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]
Robot Scientist | |
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Type of project | Scientific Research |
Location |
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Owner | Ross King |
Established | 2004 |
Funding | EPSRC BBSRC[1][3][4] |
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:
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'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]
Eve has been used for semi-automated testing for reproducibility of experimental cancer research.[25][26]