You Too Can Fold Your Own Nobel Prize
I'm sure many of you have heard about Folding@Home, which uses the idle processing power of your PC, Mac, or PS3 to work through the complex protein folding calculations needed to help find cures to serious diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. Well, a new game has emerged that seems like it would be the bastard child of the PS3 has making sweet love to folding@home. The new game is called Foldit, and is very much like folding in that it is trying to figure out how to properly fold proteins; however, instead of CPU power, it is harnessing the human mind and competitive spirit. The great part is that you don't need to be a molecular biologist to play the game:
Foldit capitalizes on people's natural 3-D problem-solving skills. The intuitive skills that make someone good at playing Foldit are not necessarily the ones that make a top biologist. Baker says his 13-year-old son is faster at folding proteins than he is. Others may be even faster. Eventually, the researchers hope to advance science by discovering protein-folding prodigies who have natural abilities to see proteins in 3-D. "Some people are just able to look at the game and in less than two minutes, get to the top score," said Popovic. "They can't even explain what they're doing, but somehow they're able to do it."
The game itself was made by a group of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Washington, who put over a year to ensure that the game was accurate and engaging. The game currently presents known unfolded proteins and sees how quickly people can understand and manipulate the proteins given the set rules of needed to create the correctly folded protein. Currently they have tested the game with over 1,000 people and plan to release the game public this week. At the same time they will be offering proteins of unknown final folding shapes. And then comes the Nobel Prize worthy help:
Eventually, the researchers hope to present a medical nemesis, such as HIV or malaria, and challenge players to devise a protein with just the right shape to lock into the virus and deactivate it. Winning protein designs will be synthesized in Baker's lab and tested in petri dishes. High-scoring players will be credited in scientific publications the way that top Rosetta@home contributors already are credited for their computer time.
Overall it sounds like a game with a very lofty ambition and hopefully it makes waves as to what we can do with gaming. The article also goes on to describe how they plan to form a multiplayer community around the game to encourage people to work as groups to solve the more complex problems. Who knows, today's King of Kong could be tomorrow's Nobel Prize winner.
Computer Game's High Score Could Earn The Nobel Prize In Medicine [Science Daily]
[via: Kotaku]
PixelPoet
Posted to Video Games on 8 May 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: folding@home, foldit, pc, protein
I don't know it's a game ;] Very Cool
As a scientist who is also a gamer, I am very intrigued by this.