Folding@home

Summary:

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You can help to cure many types of cancer and other horrible diseases by simply running a program called Folding@Home on your computer or PS3. Installing this program lets your computer (or PS3) help Stanford University work on cures.

To join on your PS3, all you need is firmware 1.6 or newer. Simply go to "Folding@Home" under network on your PS3, and start it (:

To join on a PC, go to Folding@Home and download the program.

Be sure to sign up with a username so that you get credit, and join my team! #56626

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How does it work?

Almost everything in the body is controlled by Proteins. Proteins are formed by a process called "folding" based on information found in DNA. When these proteins malfunction (fold improperly), physical results can be devistating. To understand protein folding, researchers at Stanford need to run complex calculations which would take supercomputers 30 years to complete. However, by using the power of computers and PS3s around the world, the calculations can be done much faster. When you install the program on a computer, it automatically lets your computer work on these calculations for stanford whenever you're not using your computer. It can also be run on a PS3, which is much faster than most computers.