The researchers, led by Prof. Ross King, show an example where the robot investigates genetic characteristics of saccharomyces cerevisiae -the well-known baker’s yeast- and enzymes produced by some of its genes. Adam followed its hypothesis-experiment-interpretation cycle in order to reach a conclusion. Human scientists then repeated the experiments to discover that Adam’s results were actually correct.

So the question that immediately arises is: will we -researchers- be soonish replaced by 24-hours working, high-throughput screening Adamses in the labs? Although he already has another robot scientist (Eve) on the assembly line, King explains in an article posted in sciencedaily.com, that the goal behind his research is to “make science more efficient” through automation. It is actually debatable to what extent Adam “creates” new knowledge. One could say, it only finds some answers that are hidden among massive amount of data – Adam is just more efficient than humans at the needle-in-a-haystack game! Anyway, automation of research definitely makes progress much faster (cf. DNA sequencing), and standardized results are now available and understandable by hosts of researchers around the world. It seems like robots will provide scientists with more and more food for thinking than gradually replace them in the labs… which is somewhat comforting!

Don’t forget to visit The Robot Scientist, to find pics, videos and many more informations about Adam and its fellow Eve.

Reference: King et al. Science 2009, 5923, 85-89.