Automation is Democratizing Experimental Science

New advances are taking automation to the highest end of human endeavors, offering scientists a shot at some of the most intractable problems that have confounded them -- and along the way tipping a global balance to give upstarts like China a more level playing field in the lab. From a report: A combination of artificial intelligence and nimble robots are allowing scientists to do more, and be faster, than they ever could with mere human hands and brains. 'We're in the middle of a paradigm shift, a time when the choice of experiments and the execution of experiments are not really things that people do,' says Bob Murphy, the head of the computational biology department at Carnegie Mellon University. Automated science is 'moving the role of the scientist higher and higher up the food chain,' says Murphy. Researchers are focusing their efforts on big-picture problem-solving rather than the nitty-gritty of running experiments. He says it will also allow scientists to take on more problems at once -- and solve big, lingering ones that are too complex to tackle right now. Starting next year, Murphy's department will offer students a master's degree in automated science, the university announced last week.

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