What does it really mean to you to donate your computer's processor time and/or build computers specifically to crunch for Rosetta@Home? I know that we are all fascinated by the numbers aspect of shared computing, what about the project itself inspires you? For me, it's the approach and what's possible with the science.


THE APPROACH

I was reading Dr. Baker's log (https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/forum_thread.php?id=1177) and found myself to be totally inspired by both the project and the scientific team's approach to the project. I came away from the reading knowing that Dr. Baker was totally open to ideas (including ideas from messageboard posters), very creative, and courageous. The team (including the outside assistance of Rom) revamped the Rosetta/Boinc code to reduce the error rate and reduce memory usage and make the process more efficient. They are totally open to feedback from CASP so that they can refine/innovate the process used. They are also coordinating with other scientific teams which is very giving of them.

What is possible if we all worked together instead of bickering over little details or the need to be right or the need to be comfortable? The Rosetta team works with several other departments at UW to perfect the program code. Does Dr. Baker or others keep a tight reign on how they think the code should look or be? No, they stay totally open and work together toward the big picture and install multiple updates from multiple parties at once. This project is too important for micro-managing.

What if we approached other things in our lives the same way?

THE SCIENCE

I'm also inspired by the science. Breakthroughs are possible in regards to malaria, HIV, Alzheimer's, etc. The results of the projects will be available to other scientists who can simply build on what is done by Rosetta@Home. If we work together as a community and give the project the computing power that they need, we are making a major breakthrough that much more likely! A breakthrough could elevate humanity. Just think what is possible if malaria were defeated or HIV were stopped in its tracks, humanity could progress so much more!

WHAT ASPECT INSPIRES YOU?

I like being part of something huge meant to help expand human knowledge.

Projects like Rosetta and Einstein have big projects to get done, and I see it like a big pile of sand that has to be moved across a road, grain by grain (work unit by work unit). I enjoy the methodology of "moving things" bit by bit and doing so myself, work unit by work unit.

In sum, I like being a part of that big process when the end goal helps push back the veil of the unknown and expand human knowledge.

---

Protiens appear to be one of the final frontiers of biology and desease. This project (While perfecting the methods) seeks not only to predict both known and unknown protien structures but also seeks to predict their behavior (comming soon). It is gratifying that home computer owners make up the muscle behind the project and provides us a way of giving something back. To have the opportunity to contribute to both desease erratication and improving our quality of life is what drives the core-cult community to keep contributing so much CPU time to the cause.

Unlocking the mystery of proteins is unlocking a whole new world.

---

?????????

---

Seems hard getting anything positive going.

---

It's messages like this from the scientists that get me excited. . the fact the work we're doing is directly related to finding a cure for a horrible disease:

From DB:

the new HIV vaccine design project is starting to come into full swing. We now have computationally designed amino acid sequences for 15 potential vaccine candidates, and we will start the process of making them next tuesday; the first step is to synthesize genes which encode these proteins. We have also designed a whole series of novel enzymes which catalyze a wide variety of reactions, and are starting the gene synthesis process for these as well.
I'm particularly interested now in designing enzymes which destroy organophosphate compounds which are the key ingredients in many pesticides and nerve agents. On rosetta@home, we are carrying out calculations in which we are resampling regions of the landscape found to be low energy in initial sets of runs and we hope these will lead to significnat improvements in our abilities to find global minima.

---

This might not be a popular answer, at the moment, but the big reason I'm here (instead of one of the other similar projects) is the community. Yes, we're having some issues, now, and there may have been some communications problems (on both ends), but I don't think there's anyone who would say that Dr. Baker and co. don't care what the users think. I always feel like my contribution, here, is appreciated, and I know that this is a project that's really going somewhere.

Secondly, I feel that this project is about the most important scientific question facing us, today. If I can look back and say that I played even a small part in finding the answer, that's something I can be proud of.

Paydirt, looking at your signup date, you kinda caught us at a bad time. This is really unusual, here, and will hopefully blow over, soon. And when it does, I'm sure that Rosetta will be running even better than before.

(By the way, I'm glad to see a few topics like these springing up, in the forums. It's reassuring to know that, once the dust finally clears, there will still be some of us left crunching!)

