Gaming for Science!
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:37 pm
Don't know if many of you know about "FoldIt", but I came across an article in "Nature Structural & Molecular Biology" that points up how our human brains, and Gamers in particular, are still better at some things than computers! :sgiggle:
Because of gamer's excellent grasp of spatial relations...the peeps playing at FoldIt have unraveled the structure of a protein in a type of HIV virus that affects rhesus monkeys. Discovering the building blocks of virus structures helps researchers develop methods to block or eliminate these nasties.
Here's the nerdy technospeak article (yes..I read these things!):
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/zora ... t-2011.pdf
And here's the link for the FoldIt website:
http://fold.it/portal/
Gamers rock! :cheers:
KKat
Because of gamer's excellent grasp of spatial relations...the peeps playing at FoldIt have unraveled the structure of a protein in a type of HIV virus that affects rhesus monkeys. Discovering the building blocks of virus structures helps researchers develop methods to block or eliminate these nasties.
Here's the nerdy technospeak article (yes..I read these things!):
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/zora ... t-2011.pdf
And here's the link for the FoldIt website:
http://fold.it/portal/
Gamers rock! :cheers:
KKat