We always knew gamers had serious smarts, but now the rest of the world knows it, too. Gamers have been listed alongside scientists as responsible for cracking the code of how an enzyme of an AIDS-like virus is put together.

The accomplishment, chronicled in a recent issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, is a puzzle that has stumped science for well over 10 years. The enzyme M-PMV, in the protease family, is key in the molecular structure of retroviruses that causes AIDS in simians and includes HIV. Understanding how a virus is put together is a major leap towards understanding how to construct drugs to combat disease.

via Scientists unravel AIDS virus mystery with unlikely ally: gamers | DVICE.

I-Programmer first reported the introduction of free online courses at Stanford at the beginning of August, and since that time, over 100,000 prospective students have signed up. There’s even been a study group formed at reddit. Free courses include:

via Maximum PC | Study Computer Science Online at Stanford for Free.