The protein causing AIDS in rhesus monkeys that hadn’t been solved for 15 years was finally solved by Foldit players and confirmed by x-ray crystallography. Foldit is a multiplayer online game that challenges players from across the world to solve difficult protein-structure prediction problems.
In the Nature Structural & Molecular Biology article Crystal structure of a monomeric retroviral protease solved by protein folding game players Firas Khatib, Frank DiMaio, et al, were able to substantiate the claim that:
Foldit players were able to generate models of sufficient quality for successful molecular replacement and subsequent structure determination. The refined structure provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs.
The Nature report details how Foldit player were able to solve a real-world modeling problem that lead to the solution of a long-standing protein crystal structure problem that may lead to a cure of AIDS. The concluding sentence of this article reminds us that:
These results indicate the potential for integrating video games into the real-world scientific process: the ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems.
Khatib, F., DiMaio, F., Cooper, S., Kazmierczyk, M., Gilski, M., Krzywda, S., Zabranska, H., et al. (2011). Crystal structure of a monomeric retroviral protease solved by protein folding game players. Nat Struct Mol Biol, advance online publication. doi:10.1038/nsmb.2119
This really confirms that even though most people don’t like school or traditional educational environments they do like learning. When we can use a game or problem solving environment to tackle problems like AIDS then we should be looking to those environments to help us change what we do in our schools.
This supports some of the other articles you have highlighted in the past. Some of the greatest discoveries are made in volunteer, “truly fun” settings. Wow! If we turned more research over to gamers we could solve many more significant world problems.