Phylo

Ever wonder just how closely related humans are to chimpanzees? What about the similarities between a donkey and a horse? Questions like these are still being studied to this day, by scientists yet to find the full answer. Sure, it is easy to acknowledge outside resemblances between animals, but is there more to the picture than what meets the eye, say resemblances on the inside? There sure is. Lots more. They're called genes, and they're present in every living organism on the planet. There's only one problem: genes are too small to see with the naked eye. This makes it hard for the average Joe to picture such mind-boggling similarities between Man and Primate. Enter Phylo, a browser-based game that aims to distinguish common gene sequences of 3 or more species. The player (You) must match nucleotides from one species with as many nucleotides from another species as possible, but that's not all to the challenge: all nucleotides must stay in the order they were given to you. The point is not to match EVERY nucleotide by mixing the sequence up, but to take what is actually sequenced in each specimen and slide groups of nucleotides from one organism to similar chains in other organisms. The score you get is based on the number of matches made, and the number of spaces between groups of nucleotides (the less spaces made for matching, the less room for error). It may seem like jargon at first, but really it's simplicity allows for folks of all ages to try their hand at improving science. My question to you is this: Why do you think it is beneficial for science to get help from the public instead of relying on their own intuition and computer software? Leave comments below.