Archive for October 21st, 2003

Use Your Computer to Help Scientists Solve Problems

Tuesday, October 21st, 2003

You can help solve major science problems while your computer’s idling! While exploring the science library at Planet Science, I found links to the following sites where you can download free software that will put your computer to work while it is idling:

  • Fight Aids at Home:  Download a program to help with AIDS research.

  • Folding Proteins Experiment:  Help by using your PC to solve the protein folding conundrum.
  • Compute Against Cancer:  Explains in great detail how it goes about utilizing your computer to work on cancer calculations.
  • Numbers and Codes:  Use your computer to help crack cyphers and mathematical problems.

    • How do these programs work? To give you one example, FightAIDS@Home, “processes information (in this case using the drug design software AutoDock) and evaluates prospective candidates for drug discovery…when your computer has finished a FightAIDS@Home computation, the FightAIDS@Home results are packed up and sent back to The Scripps Research Institute, ready for Scripps researchers to collect and analyze them.“

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