Chemistry is stuck in the dark ages – ‘chemputation’ can bring it into the digital world
Chemistry is stuck in the dark ages – ‘chemputation’ can bring it into the digital world
Publish Date: 2026-01-08 07:54:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
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Traditional vs. Modern Chemistry: Modern chemistry still relies on manual processes despite advances in analytical tools. Historically, chemistry was an alchemical art performed by hand, and while methods have improved, the core workflow remains largely unchanged.
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Challenges in Molecular Synthesis: Synthesizing new molecules often fails from one lab to another due to the lack of practical rules codified and shared in a machine-readable way. This makes the discovery of new substances slow, expensive, and unpredictable.
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Role of AI and Automation: AI and robotics offer potential in speeding up molecular discovery by suggesting millions of candidate molecules and reaction pathways. However, these systems lack the full digital rules of chemistry, resulting in plausible but non-producible suggestions.
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Need for Programmable Chemistry: To achieve true digital chemistry, we need a formal language to represent the assembly of molecules, akin to how computation via instructions enables processing on different hardware. This is not yet fully realized in chemistry.
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Chemputation Concept: The researchers at the University of Glasgow’s lab developed chemputation in 2012, envisioning chemistry as a form of computation expressed in executable code. This idea includes the idea of reagents as data and operations akin to instructions in a program.
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Self-Driving Laboratories: The launch of Chemify’s “chemifarm” in 2025, which utilizes AI and robotics to automate and self-improve the discovery of new molecules, represents a significant step towards realizing programmable chemistry. It exemplifies the push for self-driving laboratories.
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Future Outlook: The broader adoption of chemputational techniques and self-driving laboratories could transform chemistry from an artisanal practice into a highly reproducible, shareable, and error-correcting endeavor, keeping it in step with modern digital advancements.
