Gamers solve retrovirus enzyme structure by playing FoldIt g : Othor Games

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:29 am

Interestingly http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1196806-foldinghome-v120/page__view__findpost__p__18379739 ... players have made a nice discovery. (http://fold.it/.)

http://scienceblog.com/47894/gamers-succeed-where-scientists-fail/

Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules.

After scientists repeatedly failed to piece together the structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus, they called in the Foldit players. The scientists challenged the gamers to produce an accurate model of the enzyme. They did it in only three weeks.

Predictably, their site is very busy right now, but when it settles down, anyone can join in and "play."

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:00 am

Bit of a misleading title, since the scientists didn't really "fail" - on the contrary, they managed to develop a highly-sophisticated method for harnessing the power of crowd solution.

» Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:46 pm

Bit of a misleading title, since the scientists didn't really "fail" - on the contrary, they managed to develop a highly-sophisticated method for harnessing the power of crowd solution.

Agreed... I didn't like the headline either. But hey it's the media.

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:32 am

Agreed... I didn't like the headline either. But hey it's the media.

True. Any chance to take those darn eggheads down a peg or two, right?

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:27 am

Maybe if we cure cancer, the media will quit scapegoating us for all of society's problems.

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:39 pm

Maybe that will teach people to think twice before blaming games for badly influencing players

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:43 am

Maybe if we cure cancer, the media will quit scapegoating us for all of society's problems.

See above... Hey, it's the media.

They'll just scapegoat someone else anyways,

Gaming has done fantastic things for science. By driving computer technology especially in graphics, it's made data processing much cheaper. Networked PS3's make a cheap supercomputer, and video cards are much faster (roughly an order of magnitude) for number-crunching than CPU's.

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:16 am

Maybe if we cure cancer, the media will quit scapegoating us for all of society's problems.

:P agreed.

On topic, that's pretty awesome.

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:56 am

So gamers playing a video game FoldIt magically found a cure to the lab created AIDS?!?! :confused:
Actually now that I read it it says: "AIDS-like virus" so its not actually AIDS its something similar.
Its just a made up story so they can make more $$$$$$ and get people to invest $$$$$$.

EDIT: It would be nice if the story was true.

» Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:29 pm

So it's a bit like a more game-y version of folding@home?

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:38 am

Little Jimmy was found yesterday in his parents' home. Both his parents had been dead, however Jimmy brought them back to life and cured their cancer. We have reason to believe he got the idea from playing violent computer games, in which you violently assault and kill viruses to win "points".

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:17 am

It would be nice if the story was true.

Would be even nicer if you read the article rather than just my short excerpt.

So it's a bit like a more game-y version of folding@home?

Correct. You actually control the folding which is all graphically animated and shows a real-time "score". The object is to fold the protein so that it has the right configuration and is in the lowest energy state. I did a few a while ago. Too busy with the unofficial patches though so I just stick to BOINC which is all automated.

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:22 am

Played Fold it when it first came out, but couldnt be bothered to keep at it for very oong.. good to hear that its still going and making some good headway!

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:27 am

Well, the human brain has roughly the processing power of several supercomputers, comes pre-packaged with pattern-recognition and signal anolysis routines that have been developed over millions of years according to a "be better than the thing that wants to eat you" principle and gamers have been trained specifically to solve spatial problems. It only makes sense to spend some of that highly optimised processing time towards something useful.

» Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:35 am

So gamers playing a video game FoldIt magically found a cure to the lab created AIDS?!?! :confused:
Actually now that I read it it says: "AIDS-like virus" so its not actually AIDS its something similar.
Its just a made up story so they can make more $$$$$$ and get people to invest $$$$$$.

EDIT: It would be nice if the story was true.

It doesn't say that at all. It says Gamers used FoldIt to find the structure of an Enzyme associated with HIV. It doesn't say anything about a cure. This is a big step on the way to a cure, though. Well, for that specific virus.

» Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:57 pm

Maybe if we cure cancer, the media will quit scapegoating us for all of society's problems.

No...they still treat science as if it were black magic, and scientists were witches and warlocks.