Ahmed: Computer game demonstrates value of public participation

The silence after a stereotype is challenged is something I haven’t enjoyed in quite some… The silence after a stereotype is challenged is something I haven’t enjoyed in quite some time.

Stereotypes are easy to apply — they allow us to compartmentalize members of society in a manner that suits our biases. For example, when I think computer gamers, I think heavy metal, Mountain Dew and basements. And that’s all.

But recently, I discovered how terribly flawed my conceptions were. As reported in Scientific American magazine, online gamers, in playing a competitive 3-D protein folding game called Foldit, have unlocked the three-dimensional structure of an enzyme involved in HIV infection. Researchers at the University of Washington originally released the game on the Internet hoping for just such a development.

There’s more room in our society for the sharing of intelligence and skills. This is proof that it works.

The enzyme in question was a protease, which cuts other proteins. HIV infects a host human cell in an effort to commandeer it for producing more copies of itself. Viruses lack the cellular complexity to replicate without a host. HIV protease, then, is necessary for viral progeny — without cutting a few proteins, new copies would never reach potency.

It follows that drugs that could block this enzyme would be of interest to researchers, and they are. However, they can only be created when the shape of the target is well known. To a certain extent, scientists already know how to elucidate the structure of proteins. X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance and circular dichroism spectroscopy are common techniques that produce starting templates. Refining these templates is a matter of computer algorithms. When the algorithms fall short, however, human visual intuition can fill the gap. It did so with the aforementioned protein, resolving a problem that had confounded scientists for a decade.

Tapping a demographic whose members exercise their visual intuition on a daily basis was both pure genius and common sense. It’s genius because it breaks barriers. In the academic world, specialists are averse to admitting that a “non-specialists” can do what they do, or maybe even more. Now that someone’s done it, it seems like common sense.

There are plenty more proteins with their own implications for our health that could use a few keystrokes from gamers. And not just gamers: What other members of society can contribute to science? Or perhaps more broadly, are there people with other skills that can assist us on a mass scale?

Economics might be another such frontier. People both inside and outside academic circles are masters at creating economic models; some could probably manage federal finances better than Capitol Hill-dwellers. The New York Times was probably thinking along these lines when it released the Budget Puzzle last November — a simple exercise wherein users customize how they’ll balance the budget. Though it did not lead to legislation, one could easily imagine a more elaborate, more serious poll, available to anyone with Internet access.

Another example of particular skillsets applied on a mass scale is cryptanalysis. In 1999, a murderer deposited two encrypted notes beside a body. When, earlier this year, the FBI ‘s skilled cryptanalysts decided they couldn’t crack the code by themselves, the organization displayed the notes on its website. Now, the country’s best code-crackers are on the case.

Budget balancing and cryptanalysis might be very particular subjects. But if solutions are sought for many different problems on a mass scale using the power of the Internet, is there anything to lose? We should make use of all the available resources, and the experts out there that are simply in hiding.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s another simultaneously commonsensical and genius measure we just haven’t yet identified. Sharing intelligence across specialities has proven its use. Lest we forget, it was a doctor, John Gorrie, who invented the first mechanical refrigerator and the framework for air conditioning.

Contact Abdul at aba24@pitt.edu