In three weeks of video game play, gamers enlisted by the University of Washington were able to solve a molecular puzzle that scientists had been sweating over for more than a decade—the structure of a key protein that retroviruses like HIV need to multiply.

"It's the power of citizen science," says Firas Khatib, a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of UW biochemistry professor David Baker. Baker's laboratory developed the game, called Foldit, about three years ago, believing that they could tap some of the brain power that puzzle-loving humans pour into computer games.

...For the retrovirus problem, Foldit players started with scientists' rough-draft idea of the shape of the protease from a retrovirus that causes AIDS in monkeys. During three-weeks of play, gamers generated over one million structure predictions. The solution, reached by the winning team in 10 days, was nearly perfect; it gave Baker and colleagues all the information they needed to nail down the structure almost to the last atom.

Next up, crowdsourcing cures for diseases! (I hear bloodletting is the new old rage.)

Curties to slog tipper Dale.