Robot Scientist

Robot Scientist (also known as Adam[5]) is a laboratory robot created and developed by a group of scientists including Ross King, Kenneth Whelan, Ffion Jones, Philip Reiser, Christopher Bryant, Stephen Muggleton, Douglas Kell and Steve Oliver.[2][6][7][8][9][10]

Robot Scientist
Type of project	Scientific Research
Location	University of Manchester Aberystwyth University Imperial College London University of Cambridge[1] Robert Gordon University[2]
Owner	Ross King
Established	2004
Funding	EPSRC BBSRC[1][3][4]

Prototype

As a prototype for a "robot scientist", Adam is able to perform independent experiments to test hypotheses and interpret findings without human guidance, removing some of the drudgery of laboratory experimentation.[11][12] Adam is capable of:

• hypothesizing to explain observations
• devising experiments to test these hypotheses
• physically running the experiments using laboratory robotics
• interpreting the results from the experiments
• repeating the cycle as required[10][13][14][15][16]

While researching yeast-based functional genomics, Adam became the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators.[5][17][18]

Adam and Eve

Adam's research studied baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)[2] and is one of two robot scientists along with "Eve"[13][19] (named after Adam and Eve), a robot currently doing research on drug screening.[20][21][22][23][24]

References

1. "2 April 2009 – Robot scientist becomes first machine to discover new scientific knowledge – Media release – BBSRC". Archived from the original on 24 February 2013.
2. King, R. D.; Whelan, K. E.; Jones, F. M.; Reiser, P. G. K.; Bryant, C. H.; Muggleton, S. H.; Kell, D. B.; Oliver, S. G. (2004). "Functional genomic hypothesis generation and experimentation by a robot scientist". Nature. 427 (6971): 247–252. Bibcode:2004Natur.427..247K. doi:10.1038/nature02236. PMID 14724639.
3. BBSRC grant A robot scientist for drug design and chemical genetics, via Research Councils UK
4. BBSRC grant: A robot scientist for yeast systems biology, via Research Councils UK
5. King, P.; Rowland, J.; Aubrey, W.; Liakata, M.; Markham, M.; Soldatova, L. N.; Whelan, K. E.; Clare, A.; Young, M.; Sparkes, A.; Oliver, S. G.; Pir, P. (2009). "The Robot Scientist Adam". Computer. 42 (7): 46–54. doi:10.1109/MC.2009.270.
6. "Robot Scientist at Aberystwyth University". Archived from the original on 12 June 2011.
7. Sparkes, A.; Aubrey, W.; Byrne, E.; Clare, A.; Khan, M. N.; Liakata, M.; Markham, M.; Rowland, J.; Soldatova, L. N.; Whelan, K. E.; Young, M.; King, R. D. (2010). "Towards Robot Scientists for autonomous scientific discovery". Automated Experimentation. 2: 1. doi:10.1186/1759-4499-2-1. PMC 2813846. PMID 20119518.
8. King, R. D.; Rowland, J.; Oliver, S. G.; Young, M.; Aubrey, W.; Byrne, E.; Liakata, M.; Markham, M.; Pir, P.; Soldatova, L. N.; Sparkes, A.; Whelan, K. E.; Clare, A. (2009). "Make Way for Robot Scientists". Science. 325 (5943): 945. Bibcode:2009Sci...325R.945K. doi:10.1126/science.325_945a. PMID 19696334.
9. Anderson, Philip W.; Abrahams, Elihu (2009). "Machines Fall Short of Revolutionary Science". Science. 324 (5934): 1515–1516. Bibcode:2009Sci...324.1515A. doi:10.1126/science.324_1515c. PMID 19541975.
10. King, R. D. (2011). "Rise of the Robo Scientists". Scientific American. 304 (1): 72–76. Bibcode:2011SciAm.304a..72K. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0111-72. PMID 21265330.
11. Mosher, Dave (13 April 2011). "Developer of Robot Scientist Wants to Standardize Science". Wired.
12. Buchen, Lizzie (2 April 2009). "Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All by Itself". Wired.
13. Wilson, N. (2004). "Technology: A robot scientist". Nature Reviews Genetics. 5 (3): 164. doi:10.1038/nrg1300.
14. Greenemeier, Larry (2009). "Meet Adam and Eve: AI Lab-Bots That Can Take On Reams of Data". Scientific American. Retrieved 2 April 2009. Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
15. Kleiner, Kurt (2009). "Robot scientist makes discoveries without human help". New Scientist.
16. Gill, Victoria (2 April 2009). "Robo-scientist's first findings". BBC News.
17. King, R. D.; Rowland, J.; Oliver, S. G.; Young, M.; Aubrey, W.; Byrne, E.; Liakata, M.; Markham, M.; Pir, P.; Soldatova, L. N.; Sparkes, A.; Whelan, K. E.; Clare, A. (2009). "The Automation of Science". Science. 324 (5923): 85–89. Bibcode:2009Sci...324...85K. doi:10.1126/science.1165620. PMID 19342587.
18. Cookson, Clive (2009). "Robot achieves scientific first". Financial Times.
19. Williams, K.; Bilsland, E.; Sparkes, A.; Aubrey, W.; Young, M.; Soldatova, L. N.; De Grave, K.; Ramon, J.; De Clare, M.; Sirawaraporn, W.; Oliver, S. G.; King, R. D. (2015). "Cheaper faster drug development validated by the repositioning of drugs against neglected tropical diseases". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 12 (104): 20141289. doi:10.1098/rsif.2014.1289. PMC 4345494. PMID 25652463.
20. Robot Scientist Helps Design New Drugs, Voice of America
21. Robot scientist’ Eve could speed up search for new drugs, kurzweilai.net
22. 'Robot scientist' holds key to new drugs, BBC News
23. 'Robot Scientist' Could Speed Up Drug Discovery, Sky News
24. 'Robot Scientist' Could Speed Up Drug Discovery, Yahoo News

See also

• Graffiti (program)