The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, studied industry data from the UK and 24 other European countries between 1995 and 2017, and found that at low levels of adoption, robots have a negative effect on profit margins. But at higher levels of adoption, robots can help increase profits. According to the researchers, this U-shaped phenomenon is due to the relationship between reducing costs, developing new processes and innovating new products. While many companies first adopt robotic technologies to decrease costs, this'process innovation' can be easily copied by competitors, so at low levels of robot adoption, companies are focused on their competitors rather than on developing new products. However, as levels of adoption increase and robots are fully integrated into a company's processes, the technologies can be used to increase revenue by innovating new products.

Machines replacing humans in the workplace has been a perpetual concern since the Industrial Revolution, and an increasing topic of discussion with the rise of automation in the last few decades. But so far hype has outweighed information about how automation -- particularly robots, which do not need humans to operate -- actually affects employment and wages. The recently-published paper "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from U.S. Labor Markets" by MIT professorDaron Acemoglu and Boston University professor Pascual Restrepo, PhD '16, finds that industrial robots do have a negative impact on workers. The researchers found that for every robot added per 1,000 workers in the U.S., wages decline by .42% and the employment-to-population ratio goes down by .2 The impact is more sizable within the areas where robots are deployed: adding one more robot in a commuting zone (geographic areas used for economic analysis) reduces employment by six workers in that area.

Many people fear the rise in automation may result in lower employment but that may not always be the case. According to new research, firms who were quick to add robots to their manufacturing also saw a rise in employees. "When you look at use of robots at the firm level, it is really interesting because there is an additional dimension," said study co-author and MIT economist Daron Acemoglu. "We know firms are adopting robots in order to reduce their costs, so it is quite plausible that firms adopting robots early are going to expand at the expense of their competitors whose costs are not going down. And that's exactly what we find." The study revealed that although a 20 percentage point increase in robot use from 2010 to 2015 led to a 3.2% decrease in employment, for firms adopting robots, employee hours actually increased by 10.9% and wages rose as well.

A sampling of human blood has turned up a surprise: most people could be immune to one of the world's biggest advances in genetic engineering. It's in our blood: Scientists searched the blood of 22 newborns and 12 adults for antibodies to the two most important types of Cas9, the cutting protein that functions as the business end of the gene-editing tool. They found the protective molecules in more than 65 percent of the people they examined. There are big hopes for CRISPR-based gene-therapy cures. But immunity could mean those treatments won't work.