Stanford Researchers Play Games In Real Life, With Real Life

The Stanford Report recently shed light on research being conducted in the field of “biotic games.” Spearheading the project is Stanford researcher Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, whose team has devised a way to make simple video games command and influence the actions of a living microorganism in real time.

So far eight rudimentary games have been designed, divided into three categories based on the scale of interactions they involve – molecules, single cells, or colonies of single cells. Emulating classic – and therefore simple – video games, one is called PAC-mecium and involves players helping guide a paramecia to “gobble up little balls.” Two other games have been branded Biotic Pinball and POND PONG.

“We hope that by playing games involving biology of a scale too small to see with the naked eye, people will realize how amazing these processes are and they'll get curious and want to know more,” Riedel-Kruse told the Stanford Report. “The applications we can envision so far are on the one hand educational, for people to learn about biology, but we are also thinking perhaps we could have people running real experiments as they play these games.”

The games parameters involve a single-celled paramecia freely moving about a small fluid-filled container. An omnipresent camera projects live images onto a video screen where the digital board or UI is superimposed. The player uses a controller which triggers specific catalysts that allow them to manipulate the paramecia to reach their goal. The Standford Report details two such examples. In Pac-mecium the player can change the polarity of an electrical field which will sway the movements of the paramecia. Biotic Pinball sees the player injecting minute amounts of a chemical into the fluid which will also influence the paramecia’s movements.

Consciously addressing concerns before they were voiced, Riedel-Kruse took the time to stress that paramecia have no brain, and subsequently no capacity for pain.

“We are talking about microbiology with these games, very primitive life forms. We do not use any higher-level organisms,” Riedel-Kruse reiterated. “Since multiple test players raised the question of exactly where one should draw this line, these games could be a good tool to stimulate discussions in schools on bioethical issues.”

Riedel-Kruse’s ultimate goal is that experiments such as these will foster a foundational understanding of biomedicine and biotechnology.

"We would argue that modern biotechnology will influence our life at an accelerating pace, most prominently in the personal biomedical choices that we will be faced with more and more often,” Riedel-Kruse said. “Therefore everyone should have sufficient knowledge about the basics of biomedicine and biotechnology. Biotic games could promote that."

[via The Stanford Report. Photo credit: L.A. Cicero. Thanks to Nate Adams for the tip!]