Thesis. Wet-lab experiments are fundamentally messy, and sometimes chaotic, involving varying degrees of tacit knowledge possessed by researchers. Many of the variables that ultimately shape an experiment are therefore never sufficiently captured within polished scientific artifacts such as laboratory notebooks or publications.

One practical implication is reproducibility. When substantial portions of an experiment's context are abstracted away, it can become increasingly difficult, and at times impossible, for another laboratory to faithfully reproduce the work. We see this hidden procedural layer as one contributing factor to the broader reproducibility crisis.

Yet the implications extend beyond reproducibility alone. It is precisely this abstraction of scientific output that may have gradually led us to believe science itself is a perfectly smooth, linear process of executing prescribed methodological steps. The reality inside the laboratory is something altogether different. It is messy, dynamic, uncertain, and continually shaped by human judgment.

Our work begins from the premise that this hidden procedural layer should itself be made observable. We are building systems that use cameras, sensors, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to capture the granular actions, object interactions, environmental conditions, deviations, and decisions that unfold throughout an experiment. We refer to this approach as Procedural Observability: treating the experimental process itself as something that can be systematically observed, recorded, and studied.

We also think this can serve as a foundation for human-centered augmentation research, rather than the end-to-end robotic laboratory automation approaches that have become highly popular in recent years. Through augmentation, the human remains an agent of chaos, variability, and creativity that has historically fueled the scientific enterprise.

It is our aim to reveal the true nature of scientific research, and in doing so illuminate a reality that has otherwise remained hidden.