Robot Scientist
- University of Manchester
- Aberystwyth University
- Imperial College London
- University of Cambridge[1]
- Robert Gordon University[2]
BBSRC[1][3][4]
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, Emma Byrne and Steve Oliver.[2][6][7][8][9][10]
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]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Semi-automated_testing_of_reproducibility_and_robustness_of_the_cancer_biology_literature_by_robot.jpg/220px-Semi-automated_testing_of_reproducibility_and_robustness_of_the_cancer_biology_literature_by_robot.jpg)
Eve has been used for semi-automated testing for reproducibility of experimental cancer research.[25][26]
References
- ^ a b "2 April 2009 – Robot scientist becomes first machine to discover new scientific knowledge – Media release – BBSRC". Archived from the original on 14 May 2013.
- ^ a b c 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. S2CID 4428725.
- ^ BBSRC grant A robot scientist for drug design and chemical genetics Archived 24 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine, via Research Councils UK
- ^ BBSRC grant: A robot scientist for yeast systems biology, via Research Councils UK
- ^ a b 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. S2CID 13920692.
- ^ "Robot Scientist at Aberystwyth University". Archived from the original on 12 June 2011.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Mosher, Dave (13 April 2011). "Developer of Robot Scientist Wants to Standardize Science". Wired.
- ^ Buchen, Lizzie (2 April 2009). "Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All by Itself". Wired.
- ^ a b Wilson, N. (2004). "Technology: A robot scientist". Nature Reviews Genetics. 5 (3): 164. doi:10.1038/nrg1300. S2CID 5633301.
- ^ Greenemeier, Larry (2009). "Meet Adam and Eve: AI Lab-Bots That Can Take On Reams of Data". Scientific American. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
- ^ Kleiner, Kurt (2009). "Robot scientist makes discoveries without human help". New Scientist.
- ^ Gill, Victoria (2 April 2009). "Robo-scientist's first findings". BBC News.
- ^ 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. S2CID 14948753.
- ^ Cookson, Clive (2009). "Robot achieves scientific first". Financial Times.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Robot Scientist Helps Design New Drugs, Voice of America
- ^ Robot scientist’ Eve could speed up search for new drugs, kurzweilai.net
- ^ 'Robot scientist' holds key to new drugs, BBC News
- ^ 'Robot Scientist' Could Speed Up Drug Discovery, Sky News
- ^ 'Robot Scientist' Could Speed Up Drug Discovery, Yahoo News
- ^ "'Robot scientist' Eve finds that less than one-third of scientific results are reproducible". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ Roper, Katherine; Abdel-Rehim, A.; Hubbard, Sonya; Carpenter, Martin; Rzhetsky, Andrey; Soldatova, Larisa; King, Ross D. (2022). "Testing the reproducibility and robustness of the cancer biology literature by robot". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 19 (189): 20210821. doi:10.1098/rsif.2021.0821. PMC 8984295. PMID 35382578.
See also
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