Folding/seti/etc

[Lithan]

Is there any reason to do these beyond bragging rights/helping find aliens/map human genome? I mean I'm surprised that they can get somany users without some incetives. Are there some?

[Twisted]

yea.. folding might be able to save lives by finding cures for deadly diseases

[chrismacan]

Originally posted by Lithan
Is there any reason to do these beyond bragging rights/helping find aliens/map human genome? I mean I'm surprised that they can get somany users without some incetives. Are there some?

Check out the Stanford web site for more information on why you might want to fold. Folding@Home (http://folding.stanford.edu )

I won't profess to know much about the actual science, but they explain it well enough for me. Most of my friends fold, ALL my family and anyone I meet at university usually wants to help.

This project should help EVERYONE of us some day.

[IceMan3928]

Well first of all, folding (to my knowledge) is not mapping the human genome but rather studying how protiens within DNA strands fold themselves, sometimes protiens "misfold" causing deadly diseases such as alzhimers, mad cow diseases, ect... The project to map the human genome is called genome@home and is also distributed by Stanford. Aside from the obvious aspect of saving lives folding also runs at low priority all the time your rig is on, keeping it at full usage. This makes for a great stablity tester. Also on a more rare note some people use it too keep thier cooling just above ambiant so that they dont have to mess with condensation :p

Edit: and lets not forget the best reason to fold... Win free Hardware!!!!!!! :D

[orangebug]

And with cooler weather setting in, you can heat your house if you run enough machines! I think some of the power folders on our team (true addicts) would sell their furnaces to fund another folding farm!:D

Orangebug

[NASsoccer]

Originally posted by Twisted
yea.. folding might be able to save lives by finding cures for deadly diseases

hear hear:) also many folders have lost loved ones to cancer and other diseases that we are currently trying to help find cures for!

FOLD ON
NAS

[Rottys-R-Us]

Originally posted by orangebug
And with cooler weather setting in, you can heat your house if you run enough machines! I think some of the power folders on our team (true addicts) would sell their furnaces to fund another folding farm!:D

Orangebug

With my 3 even here in the SoCal desert I have to let some heat in the room:rolleyes:

Fold-eth on.

[RoadWarrior]

There's literally endless ramifications for this work. There are diseases that you hope you're never going to get caused by miscreant proteins that we would like to cure, yes. But also viruses are fragments of protein, and we live every day under the threat of some virus pandemic breaking out and wiping us off the face of the planet. If there's a chance some of the work can tell us more about viruses and how to combat them, that would be reason enough.

It's about survival, this work could help you stay alive some day. It could help the human race stay alive.

It would be a shame if all our ET friends found when they got here for a visit was a plaque saying. "Oops sorry, AIDS virus mutated into an airborn strain and we died out, doh!"


Road Warrior