I'll post in this thread articles with any news about the aflatoxin puzzles.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/gamers-wanted-to-attack-food-toxin/
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-10/uoc--cga101717.php (This one is from AAAS, which also publishes the journal Science).
http://www.itbusinessnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=5190906
The Scientific American podcast features Justin Siegel from UC Davis. He's leading the research team, and is another product of the Baker Lab. He was a lead author of "Increased Diels-Alderase activity through FoldIt player guided backbone remodeling", Nature Biotechnology 2012: 30: 190-192 DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2109. (That paper also cited "Foldit players", or at least "Players F", as an author, along with Drs. Cooper, Baker, and Popovich.)
BBC World Service October 16 interview with Howard Shapiro, Chief Ag Officer at Mars Inc (starting at 40:10):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172vgdwybrjrh5
BBC World Service October 16 interview with Susume (starting at 43:50):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172vgdwybrjzzf
Nicely written article at a site for science fans:
https://undark.org/2017/10/19/online-gamers-take-puzzle-deadly-aflatoxin/
Sadly, the BBC in its finite wisdom limits the time you can listen to its World Service broadcasts online. The interview with Dr. Shapiro and Susume are now in the digital dustbin.
I was able to capture Susume's interview using a technically flawed (really horrible) speaker-to-microphone method. I'll put out a transcript in the near future.
Now we're hitting the big time!
Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/could-video-gamers-make-our-food-supply-safer-180965355/
The Aggie is published by the Associated Students at the UC Davis (ASUCD). According to the UC Davis' website, they are ranked #1 nationally in agriculture and #1 worldwide in veterinary medicine. So the aflatoxin challenge seems like a good fit.
Also one of the best wine making schools in the US :)
The writer interviewed ya' boy a couple weeks ago actually, I was wondering when this would turn up. Looks like I'm picking up this Thursday's issue of The California Aggie for sure!
This one has nothing to do with foldit, but suggests an answer to a question I've heard asked in chat: Why does the fungus make the aflatoxin?
"...Aflatoxin production increased an average of 1.5-fold in the presence of a single [insect] larva and nearly 3-fold when the fungus was mechanically damaged.... Our results provide the first clear evidence of a fitness advantage conferred to A. flavus by aflatoxin when interacting with insects."
Abstract here: https://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.pq365
Edited to add: What astonishes me here is that the fungus doesn't just produce aflatoxin to make life harder for bugs that might come along and eat it. It produces *more* aflatoxin when it is being eaten than when it isn't.
Foldit player S0ckrates and UC Davis scientist Justin Siegel were interviewed for a story about foldit on Valley Public Radio: http://kvpr.org/post/scientists-newest-tool-fight-agricultural-toxin-video-game
Nice job, S0ck! Hopefully this will bring you some more viewers on Twitch to check out the game!
Wondered when it would run eventually! Part of my streaming goals is to help get the playerbase of my demographic and similar ones growing within Foldit, so that there's more incentive to keep improving the game and adapting towards the future players, not just the seasoned vets. I realize I might be pandering to the wrong crowd here with public radio, but any favorable notoriety's good news for me, and I happen to only listen to public radio whenever I commute, so it's even more of a cool opportunity for me than on the surface!
Here is a recent article about foldit in Felix, the student newspaper of the Imperial College London. It also mentions the recent aflatoxin challenge.
A brief mention of foldit in this round-up of aflatoxin projects: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensavage/2018/04/24/a-remarkable-new-technology-that-will-diminish-a-global-cancer-threat/#3109bd84779c
This annual conference brings together 600 of the world's brightest young researchers and about 30 Nobel Laureates. This year's conference focused on physiology and medicine, and crowdsourcing and video games were hot topics. Several members of the Foldit Aflatoxin scientific team were there to present the project and introduce people to foldit:
https://www.mars.com/global/our-news/our-stories/crowdsourcing-video-gaming-aflatoxin
http://www.feedstuffs.com/news/mars-partners-launch-uncommon-collaboration-solve-aflatoxin-puzzle