Science. 2009 Apr 3;324(5923):85-9.

The automation of science.

King RD, Rowland J, Oliver SG, Young M, Aubrey W, Byrne E, Liakata M, Markham M, Pir P, Soldatova LN, Sparkes A, Whelan KE, Clare A.

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Department of Computer Science, Aberystwyth University, SY23 3DB, UK. rdk@aber.ac.uk

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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PMID:: 19342587; [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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Enzymes

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Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom

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Cited by 23 PubMed Central articles

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