The Big Question Page

From FoldIt Wiki

Creating a Wiki for FoldIt is a big challenge, and one of the hardest parts about it is knowing what questions the players want answered. I thought I'd create this page so that people could ask questions, supply answers, and eventually those questions/answers could be spun off into pages of their own. So... feel free to ask and answer!

How is score calculated? Everything has energy. The less energetic the protein is, the higher your score!

Can past announcements at Fold.It be accessed, after they have expired from the main page? They're found in their super-top-secret location here.

How well are we humans doing versus the computers, really? In CASP8 (2008), we did better than all the "fully automated computers, but about the same as the professional humans (helped by computers). But some caveats apply before drawing too many conclusions (see the link for details).

How well are we humans doing versus nature ? Could humans find a less energetic conformation than what is naturally occuring ? Or nature always makes the proteins take the shape of minimal energy ?

How do voids work?

Can i view my current Achievement Points somewhere?

How did you find all those proteins? I am not getting the source of it all. ;-) Let's say we have found a new protein: Amylase. First of all: how did you find it? Did you just examine a piece of tissue/blood/whatever and stumbled upon a new chain of amino acids? And second: at the time you discovered this new protein: why do you need to fold it? Didn't you find it already folded like it has to be in nature?