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From 2010.igem.org

Gaming

Background

In Dec 14th, 1948 Goldsmith obtained a U.S. patent 2,455,992 [1] entiteled "Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device", which is now often regarded as the first video game. The user could shoot simple missles on targets, which was visualized with a cathode ray. Many years later, video and computer games became part of the mainstream and have been for many people the first contact with computers.

It is well known that humans , especially children but also adults, easily learn complex topics while playing. For example, moderate playing of video games can increase children's computer skills, but also mathematical skills and their three-dimensional imagination [cite somebody].

As a side project, we aim to partially copy the early success of electronic video games by creating the or one of the first synthetic biology games utilizing our E. lemming. Although we do not expect comparable monetary success due to the still high costs and the legal problems in setting up a home gene-laboratory for potential private customers, we believe that it might be a good idea for educational proposes to motivate students in synthetic biology by giving them a playful access to otherwise highly theoretical topics as bacterial chemotaxis, noise, experimental setup, light inducable proteins and synthetic biology as a whole.

The story

Life is hard and short, especially for little E. colis, and only the fittest will survive and be able to reproduce themselves. Since millions of years, E. coli have competed with each other, mainly by eating as much aspergase as they could and swimming in the direction were they could even eat more.

Video

Literature

[1] Goldsmith, T.T. U.S. Patent 2,455,992, 1948.