Foldit: Gaming A Way To A Cure For AIDS And Cancer

Saturday, May. 9 2009 | Author: Dora

folding Video games are fun, there is no doubt about that; but we also cannot discount the fact that sometimes, too much of it can get in the way of other responsibilities. I know, I am talking like a boring adult here but hey, it is a fact. Too much of anything can disrupt “normal” living.

What if I were to tell you that you can play a video game and actually say that you are contributing to the betterment of the world? I am sure you have heard of Sony’s Folding project, which was launched a year or two ago. The idea was to harness the computing power of PlayStation 3 units sitting idle at people’s homes and use them to help with medical research.

Foldit, however, is something else. More than making use of spare computing power, this game actually makes use of the brain power of people playing the game. The video game is a 3D puzzle, which is not much different from other games in the genre. But this is only on the surface. What players are actually doing is helping find solutions to one of the biggest real-life puzzles: protein folding. Yahoo Games explains:

Foldit’s puzzles deal with protein folding, the vital but poorly understood process by which protein chains — some of the most important molecules in biology — coil themselves into compact shapes. Because these shapes determine the function of the protein, a better understanding of the principles behind protein folding stands to help researchers better understand diseases like cancer and AIDS. The better the structure players find, the higher the score they earn.

While I would probably never understand the real-life concepts covered by the game, I am sure that playing the puzzle would be fun. Let’s try it?