Gamers succeed where scientists fail (structure of a retrovirus enzyme)

University of Washington ^ | September 18, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Ping

[The Working Man]

I wonder how long it will take before NIH, (Not Invented Here), syndrome shows up especially if it impacts the receipt of grant money?

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Game players are by their nature problem solvers. They generally have a good inate understanding of probabilities and math structures.

If they play specific genres of video games, they also have advanced spatial-relational understandings and intuitive skills.

[StolarStorm]

Very interesting. The created in effect, a HUMAN based parallel processing system.

[WhatNot]

Next thing to work on is the molecular structure for a retro couch potato enzyme.

[parisa]

A giant human-machine brain!

[Mr. K]

Great News~!

They just discovered something about a 100% preventable desease.

Good thing we have cured all the other things already, now homosexuals can go back to having unprotected anal sex, because that’s important.

[decimon]

Good thing we have cured all the other things already, now homosexuals can go back to having unprotected anal sex, because that’s important.

This is not at all limited to HIV.

I'm not averse to treatments for lung cancer because that may enable smokers. I'm not against treatments for liver diseases because they may enable boozers.

[ShadowAce]

[martin_fierro]

[colinhester]

This is Nobel Prize material. This is a big shift in problem solving. Throw in a cash prize for correct structures and watch the time for solving come down to days/hours......

[Silentgypsy]

There’s probably a practical and useful application for a myriad of things.

[decimon]

There’s probably a practical and useful application for a myriad of things.

Could be interesting if other researchers follow up on this.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

According to Popovic, "Foldit shows that a game can turn novices into domain experts capable of producing first-class scientific discoveries. We are currently applying the same approach to change the way math and science are taught in school."

Of at least tangential interest, I presume . . .

[AdmSmith]

Try Foldit here http://fold.it/portal/

[AdmSmith]

The article http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/zoran/NSMBfoldit-2011.pdf

[metmom]

This is of interest to a LOT of people.

[spankalib]

This sounds familiar. I remember “folding at home”. IIRC, you allow your computer to participate somehow...not a techie...but it collaborates somehow into one giant supercomputer:

http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Main

[zeugma]

This is interesting. I'll have to take a look at this. Meanwhile, the Free Republic Folding@Home team keeps on cranking...