15 year old AIDS enzyme problem solved by an online game

An online game rewarding players for correctly decoding a complex protein solved a 15 year old AIDS problem. The game enabled users to model the enzyme, Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV) retroviral protease, in just three weeks. Technically though, the correct answer was found in just ten days; the time span for the game was 3 weeks. From the Huffington Post:

scientists experimented with giving users three weeks to create a model of a protein that scientists haven't been able to model on the molecular level themselves. At the end of the three-week period, scientists compared the best models to x-ray crystallography of the protein. They discovered that at least one group of players had determined the correct structure for it, according to the Fold.it. blog.

The findings were published in structural and molecular biology section of the Sept. 18 version of the journal Nature. Fold.it has gained over 236,000 players since it started in 2008.

Amazingly, according to PC Magazine, few of the players involved had any background in biochemistry at all.

How insane is that? Technology/social media is re-opening the world of science to average folks!