Virtual Lab
Virtual Lab
Platform for ensuring scientific observations remain attributable, verifiable, reproducible, and inspectable from physical acquisition through derivation.
Purpose
How can a scientific observation remain attributable, verifiable, reproducible, and inspectable from physical acquisition through analysis and derived results?
How it works
Virtual Lab specifies an architectural framework for packaging scientific experiments into self-contained .vlab artifacts. Raw readings, calibration factors, execution environment parameters, and intermediate transformations are structured with cryptographic signatures and content-addressed hash chains.
- End-to-End Attributability: Raw observations must preserve physical device metadata and sensor calibration states (DESIGN CLAIM / HYPOTHESIS).
- Authenticated Manifest Security: Checksum manifests are vulnerable to recomputation without cryptographic authentication (EXPERIMENT-VERIFIED).
- Universal Reproducibility: A complete experimental envelope enables deterministic replay of analysis state (DESIGN CLAIM / HYPOTHESIS).
Key findings
Checksum Manifest Vulnerability Under Recomputation
OBSERVEDChecksums alone fail to guarantee integrity when an adversary or faulty pipeline can simultaneously alter evidence payloads and regenerate the manifest hash list.
Complete Reproducibility Bundle Specification
SUPPORTEDUniversal reproducibility requires bundling raw observations, acquisition metadata, execution configuration, transformation lineage, derived artifacts, and cryptographic integrity proof.
Integrity Semantics vs UI Display
SUPPORTEDScientific software requires verified cryptographic provenance; rendering a chart or table in a user interface does not establish the authenticity of the underlying data.