At first glance, I thought Foldit was just a new version of Folding@home. I did a double-take when I realized the article said it was a “game”.
“Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-solving intuituions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins.”
The game is basically a data gathering engine to study if humans can come up with better pattern-folding techniques than computers can. If the data gathered from playing the game can actually produce better protein folding algorithms, then it won’t just speed up scientist’s efforts in folding, it would also help inprove the data generated by volunteer distributed solutions like Folding@home.
I already signed-up, will download and check-out the game later. If it turns out to be fun then this would be a great example of how games can be utilized to actually contribute to society in ways other than entertainment or culture.
Goto the Foldit’s site and start folding!
— [update] —
Wired Magazine has a nice feature on Foldit’s year so far.
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