Comment Re:would be interesting to mine their data (Score 1) 61
That's actually a good idea. You're getting off and helping science at the same!
Gamers Outdo Computers At DNA Sequence Alignments 61
ananyo writes "In another victory for crowdsourcing, gamers playing Phylo have beaten a state-of-the-art program at aligning regions of 521 disease-associated genes form different species. The 'multiple sequence alignment problem' refers to the difficulty of aligning roughly similar sequences of DNA in genes common to many species. DNA sequences that are conserved across species may play an important role in the ultimate function of that particular gene. But with thousands of genomes likely to be sequenced in the next few years, sequence alignment will only become more difficult in future. Researchers now report that players of Phylo have produced roughly 350,000 solutions to various multiple sequence alignment problems, beating the accuracy of alignments from a program in roughly 70% of the sequences they manipulated."
Comment Telecommuting Isn't for Everyone (Score 2) 230
When I first started working at home, I missed having co-workers. I missed dressing up for work although I admit I liked not having to commute for work. In terms of productivity, I really needed to discipline myself. I have a child at home so my productivity was definitely affected in the first few weeks.
I agree that telecommuting is a great option but I don't think it's something that should be implemented for all. Some groups of people need to be in the same physical space to work. Some are more productive working alone at home.
Comment Leap Year Superstitions (Score 1) 337
an excuse to celebrate leap year superstitions! Will I find the One this year?
