What happens when there is nothing left to fold

[DayUSeX]

how many wu's are left??? and what happens when they are all gone?? im scared..............

[Justy303]

No need to worry about that. The guys at Stanford will make sure, we're not running out of them.

[seamadan000]

the protien structures that we are studying are virtually infinite, there is now way that we could run out of source material, and the boys at stanford will probably keep producing the WU's for a long time.

[Fast420A]

All the P10** proteins are all new to the fold, they weren't around 6 months ago.

[Melhisedek]

I asked similar question once and we came to believe that if we all continue to fold at this pace and include all the upgrades in CPU power and all ( CPU speed doubles every 18 months ) it would take us at least 60-80 years to make some significant result.
This is IIRC. So: "Let the borging begin!"

[NedClocker]

Originally posted by DayUSeX
how many wu's are left??? and what happens when they are all gone?? im scared..............

Don't be scared, Tommy. It's not a pod. It wont hurt you.
(Anybody remember that movie???)

I've wondered the same thing. I would like to see a projected finish date from Stanford. But, truth is, they probably do not know, either.

If folding does end, I suppose there will always be SETI. :eek:

[JerMe]

It's interesting to see how a protein goes from a long AA chain to it's final 3° or 4° structure. It's one thing to determine the final structure from various methods... but to actually know how it gets there, that's another story. Kinda like building a Titanic from a couple long strings of legos. ;) It's cool to see stuff from my old structural biochem class come to life like this folding project is doing.

If you guys have time, you should really scroll through the projects and read the basics about them. I'm scrolling through now - some structures I recognize, most I don't. It's still cool though (:0 I'll have my eye on the RNA projects, since my prof had us jumping through loops memorizing it's structure.

There are HUGE proteins in our bodies (1 million+ daltons!), and so far the folding team collectively has knocked out only the "smaller" proteins (keep in mind, although proteins are basically linked amino acids, they play many important roles) and portions of the bigger ones. From what I know (I just started folding), these gromac cores are really starting to tap the real potential of the folding community. As the project (and folding engine) develops, they'll be asking more from our processors.

In short, this folding project won't end for a very, very long time! :D

[flixotide]

This particular fact, that protein folding is close to infinite, is also a very good reason why its not worth borging rigs without permission.

Sure, a rig will make a difference, but not a big enough difference to be worth doing stuff without permission..

So from mr. ethical here a big

GET PERMISSION

Cheers

Flix