what is folding@home?

[o770]

ive been around for about a yr now but i still dont know what the folding@home thing is about.
what is it for and how does it work?
why there is no permanent thread explaining this at top?
thanks.

[flounder43]

I believe that there is a thread at the top of the Gerneral Discussion... http://forums.overclockers.ws/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=51177

Basically, we all signup and run a program on our computers. It only runs when the computer is not being used for other things. What happens is that the computer is used to "fold" proteins for medical research. When the computer has completed a work unit (wu) it automatically uploads to the server and gets another work unit to process...

I hope that answers the basics. We would love to have you join our team. Remember, it only uses the computer cycles that you are not using!
Thanks,
flounder43