In April 2020, Borderlands 3 developer Gearbox Software teamed up with a group of biomedical researchers – and Big Bang Theory actress/scientist Mayim Bialik – to create a novel minigame for the popular looter shooter with a unique scientific twist.
The goal of the Borderlands Science project was to harness the entertainment value of video games to convert player enthusiasm into valuable real-world scientific data, which could be used by biologists to shed light on the complex microbial ecosystem within the human body.
Each and every one of us plays host to tens of trillions of microbes, which have a profound impact on our overall health and which may even influence the onset of a range of serious medical conditions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s. These bacteria are extremely diverse, right down to the DNA level, and have been known to change their characteristics based on what we eat, the amount of exercise we get, and a range of other factors.
Despite decades of research, the incredible diversity of this biological ecosystem has prevented scientists from gaining more than a limited understanding as to how different microbes influence the human body. To make matters worse, computer categorizations of the molecules’ DNA are often marred with inaccuracies, owing to the innate complexity of the subject matter. This results in masses of DNA data seeded with tiny errors that have the potential to throw off the results of subsequent studies that incorporated it.
Thankfully, an adjunct professor at Canada’s McGill University by the name of Attila Szantner came up with a novel approach to fixing the countless computer errors, which would require the help of millions of enthusiastic gamers. To convert the concept into a reality, Szantner and a team of like-minded colleagues partnered with Gearbox to develop a brand new, seamlessly integrated minigame for Borderlands 3.
Together, the team were able to create an enjoyable puzzle game that incorporated sections of real-world microbe DNA that scientists had extracted from, well, poop. Each round of the minigame asked players to re-arrange and color-match rows of tiles that represented sections of actual microbe DNA in order to achieve a pass score. Doing so would help remove computer errors and format valuable DNA data, while also allowing players to earn in-game currency as an added incentive.
Now, a new study published in the scientific journal Nature has revealed that over four million players have engaged with the minigame following its initial release on April 7, 2020. The collective effort has seen the community solve a mind boggling 135 million science puzzles, which in turn has provided data that has allowed scientists to trace the evolutionary relationships of over a million forms of gut bacteria.
“We expect to be able to use this information to relate specific kinds of microbes to what we eat, to how we age, and to the many diseases ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to Alzheimer’s that we now know microbes to be involved in,” explained Rob Knight, a co-author of the study at the Departments of Pediatrics, Bioengineering, and Computer Science & Engineering, University of California San Diego. “Because evolution is a great guide to function, having a better tree relating our microbes to one another gives us a more precise view of what they are doing within and around us.”
According to the authors, the player-driven data will be used by scientists looking to create the next generation of improved A.I. programs to analyse the cells. In recognition of their efforts, both ‘Borderlands science players’, and various Gearbox Entertainment employees have been listed among the authors of the paper published in the peer reviewed journal.
“Here we have 4.5 million people who contributed to science,” said the paper’s senior author Jérôme Waldispühl, who is an associate professor at McGill University. “In a sense, this result is theirs too and they should feel proud about it.”
In late March, Embracer Group revealed it had agreed to sell Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two Interactive for a cool $460 million, with the sale expected to close by the end of June. Gearbox is currently actively developing the next installment in the Borderlands series, and a live film adaptation directed by Eli Roth, starring Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Hart, is currently slated to release on August 9.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
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