Hello,
this is all very nice. What i would like to understand is how am i actually helping solving puzzles…
do “hard puzzle” represents things “cool if solved” ? or they are just a harder game?
how am i contributing to something real by solving these games?
Thank you for a clarification, and please point out some challenge to be solved that would actually help…o i can focus on it. 
thank you.
Hi MetalTom!
First of all the puzzles are mainly for getting you the training to do good in lab
The energy model we run on, is an estimate of nature, but it is flawed. We can trick it to do things that won’t fly in nature.
While we are solving puzzles, we are learning how to find patterns that helps us solve the puzzle. That certain things will work again and again.
It is the same game in the lab - spotting patterns for what works.
There are many similarities between puzzles and lab, but some of the rules for what works in lab are slightly different from what works in puzzles. Remember the energy model is just a model. In lab we are playing with the real thing - nature.
If you can spot some of these patterns in puzzles, there is a good chance you can find them in the lab too. And thus help out.
People who do good with the puzzles, often do good in lab too. Though this do not rule out that you can concentrate more on the lab if you want, instead of the puzzles. Some players have done well that way too.
Second, making puzzles helps finding holes in the existing RNA algorithms. If we can stump the bots, it is because there is a structure they can’t solve.
Hope this helped.