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SUCCESS!!! Folding@Home Verifies Reality
- Thread starter pimentoLoaf
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That's very cool, glad I'm contributing to the cause and making a difference. Good article too, learned a few things.
"One reason that protein folding is so difficult to simulate is that it occurs amazingly fast," Pande explained. "Small proteins have been shown to fold in a timescale of microseconds [millionths of a second], but it takes the average computer one day just to do a one-nanosecond [billionth-of-a-second] folding simulation."
That is crazy that its takes so long for a computer to do what nature does in a blink - I wonder if there are any possible computational/computer related aspects of this, imagine a folding processor, that does complex computations using proteins.
"One reason that protein folding is so difficult to simulate is that it occurs amazingly fast," Pande explained. "Small proteins have been shown to fold in a timescale of microseconds [millionths of a second], but it takes the average computer one day just to do a one-nanosecond [billionth-of-a-second] folding simulation."
That is crazy that its takes so long for a computer to do what nature does in a blink - I wonder if there are any possible computational/computer related aspects of this, imagine a folding processor, that does complex computations using proteins.
It's good to see a that we are helping! I feel proud of letting my PowerMac fold all day! Good job Team Macrumors!
alright Team Macrumors!
I'm glad I can put my machine to use for good....but one thing in the article that confused me was that it said they distribute packages based on computer speed. Now...I have folded 29 units so far on a dual 1.25 and have less then 30 points. Why would they give me such small units and other such large ones?
is it just what they need right now that they send out, because its more important? I just dont understand how they decide who gets what work units...
But whatever....every little bit helps, and I'm cranking out those little bits...
I'm glad I can put my machine to use for good....but one thing in the article that confused me was that it said they distribute packages based on computer speed. Now...I have folded 29 units so far on a dual 1.25 and have less then 30 points. Why would they give me such small units and other such large ones?
is it just what they need right now that they send out, because its more important? I just dont understand how they decide who gets what work units...
But whatever....every little bit helps, and I'm cranking out those little bits...
Small, synthetic porteins today...large, real proteins tomorrow!
I'm really glad we've actually gotten some concrete results from all the CPU power that's going around.
I'm really glad we've actually gotten some concrete results from all the CPU power that's going around.
And the announcement is causing accessing problems with personal stats.
Bookmark this for the latest news:
http://folding.stanford.edu/news.html
Bookmark this for the latest news:
http://folding.stanford.edu/news.html
Originally posted by mc68k
Welcome aboard!
What do you plan to fold with?
Glad to have you on the team.
Thanks!
Glad to help out. With a grandfather who now has Alzheimer's, it hits a little closer to home now.I downloaded the graphical version; I wasn't sure about the other two. Which one do you recommend?
The graphical is the easiest. If you have a good Unix sense, I would say go for the console.
Just make sure if you use the graphical, not to show the protein graphics all the time, or minimize it in your dock. The protein will fold faster this way.
I like console, because I can run it as a background root process that's always on (w/o terminal) unless I restart. The main thing is to get comfortable with the folding world first, then start playing around w/it.
Okay, thanks. I'll go ahead and stick with the graphical interface for now. I just keep it hidden and occassionally bring it up to see how far it's gotten... then back into hiding it goes.
I'm slowly getting acquainted with Unix, so once I get more comfortable with it maybe I'll play around with the console version.
I'm slowly getting acquainted with Unix, so once I get more comfortable with it maybe I'll play around with the console version.
The problem with SETI is that for us to make a difference in the field of ET it will take hundreds of years. While we might not see a result now, the people 100 years from now might and I think that is worth the effort. For this reason, I have half resources on SETI and half on Folding@Home.
The search for ET is hard because the lines of communication have to be open and uninterupted for hundreds of years for something worthwhile to happen. We have barely even scraped the surface of the search but we are the pioneers that will make the future.
The search for ET is hard because the lines of communication have to be open and uninterupted for hundreds of years for something worthwhile to happen. We have barely even scraped the surface of the search but we are the pioneers that will make the future.
True, well their assuptions are very well thought out but, if I read your post correctly, as you suggested if they are using a totally different channel/medium that we have not discovered yet then we are looking for something that is not there.