Using an automated chemistry lab to find the origin of life

[Eldorado]

U.K. chemist Lee Cronin is building a ‘chemputer’ in his quest to create the smartest artificial brain

On the University of Glasgow campus, past a 17th-century entry gate, a grungy brick building houses the laboratory of the Regius professor of chemistry.

Not much has changed since the first titleholder was appointed by King George III in 1818. Experiments are still conducted in glass flasks — although now by students in T-shirts and jeans.

Strolling through the building in a sporty tweed jacket and khakis, the current Regius professor proclaims that everything will soon be different. “In any physics or biology lab, there’s automation,” Lee Cronin tells me. “In chemistry, it’s all still done by hand.”

Opening the door to an unoccupied room where chemical reactions are bubbling beneath a janky robotic scaffold, Cronin reveals that the automation of chemistry is already underway, with a goal set on far more than industry efficiency.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/using-an-automated-chemistry-lab-to-find-the-origin-of-life