Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know, however, that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.

    The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5,100 years old. Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn't become popular for a while, though. This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.

    But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.

    In the mid-1700s, a Frenchman came up with a new design of road—a base layer (层) of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the same lime, metal hubs (the central part of a wheel) came into being, followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气轮胎) in 1846. Alloy wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmacked roads (柏油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster.

    By now, you've probably been warned that a robot is coming for your job. But rather than repeat the warning, I've decided to throw down a challenge: man against machine.

    Start with the task we're doing right now: communicating in fluent human. We're sharing abstract ideas through words that we choose with an understanding of their slight difference and impact. We don't just speak in human; we speak as humans. A robot who says that science is fun is delivering a line (念一句话). A human who says that science is fun is telling you something important about being alive.

    Here's another inbuilt advantage we take for granted: as humans we are limited by design. We are bound in time: we die. We are bound in space: we can't be in more than one place at a time. That means when I speak to an audience, I am giving them something special. It's a custom-made, one-off, 100% robot-free delivery, from today's one-and-only Australian Chief Scientist.

    True, I now come in digital versions, through Twitter and Facebook and other platforms, but the availability of those tools hasn't stopped people from inviting me to speak in person. Digital Alan seems to increase the appetite for human Alan, just as Spotify (a digital music service) can increase the demand for a musician's live performances.

    Thanks to technology, many goods and services are cheaper, better and more accessible than ever before. We like our mass-produced bread, and our on-tap lectures and our automated FitBit advice. But automation hasn't killed the artisan bakery (面包店). Online courses haven't killed the booming, alongside their machine equivalents.

    Here's a third argument for the win. We humans have learned the habit of civilization. Let me explain this point by a story. A few years go, some researchers set out to study the way the people interact with robots. They sent out a small robot to patrol (巡逻) the local mall. That robot had a terrible time, and the villains of the story were children. They kicked him, bullied him, and smacked (掌击) him in the head.

    The point is not that the children were violent. The point is that the adults were not. They restrained whatever primitive impulse (冲动) they might have felt in childhood to smack something smaller and weaker in the head, because they had absorbed the habit of living together. We call it civilization. If we want artificial intelligence for the people, we'll need every bit of that civilizing instinct.

    Together, these points suggest to me that humanity has a powerful competitive edge. We can coexist with our increasingly capable machines and we can make space for the full breadth of human talents to flourish.

    This March is a busy month in Shanghai. There's a lot to do. Here are the highlights.

Live Music - Late Night Jazz

    Enjoy real American jazz from Herbie Davis, the famous trumpet player. He's coming with his new 7-piece band, Herbie's Heroes.  Herbie is known to play well into the early hours, so don't expect to get much sleep. This is Herbie's third visit to Shanghai. The first two were sold out, so get your tickets quickly.

    PLACE: The Jazz Club DATES: 15-23 March PRICE: ￥80,120 TIME: 10:00p.m. till late! TEL: 6466-8736

Scottish dancing

    Take your partners and get ready to dance till you drop. Scottish dancing is fun and easy to learn. Instructors will demonstrate the dances. The live band, Gordon Stroppie and the Weefrees, are also excellent.

    PLACE: Jack Stein's DATES: every Monday PRICE: Y60 including one drink TIME: 7:00 - ~0:00 p.m. TEL: 6402-1877

Exhibitions - Shanghai Museum

    There are 120,000 pieces on show here. You can see the whole of Chinese history under one roof. It's always interesting to visit, but doubly so at the moment with the Egyptian Tombs exhibition. There are lots of mummies and more gold than you've ever seen before. Let us know if you see a mummy move!

    PLACE: Shanghai Museum PRICE: ￥30 (￥ 15 for students) TEL: 6888-6888 DATES: daily TIME: Monday - Friday 9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m., Weekends 9:00a.m. - 9:00p.m.

Dining - Sushi chef in town

    Sushi is getting really big in Shanghai. In Japan, it's become an art form. The most famous Sushi 'artist' is Yuki Kamura. She's also one of the few female chefs in Japan. She'll be at Sushi Scene all of this month.

    PLACE: Sushi Scene in the Shanghai Hotel DATES: all month PRICE: ￥200 TIME: lunch time TEL: 6690-3211

    For a full listing of events, see our website.

