applications, to name only a few. Indeed, the sky is the limit when it comes to AI.

I still keep a copy of the excellent “Artificial Intelligence” textbook by Elaine Rich from the University of Texas in Austin, that got me to start reading and learning about the subject years ago. As enlightening, good, accurate, and genuinely scientific as it was back then, it seems like it was written centuries ago, given all the concrete progress achieved since!

There are a few, notable landmarks along the fascinating journey with computers and digital high-technology that started in the late 1940s.

The first was the personal computers revolution of the 1980s. Then came the Internet (cabled and slow at the beginning), almost in parallel with the early portable computers that had little to do with the current crop of laptops in terms of processing power, storage capability and weight. Today wireless, fast Internet, with powerful and truly portable devices, combined with the IoT (Internet of Things), and social media, constitute the most recent, most significant landmark on the digital timeline. By any measure, AI is the next big thing, one that is already upon us.

AI is more about software than it is about hardware, though it is common today to talk about “AI chips”. It simply means that the circuitry is hard-programmed with AI algorithms, Whereas traditional programming processes data and generates reports, in a rather straightforward manner, to put is simply, AI can go further by analysing data – huge amounts of it — more deeply, in a more “intelligent” way, and come up with decisions or suggestions, somewhat like a human being would – hence the expression.

Tesla electric cars constitute a good example of AI applications. As explained on analyticssteps.com: “The Tesla system consists of two AI chips in order to support it for better road performance. Each of the AI chips makes a separate assessment of the traffic situation for guiding the car accordingly.”

In banking, “AI solutions are helping banks and credit lenders make smarter underwriting decisions by utilising a variety of factors that more accurately assess traditionally underserved borrowers, like millennials, in the credit decision making process.” (builtin.com/artificial-intelligence).

Just like old, traditional computing systems did, AI is now is raising a few questions, on the social side of things. The main one being, of course: “To what extent will AI replace human work and negatively impact on unemployment?”

Instead of trying desperately to answer this otherwise perfectly legitimate and justified question, one can be more pragmatic and think of all that AI can bring. If there is only one major advantage that AI will bring when it comes to smart self-driving cars, it will be a significant drop in road accidents and casualties. This alone is a priceless plus.

RIGA — In a corner of the campus at Riga Technical University, a team of scientists is working on technology that could one day stop asteroids from smashing into Earth.

The high-precision timers being built by hand in the lab of Latvian start-up Eventech are currently being used to track satellites.

This year, the company won a European Space Agency (ESA) contract to develop timers that will study the possibility of redirecting an asteroid before it comes too close to our planet for comfort.

NASA plans to launch the first part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission — known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) — on July 22, 2021 on a Falcon 9 rocket belonging to tech tycoon Elon Musk’s Space X.

The 500-kilogramme camera-equipped probe will fly to an asteroid named Didymos and smash into it, trying to blow it off its current course that will see it pass near Earth sometime in 2123.

Eventech’s deep space event timers are being developed for the follow-up HERA mission, which is planned to launch five years later, to determine if the first mission succeeded.

‘To boldly go’

“Our new technology that will follow on the second ESA spacecraft named HERA will measure if the first impact steered the kilometre-sized Didymos off its previous course, avoiding harm to humanity,” Eventech Engineer Imants Pulkstenis told AFP at the lab.

“It’s much more interesting to boldly go where no man has gone before than to manufacture some mundane consumer electronics for huge profit,” he added, borrowing the famous slogan from Star Trek, the cult 1960s sci-fi television series.

Eventech’s timers are part of a space technology tradition in the Baltic state stretching back to Soviet times when Sputnik — the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth — was launched in 1957.

They measure the time needed for an impulse of light to travel to an object in orbit and back.

Eventech devices can record the measurement to within a picosecond — or one trillionth of a second — which allows astronomers to convert a time measure into a distance measurement with up to 2 millimetres of precision.

Sending timers 

into deep space

Around 10 of the timers are produced every year and they are used in observatories around the world.

They track Earth’s increasingly crowded atmosphere, filled with a new crop of private satellites alongside traditional scientific and military ones.

“Tracking them all requires tools,” Eventech Chief Operations Officer Pavels Razmajevs said.

Although Latvia only became a full member of the ESA in 2016, its engineers have been tracking satellites since the Soviet-era.

The University of Latvia even has its own satellite laser ranging station in a forest south of Riga.

