http://fold.it/ - weird protein folding 'game'

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I suggest people here try http://fold.it/ as autistic people seem to sometimes be really good at weird things. It's a protein-folding game, and has had some promising results with HIV-related stuff: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20108 ... akthrough/
I seem unable to play this game effectively... either that or it takes practice, either way, with a forum full of people, hopefully someone will be able to help science with this

Also, I think this is the first thread I've started on wp

Sounds interesting. I'm gonna try it.

EDIT: I played it and it was all right. A good way to kill time (something which I have an abundance of at the moment).

So do you link macromolecules with peptite bonds, and then fold them? (My computer won't open links for some reason)

This is the game where the gamers solved a problem related to an HIV protein in three weeks, but which scientists have been working on for 10 years.

I tried it, and I've found it to be vague, complicated and confusing. I can't imagine science being done when you can't even see what you're doing.

I don't understand it at all, but I don't think the people that solved the HIV protein thing understood a lot of it either, just checking to see if any of you are somehow able to win this consistantly

I've ony done about half of the intro puzzles but so far I've found that to boost your score you need to close voids, remove clashes, create hydrogen bonds and make sure the hydrophobics are facing inwards and the hydrophilics are facing outwards.

I love fold it, I've been playing it for about a month now It does take some time to learn, and a lot of persistence and willingness to experiment on the science puzzles. Apparently it was designed for people who play a lot of other video games, as they increase visual spatial skills. I've also heard people with autism have a tendency to have high visual spatial skills, so I do think some people with autism might be naturally good at this game

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Questions are my favourite form of communication

This is very interesting! It's really amazing how an online computer game can really treat a serious scientific problem. Apparently, HIV and AIDS are no longer an urgent death sentence. The treatment of these illnesses, however, has not changed since 1996. Scientists have been attempting to figure out how the proteins of this category of viruses work together. Now, in three weeks, a group of players untangled an AIDS-like virus that scientists have been puzzling over for a decade. Check this out.