The University of Washington has created a wonderful new game similar to Sony's Folding@Home project (part of the SETI@home project) on the PS3. The freely available game matches against automated computer routines that "ascertain how amino acids twist into their ideal shapes." The game is called Foldit (or Fold.it if you want to get technical) and is the result of two-years of biochemistry and computer science work at the University of Washington. The goal of the game is to come up with a better and more expedient way to fold proteins by harnessing the creativity and mental acumen of videogame players.
"People in the scientific community have known about Foldit for a while, and everybody thought it was a great idea," wrote UW associate computer science and engineer professor Zoran Popovic in a press statement. "But the really fundamental question in most scientists' minds was 'What can it produce in terms of results? Is there any evidence that it's doing something useful? I hope this paper will convince a lot of those people who were sitting on the sidelines, and the whole genre of scientific discovery games will really take off."
Foldit plays like Tetris, by letting players fold a protein by shaking sidechains, wiggling backbones, and clearing locks and bands. Apparently, according to the research, humans fare better than computers when it comes to solving problems requiring "risk-taking and long-term prediction.
Source: PC World
