Really interesting story on using the skill of gamers to solve scientific and medical problems. Watch a video - Welcome to FoldIt - showing FoldIt in action after the break. Wired Campus: Playing the Science Game
Could the person who finds the cure for cancer be a gamer? The creators of an online game that allows players to help scientists design new proteins with therapeutic properties hope so.
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More than 40,000 people have downloaded the game. It is still being tested and limits players to finding answers only to known protein puzzles, so that scientists can analyze how good people are at folding proteins. In a few months, the game will allow players to create brand-new proteins. But since the “right” solutions to those puzzles will be unknown, even stable-looking structures proposed by the gamers will have to be created in the lab to see if they really work.
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