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Edited on Sun Jan-29-06 07:07 AM by mcscajun
"Folding" is something proteins do routinely; when they fold incorrectly, we're fucked, in the form of diseases/disorders. Research is ongoing in the area of protein folding to find cures for these.
Folding can be simulated, but it take a whole lot of processing power; it's faster and cheaper to put a few hundred thousand PCs on the job crunching little bits of the work and sending them back to a main computer, than to get one supercomputer on the case.
The program, or "Folding@Home" client, uses your PCs unused processing power to do the job, doesn't interfere with what you're up to, and requires no care on your part to function once you've installed it.
No impact to your PC from a safety standpoint, and it can run whenever you have your PC turned on. You don't have to leave your PC on 24/7.
We've got 153 DUers *(as of this post)* donating the spare computing cycles of 206 PCs to the effort, to assist medical research and as a sidelight, catch the Freepers, who have their own team with a head start on us.
Many of those 153 were as clueless before they joined as you are now; many others can answer questions to get you started, or help you along once you have. :)
Hope this helps you make a decision to join us; if not, we're glad you at least asked about the project. Visibility is everything.
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