Folding

Simple question, whats the point of it? And why would i want to do it?

 

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=41097

You would want to do it because you feel that you can make a difference in the world and help further medical science without donating a penny

 

Have they discovered anything new from this yet?

 

Thanks for the question. [mounting soapbox] Quite a bit really. See the home page for general info on folding: http://folding.stanford.edu/
and see the Results page for some results: http://folding.stanford.edu/results.html

The diseases, the secrets of which are being unraveled, are many of those that have been the most difficult and mysterious to combat. The list includes such ravagers of human (and animal) kind as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS (Lou Gherig’s), Mad Cow, Cystic fibrosis, an inherited form of emphysema, even many cancers. See the diseases section of the folding pages: http://folding.stanford.edu/education/diseases.html

Protein folding is one of the fundamental parts of cellular health and reproduction and is largely misunderstood and unexplored. Understanding protein folding is probably the next major step, after mapping the human genome, to gaining the knowledge and tools that will allow us to extend the length and quality of human life. My thinking is that this makes this project well worth the CPU cycles.

So Pilky, the challenge is yours. Do you want to help conquer what is probably the next major frontier in health and well being? I hope so. [/soapbox]

 

I think my whole problem here is lack of knowledge on the whole protien folding thing, before i do anything i want to learn more about it. To me right now it seems as though its a never ending battle. Also from what i read, it only uses your CPU when its idle correct?

 

To be more specific, it uses the idle time of your CPU whenever there is idle time. That is not to say that the folding routine will quit (or even sleep) if something else is going on. If you are doing something that takes up 75% of your CPU, the folding routine will try to use the leftover for its purposes. You can configure the folding client to use less than the full 100% of CPU time.

Browse the Stanford page on folding to learn more about it. While it is a formidable task, it is not a "never ending battle." It is a tall mountain that you can help the researchers to climb.

 

Ya i was reading through, even the explanations are tough to understand, lot of big words in there hehe, , also does it use alot/any bandwidth?

 

Folding only needs bandwidth when sending results and getting a new project. This takes a few minutes every couple of days.

 

pilky, have you ever had to watch someone you loved die from one of the diseases folding is striving to cure.... there would be no question of is it worth it. and the knowledge that since the disease that killed your loved one is inherited and thus a very likely furture of pain and dementia of my own.. is horrifying in the lest. and what is more scary is that fact that our children may suffer the same demize... that is why i fold... it killed my mom, it may kill me but with our folding and stanfords work, hopefully, our children wil be free.