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Five years folding as of 12/20/17!

2017 ended up as an interesting year, with Foldit Central launching several new types of puzzles in the second half, including the Aflatoxin Challenge. After four long rounds of aflatoxin puzzles, we're waiting to see whether any progress has been made in breaking down aflatoxin.

The aflatoxin series and the other new types of puzzles had some interesting features. On the biochemistry front, we learned that aflatoxin uses epoxy to attach itself to DNA. On the recipe front, we learned that ligands can have rotamers, just like the sidechains of a protein. (Check out the Foldit wiki for "ligand", "rotamer", and other fun stuff.)

My foldi-versary and the approach of the new year means it's time to update my stats!

According to my spreadsheet, in five years, I've played 738 puzzles for global points as a soloist, 603 as an evolver. (That doesn't count test puzzles, or puzzles that were closed early due to bugs, both of which award zero points.)

I've had 60 first-place finishes as soloist, 40 seconds, and 48 thirds. As an evolver 49 firsts, 78 seconds, and 44 thirds.

semi-retired carpenter

Bio-engineer 30 years ago, I PhD recently on the opposite scale: the World's ecology and sustainable development indicators.

I find Foldit inspiring for the research process and it's link with development and what we call "technological lock in" in History: one step back, 2 steps forwards can help humanity to go out of the current unsustainable high carbon societies lock-in.

From the game point of view, I like evolving and scripting in order to learn what is a beautiful protein.

-Oct 2012: Joined L'Alliance Francophone -Apr-Sep 2013: rank 1 symmetric evolvers -May 2013: Joined Beta Folders -Nov 2013: first time our group solution further used in Science -Dec 2013: Came back to L'Alliance Francophone -Feb 2014: rank 2 evolvers (best rank ever: sym 1, prediction 1, pilot 1, design 2, overall 3, ED 3, CR 5, CASP 8, PC 7). -Apr 2014: lonesome soloist then Boinc.be, then founded the unconventional Soloists virtual group, then joined Go Science for the CASP11 race. We ended on rank 4. Nice to have many good evolvers there: this helps a lot for my solos. -May 2014: strange feeling beeing CASP11 solo n°1 after 5 puzzles (2 after 8 puzzles, 8 at the end). This encouraged me to concentrate on solos. -May 2014: Got Master soloists. -Aug 2014: Solo rank 10 -Oct 2014: prediction solo rank 1 !! -10 March 2015: Solo 2 (during 1 day !) -Best solo rank ever: 2 (Prediction 1, Pilot 1, CASP11 2, overall 2, design 2, symmetry 2, PC 3, ED 6, HF 46). -Best Foldit contribution ever (Nov 2015): Solo 2 + Evo 3 = 5 (total rank = 1) -Sept 2016: Our group solution used in science (Nature paper)! -nov 2017 Pilot soloist 1 after 10 puzzles -may 2018: almost equalized best foldit contribution with Solo 3 + Evo 2 = 5 (total rank 2). -June 2018, co-authored a Human Computation paper on player's vision -July 2018, co-authored as most Players on a Nature paper on collaborative protein prediction

Information analyst. Background: degree in Mathematics and Computer science. C systems programmer a long time ago.

or my PC (capable of running ~5 clients) :)

Number of clients is limited by CPU, not Temperature due to efficient water cooling...

Windows 10 Pro 64bit CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X 8-cores @ 4.044GHz (for the moment) CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 Liquid CPU Cooler (no noise, the best) MOBO: ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Extreme Graphics: GeForce GTX 680 2GB GDDR5 Ram: g.Skill DDR4-3200 16 GB @ 1644MHz SSD: Sata3 110GB for OS fast access (Programs and Data on HDs) HD: Sata3 (2x2 TB) plus a few more for backup and Foldit Offline HD: for Backups

I work as a program and policy analyst for the USPS with a graphic arts and instructional design background (designing publications, designing, writing and scripting training content). I discovered Foldit while researching gamification for web based training. After an abortive start back in 2014 (I was terribly frustrated by the tutorials on my first try), I took another gamification course in 2015 and came back for more. This time the hook stuck, and I have been folding proteins ever since.

I like science and i like puzzles.

Retired Medical Technologist. Worked in clinical immunology lab in teaching hospital. Currently volunteering for Audubon Society, Soaring Club, and my city's CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program.

Hello my name is Pascal Wolfteich follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/ZeroLeak7

I have 25 years of professional experience in IT, rewrote ray tracing software in x86 assembly language, built a 3d interface for LCD shutter glasses so I could play Descent stereoscopically in 1996, optimized Raistmer's SETI at home in SSSE3 assembly, created and sold computer art, wrote up and filed patents, trademarks, domains.

I like to push frontiers and discover new ones.

I have funded and built a series of workstations exclusively for use with Foldit, running 24/7 reaching a historical 25.000.000 moves on may 7th 2012 at 15:45 UTC. Just over a year later Fold.it introduced a new achievement to honor breaking a new frontier, the 50 Megamoves limit: http://fold.it/portal/node/994984

I reached Global Soloist Rank #1 position for the first time on june 24, 2012 at 14:00 CET.

Contenders is my home and I feel happy being among like-minded souls who are passionate about what they do.

List of news related to puzzles we (all) worked on: Influenza cure: http://phys.org/news/2012-06-computer-designed-proteins-variety-flu-viruses.html

Retired 74

I have always been fascinated by computers and what they could do. My interest is within mathematics, telecommunication (Ph.D.), and data mining, the later is with a telecommunication company. More of my research could be found at (www.researchgate.net). That’s why I have found Foldit very interesting. All those combinations, impossible to get the correct answer intrigues me.

I've worked in the fields of architecture, auto-identification (barcoding), industrial design, and software publishing. I'm an inventor. I've always loved polyhedra and three-dimensional mathematical models.

^^^^ check out my music here ^^^^

a mind is a wonderful thing to lose

20 years old (as of july 2018) revisiting folding after a long hiatus

Industrial organic chemist who has too much time on his hands, hence Foldit.