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Folding@Home Reports Success
msheppard writes "This Article describes how the folding@home distributed computing project is reporting that they used the data processed on client machines to "predict the folding rate and trajectory of the average molecule." Too bad Seti@Home hasn't had a hit yet."
that the sister project genome@home was so monumentally badly mismanaged that it effectively merged with folding@home a distinct project. I lost complete faith in the Pande group at that point along with a lot of other genome crunchers and switched all my CPU's back to SETI...
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
I hadn't realized how many distributed (grid) computing programs were out there... Check out Google Directory's list of links to distributed computing pages/projects here... Distributed Chess sounds very interesting!
I'm surprised google hasn't come out with a spider at home client which goes out and searches the web caching sites as it goes. Sure distributed computing could help their venture and who doesn't love google?
in saying that it's the first distributed computing success. Look at the success of the distributed.net project, they just recently cracked rc5-64, and have cracked several other ciphers before.
Okay, it's nice to see that distributed computing is finally becoming a useful tool. Nonetheless, I don't think there's anything particularly impressive about the biological results. The proteins they're folding are so small that most factors that affect the folding and conformation of the vast majority of proteins simply don't exist. When someone accurately predicts the structure of a normal globular protein at atomic resolution, I'll be impressed. When they can predict the structure of the F1F0 ATPase, then we can throw out crystallography- but it's not going to happen. (Ignoring for the moment that crystallography has it's own issues. . . at least it can show active sites and quaternary structure)
Don't get me wrong, the geek half of me thinks that what they're doing is very cool (and far more interesting/useful than Seti@Home). But I don't think it's very relevant to biology, and I doubt it'll ever replace traditional methods. Computers have almost unlimited potential as an aid to experimental structural biology, but in silico protein folding is still a pipe dream and a hand-waving exercise. The theory is really cool, the practical applications are nearly zero.
(Disclaimer: I don't have a PhD so I'm not very qualified in this field, but I do have a BS in biology and a fair amount of experience in programming and some knowledge of molecular simulation.)
If we get one Seti hit and we may be able to replace ALL of our current problems with new ones.
Earth: How do we cure cancer/every disease we know of?
ET: Use *this*, but now that you're living forever, you have to worry about massive overpopulation.
Earth: How do we get off this planet?
ET: Use *this*, but now you have to worry about war between your planets.
Earth: How do we achieve peace?
ET: Use *this*, but now you're bored outta your minds.
M@
Krispy Cream is people
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Well, on a related topic has anyone thought of this explanation for why SETI has found no results :
Most current radios, based on decades old tech, broadcast a very orderly signal. It is confined to a narrow band range, only one transmitter is allowed per channel, the data being transmitted is uncompressed and so has many repeating orderly patterns.
To increase capacity future radios will do the opposite.. They will broadcast compressed data that seems completely random, they will use a large swath of spectrum, they will repeat parts of the same signal across a large portion of the spectrum using a "chipping" algorithm. Even farther in the future, so many radios at once may be talking on the same spectrum that to identify a particular sender in order to communicate you'll have to use multiple antennaes and know his location (you'll share spectrum based on location).
What is the end result of advanced communication gear that intelligent minds develop? What is the optimal result? To an outside observer the signal will seem like pure, almost totally random noise. Only to the electronics of a particular receiver that has the correct encryption and chipping key will it seem like anything else.
THAT's why we can't hear anything. Trillions of sentient beings could communicate using this method and we wouldn't hear a thing.