Why we fold

Started by Sìkat, March 14, 2012, 11:05:23 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Sìkat

Since we have a thread for excuses for NOT folding, I figured I'd start one on why people DO fold.

For me, it's very simple: A couple of years ago, my maternal grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  As an intellectual, I firmly believe that having your memories taken from you is one of the most horrifying things that can happen to a person.  My family and I have watched as this horrible, horrible disease takes its toll on him.  My mother is currently caring for both of her parents, and we are fortunate in that most of the family lives in the same town (or within a 2-hour drive) and can help her out easily.

I discovered F@H just after discovering LN, and I jumped right in after reading about the project and its goals.  As we know, protein folding (more specifically, MISfolding) plays a role in Alzheimer's disease, and research is ongoing in this area.  Donating the spare cycles on my computers towards this research is one of the easiest ways I can think of to contribute.

Payoang

Quote from: sfc78 on March 14, 2012, 11:05:23 AM
Since we have a thread for excuses for NOT folding, I figured I'd start one on why people DO fold.

For me, it's very simple: A couple of years ago, my maternal grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  As an intellectual, I firmly believe that having your memories taken from you is one of the most horrifying things that can happen to a person.  My family and I have watched as this horrible, horrible disease takes its toll on him.  My mother is currently caring for both of her parents, and we are fortunate in that most of the family lives in the same town (or within a 2-hour drive) and can help her out easily.

I discovered F@H just after discovering LN, and I jumped right in after reading about the project and its goals.  As we know, protein folding (more specifically, MISfolding) plays a role in Alzheimer's disease, and research is ongoing in this area.  Donating the spare cycles on my computers towards this research is one of the easiest ways I can think of to contribute.

Same story here. My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's when I was 6. My grandfather cared for her for the next 6 years, by himself, at his home.

I'm no scientist, nor have significant funds to donate to research, so a few CPU cycles here and there makes me feel I'm at least contributing to a cure.

Reykoveyzä te Werufalä Haflak'ite

what is folding@home? i hear people talking about a lot, but i dont know what it is. and whats a CPU cycle?
Irayo, ma frapo, ma oeyä smuke sì ma oeyä smukan.
Vivar 'ivong Na'vi! Eywa ayngahu!



*if i make a mistake in any of my Na'vi, please correct me :)

Ningey

Quote from: Reykoveyzä te Weru'falä Haflak'ite on March 14, 2012, 02:22:57 PM
what is folding@home? i hear people talking about a lot, but i dont know what it is. and whats a CPU cycle?

Folding@home is a scientific research project on finding out how a given polypeptide is folding up - to see what molecule structure is resulting in the end.
That way scientists hope to discover the internals of how enzyme structures, etc. come into existence.
I remember that they (with the aid of F@H) already have found something that is somehow linked to AIDS, but unfortunately I don't have the source at my fingertips - I'm going to see if I can provide more detail on this.

And for your second question: A CPU cycle is the time frame in which the CPU can perform an atomar action, i. e. execute a machine instruction, fetch data from memory or write it back, communicate with hardware devices - even waitstates when more complex operations require completion (i. e. more complex machine instructions that cannot be completed within one cycle). However, depending on the clock speed, the operational speed of a CPU varies - and since most of the time the computer sits idle waiting for input, you can use these idle cycles to perform other tasks - like calculating for F@H... ;) (In fact, any CPU time allocated to the Idle task is wasted).

Quote from: sfc78 on March 14, 2012, 11:05:23 AM
Since we have a thread for excuses for NOT folding, I figured I'd start one on why people DO fold.

For me, it's very simple: A couple of years ago, my maternal grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  As an intellectual, I firmly believe that having your memories taken from you is one of the most horrifying things that can happen to a person.  My family and I have watched as this horrible, horrible disease takes its toll on him.  My mother is currently caring for both of her parents, and we are fortunate in that most of the family lives in the same town (or within a 2-hour drive) and can help her out easily.

I discovered F@H just after discovering LN, and I jumped right in after reading about the project and its goals.  As we know, protein folding (more specifically, MISfolding) plays a role in Alzheimer's disease, and research is ongoing in this area.  Donating the spare cycles on my computers towards this research is one of the easiest ways I can think of to contribute.
Protein misfolding is the primary reason for Alzheimer, but a certain punctual mutation is able to promote this condition (because it's easier for the prions to fold the wrong way, i. e. as a layered instead of a helical structure).

