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. 2009 Apr 3;324(5923):85-9.
doi: 10.1126/science.1165620.

The automation of science

Ross D King  1 , Jem Rowland, Stephen G Oliver, Michael Young, Wayne Aubrey, Emma Byrne, Maria Liakata, Magdalena Markham, Pinar Pir, Larisa N Soldatova, Andrew Sparkes, Kenneth E Whelan, Amanda Clare
Affiliations

The automation of science

Ross D King et al. Science. .

Abstract

The basis of science is the hypothetico-deductive method and the recording of experiments in sufficient detail to enable reproducibility. We report the development of Robot Scientist "Adam," which advances the automation of both. Adam has autonomously generated functional genomics hypotheses about the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and experimentally tested these hypotheses by using laboratory automation. We have confirmed Adam's conclusions through manual experiments. To describe Adam's research, we have developed an ontology and logical language. The resulting formalization involves over 10,000 different research units in a nested treelike structure, 10 levels deep, that relates the 6.6 million biomass measurements to their logical description. This formalization describes how a machine contributed to scientific knowledge.

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Comment in

  • Computer science. Automating science.
    Waltz D, Buchanan BG. Waltz D, et al. Science. 2009 Apr 3;324(5923):43-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1172781. Science. 2009. PMID: 19342574 No abstract available.
  • Robot inventors: patently impossible?
    Stevenson RW, Murphy JF, Clare TJ. Stevenson RW, et al. Science. 2009 May 22;324(5930):1014. doi: 10.1126/science.324_1014a. Science. 2009. PMID: 19460985 No abstract available.
  • Machines fall short of revolutionary science.
    Anderson PW, Abrahams E. Anderson PW, et al. Science. 2009 Jun 19;324(5934):1515-6. doi: 10.1126/science.324_1515c. Science. 2009. PMID: 19541975 No abstract available.

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