Foldit is a new game developed by the researchers at the University of Washington and it is said that the game can help in developing a cure for COVID-19. Foldit requires players to solve protein unfolding puzzles. Based on the effectiveness of the solution a player provides, they can then earn point-based rewards. In return, researchers will be able to experiment on the folded proteins to prepare a cure for real-world diseases such as the COVID-19 coronavirus.
However, if you don't like playing the game, you can still let your beast of a PC to handle the task on its own. All you have to do is donate a bit of your PC's computing power.
If you choose to play the protein unfolding game, you can instantly hop onto Foldit and climb your way up the leaderboard. Alternatively, you can also let your PC handle the task on its own by simply logging into the Folding@home software that can be downloaded from here. If you're hearing about Folding@home for the first time, it basically is a distributed computing project developed by the researchers at Standford University. The project uses PCs that are idle around the world for medical purposes, and is currently focused on the coronavirus pandemic.
Folding@home works by breaking down protein data into work units. These units are automatically downloaded on PCs that have the Folding software installed. The PC will then continue to utilize all of its power in completing the assigned work unit. Once the work has been completed, the results are uploaded to the Folding@home server. After this, a new work unit will be download and the whole process starts again until you choose to discontinue it manually.
If you feel like supporting the researchers working in finding a cure for COVID-19, you can begin donating your PC power by downloading the Foldit game here, or the Folding@home software from here.
