Fold It Video Game To Solve Real Life Science Mysteries

Every once in awhile I read about something a bit more worthwhile then my favorite celebrities, shopping deals, etc. I read about this and just had to share.

A World of Warcraft player may spend hours a day almost everyday playing the World of Warcraft. Why. Because it is entertaining for their mind. I myself am not very good at WOW but I am confident I could beat anyone at the Warcraft Tax Collectors game. My brother however is a big Warcraft gamer. He is just one the many who can literally spend 4 hours a night or more just playing this game.

Imagine then if thousands and thousands of gamers like my brother were playing a game that had more then just an entertainment purpose. Games like Brain Age and other mind and memory strengthing games are doing that on a personal level. But what if there was a entertaining, challenging game with a purpose that was meant to do so much more.. Maybe even cure complex diseases.

We’ll there is. Fold It is here and Science is looking to die hard and casual gamers to help solve life’s science mysteries. Fold it, developed by Rosetta@Home is a game that takes the science of protein folding and turns it into a challenging, engaging game for everyone. There are more than 100,000 different kinds of proteins in the human body. Proteins form cells, the make up of the immune system and determine the speed of chemical reactions. They are the building blocks of life.

They claim 20 minutes is all it takes to understand how the game works and then the gamer is off to work trying to find out how to break down proteins to their lowest-energy folded state. It is like a game of Tetris or a rubiks cube. It is a complex puzzle and solving the puzzle with the highest score is how to win. Yes there are points! High points on posted on the website. There are already 200,000 volunteers playing this game in the name of science but it’s not enough.

Why is the science community hoping this will take off.? There are computer simulators who’s sole purpose is to calculate all possible protein shapes, but this is mathematical puzzle that would centuries to solve left to computer simulators alone. Rosetta@Home and the science community is hoping to play on the average person, you know.. you and me. The human mind works in a way a computer simulator can not. We adapt and learn from trial and error. Rosetta@Home is hoping a volunteer in their study could solve some of these complex puzzles using intuition and natural 3D problem solving skills. Players claim the Fold.it game is not difficult to learn. Players are started in low easy modes and advance as their problem solving skills do with the game.

What’s in it for the player.. Since being a part of solving complex mysterious such as the make up of diseases is just not enough for some, it has been said that the players with the highest scores would be included in scientific papers resulting from this project. Mom’s and Dad’s. Get your kids in the scientific journals, encourage them to play their computer games!

Starting in the Fall, Fold It will start offering game scenerios of protiens we wish exsisted, such as those that can break up toxic waste, or absorb carbon dioxide, I’m hoping they can do something about Bananas rotting to quickly.

Computers can’t do this, they can’t just create a new protien to solve a problem. Fold It wants to see if it’s volenteer’s can. Eventually Fold It will be used to go up against serious medical mystery such as destroying HIV or Malaria. They are hoping to challenge the players into being able to create a protien that could go into the virus and stop it from performing its function. Protein designs considered winners would be used in an actual lab, the protein synthesized in a petri dish

The research funding is coming from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc., and also coming in from fellowships at Nvidia Corp. and Intel Corp.

Go here to learn more and download Fold It.