---

"There are obviously many things which we do not understand, and may never be able to."
Leela (From the Mac game "Marathon", released 1995)

I was speaking to a cancer doctor (oncologoist) and chemist over the weekend with the intention of enrolling him in Rosetta. He already knew about protein prediction and that University of Washington is the Center of the (known) Universe for this kind of work. My intention was to inspire him about the project and he ended up totally inspiring me!

He said,

"Chemistry is a predictive science. You can take a chemicals before a reaction and predict what will be left over after a chemical reaction. The left-hand side of the equation equals the right-hand side.

"Biology is currently a descriptive science. We can roughly describe what happens, yet we cannot predict what will happen with any certainty." Some drugs work or some people, some not, etc. "If you take a chain of amino acids, you cannot say for certain what that protein does because you do not even know the shape of it."

In short, "If biology could become a predictive science. Then look out! Many things are possible." I replied, "Yes, humanity would be elevated and transformed." Meaning, we wouldn't have to worry so much about diseases, etc. What if the next great leader of man will only survive adolesence if malaria is stopped in its tracks?

It ends up that the guy I was talking to is on a school planning commission and he now wants to convince the 6th-8th grade science labs to run Rosetta on BOINC! Awesome! I'm going to talk to as many people as possible about Rosetta over the next year.

-Bradford

Be prepared for Paydirt to try to sell you one or more of his mind altering courses from his website. Just warning you about what you are currently being primed for BTW.

---

Yes, humanity would be elevated and transformed." Meaning, we wouldn't have to worry so much about diseases, etc

And overpopulation would happen and Mother nature would take it`s course, there would be more wars, more killings. Life is a balance and whilst humans may alter it slightly it will take it`s course perhaps elsewhere but it will even out.

---

Not all Czech`s bounce but I`d like to try with Barbar ;-)

Make no mistake This IS the TEDDIES TEAM.

Yes, humanity would be elevated and transformed." Meaning, we wouldn't have to worry so much about diseases, etc

And overpopulation would happen and Mother nature would take it`s course, there would be more wars, more killings. Life is a balance and whilst humans may alter it slightly it will take it`s course perhaps elsewhere but it will even out.

Carl,
We agreed again! And it'd would be nice to transfer all the money used to devellop and sell/buy weapons to something better, because today we spent more money to kill people than to save them. Imagine how CPU you can have for the price of a F-16 or whatever like that....

Let's see... an F-22 is $2 billion dollars. That could buy 2-3 million Conroe systems, or 4-5 million AMD systems. WOAH!

Well you'd have to take into consideration the energy bill, and the "housing" for all theses conroes (and probably air conditionning costs ;) )... But that would still be a much better investment than an F-22.

- trib'

---

Yes, great Idea. lets all get rid of our weapons systems at a time when we need them most. Sometimes you have to spend money to kill people Thierry, or they will kill you if they see a weakness. Would be great if it was that simple though.

---

Yes, great Idea. lets all get rid of our weapons systems at a time when we need them most. Sometimes you have to spend money to kill people Thierry, or they will kill you if they see a weakness. Would be great if it was that simple though.

Of course. It was only a hope. Unfortunately the reality is relay different.

Yes, great Idea. lets all get rid of our weapons systems at a time when we need them most. Sometimes you have to spend money to kill people Thierry, or they will kill you if they see a weakness. Would be great if it was that simple though.

But you could get at least rid of those weapons systems, that are inherent evil (cluster bombs, land mines, ABC-weapons pop to my mind here at first).

I'm glad F-22's and cluster bombs are what this projects inspires you with :)

Please keep this thread on topic. Feel free to solve global over-population due to Rosetta working wonders on a new thread.

---

I'm glad F-22's and cluster bombs are what this projects inspires you with :)

Please keep this thread on topic. Feel free to solve global over-population due to Rosetta working wonders on a new thread.

Ethan,
It's too late.... I read somewhere that a meteor will hit Seattle soon. So, ... ;-)

Paydirt
Great to hear your enthusiasm! I wanted to point out that Dr. Baker is already working to create a school curriculum about Rosetta. Perhaps you and your friend could help to create it? Or, at least, use the same materials.

---

Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

To help in an exciting and promising scientific field.

---