Play a game. Cure Cancer. No, really.
‘Fold.it’. No, I’m not dissing you with some new playground slang, I’m letting you know about a game that could benefit humankind. Every second you spend playing ‘Fold it’, a freely downloadable game, you will be contributing to scientific research, which could find a cure for diseases like HIV, Cancer and Alzheimer’s.
The idea is straightforward enough. There’s a global buzz about brain training games and puzzlers, so why not release a 30 meg downloadable game that tests and teases gamers with weird graphical models that can be manipulated, twisted and prodded for points?
Jason can heal you with a game. And no, it’s not doctors and nurses.
Now consider that these ‘models’ are not just fun diversions, but computer representations of real proteins such as collagen (apparently that’s a protein). By folding and pulling protein chains around it is possible for thousands of gaming minds to do the work supercomputers aren’t really that good at. Through processes which, even though they’re explained in detail on the ‘fold.it’ website, I still don’t understand, predicting how a protein curls up has major street-cred with molecular biologists. In something like ‘Tetris’ meets ‘Snake’, you tuck twisty green tubes into the smallest shape you can get them into. For your efforts you get points and kudos on the lively community forums that have grown to support this project. More importantly, long after you’ve gone to bed, or turned to Halo, scientists might be sifting your data and finding disease busting potential in your folds.
So, if you brain-train during your commute, or you’re the kind of good hearted citizen gamer who feels guilty whenever you frag an opponent, you might want to point your problem-solving grey matter at www.fold.it
Jason writes his own blog. Check out his musings on games, gadgets and just plain whacked-out-type-stuff at www.jasonbradbury.com
