This may already have been posted to the list, but in case not I'm sending
it since there was some recent discussion of computer-power. URL is for a
protein folding project being run by some people in the chem. dept at
Stanford. Similar to the SETI project.
Barbara
http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/Cosm/
WHY IS PROTEIN FOLDING SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND?
It's amazing that not only do proteins self-assemble -- fold -- but they do
so amazingly quickly: some as fast as a millionth of a second. While this
time is very fast on a person's timescale, it's remarkably long for
computers to simulate. In fact there is a 1000 fold gap between the
simulation timescales (nanoseconds) and the times at which the fastest
proteins fold (microseconds).
A SOLUTION: DISTRIBUTED DYNAMICS
To solve the protein folding problem, we need to break the microsecond
barrier. Our group has developed a new way to simulate protein folding
which can break the microsecond barrier by dividing the work between
multiple processors in a new way -- with a near linear speed up in the
number of processors. Thus, with 1000 processors, we can break the
microsecond barrier and unlock the mystery of how proteins fold.
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