What has F@H acutally accomplished?

[Chrysolite]

A few days ago, my parents asked me why my old Sony VAIO was always on. I explained what Folding@Home was, and they flipped out. At first, they thought it was a scam, and it wasn't actually from the University of Stanford (my dad said we could be criminally investigated for that comp power). Then, they investigated and found out that it wasn't a scam, but they had no evidence that they were actually using our computing power for protein folding, and nothing else. So, my question is, what actually has been accomplished by Folding@Home, and what proof do we have that our computers are actually running protein folding simulations, and not doing something else (secret military development, New World Order, Illuminati, etc.)?

 

EDIT: Please don't say that my parents are lunatics, overprotective, conspiracy theorists,etc. That's not it at all

Edited January 17, 2016 by Mario3D13

[Arty]

secret military development

I wouldn't be surprised TBH

[Chrysolite]

I wouldn't be surprised TBH

 

I wouldn't mind if it helped to defeat ISIS 

[kuzimins]

Yeah, they've completed the first page in the book "How to understand women"

[Chrysolite]

Yeah, they've completed the first page in the book "How to understand women"

 

I LOLd at this ^^

[Stadin6]

bitcoin mining at your cost

[Guest Generallee]

I'm wondering too

[Godlygamer23]

Understand that you can look up information about the project you're currently working on and also understand that protein folding is very complicated and in order for us to become closer to understanding how to prevent diseases from occurring, it takes a lot of power.

 

From Wikipedia:

The large data sets from the project are freely available for other researchers to use upon request and some can be accessed from the Folding@home website.

The Pande lab has collaborated with other molecular dynamics systems such as the Blue Gene supercomputer, and they share Folding@home's key software with other researchers, so that the algorithms which benefited Folding@home may aid other scientific areas.

[QueenDemetria]

A few days ago, my parents asked me why my old Sony VAIO was always on. I explained what Folding@Home was, and they flipped out. At first, they thought it was a scam, and it wasn't actually from the University of Stanford (my dad said we could be criminally investigated for that comp power). Then, they investigated and found out that it wasn't a scam, but they had no evidence that they were actually using our computing power for protein folding, and nothing else. So, my question is, what actually has been accomplished by Folding@Home, and what proof do we have that our computers are actually running protein folding simulations, and not doing something else (secret military development, New World Order, Illuminati, etc.)?

 

EDIT: Please don't say that my parents are lunatics, overprotective, conspiracy theorists,etc. That's not it at all

You can use the protein viewer to watch it in real time.

[noisebomb44]

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/r93i6/has_foldinghome_really_accomplished_anything/

 

your answer should be somewhere in here

[thekeemo]

saved pharma companies money and increased their profit margins

[FAQBytes]

-Snip-

http://folding.stanford.edu/home/blog

https://folding.stanford.edu/home/papers/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home