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Automated catalyst testing uses two coordinated robots, cutting 32 days of work to 17 hours (phys.org)

submitted 1 day ago by artifex@piefed.social to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Developing new catalysts requires large-scale, repetitive experiments with frequent changes to catalyst composition and reaction conditions. Manual experiments are time-consuming and error prone. A team has automated this process and significantly increased reproducibility by employing robots to manage reagent compositions and run the repeated tests.

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[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

But what’s newsworthy about this in 2026?

It's about framing the debate of "robots doing work" in terms of being a positive thing ("see? they're helping us do important SCIENCE!") so that people will be just a little less combative when they get a BigMac handed to them by a robot arm.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Hehe. Sure. I mean it's both a blessing and problematic at the same time... I think most people appreciate a TV set is a few hundred bucks these days. Or the availability of smartphones and home computers. That's only possible because of modern pick and place machines. I think our world would look a bit more like the victorian age if we didn't have those modern perks. Each computer would be hand-soldered by a workforce of hundreds of people. Fill several rooms and be slow and unaffordable for anyone except the government. It wouldn't have a screen... We couldn't sustain billions of humans on the planet without all the machines and science in agriculture...

But automation is problematic as well. I mean we're arguing about it since the Industrial Revolution. I think they painted a dark picture of the future in the early 20th century. Like the movie Metropolis. I think these days, we've solved some of the issues that come with industrialization. But we're doing stupid things as well. And it's an everlasting struggle not to end up in some machine dystopia. Not sure if machines are the root cause of everything, though. I mean scientists use them, they're on every assembly line and in logistics centers. And not even the handyman with a more down-to-earth job renounces their modern battery-powered power tools... I mean sure we could use a handsaw and the hand drill from my grandpa... But I don't think that's the point?

But I value the human aspect as well. I mean I don't need soylent green out of a dispenser. I'd rather have a cook and waiter.