Folding Forum

ive been reading all this stuff about folding@home and what ive seen so far is really cool but i still dont understand it completely. so if anyone could explain it in more depth that would be great. thanks

Welcome to the Folding forum, KaiserDuke.

If you want an explanation of the scientific basis for protein folding and why it is being studied, read this: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Science

If you're a scientists and that's too simple an explanation, read the actual research results: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Papers

If you want to hear an interview with the project Director, try these links: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/Science

If you're asking about how the work assignments done by individual computers fit together, try this: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/WorkUnits and this: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/Runs%2C_Clones_and_Gens

By the time you've absorbed all of that, you may be ready to come back with some specific questions which we'll be happy to answer here.

alright so basicalyy what i want to know now is what the actual WU do and how does sanford university use them?

KaiserDuke wrote:alright so basicalyy what i want to know now is what the actual WU do and how does sanford university use them?

Proteins are made up of long chains of amino-acids which are made up of groups of atoms. Although the proteins may start out mostly stretched out, they rapidly fold into a ball-like shape with certain active amino-acids on the outside and certain inactive amino-acids on the inside. Some diseases are caused by proteins which fold "incorrectly" but nobody really understands how and why this happens.

The motions of the atoms can be computed and with enough computer time, the folding process can be simulated, leading to better understandings of the how and why. Unfortunately, it's a massive computational job which would take a long, long time on even the fastest supercomputers in the world.

Stanford University has developed a method whereby the massive computational job can be broken down into small segments called Work Units. These WUs, are distributed to hundreds of thousands of computers owned by people like you and me. Using donated computational resources, each WU is processed and returned to Stanford where they are reassembled into trajectories that demonstrate the sequence of motions showing exactly how a particular protein of interest folds.

so after you finish a certain WU it sends back to sanford university and you'll never see it again? or what im trying to say is its not saved on your hard drive? or is it?

It is not saved on your HD. When you finish one WU, you get a new one. The team at Stanford does all the analysis of finished WUs.

oh okay thanks

KaiserDuke wrote:so after you finish a certain WU it sends back to Stanford university and you'll never see it again? or what im trying to say is its not saved on your hard drive? or is it?

The only time it is ever saved on your harddrive is briefly when the software cannot upload the result to the servers. It will be held until it can be successfully uploaded or the deadline expires.

okay now i think i understand how everytjong works..just one more question..what is the point of there being teams?

what is the point of there being teams?

Community, fellowship, friendly competition, support, ....

I'm sure that others can add to the list.

KaiserDuke wrote:okay now i think i understand how everytjong works..just one more question..what is the point of there being teams?

For some people, the science is all that matters and the points are really unimportant.
For other people, the points are very important and they like to compete in the overall standings and boast about how much they've done.
For still others, they find a team of like-minded individuals who are interested in which team has the most points and whether they're catching up to teams with more points or losing ground to teams with fewer points.

In actual fact, most people are probably a blend of all three.

The sense of competition does encourage people to buy more/faster computers so they can contribute more points to the total, so teams are a benefit for FAH, as well. All of the larger teams (and many of the smaller ones, too) have their own web-site. As far as I know, this is the only web-site which is strictly team-agnostic.

KaiserDuke wrote:okay now i think i understand how everytjong works..just one more question..what is the point of there being teams?

Most teams post questions on their own forums, and the members help each other with correcting folding problems. One, or more, team members will also be active here. It all depends on your NQ (nerd quotient). I seem to have the second highest NQ on our team. The highest is too busy with her machines to come here often.

The goal is to process the maximum science. The point system keeps things interesting by allowing the members of your team to jockey for position. The little rivalries will help push each other to higher output. You can also watch your teams performance against other teams. I think the best part is you'll be able to plug in a fancy signature so you can brag about your folding power.

im glad i looked here, so how can i find a team then???? and can i use more than one thing in my home to fold with???, i have three computers and only one of them actually get used.... and they are all on the internet.

JuggaloBoB wrote:im glad i looked here, so how can i find a team then???? and can i use more than one thing in my home to fold with???, i have three computers and only one of them actually get used.... and they are all on the internet.

Any WIndows PC, Linux PC, MacOS-X PC, or PS3 can run a version of the FAH client (with the permission of the owner) provided it can be connected to the internet. They can all contribute to the same UserName and TeamNumber or they can be different -- that's your choice.

You can find team names from any of the statistics sites including the three sites listed in our page header. There are significant differences in how the members interact. I suggest you visit the team forum and find one with a style that you like. You can change teams later if you decide to, but only your new points go to the new team.

JuggaloBoB wrote:im glad i looked here, so how can i find a team then???? and can i use more than one thing in my home to fold with???, i have three computers and only one of them actually get used.... and they are all on the internet.

Many of the members here have either the team name or a link to their team sites in their signature. You can browse some of those to get the flavor of the team. If you check the Stanford team stats you'll see banners near the top of the team page that link to their home sites.

I'm running 6 desktops and 3 laptops. The more hardware, the merrier. Have fun.