Robot-Computer hybrid employs the scientific method all by itself

Discover Magazine - I, for One, Welcome Our New Robot Scientist Overlords

Scientists developed a computer connected to robotic lab equipment and provided it with a variety of yeast strains and a database about those yeasts' genes and enzymes (compiled from previous scientific studies and lab work). They asked the computer to isolate the genes for specific enzymes-- the computer then reportedly came up with its own hypotheses, designed tests for them, performed the tests, and even interpreted the conclusions it reached. In all, it made 20 hypotheses and confirmed 12. The human scientists that designed the computer independently tested the conclusions and verified them. The computer's conclusions were modest but were worthy of publication and previously undiscovered. One scientist was quoted as saying that the computer was only operating at the level of 'graduate student'; the immediate possibility here is for robots to do the more labor-intensive 'mundane aspects of scientific research'.