back to article Online gamers strike major blow in battle against AIDS

A bunch of gamers have untangled the structure of a key protein in the virus that causes AIDS, a mystery that has left scientists stumped for decades. It took just three weeks for players of online game Foldit to predict an accurate model for the protein – a type of enzyme called a retroviral protease that has a critical role …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Up with this kind of thing!

    See title.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Wait a minute...

    ...I'm not sure I understand. This article didn't mention twitter being involved in a socially beneficial event, and I know that's not possible. And what are these gamers? There isn't even a hashtag. You need to make your articles more understandable.

  3. Godwhacker
    Go

    This needs to be on Steam right now.

  4. Guido Esperanto
    Thumb Up

    /title

    An article that doesnt paint gamers as being do'ers of evil, and mass murderers in hiding....about bloody time.

    nice job on the foldit team to actually create a piece of "entertainment" that harnesses the collective power of gamers worlwide for the good of mankind.

    Its a small step, but enough to start the gamer naysayers to re-consider their thoughts that its a "waste of time"

    Gamers 1 - 1 Society

    1. Anonymous Coward 101
      Trollface

      The only thing worse than being a mass murderer...

      ...is helping to cure AIDS - God's way of destroying prostitutes, homosexuals and drug addicts.

      Gamers are truly despicable.

      1. CD001

        Why downvote a troll, with an obvious troll icon?

        What's worrying is that there are actually people that really, genuinely think like that...

        1. Old Handle

          Why downvote a troll?

          Because it wasn't clever or amusing in any way. If you're going to troll, at least be interesting.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow

    This is a perfect example of why technology is awesome.

    1. Thomas 4

      Almost

      This is a perfect example of why gamers are awesome.

  6. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Pint

    Cheers to them

    Now there is a game worth playing! Excellent manners to give the gamers full credit.

  7. JakeyC

    I propose a new game - "hunt the Higgs"

    Bit like a multiplayer version of Where's Wally (that's "Waldo" for our American chums).

    Also, Paris because she's a PROtease, geddit?! Not sure if she's retroviral, however...

  8. Mondo the Magnificent

    No mom....

    ..I'm not playing brain melting, time wasting games in my room! I'm busy saving the world!

  9. sisk

    And to think, my mother tried to tell me growing up that video games were a waste of time. Kudos to the completely awesome brains behind and in Foldit. I'll be looking that game up now.

  10. b166er
  11. Stroppy

    The El Reg Effect

    The El Reg effect has struck again - fold.it website down.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'll just leave this here....

    http://wowaids.ytmnd.com/

  13. miknik

    If I cure AIDS playing online games...

    ...then I'd better get a hell of a lot of XP for that.

    1. The Grinning Duck

      You automatically unlock the Boffin Pro perk, and Labcoat cammo.

  14. Shadowmanx2009

    Hot & Cold Fusion

    How about a game to discover ways to build an affordable, workable nuclear fusion plant, within the next 5 years?

  15. mmm mmm

    Impressive.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And one other thing...

    I wonder: Did the guy who finally solved the last piece of the puzzle get a message saying, "A WINNER IS YOU"?

  17. Winkypop Silver badge

    Next, we need one to....

    ....help make motorway food edible.

    Yay for science!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Games are good...

    ...after all most of us now know how to kill a mutant zombie hoard or an invading alien species, this is just another one to add to the list.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ALL YOUR BASE-PAIR ARE BELONG TO US

    Nice to hear some pro-gamer stories.

  20. dcdc

    It's based on code from rosetta as used in rosetta@home which can always use more cpus: http://boinc.bakerlab.org/

    ;)

  21. John Smith 19 Gold badge

    Has to be said

    "Nice move, gamer."

  22. Hairy

    Awesome article

    All I can say is... Cooooool!

  23. BasevaInc

    So Bobby how was your day ??

    We busted a protein & killed an enzyme and we saw Paris and went for a ProTease!

    What!!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good thing...

    I got non-lubricated condoms, no one likes sticky balloons.

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