How the classic computer game Doom became a tool for science

## Summary
Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Developers of the computer game Doom released the game's code in 1997, allowing scientists to use it as part of their research. Doom , with its more complex environment, was a natural next step, he says, because “the Internet always asks, ‘Can it play Doom ?’” The subculture around the meme reflects the crucial role of play in science, says Mars Buttfield-Addison, a software developer and PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. Games in science Doom is not the only video game used in research. Subjects Culture Biotechnology Software Technology Latest on: Culture Biotechnology Software First bot, singular Futures 11 MAR 26 Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science Career Column 06 MAR 26 All the world is staged Futures 04 MAR 26 Genetically modified pig liver keeps man alive until human organ transplant News 06 MAR 26 Genome modelling and design across all domains of life with Evo 2 Article 04 MAR 26 Cell-free chromatin state tracing reveals disease origin and therapy responses Article 04 MAR 26 OpenClaw AI chatbots are running amok — these scientists are listening in News 06 FEB 26 ‘It means I can sleep at night’: how sensors are helping to solve scientists’ problems Spotlight 04 FEB 26 Training large language models on narrow tasks can lead to broad misalignment Article 14 JAN 26 Jobs Application for a tenure-track faculty position Tenure Track Position Jerusalem The Hebrew University Professor of Integrated Immunology The Department of Biology (D-BIOL; www.biol.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich invites applications for the above-mentioned position.

## Article Content
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Bluesky
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X
Developers of the computer game Doom released the game's code in 1997, allowing scientists to use it as part of their research.
Credit: id Software via ArcadeImages/Alamy
When the computer game
Doom
was released in 1993, its utility for science wasn’t immediately clear. Since then, the first-person shooter has been used in many studies, from helping to improve artificial-intelligence models
1
to investigating the effects of video games on memory and aggression
2
.
It has also spawned a subculture in which fans and developers, including scientists, try to run the game on different devices — from calculators to digital pregnancy tests. Last month, scientists in Australia reported that they had taught neurons grown on a silicon chip how to play the game. The phrases ‘Can it run
Doom
?’ and ‘It runs
Doom
’ have become a popular Internet meme.
Alon Loeffler, a synthetic-biological-intelligence scientist who was part of the team at biotechnology company Cortical Labs in Melbourne, Australia, that trained the neurons, says the team chose
Doom
because of the meme. He and his colleagues first taught neurons how to play the classic video game
Pong
in 2021
.
Doom
, with its more complex environment, was a natural next step, he says, because “the Internet always asks, ‘Can it play
Doom
?’”
The subculture around the meme reflects the crucial role of play in science, says Mars Buttfield-Addison, a software developer and PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia. By engaging in play and having fun, researchers are using the same kind of creativity needed to solve scientific problems. “Making something silly doesn’t take any less work than making something really technical,” she adds, and engaging in fun science can be a powerful motivator.
Games in science
Doom
is not the only video game used in research. The hugely popular sandbox game
Minecraft
has also been used to develop and test AI models
3
, and the online multiplayer game
World of Warcraft
has been used to simulate disease outbreaks
4
.
But
Doom
is particularly appealing for research because, in 1997, its code was published online by John Carmack, one of its developers at id Software in Richardson, Texas. This allows people to adapt the game so that it works on other platforms or devices, says Buttfield-Addison.
Doom
also doesn’t require much storage space, she adds.
From bacteria to satellites
Lauren 'Ren' Ramlan, a biological engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, has integrated the game into her research. In 2023, during the first year of her doctoral programme, she used
Escherichia coli
bacteria to display a few frames of
Doom
. She attached a fluorescent protein to the bacterial cells that could be turned on or off, making them act like black and white pixels on a screen. She then translated and compressed the first few frames of
Doom
into black-and-white versions that matched the plate growing the cells.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00813-4
References
de Wynter, A. Preprint at arXiv
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2403.05468
(2024).
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Subjects
Culture
Biotechnology
Software
Technology
Latest on:
Culture
Biotechnology
Software
First bot, singular
Futures
11 MAR 26
Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science
Career Column
06 MAR 26
All the world is staged
Futures
04 MAR 26
Genetically modified pig liver keeps man alive until human organ transplant
News
06 MAR 26
Genome modelling and design across all domains of life with Evo 2
Article
04 MAR 26
Cell-free chromatin state tracing reveals disease origin and therapy responses
Article
04 MAR 26
OpenClaw AI chatbots are running amok — these scientists are listening in
News
06 FEB 26
‘It means I can sleep at night’: how sensors are helping to solve scientists’ problems
Spotlight
04 FEB 26
Training large language models on narrow tasks can lead to broad misalignment
Article
14 JAN 26
Jobs
Application for a tenure-track faculty position
Tenure Track Position
Jerusalem
The Hebrew University
Professor of Integrated Immunology
The Department of Biology (D-BIOL; www.biol.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich invites applications for the above-mentioned position.
Zurich, Switzerlan

---

## Expert Analysis

### Merits
N/A

### Areas for Consideration
N/A

### Implications
- She attached a fluorescent protein to the bacterial cells that could be turned on or off, making them act like black and white pixels on a screen.
- Subjects Culture Biotechnology Software Technology Latest on: Culture Biotechnology Software First bot, singular Futures 11 MAR 26 Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science Career Column 06 MAR 26 All the world is staged Futures 04 MAR 26 Genetically modified pig liver keeps man alive until human organ transplant News 06 MAR 26 Genome modelling and design across all domains of life with Evo 2 Article 04 MAR 26 Cell-free chromatin state tracing reveals disease origin and therapy responses Article 04 MAR 26 OpenClaw AI chatbots are running amok — these scientists are listening in News 06 FEB 26 ‘It means I can sleep at night’: how sensors are helping to solve scientists’ problems Spotlight 04 FEB 26 Training large language models on narrow tasks can lead to broad misalignment Article 14 JAN 26 Jobs Application for a tenure-track faculty position Tenure Track Position Jerusalem The Hebrew University Professor of Integrated Immunology The Department of Biology (D-BIOL; www.biol.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich invites applications for the above-mentioned position.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers doom, game, research topics. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 892.