Robot achieves scientific first

From FT.com (April 2):

A laboratory robot called Adam has been hailed as the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators.

Adam formed a hypothesis on the genetics of bakers’ yeast and carried out experiments to test its predictions, without intervention from its makers at Aberystwyth University.

The result was a series of “simple but useful” discoveries, confirmed by human scientists, about the gene coding for yeast enzymes. The research is published in the journal Science. [read more]

There was an AI program called Bacon written in 1987 by two computer scientists (Patrick Langler and Gary Bradshaw) that made scientific discoveries using experimental data.

Evidently, the chief creator who made the robots must have a god-complex: He named the robots Adam and Eve. He says: "Adam is a prototype. Eve is better designed and more elegant." Women around the world smile.