This year, Nature will focus on seven innovative technologies, ranging from sustainable architecture and cancer therapies to bioremediation and photonic computing. ‘Autonomous’ laboratories An international collaboration revealed a series of promising materials for organic solid-state lasers last year. This advancement is crucial for developing cost-effective, energy-efficient electronics, with significant contributions from a network of five AI-driven robotic laboratories across three continents.
Alán Aspuru-Guzik, a computational chemist at the University of Toronto, who is one of the lead authors of the study, emphasizes that the initiative aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of ‘autonomous’ labs in addressing a complex yet valuable category of materials. “When we began in 2017, there were only around ten documented organic laser compounds,” he notes. Ultimately, “We identified 21 top-tier materials.”
The idea of closed-loop automated chemistry, where computers guide a robotic ‘experimenter’ and adjust based on experimental outcomes, has been around since at least the 1970s. However, contemporary self-driving labs are significantly more advanced, integrating cutting-edge robotics with AI algorithms capable of planning and analyzing intricate, high-throughput processes.
(Newsroom staff only edited this story for style from a syndicated feed)