Eventech’s engineers said they use analogue parts as much as possible, mainly because microchips take nanoseconds to compute the signal, which is too long for incoming measurements ranging in picoseconds.

Even the physical length of the motherboard can affect how fast the signal travels from one circuit to another.

While these timers are used for calculations on Earth, a different appliance for deep space missions is being developed in another corner of the same lab to track planetary objects from a moving space probe.

“There is no GPS data coverage available on other planets so you have to take your own precision ranging with you,” Pulkstenis said.

Developing devices for deep space will be a complex task — but one Eventech’s engineers are relishing.

“Our updated technology has to withstand extreme temperatures in space and extreme cosmic radiation,” said Pulkstenis. “It’s a fun challenge”.

PARIS — Snatching moments of clarity through the brain fog that was among the lingering symptoms of her coronavirus infection, Hannah Davis joined a team of similarly ill researchers and launched a study of what is now called “long Covid”.

The survey was initially “for ourselves, to understand what was happening with our own bodies”, Davis said. But with so little data available, it was soon informing global policymakers.

Davis is part of an international patient-led movement of people who, when they were struck down with unexplained, debilitating symptoms, developed social media networks, research and advocacy from their sick beds. 

The 32-year-old likens her neurological symptoms to a “brain injury” that meant she could not drive for months and was barely able to look at a screen.

But she said the online community and her work with Patient-led Research for Covid-19 — led by a team of five people who have never met in person — has been “awe-inspiring”.

“I really don’t think that I’ve ever done any work that has been nearly as meaningful,” said Davis, who specialises in machine learning and AI, whose group is working on a new study supported by University College London. 

We now know that the novel coronavirus, which has killed at least 1.4 million globally, can leave even otherwise-healthy young people with lingering symptoms for weeks or months.

“To a significant number of people, this virus poses a range of serious long-term effects,” World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in October.

He listed fatigue and neurological symptoms as well as inflammation and injury of major organs — including the lungs and heart.

Fatigue and brain fog

But in the early days of the pandemic most people believed that infection would either result in hospitalisation, or a “mild” respiratory illness that would pass in around two weeks. 

Soon thousands of people were turning to social media, desperate to understand why they were not getting better. 

Many share the date of their first symptoms — Day One — to mark the beginning of a journey with an indeterminate end. 

For Davis that was March 25, when she struggled to decipher a text message from friends and later found she had a fever. 

In “a hotspot within a hotspot” in Brooklyn, New York, she quickly realised it was COVID-19 and expected the illness to pass quickly. 

It did not. 

In April, as her neurological symptoms worsened, Davis found a Slack support group run by queer feminist wellness collective Body Politic that was attracting members from around the world.

Within days, Davis joined several other members with research backgrounds to launch a patient survey, hoping data would help sketch out a clearer picture of coronavirus recoveries. 

The study involved 640 people — mainly women in the US who most readily responded — and was completed at lightning speed. 

It flagged symptoms like fatigue and brain fog that were not yet widely recognised.

Message in a bottle

In London, Ondine Sherwood was suffering fatigue, post-exertional malaise and gastrointestinal problems when she discovered the Body Politic group and was “astonished” to see so many people with similar — or worse — symptoms.

She was among a group of British members who decided to form their own organisation, Long Covid SOS, to send a message to the government. 

But how?

“We thought we might march on parliament, which of course would have been impossible because most of us wouldn’t have had the strength or the ability to march, so we thought maybe we would go in wheelchairs, but it was lockdown,” said Sherwood, a systems developer.

In the end they made a film montage of “long-hauler” stories called “Message in a Bottle” and shared it online, hoping to raise the profile of long Covid.

It worked: The film caught the eye of the WHO and the group was tasked with gathering patients for an August meeting that saw Davis present the Body Politic study and included stories of long-haul children and testimony from doctors with persistent symptoms.

The WHO has since said more research is needed into why symptoms persist and called on governments to recognise the condition.

But many patients struggle to be believed, particularly without a positive test.

Not crazy

Pauline Oustric represented patient groups in France, Spain, Italy and Finland at the WHO meeting, calling for recognition, research, rehabilitation and better communication. 

The 27-year-old French national fell ill in March while working on her PhD at Britain’s Leeds University.

She spent several months incapacitated and struggling to get help from health authorities, who told her she was not in a high risk group, before being repatriated to France in June in a wheelchair.

There she worked with other patients to set up a long Covid association, with the French hashtag apresJ20 — after day 20.

