Scientists have created a "Eureka machine" that can work out the laws of nature by observing the world around it - a development that could dramatically speed up the discovery of new scientific truths.The machine took only hours to come up with the basic laws of motion, a task that occupied Sir Isaac Newton for years after he was inspired by an apple falling from a tree.Scientists at Cornell University in New York have already pointed the machine at baffling problems in biology and plan to use it to tackle questions in cosmology and social behaviour.
Scientists have created a "Eureka machine" that can work out the laws of nature by observing the world around it - a development that could dramatically speed up the discovery of new scientific truths.
The machine took only hours to come up with the basic laws of motion, a task that occupied Sir Isaac Newton for years after he was inspired by an apple falling from a tree.
Scientists at Cornell University in New York have already pointed the machine at baffling problems in biology and plan to use it to tackle questions in cosmology and social behaviour.
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.
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.
