Caliper Life Sciences, a provider of life sciences tools, announced recently that TIME Magazine's no. 4 Top Scientific Discovery of 2009 included an integrated robotic system designed by Caliper's Automation, Consulting, Engineering, & Services (ACES) team.

Conceived by Dr Ross King at Aberystwyth University in Wales, the integrated robotic system known as ‘Adam, the Robot Scientist’ identified the role and function of nearly a dozen previously uncharacterized yeast genes. This achievement, initially published in the journal Science, marks the first time a robot with virtually no human intervention completed the cycle of the scientific method: formulation of a hypothesis, experimental design and execution, data interpretation, and revision of the original hypothesis.

‘This outstanding achievement highlights the potential of laboratory automation,’ said Kevin Hrusovsky, CEO of Caliper Life Sciences. ‘Our ACES team is uniquely capable of designing and building solutions to meet and exceed the most complex requirements. As a pioneer in laboratory automation, Caliper has a long history of helping researchers improve laboratory efficiency and shape the future of scientific discovery.’