If this way a cure CAN be found someday, it's well worth the effort - and not only as far as Alzheimer is concerned, but for other defects and malfunctions as well (cystic fibrosis, diabetes, cancer, and many other things). That's the reason why I have resumed folding - and once I'm capable to ramp up my calculation power, I'm going to do so.


"Sawtute ke tsun nivume - fo ke kerame!"
-- Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite

"There are two things that are infinite: Human stupidity and the universe. However, I'm not yet sure about the universe."
-- Albert Einstein

"He who gives up freedom for security deserves neither and loses both."
-- Benjamin Franklin

Blue Elf

I was sequentially member of more computing projects - seti@home, then climateprediction.net, now folding@home.
To the first one brought me colleagues from my office - we have run seti software on all available computer in our company and we raced who takes more points. After original seti client moved to Boinc platform, I switched project to something more useful, what research of the weather and climate is. But after I came here, I decided to support our team and IMHO research related to Alzheimer's disease is even more useful. If we can't predict weather, nothing important happens, but when we can defeat Alzheimer's disease by some way, it can save lives - and possibly also our owns. That is good reason to fold, IMO
Oe lu skxawng skxakep. Slä oe nerume mi.
"Oe tasyätxaw ulte koren za'u oehu" (Limonádový Joe)


bommel

I was folding for several teams before. I don't know exactly when I started but I know I used my old Compaq DL360 G2 server with dual Pentium III-S @ 1.4 GHz with two uniprocessor clients... well, this was rather slow ^^

'Oma Tirea

Quote from: Ningey on March 15, 2012, 01:05:33 PM
And for your second question: A CPU cycle is the time frame in which the CPU can perform an atomar action, i. e. execute a machine instruction, fetch data from memory or write it back, communicate with hardware devices - even waitstates when more complex operations require completion (i. e. more complex machine instructions that cannot be completed within one cycle). However, depending on the clock speed, the operational speed of a CPU varies - and since most of the time the computer sits idle waiting for input, you can use these idle cycles to perform other tasks - like calculating for F@H... ;) (In fact, any CPU time allocated to the Idle task is wasted).

I never knew about the part in bold, which brings up this question: what happens when other programs need CPU power?  Is F@H ranked below other applications for priority?

[img]http://swokaikran.skxawng.lu/sigbar/nwotd.php?p=2b[/img]

ÌTXTSTXRR!!

Srake serar le'Ìnglìsìa lì'fyayä aylì'ut?  Nari si älofoniru rutxe!!

bommel

Quote from: 'Oma Tirea on March 19, 2012, 01:46:14 AM
I never knew about the part in bold, which brings up this question: what happens when other programs need CPU power?  Is F@H ranked below other applications for priority?
Exactly. The CPU client has a very low priority. For example, I can play games while folding with the SMP client (but then completing a WU takes much longer of course). Unfortunately this doesn't work with the GPU client as GPUs don't have this process model stuff CPUs/OS use.

Ftiafpi

I figure if I have an expensive $1200 PC I might as well use that power for something other than work and gaming.

Ikxeru

Quote from: Ftiafpi on March 19, 2012, 11:51:18 AM
I figure if I have an expensive $1200 PC I might as well use that power for something other than work and gaming.
I second this. I have a powerful machine at hand in the office, used for database management for half an hour or so per day with full force and the rest of the day it's nearly in idle state (exept from posting here and some trips to Pandora in SL in the evening hours now and then after closing-time ;D). *looks conspiratively around to see  if the boss is near while posting this*
Compute for a greater good! Join LN's folding@home-team!



Krro tsayun oe 'ivefu nìftxavang nìmun.
Krro oeri txe'lan tìsraw ke sasyi nulkrr ulte tsun oe rivun tìme'emit nìmun.
Krro fra'u lasyatem.
Krro a lu pxiye'rìn, pxiswaway, pxiset, set.
Krro lu krrpe? Ke omum nìno, tì'eyngmungwrr a'aw a lu oer.
Krro layu...