Interesting Snippets

Code Hero is a game that teaches you to code.

The game is a co-op first-person science shooter where you use a code gun to manipulate code. Your code gun can copy code like new items and fire it like ammunition to do new things. You can edit new code to do anything you can imagine. You’ll learn how to blast the enemy, manipulate the world, and build structures creatively to create the games of your dreams and recruit an army of coders to save the world

As experts on human motivation, they have identified basic psychological needs — similar to physical needs like food, water and sleep — that video games satisfy.
First, Ryan says, is the need to feel competent. In real life, you get the chance to “level up” only once every couple years: like when you earn a promotion at work or get married. In games, you always know what you have to do to get to the next level.

In just three weeks, gamers deciphered the structure of a key protein in the development of AIDS that has stumped scientists for years. …
“Following the failure of a wide range of attempts to solve the crystal structure of M-PMV retroviral protease by molecular replacement, we challenged players of the protein folding game Foldit to produce accurate models of the protein,” the study reads. “Remarkably, Foldit players were able to generate models of sufficient quality for successful molecular replacement and subsequent structure determination. The refined structure provides new insights for the design of antiretroviral drugs.

motorists have struggled with untold hours of delay, one partial collapse, and a bridge that seems to be forever changing shape. The process won’t be complete until 2013. But as of Tuesday, transit authorities have a new way to explain what’s going on: a free iPad app that lets you drive over a constantly updated virtual version of the Bay Bridge