Mission: to crack DNA

At the 2015 Economic Davos Forum in Davos a professor of the European Bioinformatics Institute Nick Goldman announced a competition: the one who cracks a DNA code will understand the way to get 1 bitcoin as a reward.

The challenge was accepted. A PhD student Sander Wuyts and his small team did what they first believed to be impossible. To increase the probability of solving the problem, they even held a “small hackathon”.

In the initial data there was a description on how to claim the bitcoin, a drawing by James Joyce, the logo of the European Bioinformatics Institute, and few other things.

The winner says that after his deed his consciousness has changed, and new horizons for research have opened. The received prize Sander Wuyts will use to fund his scientific work, and, of course, to reward those who helped him to crack the code.

It’s funny that at the time of the challenge`s announcement the cost of one coin was at the level of 329 US dollars, and the prize was received already at the rate of 11 000 USD.