Foldit Solving puzzles for scientific breakthrough

[8ennett 0]

So I discovered today a curious game named Foldit. To quote from the site:

Knowing the structure of a protein is key to understanding how it works and to targeting it with drugs.
Weâre collecting data to find out if humans' pattern-recognition and puzzle-solving abilities make them more efficient than existing computer programs at pattern-folding tasks. If this turns out to be true, we can then teach human strategies to computers and fold proteins faster than ever!

Source: http://fold.it/portal/info/science

Now this unique game came to my attention after an announcement on the news that Foldit has actually yielded a scientific breakthrough in combatting AIDS. The breakthrough saw online gamers complete a challenge in three weeks that had puzzled scientists for over a decade. Foldit gamers were able to create a protein model that enabled researchers to refine into a workable model.

This is really very intriguing and opens the concept of using "gamers" to tackle other problems that have baffled scientists. Imagine using online puzzle games to create protein strands to combat cancer for instance. Converting scientific methods in to a more user friendly format that will appeal and attract people to interact with (such as games) is a great way of finding those hidden minds out there that have abilities they never knew they had. There is always someone out there who has mastered a game to its full extent as most of you probably know.

I think this recent breakthrough though is a sign that we may see more scientific research-based games being created in the future and possibly being integrated in to our every day life. I already support the fact that we can share computing power for scientific gain (grid computing), but imagine if we all had a little piece of software running in the background of our computers that aided in scientific breakthroughs. If everyone who owned a computer and internet connection was running this software then the amount of computing power provided would be immense. Let's turn the world in to one massive supercomputer lol

[manuleka 0]

very interesting... gamers helping out in a scientific model giving a hand to science, it's just awesome!