Eve Online used to help scientists discover exoplanets and classify proteins

[randomhkkid]

Source: https://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2017/05/eve-online-citizen-science-exoplanets/

 

A project. started by Dr. Michel Mayor, who discovered the first exoplanet in 1995. It uses 'citizen science' to gather data inside the game Eve Online.

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Project Discovery began life in a bar, where Hungarian software engineer Attila Szantner posed a question to university researcher Bernard Revaz: what if, instead of just entertaining, video games could make the world a better place? Starting with the concept of citizen science—a research method which uses data gathered by regular citizens—Szantner mused that, as the world's most dedicated workers, gamers would be the ideal candidate for a new breed of scientific research.

Implementing the idea into the game it puts the stat loving Eve community to work benefitting scientific research.

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Dubbed Massively Multiplayer Online Science, or MMOS for short, the software takes real word scientific data and feeds it directly into games for study. Over the last year, MMOS has been used to turn thousands of Eve players into a well-oiled scientific research team.

 

Will this really work?

This step into exoplanet discovery is actually the second iteration of the project. The first iteration was focused on the human proteome and has seen players classify over 28 million protein cells. 

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...focused on the Human Protein Atlas, a scientific research program with the goal of exploring the human proteome. Eve players were asked to put aside their conflicts and help scientists understand the role of proteins in the body, as expressed by a genome, cell, tissue, or organism. Transforming existing analysis techniques into a fun exercise, players diligently surveyed images of real-world cells in-game—where scientists had used antibodies to mark proteins—to locate where a particular protein appeared in each cell.

 

How will it work?

Players will play mini games that show then the luminosity curves of stars (Light level). Dips in the brightness will be noted that could indicate exoplanet(s) passing in front of them.

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Teaming up with both Reykjavik and Geneva Universities, Eve’s latest mini-game tasks players with analysing astronomical data recorded by the now defunct COROT space observatory. Players are provided with the luminosity curves of stars. Identifying a change in a star's brightness nets them an in-game reward, while also potentially indicating to scientists that an undiscovered planet has passed in front of the star.

The data will then be vetted if at least 5 different players report the same thing.

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"Scientists expect that there are ten additional planets yet to be detected that could be embedded in Project Discovery's data," explains Mayor. "These scientists are waiting to receive the same kind of data from at least five players, and then you will have some professional scientists looking at the results to determine whether they've made an important discovery."

 

Will players get on board?

Eve players <3 boring repetitive tasks.

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"Most games already contain elements that are boring, repetitive tasks," says Szantner, "yet we enjoy doing them. This is especially true in Eve. [Eve developer] CCP has been doing this for 14 years. It knows how to keep people engaged and entertained. Straight away we knew that Eve would be the perfect partner."

The Space Pope is backing it. (He's also a NASA JPL employee).

Spoiler

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Coming face-to-face with Charles White, an enthusiastic middle-aged man dressed from head to toe in papal gowns, it soon becomes apparent you're in presence of an Eve Legend. Known affectionately as "The Space Pope," White's relative age soon saw him become a valuable dispenser of real-world wisdom to younger players. Yet, while he gained an in-game following thanks to his sage-like advice, it was his day job that really cemented him as a key figure in Eve's universe.

"I work at NASA, in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory," says White with a sly smile.

Gearbox is also on board for Borderlands to implement something similar

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"It’s looking like it'll be used in [the new] Borderlands," reveals Szantner with a huge grin. "In 2015 I met with Randy Pitchford and he is a big fan of what we’re doing…it's really humbling."

With the Borderlands franchise having sold over 23 million copies, it's a brilliant opportunity to help fun-loving first-person-shooter players unknowingly engage in a spot of science. Yet with Gearbox’s loot-driven shooter sporting a very different tone and aesthetic to Eve, matching it up with the right research project and implementing it coherently will be more of a challenge.

"If you take Borderlands and compare it to Eve, Eve is a natural fit—it's so easy to connect the dots. In Borderlands, it's going to be a tougher creative challenge, but I'm sure Randy will find the right guys to make it something amazing."

 

 

 

 

This is such an innovative use of the millions of productive hours that games could generate. There's effectively no difference between fantasy space data and real space data so why not do a bait-and-switch. I really hope this idea takes off, it'd be like a more accessible and fun Folding at Home.

[Nicnac]

Looks like Zooniverse Projects put into games as mini-games. Great idea! I hope it takes off!

[randomhkkid]

4 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

Looks like Zooniverse Projects put into games as mini-games. Great idea! I hope it takes off!

The difference is that rather than a few hours over a week of playtime we'll get tens or hundreds!

[Razzy_85]

it's been in the game for a fair few months, maybe a year now?

[randomhkkid]

1 minute ago, Razzy_85 said:

it's been in the game for a fair few months, maybe a year now?

This article refers to the second phase, discovering exoplanets is only set to roll out later this month.

[SansVarnic]

Not proof but a good addition to the discussion as to why video games can be useful and productive.

Nice article OP.