Help solving cancer - online
The comedian is known for his one-liners, and among his quips is this:
"A lady with a clipboard stopped me in the street the other day. She said, 'Can you spare a few minutes for cancer research?' I said, 'All right, but we won't get much done."
It now looks though as if comedy is moving into the realm of reality: if you have a few minutes to play a game on-line, then who knows: you could help cure cancer, HIV or Alzheimers.
is asking internet users to "solve puzzles for science".
It's a free game, designed by scientists at the , in which players around the world compete to design proteins. You can get a more detailed explanation of proteins .
Understanding the rules of "protein folding" remains one of biology's central problems. Solving that problem could lead to real benefits: scientists will test proteins designed by the game's players to see if they make viable candidate compounds for new drugs.
You can read what others have said about Foldit , and .
In order to play Fold It, you need to and please do let us know if you happen to help cure cancer or indeed any disease as we'd probably want to feature you on a forthcoming iPM.
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