Compared to slaying dragons or building civilizations, figuring out the shape of a protein doesn’t sound particularly thrilling. But turn the task into an online game, replete with the competition and camaraderie of “World of Warcraft,” and the masses will come.
CAUGHT IN THE FOLD In a game that lets thousands of people compete to solve protein-folding puzzles (screen shot shown here), red spiky balls appear where parts of the protein are too close together, costing the player points.
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