Gamers Out Level AIDS

Every once in awhile gamers all around the world get to laugh at the naysayers. Those that say we contribute nothing to society and that games are in fact a colossal waste of time. Today is one of those days because there has been a major breakthrough in the curing of AIDS.
A game called Foldit along with 15 players have done something that no doctors or scientist have been able to do. These gamers were approached by a biochemist named Firas Khatib, which he claimed was a "last ditch effort". He offered them a challenge to solve the Mason-Pfizer monkey-virus puzzle which he and his colleagues had laid the groundwork for, but were now getting prepared to drop the project. Only 10 days later the gamers had responded with a solution. It looks something like this...

This helped uncover the structure of a specific enzyme that helps in the spread of the virus. Now researchers can take this to the next level and with any luck make great progress in fighting AIDS spread and hopefully even curing it.

Article by: Larry Harris