Gamers and Genomics

Published: Aug. 22, 2013, 5 p.m.

b'People around the world spend an estimated 3 billion hours playing computer games every week. That might seem like a colossal waste of time, but scientists are starting to harness some of that effort to solve vexing problems in biology. Take, for example, a game developed by a pair of scientists in Canada.\\nThis podcast was produced by Sam Eaton for NOVA and PRI\'s "The World."\\n\\nFor more global environmental stories, visit:\\nhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/\\nhttp://www.theworld.org/category/topics/environment/\\n\\nNOVA is produced by WGBH in Boston. National corporate funding for NOVA is provided by The Boeing Company. Major funding for NOVA is provided by David H. Koch, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS viewers.'