Adam formed a hypothesis on the genetics of bakers' yeast and carried out experiments to test its predictions, without intervention from its makers at Aberystwyth University, reported the Financial Times.

The result was a series of "simple, but useful" discoveries, confirmed by human scientists, about the gene coding for yeast enzymes. The research is published in the journal Science.

Professor Ross King, the chief creator of Adam, said robots would not supplant human researchers but make their work more productive and interesting.