Have you ever been interested in helping scientific research but don’t have the money or skills to donate? What if I told you that you could donate a portion of your computer to help research cures for alzheimers, parkinsons, and more. Would you be interested?
Folding @ Home is a program that you run on your computer in your own free time. You can run it while surfing the web, or while you’re away from your computer. It was developed by Stanford University, and has been a success in many areas so far. “Folding” is the term used for when proteins of amino acids assemble themselves for biological purposes. A protein “folds” in ten nanoseconds (1/10,000,000,000 of a second) and takes a computer an entire day to simulate even a tenth of this process. Now imagine doing this for an entire bit of RNA. It could take a modern supercomputer over 30 years to complete! By offering a part of your computer, you can have your computer download a small portion of this “folding” process and have it contribute to the large spectrum. When people offer portions of their computers, they help cut down on the time it takes to “fold” a simulated protein; therefore, the process can be completed considerably faster.
If you’re interested, go to: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Main
Filed under: Science | Tagged: als, alzheimers, cancer, cure, disease, donating, donation, easy, folding, help, home, Huntington, parkinsons, research, science, study | 1 Comment »
The Great Eighth Sin 