Robot scientist makes gene discovery

Two of the machine's Twister II robot arms are shown here.

The work was reported in the latest issue of the journal Science, published on Thursday. In the report, the researchers said that Adam autonomously came up with hypotheses regarding the baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including the idea that certain genes in the yeast code for enzymes that catalyse some of the micro-organism's biochemical reactions. The yeast is noteworthy, as scientists use it to model more complex life systems.