The Automation of Science

Ross Donald King; Jeremy John Rowland; Stephen G. Oliver; Michael Young; Wayne Aubrey; Emma Louise Byrne; Maria Liakata; Magdalena Markham; Pinar Pir; Larisa Nikolaevna Soldatova; Andrew Charles Sparkes; Kenneth Edward Whelan; Amanda Janet Clare

doi:10.1126/science.1165620

The Automation of Science

Ross Donald King, Jeremy John Rowland, Stephen G. Oliver, Michael Young, Wayne Aubrey, Emma Louise Byrne, Maria Liakata, Magdalena Markham, Pinar Pir, Larisa Nikolaevna Soldatova, Andrew Charles Sparkes, Kenneth Edward Whelan, Amanda Janet Clare

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

442 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	85-89
Number of pages	5
Journal	Science
Volume	324
Issue number	5923
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1165620
Publication status	Published - 03 Apr 2009

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence
Automation
Computational Biology
Computers
Enzymes/genetics
Genes, Fungal
Genomics
Programming Languages
Robotics
Saccharomyces cerevisiae/enzymology
Software

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title = "The Automation of 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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AU - Soldatova, Larisa Nikolaevna

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The Automation of Science

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