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glottis8 polycounter lvl 9
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/zoran/NSMBfoldit-2011.pdf

"Crystal structure of a monomeric retroviral protease solved by protein folding game players."


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2393200,00.asp

From PC Mag:

"In just three weeks, gamers deciphered the structure of a key protein in the development of AIDS that has stumped scientists for years. According to a studypublished Sunday in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the findings could present a significant breakthrough for AIDS and HIV research.

Using an online game called Foldit, players were able to predict the structure of a protein called retroviral protease, an enzyme that plays a critical role in the way HIV multiplies. Unlocking the build of the protein could theoretically aid scientists in developing drugs that would stop protease from spreading."

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  • Del
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    Del polycounter lvl 9
    ~ Wait.. So gamers mapped out a virus but a computer couldn't? Help me understand. I'm trying here
  • glottis8
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    glottis8 polycounter lvl 9
    According to the article

    “People have spatial reasoning skills, something computers are not yet good at,” Foldit’s lead designer Seth Cooper said in a statement. “Games provide a framework for bringing together the strengths of computers and humans.”

    Which i guess defines that computers can compute certain terms and reasoning, but the human brain can understand and fill in the gaps with its understanding.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    Basically, they'll have developed a game application that challenges players to complete certain small tasks in a small period of time; those tasks will relate directly to a small part of the protein folding process that would otherwise be difficult to calculate.

    It's not the first time a technique like this has been used. I seem to recall another such game used for image tagging purposes or something.
  • Bigjohn
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    Bigjohn polycounter lvl 11
    Can you still play that game? I'm curious to see what they did there.

    Edit:
    Guess you can: http://fold.it
  • TheWinterLord
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    TheWinterLord polycounter lvl 17
    The question is: does it have team deathmatch?
  • Tulkamir
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    Tulkamir polycounter lvl 18
    Wow, that is all kinds of awesome.

    Dreamer - Computers are nowhere near the power of a human brain yet. I'm honestly surprised you'd find it surprising that a person could figure out something a computer can't. ;)

    Bigjohn - site's offline now. :( Was hoping to give it a try too.
  • glottis8
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    glottis8 polycounter lvl 9
    Try it in firefox. i tried opening it in chrome and said it was offline, but loaded just fine in firefox.

    Yea... the human brain has so much untouched potential. it's crazy. Sometimes it just takes a little perspective and experience to figure things out.
  • eld
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    eld polycounter lvl 18
    glottis8 wrote: »
    Yea... the human brain has so much untouched potential. it's crazy. Sometimes it just takes a little perspective and experience to figure things out.

    Well, it's not like it's going untouched, humans have been doing smart things for ages :P

    It all goes back to how the human brain works, we can't process an image as raw data anywhere near as fast as a computer, but we can interpret and process it in ways that a computer cannot do, hence why logic solved this over raw processing power.

    Spacial awareness and such.


    Also, wow, never actually tried it before, but it looks quite fun (and educational!):

    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGYJyur4FUA[/ame]
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