Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Stall Catchers--the game

It's Giving Tuesday, and perhaps you're feeling a little tapped out. So here's something you can do that costs no money at all. At the website EyesOnALZ, they've rolled out a new game you can play that will actually help with Alzheimer's research. Unlike some fundraising campaigns where you can play different regular games which slowly amass monies for worth organizations, this is a little more direct. It's called Stall Catchers, and what you do in the game is look at an actual brain to help identify where the blood flow gets stalled in specific places. Here's the video.

 


And here's a word from  the BrightFocus Foundation Program President and CEO Stacy Pagos Haller  about what they're trying to accomplish over at the website Dementia Today:

Stall Catchers helps scientists who are researching blood vessels in the brain identify where there can be clogged capillaries or “stalls” that stop blood flow. Researchers hope they can reverse Alzheimer’s symptoms like memory loss by reducing the number of stalls.

The more people of all ages we can recruit to spot stalls, the faster the project will go, and the closer we’ll get to unlocking a cure for Alzheimer’s. With your help, this part of the research project can compress into months and years what could normally take decades, so that’s where all of us are needed. In the first 30 days alone, nearly 1000 citizen scientists did the equivalent of 14 weeks of analysis in a lab!

As Stacy says, all you need is a computer, a tablet or a smartphone to get started. So whatcha waiting for? Go HERE to get started. (I edited this to change the link to a better starting point for the game.)

 

7 comments:

  1. I have watched the demo and am guessing that I won't be the best at this, but will be giving it a go after Nanowrimo is over. But you don't have to be very good at it as they run the images by many people not just one person.

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  2. Anyway to help Alzheimer's research is a good thing. Janet

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  3. Yep. And I really like this idea of crowdsourcing to speed up research.

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  4. Update. Just played a few rounds. It's a bit intimidating at first, but you get the hang of it. And even if you get it wrong, the consensus will correct for your error. Have a go!

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  5. I'm not very good at this yet, but I love the concept and will keep trying. Lately it seems so much on the web is meaningless. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. I was doing great at the beginning, Nancy, and then I guess I started overthinking it or something. Luckily, it doesn't really matter what any one person thinks, so it's kind of a no lose situation. Thanks for checking it out.

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