Video games are enabling discovery

How much time have you wasted playing Tetris, Minesweeper, Candy crush saga, or Angry birds over the years? Many of us play simple computer puzzles to relax and take our minds off real life problems. Collectively, on our smart phones alone, we do this for an estimated 1.15 billion hours each month. But what if, rather than playing aimless games, we could divert this time and effort into solving scientific problems?

This is exactly what ‘games of purpose’ are doing. The gamification of science is now a serious endeavour – and the contributions of their non-professional and untrained players is leading to important scientific results and multiple publications.