A laboratory robot called Adam has been hailed as the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators. And it gets worse: the robots are already eying the Moon.

I've been all over the automated killer robot issue this week, and I'm sorry to report that the news has only gotten worse.

"The trouble is that we can't really put the genie back in the bottle. Once the new weapons are out there, they will be fairly easy to copy," Sharkey will tell a one-day conference organised by Britain's Royal United Services Institute on Wednesday.

"How long is it going to be before the terrorists get in on the act? With the current prices of robot construction falling dramatically and the availability of ready-made components for the amateur market, it wouldn't require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons."

Cosmic Log weighs in on the critical killer death robot issue brought to our attention only last night.

Expert: 'Automated killer robots "threat to humanity."' Finally, someone dares to take on the real problems.