A More Intelligent Literature Search
Although the topic of study relates to an environmental/health issue, it is the methodology described which serves to showcase an embryonic form of a new “more intelligent” protocol of search algorithm. Through the implementation of this algorithm, an extensive automated literature base yielded a single credible solution to a previously unsolved problem. Faced with a distressing but entirely unexplained incidence of birth defects, the proposed model of knowledge scavenging worked through acknowledged gaps in understanding of increased (phosphate) fertilizer, enabled the template of known facts regarding the interactions of phosphates with the processes of mammal (and other animal) growth, of metabolic function, and of neurological development, and delivered a causal model which would not, at least not easily, derive from current literature search methods. Illustrating the practical value of a step forwards in the design of intelligent literature search, the present study provides a candidate cause to explain a cluster of bovine deformity
