The Matter Blotter

accelerating science, chemistry and materials, quantum computing, artificial intelligence

By Alan Aspuru-Guzik

· Launched 6 years ago

Inside a Self-Driving Lab for Materials Discovery

A materials scientist’s firsthand experience with the potential of autonomous experimentation

Jun 1•Hyun Suk Park

Bulky ligands promote palladium-catalyzed protodeboronation

A story of how a failed organic laser synthesis led us to uncover the mystery of palladium‑catalyzed protodeboronation.

Jan 19•Cher-Tian Ser

Agentic AI Is Coming to Science—But What Should It Actually Do?

An invitation to scientists to help shape the next generation of El Agente

Jan 11•Alan Aspuru-Guzik

On rigorous benchmarking for agentic science

Setting the waterline so all boats can rise.

Dec 17, 2025•Alan Aspuru-Guzik

Ranking Models for Bayesian Optimization

In self-driven molecular discovery, when you care about which molecules are best rather than how much better they are, train your Bayesian optimization…

Dec 15, 2025•Gary Tom

AI Agents Are Now Running Quantum Experiments. Here’s How

Current AI agents have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in many tasks. But how about conducting research experiments?

Dec 5, 2025•Zijian Zhang

The springs and sticks model

A simple system that can learn any function with interesting physics!

Nov 28, 2025•Luis Mantilla