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Folding @ Home

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GhostfaceKillah
Posts: 3398 - Karma: 10
for those of you who don't know, check out the site:

http://folding.stanford.edu/

here is the Wikipedia description because I'm too lazy to describe it myself:

Folding@home (sometimes abbreviated as FAH or F@h) is a distributed computing (DC) project designed to perform computationally intensive simulations of protein folding and other molecular dynamics (MD), and to improve on the methods available to do so. It was launched on October 1, 2000, and is currently managed by the Pande Group, within Stanford University's chemistry department, under the supervision of Professor Vijay Pande.

Folding@home is the most powerful distributed computing cluster in the world, according to Guinness,[1] and one of the world's largest distributed computing projects.[2] The goal of the project is "to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases."

every PS3 has an integrated folding@home program that you can download through the playstation network. one work cycle takes about 6-8 hours, so i just leave it running over night.

I also run it off my gaming rig when I'm not away at school.
Oct 19 2009 11:34PM
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kepler.
Posts: 8761 - Karma: 139
Not so sure I get it. So basically the program does work for Stanford on your time on your machine to save time and energy on Stanford's equipment?

I guess that sounds cool.
Oct 20 2009 12:03AM
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GhostfaceKillah
Posts: 3398 - Karma: 10
that's a pretty asinine (albeit true) thing to say about a program that is trying to do a whole lot of good for humanity.
Oct 20 2009 12:15AM
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Dntel.
Posts: 1026 - Karma: 21
interesting, but old news. cool stuff though thanks for the post.
Oct 20 2009 12:20AM
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GhostfaceKillah
Posts: 3398 - Karma: 10
the program for almost 10 years now, so I was surprised there weren't any threads about it already.
Oct 20 2009 12:21AM
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[Dawn
Posts: 1718 - Karma: 69
lol
Oct 20 2009 12:23AM
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kepler.
Posts: 8761 - Karma: 139
Pardon me for not being a bio major.
Oct 20 2009 12:34AM
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SteezyOhio
Posts: 6044 - Karma: 60
i dont understand
Oct 20 2009 12:38AM
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GhostfaceKillah
Posts: 3398 - Karma: 10
sorry, i guess my initially post only described what it is, and not what it does.

basically, folding@home simulates protein folding, which is the process by which various proteins assemble and become amino acids, which turn into RNA, then into DNA (I'm not a biologist either... so my understanding is very limited). Basically, protein folding is the starting point for human life.

I guess billions of these protein folds occur, and there is always a chance that a protein does not fold or mis-folds, and this is believed to be the origins of various diseases (Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers).

the folding@home simulation helps scientists learn more about protein folding, and hopefully it will give them clues as to how and why these diseases develop. Eventually, it is hoped that they can find cures for these diseases, or at least a way to prevent them.

Sorry for calling you out like that, and i hope this helps you understand it a little better (although my understanding comes from the sites i have already posted. you're a pretty learned guy from what i have seen, so you're understanding of the primary facts are probably as good or better than mine)
Oct 20 2009 1:19AM
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vincepru
Posts: 5474 - Karma: 17
so what do they use  our ps3s for? and how?
Oct 20 2009 1:23AM
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GhostfaceKillah
Posts: 3398 - Karma: 10
in short, you can run the folding@home program to simulate protein folding. one work cycle takes 6-8 hours, and the info is sent to stanford where it is processed and used to learn more about protein folding (and the associated diseases that result from mis-folding)... and eventually find a cure/prevention for these diseases.
Oct 20 2009 1:25AM
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vincepru
Posts: 5474 - Karma: 17
sweet, ill DL it tomorrow.
Oct 20 2009 1:33AM
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SteezyOhio
Posts: 6044 - Karma: 60
so it uses your harddrive and space to do chemical amino folding calculations, which are then interpertaded at stanford?
Oct 20 2009 8:00AM
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looneygeorge
Posts: 633 - Karma: 14

It was made to save Stanford their funding for the project.. a PS3 is really just a really good computer, and instead of Stanford going out and buying like 1000 of these.. they can have alot of super computers do work for them for close to nothing.

you can look at folding like donating, cause that is what it basically is.

Oct 20 2009 8:07AM
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factory81
Posts: 3967 - Karma: 63
Been doing this for years now. Mom died of cancer. I got banned from Circuit City and Best Buy for installing folding@home on all their laptops with built in wireless (they needed to have net access to send / receive work units).

Newschoolers should have their own folding@home team though...
Oct 20 2009 10:05PM
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