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Phase 2 · Week 3
14 minutes
Lesson 3.2
Lesson 3.2

Example Gallery: Research and Science Agents

Weekly Paper Digest
Watch: AI agents for research and knowledge work (25 min)

Research and Science Examples

01
Weekly Paper Digest
What it does:

Searches Semantic Scholar, arXiv, or PubMed for a specified topic, retrieves the five most-cited papers from the past month, and sends a structured weekly digest with title, abstract summary, and relevance score.

Who it helps:

University applicants, science students, teachers preparing lessons, and researchers who cannot read every new paper.

Why it matters:

Staying current in a fast-moving field is a full-time job. An agent does the triage so the human can do the thinking.

What it needs:

A scientific paper API, a summarisation model, an email delivery tool.

02
Contradiction Spotter
What it does:

Given two datasets or papers on the same phenomenon, reads both, identifies claims that appear to contradict each other, and produces a structured comparison noting sample sizes, methods, and divergence points.

Why it matters:

Contradictions in the literature are often where the most interesting science lives — and where the most dangerous misinformation originates.

What it needs:

Document parsing, a reasoning model, a comparison output template.

Who it helps:

Science teachers, students writing literature reviews, journalists covering research.

03
Bibliography Builder
What it does:

Accepts a list of URLs, DOIs, or uploaded PDFs. Retrieves metadata, formats citations in the chosen style (APA, MLA, Chicago), checks for duplicates, and exports a ready-to-use bibliography.

Why it matters:

Citation formatting is pure mechanical work. An agent handles it in seconds instead of hours, with fewer errors.

What it needs:

A DOI/metadata API (CrossRef), a citation formatting library, a file export tool.

Who it helps:

Any student writing an academic paper.

04
Climate Data Explainer
What it does:

Connected to open climate datasets (NASA, Copernicus, NOAA), answers plain-language questions like 'How has average July temperature in Rome changed since 1980?', generates a chart, and explains the trend accessibly.

Why it matters:

Climate data is publicly available but practically inaccessible to most people without technical skills. An agent closes that gap.

What it needs:

A public climate API, a data visualisation library, a language model for narration.

Who it helps:

Students, teachers, journalists, and curious citizens who cannot interpret raw climate data.

Contradiction Spotter
Summary
Slide 1
✏️ Student Reflection
Pick one of the four examples and describe a specific dataset or API it would need that you have not worked with before. How would you find out whether that data is publicly available and freely accessible? Write 2–3 sentences. The data sourcing question is one you will need to answer for your own project in Week 4.

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