Computer science research on scientific discovery

This article is an essay on directions and methodology in computer-science oriented research on scientific discovery. The essay starts by reviewing briefly some of the history of computing in scientific reasoning, and some of the results and impact that have been achieved. The remainder analyses some of the goals of this field, its relations with sister fields, and the practical applications of this analysis to evaluating research quality, reviewing, and methodology. An earlier review in this journal (Kocabas 1991b) analysed scientific discovery programs in terms of their designs, achievements and shortcomings; the focus here is research directions, evaluation and methodology, all from the viewpoint of computer science.

[1]  Joshua Lederberg,et al.  APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR CHEMICAL INFERENCE. 22. AUTOMATIC C RULE FORMATION IN MASS SPECTROMETRY BY MEANS OF THE META-DENDRAL PROGRAM , 1976 .

[2]  P. Langley,et al.  Computational Models of Scientific Discovery and Theory Formation , 1990 .

[3]  Yves Kodratoff,et al.  Scientific Discovery in a Space of Structural Models: An Example from the History of Solution Chemistry , 1994 .

[4]  Raúl E. Valdés-Pérez,et al.  Human/computer interactive elucidation of reaction mechanisms: application to catalyzed hydrogenolysis of ethane , 1994 .

[5]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Scientific discovery: compulalional explorations of the creative process , 1987 .

[6]  P. Langley.  Editorial: On machine learning , 2004, Machine-mediated learning.

[7]  W. Salmon.  The foundations of scientific inference , 1967 .

[8]  H. Gelernter,et al.  Realization of a geometry theorem proving machine , 1995, IFIP Congress.

[9]  Jean E. Sammet.  ACM president's letter: on the importance of ACM being scientific and educational , 1976, CACM.

[10]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Processes of Scientific Discovery: The Strategy of Experimentation , 1988, Cogn. Sci..

[11]  Walter F. Bischof,et al.  Methods of heuristics , 1983 .

[12]  D. E. Stevenson,et al.  Science, computational science, and computer science: at a crossroads , 1994, CACM.

[13]  Sakir Kocabas,et al.  Computational models of scientific discovery , 1991, The Knowledge Engineering Review.

[14]  K. Dunbar.  HOW SCIENTISTS REALLY REASON: SCIENTIFIC REASONING IN REAL-WORLD LABORATORIES , 1995 .

[15]  Raúl E. Valdés-Pérez,et al.  Some Recent Human-Computer Discoveries in Science and What Accounts for Them , 1995, AI Mag..

[16]  Joshua Lederberg,et al.  DENDRAL: A Case Study of the First Expert System for Scientific Hypothesis Formation , 1993, Artif. Intell..

[17]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Problem solving and rule induction: A unified view. , 1974 .

[18]  James B. Hendrickson,et al.  SYNGEN program for synthesis design: basic computing techniques , 1989, J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci..

[19]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  Artificial Intelligence - Where Are We? , 1985, Artif. Intell..

[20]  Michael A. Erdmann,et al.  Systematic induction and parsimony of phenomenological conservation laws , 1994 .

[21]  Raul E. Valds-Prez.  Algebraic reasoning about reactions: Discovery of conserved properties in particle physics , 1994 .

[22]  Donald MacKenzie,et al.  The automation of proof: a historical and sociological exploration , 1995, IEEE Ann. Hist. Comput..

[24]  Joshua Lederberg,et al.  Applications of Artificial Intelligence for Organic Chemistry: The DENDRAL Project , 1980 .

[25]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  WHY SHOULD MACHINES LEARN , 1983 .

[26]  Fan Chung Graham,et al.  The average distance and the independence number , 1988, Journal of Graph Theory.

[27]  F L Holmes,et al.  Hans Krebs and the discovery of the ornithine cycle. , 1980, Federation proceedings.

[28]  Daniel Crevier,et al.  Ai: The Tumultuous History Of The Search For Artificial Intelligence , 1993 .

[29]  E. Feigenbaum,et al.  Computers and Thought , 1963 .

[30]  Ulrich W. Eisenecker,et al.  AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence , 1995 .

[31]  Jack Oliver,et al.  The Incomplete Guide to the Art of Discovery , 1991 .

[32]  David Klahr,et al.  Dual Space Search During Scientific Reasoning , 1988, Cogn. Sci..

[33]  Rá Ul,et al.  Machine Discovery in Chemistry: New Results , 1995 .

[34]  Ryszard S. Michalski,et al.  Editorial: Machine Learning and Discovery , 1986, Machine Learning.

[35]  Sakir Kocabas,et al.  Conflict resolution as discovery in particle physics , 1991 .

[36]  Lee W. Gregg,et al.  Knowledge and cognition , 1974 .

[37]  A. Newell.  The heuristic of George Polya and its relation to artificial intelligence , 1981 .

[38]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[39]  Allen Newell,et al.  Computer science as empirical inquiry: symbols and search , 1976, CACM.

[40]  P. Spirtes,et al.  Causation, prediction, and search , 1993 .

[41]  B. F. Caviness,et al.  Future Directions for Research in Symbolic Computation , 1990 .