In the field of biomedical science, the latest advances in research are a large part of your work both as a student and in your future career. But today, the ever-increasing flood of information can be overwhelming, according to an article in the journal Nature.

A free tool may change that. A recently developed academic search engine, Semantic Scholar, uses artificial intelligence to find relevant scientific papers while also putting together a “comprehensive picture of cutting-edge research.”

If there’s a health care specialty or research topic you’re considering for your future career, this free tool may help you discover some of the latest research on that topic. With access to millions of biomedical research articles, the program pulls up the most relevant articles by using your keywords and the keywords that the search engine picks on its own. 

Using the website’s topic pages, you can also stay up to date with trends in literature over time. You can even use the website to see which research papers have the largest impact.

Since the program was developed in 2015, it has expanded from research in computer science into neuroscience and most recently biomedical science. In 20 years, the website claims it may one day be able to identify its own hypotheses and suggest experiments based on research and data that might be overlooked.

In your future career in biomedical science, how do you think you’ll be able to employ this innovative search tool?