WesDuCharme writes "The chicken and egg puzzle of whether AI might lead to molecular nanotechnology or vice versa is an interesting one. This abstract in Nature, reported more fully here here describes an intriguing first step in the genetics arena.
As reported in The Globe and Mail, ìThis week, a group of researchers in Britain unveiled the Robot Scientist, a device five years in the making. Not only can it ask, "What if?" it can also design some experiments to test its hypothesis, carry out those experiments and, finally, analyze the data collected before confirming or altering its hypothesis.î
Although the Robot Scientist was only going over ground already covered, the potential for speeding up scientific progress seems clear. Anyone feel timetables tightening?
