What is this?

[Spev]

So I looked up the definition of folding at home and it didn't make much sense to me...can anyone explain what this is? Sorry for being noob

[Octavialicious]

edit: I guess I have no idea what I'm talking about lol

[EarthboundHero]

You use your computer to find cures for diseases. Pretty much.

[Speedyv]

http://folding.stanford.edu/

 

You are basically folding proteins that can lead to discoveries for certain disease.  

You can look up the kinda basic biology behind that.

[MegaDave91]

You use your computer to contribute to protein folding, which the goal is to find cures for diseases.

[Spev]

You use your computer to contribute to protein folding, which the goal is to find cures for diseases.

 

 

http://folding.stanford.edu/

 

You are basically folding proteins that can lead to discoveries for certain disease.  

You can look up the kinda basic biology behind that.

So what exactly is folding proteins? I'm sorry to be an idiot here I just really want to understand. I get that the goal is to help cure diseases and prevent them. So it's a program simulation that attempts to find cures for these diseases, and it does so by "folding proteins" in a virtual program? 

 

Edit: Link provided above explained a lot. This is actually pretty interesting.

[Spev]

http://folding.stanford.edu/

 

You are basically folding proteins that can lead to discoveries for certain disease.  

You can look up the kinda basic biology behind that.

Thank you I watched a video from those guys earlier. This article is extremely helpful.

[MegaDave91]

So what exactly is folding proteins? I'm sorry to be an idiot here I just really want to understand. I get that the goal is to help cure diseases and prevent them. So it's a program simulation that attempts to find cures for these diseases, and it does so by "folding proteins" in a virtual program? 

 

What is protein folding and how does it take place in this program?

Proteins must be folded to function properly and carry out vitual functions in the trillions upon trillions of cells that we're made up of.

[Speedyv]

Thank you I watched a video from those guys earlier. This article is extremely helpful.

 

Proteins pretty much carry out a lot of tasks in your body. And they are assembled from amino acids that fold into a certain shape according to the environment it is in. The shape of a protein determines its task so this simulation of folding and misfolding can lead to a lot of health advancements and discoveries based off of proteins. That simulation is essentially what you are lending your computing power to.

[Spev]

Proteins must be folded to function properly and carry out vitual functions in the trillions upon trillions of cells that we're made up of.

So there is data sent between the university back and forth between the computer. The university decides on some protein folding calculations that the computer does? I'm just trying to understand how the program works. What exactly is it doing?

 

Is it simulating protein folding and searching for errors or new information during formation based off previous calculations, research, and data?

[Speedyv]

So there is data sent between the university back and forth between the computer. The university decides on some protein folding calculations that the computer does? I'm just trying to understand how the program works. What exactly is it doing?

 

Is it simulating protein folding and searching for errors or new information during formation based off previous calculations, research, and data?

 

It's like they are sending you math problems to solve one after another. And you land your computing power to solve and make up a tiny part of a supercomputing network of sorts. 

[Spev]

It's like they are sending you math problems to solve one after another. And you land your computing power to solve and make up a tiny part of a supercomputing network of sorts. 

Damn that is pretty cool....I do have a 2nd computer, I wonder if it would make any difference though, and it would probably consume a lot of power =/

[Speedyv]

Damn that is pretty cool....I do have a 2nd computer, I wonder if it would make any difference though, and it would probably consume a lot of power =/

 

That's up to you to decide. Considering power consumption and hardware temps 

[NeatSquidYT]

Damn that is pretty cool....I do have a 2nd computer, I wonder if it would make any difference though, and it would probably consume a lot of power =/

Just think of it as donating to charity.

[kpreg]

So I looked up the definition of folding at home and it didn't make much sense to me...can anyone explain what this is? Sorry for being noob

Think of it like this.

Your body finds some substance that could be harmful.

It aims its weapons by folding proteins into specific shapes.

However, the body sometimes misses and doesn't fold the proteins correctly. After that the virus (or whatever it is defending) gets in.

Stanford is trying to use brute force to test every possible combination of folds in order to understand how and why misfolds happen.