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I dunno how to explain this, exactly, from a scientific point of view. A lot of diseases come from mutated or misshapen protein cells. When a protein cell is made to take the form of a certain job it can sometimes screw up. Because of this screw up, cancer and other health issues occur.
This project is an effort to find a cure or better treatment for cancer and other diseases by looking at the source, Protein cells. The way they're doing it is mapping and figuring out how a cell "folds" or changes. If you wanted to "fold" one cell on a supercomputer, it would take about 30 years. Well, by using a multitude of at home PCs and Playstation 3 Consoles, you can help out and let them use some of your processor and bandwidth to help spread out the workload of the research. Now what would take them 30 years can take them two weeks.
It's pretty cool to watch the cell build on your PC (or PS3), gives you a little diagnostic while you're going as an optional screen saver if you want. Every time you complete a part you get a "WU" (Work Unit) and you get points for the more folds you help complete. There's actually a scoreboard and stuff for this for shits and giggles.
Anyways yeah, here's the website. The program is quick and small to install, if you're interested.
http://folding.stanford.edu
This project is an effort to find a cure or better treatment for cancer and other diseases by looking at the source, Protein cells. The way they're doing it is mapping and figuring out how a cell "folds" or changes. If you wanted to "fold" one cell on a supercomputer, it would take about 30 years. Well, by using a multitude of at home PCs and Playstation 3 Consoles, you can help out and let them use some of your processor and bandwidth to help spread out the workload of the research. Now what would take them 30 years can take them two weeks.
It's pretty cool to watch the cell build on your PC (or PS3), gives you a little diagnostic while you're going as an optional screen saver if you want. Every time you complete a part you get a "WU" (Work Unit) and you get points for the more folds you help complete. There's actually a scoreboard and stuff for this for shits and giggles.
Anyways yeah, here's the website. The program is quick and small to install, if you're interested.
http://folding.stanford.edu
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