But for two Belgian beer fans, that’s simply not enough. Seems that they think you should be able to relieve yourself and shot aliens or slalom down ski slopes at the same time.

To that end, they designed and have recently released the ‘Place to Pee’ video game. It’s set up in a booth and caters for two users at a time. Gamers (ie pee-ers) score by aiming and hitting sensors positioned on either side of the urinal.

And ladies, if you think that it’s just a ‘man thing’, think again. Seems that they have created a paper cone allows women to play too. Lucky us!

Personally, I think these guys have more than one beer too many!!!

(source – Reuters)

Post from: Healthbolt

Sounds bizarre but researchers at the University of Washington are hoping that Foldit, a new computer game will help uncover the key to medical mysteries ranging from Alzheimer’s Disease to vaccines.

There are more than 100,000 different kinds of proteins in the human body. These proteins form cells, make up the immune system, and determine the speed of chemical reactions.

Scientists already know the genetic sequence of many of the proteins but not how they fold up into the complext shapes that play the crucial biological roles within the human body.

This is where Foldit comes in.

This computer game will allow players to manipulate on-screen images of protein chains and attempt to predict their folding patterns. Points are earned for every chemically stable folded protein they create. The more they create, the more they earn. The reward – maybe one day the Nobel Prize in Medicine according to the game’s creators.

In recent game trials, hundreds of players were provided with 40 protein puzzles (the folding solutions already known to the game makers) to solve and most of the players were able to find the correct structure faster than the computer could.

The next step is to provide players with proteins with unknown folding patterns and let them do the research in protein structure prediction through game playing.

Sounds like a unique form of scientific outsourcing.

This might be the one computer game that parents will encourage their children to play…

You can download it here.

(Source)

Post from: Healthbolt

The video game is Re-Mission and it features an intrepid nanobot called Roxxi who journeys through cancer patients bodies, destroying the cancer cells, fighting the infections, and dealing with the side effects usually associated with different cancers and cancer treatments.

If you think it’s just another video game, think again. To ensure that Re-Mission was on track to help cancer suffers, a controlled research study was undertaken prior to the game’s release. 375 cancer patients between the ages of 13 and 29 from the United States, Australia, and Canada were recruited to test the games effectiveness.

Here are the results…

“Re-Mission significantly enhanced self-efficacy, cancer-related knowledge, and treatment adherence in adolescents and young adults with cancer. Young people who played Re-Mission maintained higher blood levels of chemotherapy and showed higher rates of antibiotic utilization than those in the control group.”

Re-Mission is available free of charge to young people with cancer. View the tralier and download it here.

Post from: Healthbolt