That line reads like a 1950sscience fiction movie title, but we've actually arrived at the day where a robot has done the scientific process of hypothesising and testing all on it own.
A robot programmed to study genomics has for the first time independently discovered new scientific knowledge, according to a report in the journal Science.
Researchers at the Aberystwyth University in Wales and the University of Cambridge, England, created Adam, a robot scientist that conducted experiments on yeast metabolism and also reasoned on the results, according to an online press release.
Using artificial intelligence, the prototype robot carried out each stage of the scientific process on its own, with researchers using separate manual experiments to confirm its hypotheses, it said.
The finding, to be published today, may pave the way for automating tedious laboratory tasks, according to the researchers.
"Ultimately we hope to have teams of humans and robot scientists working together in laboratories," Professor Ross King, who led the research at Aberystwyth University, was cited as saying in the statement.
Adam discovered "simple but new" scientific knowledge about the genomics of the baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an organism used to model more complex life systems, the statement said. He also came up with a follow-up experiment.
Pretty wild.
H2B Rocket Engine Test Fire Is Successful
Some of you may know that some years ago I was involved with a Discovery Channel program about the Japanese Space Exploration Agency. We went out to Tanegashima Island where they launch their rockets and covered the H2A rocket launch No.9.
At the time, they said they were developing a new rocket to follow the H2A which would have a higher capacity payload, and that was the H2B. Today we find the H2B has had a successful test firing of its engine. Here's an English article.
Japan's new H-2B rocket rolled to its oceanfront launch pad this week and briefly fired its two main engines Thursday, concluding the heavy-lift booster's first practice countdown after a six-day delay due to faulty ground equipment.
The orange and white rocket, stripped of its payload shroud and four solid rocket boosters, was driven atop a mobile platform overnight Tuesday to Launch Pad No. 2 at Tanegashima space center's Yoshinobu launch complex.
It was the second trip to the pad for the H-2B. Two previous attempted countdowns ended with scrubs on March 27 and again Wednesday.
Engineers began loading cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the rocket Thursday morning.
Clocks counted down to zero at 2 p.m. local time, or 0500 GMT Thursday, when the first stage's two LE-7A main engines ignited for a 10-second burn.
Early results indicate the engines performed well during the test, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
Thursday's exercise included the real first and second stages that will be used on the rocket's maiden flight later this year. The test was designed to validate the H-2B rocket's first stage propulsion system and the launcher's connections with the newly renovated launch pad, according to JAXA.
The H2B rocket will get its first launch in September this year. I kind of wish Discovery Channel would want to do a follow up program, just so I can go see another rocket launch in Tanegashima. :)
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