Cure Cancer While Playing a Game

Researchers at the University of Washington hope to soon make your idle time much less idle. They want you to cure cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer's, and do it all while playing their game, Foldit.

The idea should be familiar to anyone currently running Folding@Home, the program that uses a computer or PS3's idle moments to figure out the complex shapes proteins “fold” themselves into. The problem with Folding@Home is there just aren't enough computers in the world to tackle every protein out there, and, the researchers say, computers aren't very good at figuring the patterns of larger proteins. That's something the UW researchers hope human minds can better understand.

Foldit, available now for Windows and OS X (probably soon for Linux), is structured like any puzzle game. It will spoon-feed you the basic mechanics over a few levels until you're ready to tackle the larger proteins. Once there, science degree or not, anyone should be able to rise up the game's leaderboards. As David Baker told the site, ScienceDaily, his own 13 year old son can beat him. The people behind the game are putting that idea to the test by allowing players to compete against scientists from around the globe.

For now the game only asks players to help fold known proteins, but future versions may include proteins we don't have but need. As ScienceDaily explains, “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.” If they can the researchers will then try to create that protein in the lab, and the highest scoring players will get credit in the papers that come from research helped by the game.

It makes your gamerscore seem kind of hollow, doesn't it?

[ScienceDaily via Kotaku]