Borderlands Science: in-game puzzles better than scientific work

The attempt can be considered a success. The Borderlands Science puzzle within Borderlands 3 was able to deliver the hoped-for results. The entire study, in which several software companies, Gearbox Entertainment and McGill University in Montreal were involved, has just been published in Nature Biotechnology.

A puzzle was created in which almost ten thousand sequences from almost one million known gene fragments of bacteria in the human intestine were used in a simplified manner. In the mini-game, 7 to 20 sequences consisting of 4 to 10 nucleotides had to be assembled correctly.

Of course, points were awarded and feedback was given if solutions were incorrect. In this way, the short-term efforts of many individuals could be used to check the meaningfulness of different DNA strands. It was also a question of which sequences appear in different bacteria, which ones change and where there might be similarities between the strains.

The success of the large-scale experiment lies in the sheer mass of data that the researchers have obtained as a result. The puzzle game is said to have been played more than 4 million times at least by the time the first puzzle was completed.

This resulted in the total number of 175 million successfully solved DNA puzzles from 2020 to 2023. By comparing the solution, the distribution of points and the combinations found, it was then possible to decipher the evolution and degrees of relationship between the bacteria.

According to the authors of the study, the accuracy is higher than that of computer algorithms currently used for these tasks. Borderlands Science could therefore also help to optimize these algorithms.

The importance of understanding gut bacteria is demonstrated by the diseases that are associated with an imbalanced microbiome. These range from obesity to chronic inflammation, from cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer's.

Given the success and potential three billion players worldwide, the authors are also confident that they can develop even more in-game puzzles and at the same time stir up a bit of enthusiasm for scientific research.

And if my pastime with little puzzles ends up being even more meaningful than a mere distraction, then please!