Science is no game… or is it?
Kellian Adams from Green Door Labs shares three games that contribute to scientific research.
I admit it: I was not a science nerd when I was a kid. I was
an artsy nerd and in fact, I was a little scared of Math and Science. But we
live in a different world now where science is accessible to artsy kids in ways
that I never imagined.
Now, as a game designer, art and science collide in my world
every day and I’m amazed by how scientific research actually makes for GREAT
(and beautiful) games. The exciting thing about science games is that they can
be used to gather and interpret real data for scientific research so there’s
this sense of playing with a purpose. There have been new supernovas named, new
proteins discovered and new epidemiological patterns uncovered all thanks to
people’s hard work through gameplay.
So as you check out the games below have fun playing but also
consider your serious work as a true, contributing, game-playing scientist. Who knows, you may discover something groundbreaking!
Help
cure cancer, AIDS and Alzheimers with FOLD IT: http://fold.it
Foldit is “collecting data to find
out if humans' pattern-recognition and puzzle-solving abilities make them more
efficient than existing computer programs at pattern-folding tasks.” The
project suspects that humans playing games may in fact be more efficient than
computers in some cases. (We shall see…)
In the game, players solve real-world puzzles by
taking large strands of proteins and folding
them into the most compact possible configuration so that they can be
recognized and categorized. Each move affects the protein molecules in the
strand in a different way, making it something like a game of “molecular chess”.
Playing Foldit, people have discovered the structure of a protein belonging to the
Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV), a close relative of HIV that causes AIDS in
monkeys.
Map the human brain with EYEWIRE: eyewire.org
If an electron microscope took a picture of only 1
mm of a human brain, tracing the neural connections there “would take one person working around the clock 100,000
years. Aided by a computer, it would require 1,000 years of work” says
physicist Sebastian Sung, inventor of Eyewire.
But what if hundreds of thousands of
people all pitched in? Under Sung’s lead MIT’s neuroscience
department has built Eyewire, a game that presents people with black-and-white
neural images and lets them color and correct the computer’s image. The results
may help scientists at MIT and the Max Planck Institute of Science understand
how neurons affect diseases like schitzophrenia and epilepsy. Eyewire uses points, progress bars and checks on your
neural mapping to make the game simple and pretty addictive.
Identify species and map migration patterns with Project
Noah. http://www.projectnoah.org
This game is especially cool because it’s mobile and involves
going outdoors and looking for plants and animals.
Download the Project Noah app to capture photos of plants and animals and tag them according to your location. Identify what other people have seen and talk with other users about whether or
not you think the categorization is correct.
Missions include tracking global urban
biodiversity, counting and identifying species in the Rocky Mountains of
Colorado and the “Great Pollinator Project of NYC”. Project Noah’s research has
been used by National Geographic and the National Park Service.
Looking for more ways to play your research? Check
out https://www.zooniverse.org, which has
a number of games for research on everything from space exploration to whale
song translation. For more citizen science games to play on your mobile phone,
try here:
*Green Door Labs is a
Cambridge-based game company that helps educators make learning more engaging.
You can learn more and see what they’re playing at www.greendoorlabs.com or follow them at
@greendoorlabs