In Italy, where long Covid is not officially recognised, 59-year-old Morena Colombi was told by her doctor she should seek psychiatric help for her ongoing symptoms.

Colombi, who has lobbied the government for recognition, set up the Facebook support group “We who have defeated Covid” that now has 10,000 members.

“I don’t feel alone anymore, I don’t feel crazy,” she told AFP.

Juno Simorangkir, 36, created the “Covid Survivor Indonesia” group after finding support on the Body Politic network for his symptoms including heart palpitations, “extreme fatigue” and tinnitus.

Covid-19 is a “taboo”, he said, and those with long-term symptoms can face disbelief from doctors, employers and even family.

Citizen scientists

A key challenge is a lack of information about the symptoms and scale of long Covid. 

Research published in July by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention found that 35 per cent of symptomatic adults had not returned to normal two to three weeks after testing positive. 

A study by the Desert Research Institute in Nevada, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that around a quarter of confirmed cases still had at least one symptom after 90 days.

Davis and her Patient-led Research colleagues have been praised as “citizen scientists” by the head of the US National Institutes of Health.

Their ongoing patient survey involves almost 5,000 participants in 72 countries.

Davis said common lingering effects include respiratory problems, memory loss, difficulty concentrating and in tasks “like being able to drive, or watch your kids, or work”.

Many also suffer post-exertional malaise, drawing comparisons with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome, although she cautions that more research is needed.

Nisreen Alwan, an Associate professor in public Health at Britain’s University of Southampton and long-hauler, has campaigned for governments to count more than the virus death toll.

But she said defining recovery could be complicated, with some patients avoiding activities that trigger symptoms.

“You’re adapting your life so that you can function,” she told AFP, adding that she now limits exercise and has even changed her sitting position.

A specialist long Covid clinic in Paris diagnosed Oustric with dysautonomia — a disorder of the autonomic nervous system.

She is back living with her parents and can only work on her thesis in 30 minute bursts.

“Research-wise it’s impacted me a lot and life-wise, I can’t do any physical activity, I can’t lift things, I have pain every day, I’m on lots of medicines. My life is a bit of a mess,” she told AFP.

“Hopefully I’ll get back to my energetic self.”

A small, sporty convenient and compact crossover with quick responses and nimble handling, the Changan CS35 Plus is yet another impressive product from the China’s ascendant automotive industry.

A well-rounded crossover that hits the mark in many ways, the CS45 Plus delivers a well-styled package that is uncomplicated yet contemporarily modern in its engineering, tech, refinement, performance and driving dynamics. Functional and as fun as is to be expected in its segment, the CS35 Plus is competitively affordable, yet, holds its own among many Korean, Japanese, American and European competitors.

Launched in 2018, the latest CS35 Plus is a significantly improved design over the regular CS35, with sharper lines, more defined ridges and sculpted surfacing for a more dramatic aesthetic. With its heavily browed and slim grille and headlights set on a level horizon, the CS35 Plus’ fascia cuts a moody presence and features big lower side fog light housings and slim intake vents. Its sporty styling also incorporates a descending floating roofline, sharply extended tailgate spoiler, 18-inch alloy wheels, defined sills, rugged looking squared-off wheel-arches and metallic faux skidplates.

Punchy performer

Similar in size and segment to crossovers like the MG ZS, Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos and Mazda CX-30, the CS35 Plus is discernibly sportier in demeanour than its predecessor, with some Volkswagen Tiguan-like styling sensibilities at the front and flanks, in addition to hints of Renault Megane from its slim full width rear right cluster. Meanwhile, under its chiselled clamshell bonnet, the CS35 Plus is powered by small but punchy turbocharged direct injection 1.4-litre four-cylinder engine, positioned transversely and driving the front wheels through a quick-shifting 7-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox.

Developing 156BHP at 5,500rpm and a muscular 192lb/ft torque throughout a wide and easily accessible 1,500-4,000rpm band, the CS35 Plus is estimated to cover the 0-100km/h acceleration benchmark in 9-seconds and to top out at 200km/h. A fuel-efficient front-drive compact crossover with a moderate 1,435kg weight, the CS35 Plus’s fuel consumption is meanwhile quoted at 6.9l/100km on the combined cycle. Of note for the Jordanian market, the CS35 Plus uses a twin water circulation system that services both engine and intercooler, to operate optimally in hot weather and heavy traffic congestion conditions.

