This is brilliant.
Though this is way beyond my intellect, it's awesome to think that more spatially gifted people have a means to put their puzzle-solving abilities to good use!
The use: advancing research on proteins.
Proteins are made up of strands of amino acids that curl up into 3-dimensional bundles, the structure of which is essential to the proteins' functions. Scientists are trying to understand the mechanism by which this folding process occurs, but to do so computationally is both complex and expensive.
Enter FoldIt, a site that turns protein folding into interactive 3-D puzzles that users can attempt to solve, thus contributing to the body research though their efforts.
Possible uses for this research: oh, just curing AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer's...
Sudoku, anyone?
Click here for more info on FoldIt.