    Nanjing and Hangzhou summer camps offered

    We are looking for hard-working and open-minded English teachers to join the Nanjing(Jiangsu Province) and Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province) summer camps!

    Both of the summer camps will run from the beginning of July to the end of August. You will be expected to teach spoken English to Chinese students of different ages. We encourage you to bring your own culture to the classes to make things more interesting.

    The information of the Nanjing camp:

    Working hours: 40 hours per week, 5 working days per week.

    Salary: about 7,000 RMB per month.

    Accommodation (食宿): free (single room).

    The information of the Hangzhou camp:

    Working hours: 5 hours per day (= 50 min. / class × 6 classes), one day rest per week.

    Salary: 20,160 RMB in total (420 RMB per day = 70 RMB / class × 6 classes).

    Accommodation: free (shared room).

    The requirements of the summer camps:

    Native English speakers (US, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand).

    A university degree.

    Teaching experience.

    Please send us your resume (简历), copies of certificates (证书) and passport if you are interested in the camps. E-mail: teacher1324@sina.com.cn

    For more information you can visit our website at http://www.Englishsummercamps.com.cn/

    Look forward to hearing from you soon!

Great holidays in Europe!

    Do you like the beach but want a bit more?

    Then come on an Active Beach holiday at one of our centers in Greece, Turkey or Croatia. All the centers are near beautiful beaches and all offer sailing, windsurfing or waterskiing with our excellent instructors. For a change from the water, you can also book a short trip to a nearby village and visit the colorful markets or eat in a local restaurant. At the end of the day, relax in your hotel room or dance the night away at one of our open-air clubs.

    Who was King Arthur? Where did he live?

    Join us on a five-day UK Road Trip holiday. Imagine life hundreds of years ago as we visit ancient Stonehenge, Roman Bath and Tintagel Castle, the home of King Arthur. Learn the history of these interesting places from your guide as you travel in one of our famous blue coaches. In the evenings we stop at some of the best youth hostels in the country. They have everything you need you don t even need to pack a sleeping bag!

    Are you bored with the usual holidays? Do you want to do something you really enjoy?

    Then Fame Camp is for you! Spend a week at Hightree House in Yorkshire and learn how to play the piano, violin and guitar! Bring your tent and stay at a campsite near the house. At the end of the week try your new skills in a live performance.

    How many countries can you see in 21days?

    On our Explore Europe holiday, you can see ten! Learn about them from our best guides as you watch them go past from the window of an air-conditioned coach and stay at some of Europe's top campsites on the way. Of course, we'll also have time to do the important things such as visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the historic Sistine Chapel in Vatican and eating apple ѕtrudеl іn Vіеnnа.

    For more information about any of these holidays, call 0845 333 4523 or visit www.comewithusuk.com.

    As the days get shorter and the chilly weather rolls in, we all want to curl up in a blanket and hibernate until spring rolls around. But making time to get outside in the sun, even when it's cold out, could have bigger mood benefits than you might realize.

    While the link between sunshine and mental health is nothing new, new research from Brigham Young University (BYU) has shown that the association may be even stronger than previously realized. It finds that sunlight exposure is by far the greatest weather-related factor determining mental health outcomes. In other words: more sunshine, more happiness.

    For the study, a psychologist, a physicist and a statistician from BYU teamed up to compare daily environmental data from the university's Physics and Astronomy Weather Station with emotional health data archived by day for 16,452 adult therapy patients who were being treated at the BYU Counseling and Psychological Services Center.

    Exposure to sunlight is a significant factor in seasonal affective disorder. Research has shown that the brain produces more of the feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin on sunny days than it does on darker days. What's more, lack of sunlight is linked with lower vitamin D levels, which in turn has been correlated with depression and low energy.

    If you're getting enough sun, your emotions should remain relatively stable, the researchers found. But as the amount of sunlight in the day is reduced, levels of emotional pain can soar. Other weather variables including temperature, pollution and rain were not found to have an impact on mental health.

    “We were surprised that many of the weather and pollution variables we included in the study were not significantly correlated with clients' scores on the distress measure once we had accounted for suntime," Dr. Mark Beecher, a professor of psychology at the university and the study's lead author, told The Huffington Post. “People tend to associate rainy days, pollution, and other meteorological phenomena with sadness or depression, but we did not find that.”