Source: Xinhua

04-05-2009 15:24

BEIJING, April. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists have come up with a "robot scientist" that can independently discover new scientific findings without human assistance.

The Robot Scientists are multidisciplinary research projects involving expertise from Computer Science and Microbiology.(File photo)

Named Adam, the robot is the handiwork of researchers--who unveiled their work Thursday-- at Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge in the UK. All by itself Adam discovered new functions for a number of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, aka brewer's yeast.

Ross King, a computational biologist at Aberystwyth, who leads the project, said that Adam's results were modest, but real. "It's certainly a contribution to knowledge. It would be publishable," he says.

"Our goal is to make science more efficient," said Ross King, a professor of biology and computer science at the University of Wales and author of a new paper in this week's issue of Science detailing Adam's work.

"If we had computers designing and carrying out experiments we could get through many more experiments than we currently can," said King, adding "robots don't need to take holidays."

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