Small and sporty

Sporty and brisk if not quite a high performance vehicle, the CS35 Plus benefits from a broad and rich torrent of mid-range torque, which makes for confidently quick on the move responses and flexibility for overtaking and on inclines. Responsive from standstill for a small displacement yet powerful turbocharged crossover, the CS45 Plus’ turbo lag is minimal, with meaningful boost coming online quite low in the rev range. Riding on a plentiful wave of torque, the CS35 Plus meanwhile builds power with seamless and eager progression towards its peak. 

Easing smoothly into first gear from standstill, the CS35 Plus’ dual-clutch gearshifts are succinct and slick through gears whether using default setting, manual lever-actuated shifts or its sports profile, which holds revs longer before upshifts. Driven briefly on Jordanian roads, first CS35 Plus impressions are that of a nimble and agile car-like crossover with sporting flavours. Eager and with good cornering commitment on turn-in, the CS35 Plus’ steering is sporty, quick, light and direct, responding well to quick small movements, but slightly sensitive and busy in feedback at speed.

Well-packaged and manoeuvrable

Nimble into corners and with a tight turning circle and compact footprint, the CS35 Plus grips well, yet, seems like it’d responsive to mid-corner adjustments. Meanwhile, under-steer is minimal, but with its punchy output, torque-steer is occasionally evident on low traction tarmac. Sporty in disposition, the CS35 Plus delivers good body control through sharp sudden corners, but proved stable and refined at speed, with a good level ride comfort. Well absorbing most ruts, bumps and imperfections, the CS35 Plus felt settled on rebound and tackled speed bumps with ease.

With a comfortable, well-equipped, easily accessible cabin and good in-segment cabin room even in the rear seats for taller passengers, the CS35 plus is well-packaged and offers good manoeuvring and parking visibility in confined space. Pleasantly modern and stylish inside, it features clean, uncluttered surfaces and a horizontal design motif, with a ridged dash cowling its infotainment screen and instrument panel, and good quality materials and textures in most prominent places. A well-adjustable and driver-oriented driving position includes a thick contoured steering wheel, while boot space is accommodating and flat, expanding from 403- to 950-litres with rear seats folded.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.4-litre, transverse, turbocharged 4-cylinders

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 156 (158) [116] @5,500rpm

Specific power: 112BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 108.7BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 192 (260) @1,500-4,000rpm

Specific torque: 186.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 181Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 9-seconds (estimate)

Top speed: 200km/h (estimate)

Fuel consumption, combined: 6.9-litres/100km

Fuel capacity: 53-litres

Length: 4,335mm

Width: 1,825mm

Height: 1,660mm

Wheelbase: 2,600mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 403-/950-litres

Kerb weight: 1,435kg

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/torsion beam

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 225/45R18

Price, on-the-road, with comprehensive insurance: JD19,500

Did you know that in the next five years more than half of all workplace tasks will be performed by machines? Many jobs will cease to exist. The World Economic Forum warns of the impact of automation on working people.

Robots are being brought into workplaces across the globe, working alongside employees in operating rooms to manufacturing warehouses to restaurant kitchens and even classrooms.

Many kindergartens across China have adopted an artificial intelligence robot to help interact with students at thousands of schools. The robot, called KeeKo, interacts with young children by playing games with them, singing, dancing, reading stories, carrying out conversations and even solving mathematical equations with them!

Researchers see robots in the classroom as the next step in educational technology. However, they lack the empathy and insight a human teacher brings to any educational experience.

Robots cannot express feelings or a sense of belonging. There are even cases where they have made huge mistakes. Deaths have been linked to robotic surgical systems, such as the death of a woman who died during a hysterectomy when the surgeon-controlled robot accidentally cut off a blood vessel. 

Advantages of robots in the workplace

Robotic capabilities are growing. If you run an essay writing service, you can use robots to perform every kind of research related to any subject! They are also more precise than humans; their “hands” don’t tremble or shake as our hands do. Robots have smaller and more versatile moving parts which help them perform tasks with more accuracy than humans. They also never get tired! 

Disadvantages of robots

Robots can undoubtedly handle their prescribed tasks, but they typically cannot handle unexpected situations. They can never improve their jobs outside pre-defined programming because they cannot think for themselves. Finally, and most importantly, robots have no sense of emotion or a conscience-they lack empathy.

Robots can be of great help to humans but they should never control, manage or govern our lives. Let’s remember that life is in relationships, not in machines. We are, after all, human beings — not human doings. 

By Dr Tareq Rasheed

International Consultant and Trainer

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine