I know a lot of you guys ‘Fold’ but have wondered if you ever get any feedback from the people you are folding for. Do you ever get told what project you are working on? Or perhaps what you have helped achieve? Just curious.

I used to run their support forums, and basically there have been some papers released based on research done with the client - the stanford site for FAH gives quite good info on this

I used to run their support forums, and basically there have been some papers released based on research done with the client - the stanford site for FAH gives quite good info on this

So are the projects for governments or private companies? I am curious to know if you have helped to develop a vaccine for say cancer, or perhaps helped design a better Atom bomb? From what I have read on Brisky I think most people are of the opinion that they are doing good work, but do you know of any concrete examples? I do find the whole thing very clever btw.

My understanding and the reason why iam backing the project is in the fight for answers to some of the more popular illnesses including Alhzeimers, Parkinsons etc, also certain cancers which are caused by proteins not folding as they possibly should.

Iam not aware of any specific breakthroughs at the moment, but hopefully one day our combined efforts will aid in someone elses misgivings... and thats plenty enough for me to join

I have had family suffer with a few of the illnesses this project is looking for answers for, so its a personal thing for me too

a snippet from stanfords site...

Our goal: to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases

What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease?

Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

My understanding and the reason why iam backing the project is in the fight for answers to some of the more popular illnesses including Alhzeimers, Parkinsons etc, also certain cancers which are caused by proteins not folding as they possibly should.

Iam not aware of any specific breakthroughs at the moment, but hopefully one day our combined efforts will aid in someone elses misgivings... and thats plenty enough for me to join

I have had family suffer with a few of the illnesses this project is looking for answers for, so its a personal thing for me too

a snippet from stanfords site...

Our goal: to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases

What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease?

Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

Sounds like a great cause. I guess one day if they find a major cure you will be credited in some way:thumbup:

If you'd like to know more or even get involved then let me know and i'll supply you with some links....

yes i would think that the "distributed @ home" group would be listed in any papers published, in contributing to any breakthroughs....

which would be nice

If you'd like to know more or even get involved then let me know and i'll supply you with some links....

yes i would think that the "distributed @ home" group would be listed in any papers published, in contributing to any breakthroughs....

which would be nice

Whilst I think it is a good cause, I’m a little apprehensive having anything extra running on my computer. This one (my laptop) has a lot of work stuff (planning etc) and my Calendar etc on it. I also use if for photo editing and audio processing (which can be a bit draining on it’s T7500). My Desktop is a wheezing old thing that I use entirely as my Office computer and try not to stress it much as it is slowly dying on me. If I had a 3rd pooter I would love to get involved, but can’t really see me having a machine that isn’t involved with my work somehow. If my situation changes I will defo give you a PM to get involved though:thumbup:

The folding program works around the other processes, so if something on the computer requires the processor it will back off and allow that program to run first.

I have an old laptop at home and I wondered how much electricity it would consume if on all the time? must be less than a desktop?

Ben

Folding causes global warming

Seriously though how many PC's are left on 24/7 at 100% CPU load rather than off.

Even when you are using it normally the power usage is up on what it would be due to the increased work the CPU is doing in time it would otherwise be idle.

Seriously though how many PC's are left on 24/7 at 100% CPU load rather than off.

But all my machines are stripped back to the bone - I have CPU, motherboard, hard drive, pump and fans attached to the PSUs - that's it. Each machine (I'm running 2 Q6600 G0's (3.6GHz), 1 Q9350ES (2.8GHz) and 1 Q9450ES(3.2GHz)) consumes about 250W so it is a lot of power even so (like running 16 60W lightbulbs permanently). I only have one monitor, keyboard and mouse attached through a KVM.

Actually - put like that, it's a huge amount of power! The heat generated is quite incredible, I'm heating and cooling almost 20l of water by almost 40C every hour.

This isn't part of the Folding @ Home project - but it gives you an example of how computer modelling has helped the research into finding cures:

Silencing A Protein Could Kill T-Cells, Reverse Leukemia

It would be nice to see a list of contributions made by Folding.

Do you guys ever get any acknowledgement for donating your CPUs or even a clue as to what you are doing? Could the military be using you for nefarious purposes even? :eek:

I can't comment on Folding as I do World Community Grid projects - but there are plenty of research papers out there which have been submitted as a result of 'crunching' or 'folding' or whatever you want to call it.

If you have a good read over at the WCG site, it will explain the various projects and what they are doing - they are non-governmental, not-for-profit projects where the results are published and fully available free for anyone to use.

It would be nice to see a list of contributions made by Folding.

Do you guys ever get any acknowledgement for donating your CPUs or even a clue as to what you are doing? Could the military be using you for nefarious purposes even? :eek:

You get certificates and there are published tables of contributors. It wouldn't concern me if the military were using my computers for 'nefarious' purposes as I'm unashamedly doing it to exploit the fastest computers to the utmost. I'm only running 2 PCs, but they are so fast that I'm literally doing twice as much work as the rest of the team put together. That might seem like bragging (I have a huge ePenis) but the two machines are so highly tuned it's actually quite a job keeping them running optimally. I find it highly addictive and it is all in a good cause.

You get certificates and there are published tables of contributors. It wouldn't concern me if the military were using my computers for 'nefarious' purposes as I'm unashamedly doing it to exploit the fastest computers to the utmost. I'm only running 2 PCs, but they are so fast that I'm literally doing twice as much work as the rest of the team put together. That might seem like bragging (I have a huge ePenis) but the two machines are so highly tuned it's actually quite a job keeping them running optimally. I find it highly addictive and it is all in a good cause.

I wish your cooling water was being pumped around my radiators, would save me a fortune in gas.