Play with a Purpose

GYM TIME: We are still trekking to the gym about three times a week, which is good, especially this time of year, when weather puts a damper on many outdoor activities. 

The kids seem to record a new accomplishment every time we go. For instance, Annabelle has now walked the slack line in the foreground several times successfully. As you can see, it has no assisting rope, like the one in the background. 

And a few days back, CJ managed to bounce his way up onto the wall for the first time. Now he can do it routinely.

It's really cool to watch their confidence and abilities expand.

GOOD GAMES: Years ago, in a special science-themed event for students at the University of Washington, CJ and Annabelle played a computer game called Foldit. In it, players are tasked with solving protein-folding puzzles. It was the first game the UW's Center for Game Science produced.

While players enjoy the game-play environment of Foldit, what's happening is they're actually processing smaller bits of a larger data set of proteins that computers otherwise could not process. Fast forward a few years, and Foldit has led to various discoveries around the structures of specific proteins and confirmed by traditional scientific tests. Here's one example from a recent FoldIt news release ...

A protein that has not been solved for 15 years has recently been resolved by Foldit players and confirmed by x-ray crystalography (see http://fold.it/portal/node/989012 ). the paper is currently submitted to science. The group that produced the solution is on the author list. This protein had to wait for 15 years, just for the 2 weeks of focused Foldit play in order to be resolved.

Here's a video update about Foldit's accomplishments. ...


You can play Foldit for free at: http://fold.it/

Another online game from the center, Mozak, also uses gamification and crowdsourcing to advance neuroscience research. And their educational games Refraction and Creature Capture are aimed at boosting K-12 mathematics.

Neat stuff!