How many times have you told your kids or your grandkids to turn off their video games?  To quit playing games on their cell phones?  Well, medical researchers and even high-level government security operations are calling on high school and college kids who are geniuses at playing video and computer games to make breakthroughs in science and security that no one else can.

Fox News reports today of a breakthrough in AIDS research that will open doors to cures and treatments for many viruses, and all thanks to the abilities of “gamers.”   After medical scientists were stumped for a decade, teens and college kids were enlisted to apply a computer game strategy and use their three-dimensional skills to crack the structure of complicated a retrovirus protein.

Looking for a solution, researchers at the University of Washington turned to Foldit, a program created by the university a few years ago that transforms problems of science into competitive computer games, and challenged players to use their three-dimensional problem-solving skills to build accurate models of the protein.

Within days, the gamers generated models good enough for the researchers to refine into an accurate portrayal of the enzyme’s

AIDS Protein Deciphered By Computer Gamers

structure. What’s more, the scientists identified parts of the molecule that are likely targets for drugs to block the enzyme.

“The ingenuity of game players is a formidable force that, if properly directed, can be used to solve a wide range of scientific problems,” Khatib said.

College and even high school computer gamers are also being enlisted to fight off international computer hackers who are interested in stealing military secrets, or who desire to break into the U.S. banking system or steal other intellectual property.   College students with a love for computer

programming are inexhaustible in hunting down computer viruses, seeking out security breaches.  They are especially able in blocking hackers from China and other predatory governments who seek to get the very best of American technology and know how, illegally.

Next time homework is done, instead of  “No you can’t.”   You might want to say, “Go play!”

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Filed under: Economy, Education, Featured, Inside The KC, Sonja Eddings Brown, Uncategorized by Sonja Eddings Brown, Sep 20, 2011