Citizen science: Phylo the sequence alignment game

Citizen science in the form of computer games are coming think and fast. Phylo is the latest offering and I've got to say its pretty additive.

Phylo, match up the coloured blocks, score points, help scientist fight diseases!

This time the aim is to help scientist who study genomes match up the DNA in the genes from one species with those of another species. The is important because if a gene is more or less the same in many different species then it probably means that its particularly important.

So how come scientist don't just let computers work it all out? Well it turns out that computer programs are pretty rubbish at this sort of problem because they painstakingly work through all possible ways to align the bits of DNA and that takes ages. But the human brain is really good at spotting patterns, so we get the job done much more efficiently. Have a go at the game and you'll soon find you are scoring better than the computer.

The game is really quite simple, each building block of the DNA (remember those A,T,G & Cs) are represented by a different colour block. All you have to do is slide the blocks around and get the colours on one line to match up with colours on another line. You get points for every match and points taken away for incorrect matches or gaps.

The other really nice thing about Phylo is that you can enjoy it for its own sake. You don't have to know a thing about DNA, genes or genomes to be able to play it. So literately anyone can have a go.

If you'd like to read more you can find the original journal article here.