John and his wife were living in a rural place. On a particular day, John's wife fell ill and he called the local doctor. When the doctor picked up, he said, "Doctor, my wife is ill. She might have appendicitis."
"This can't be possible! I took out her appendix two years ago myself," the doctor explained.
When diagnosed, John's wife was found to have appendicitis. How can this be possible?
You are trapped in a room with two doors. One leads to certain death and the other leads to freedom. You don't know which is which.
There are two robots guarding the doors. They will let you choose one door but upon doing so you must go through it.
You can, however, ask one robot one question. The problem is one robot always tells the truth, the other always lies and you don't know which is which.
What is the question you ask?
In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.
