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Submitted via IRC for takyon
University of Bristol researchers have designed and tested a new virtual reality (VR) cloud-based system intended to allow researchers to reach out and "touch" molecules as they move — folding them, knotting them, plucking them, and changing their shape to test how the molecules interact. Using an HTC Vive virtual-reality device, it could lead to creating new drugs and materials and improving the teaching of chemistry.
[...] The multi-user system, developed by a team led by University of Bristol chemists and computer scientists, uses an "interactive molecular dynamics virtual reality" (iMD VR) app that allows users to visualize and sample (with atomic-level precision) the structures and dynamics of complex molecular structures "on the fly" and to interact with other users in the same virtual environment.
Source: Discovering new drugs and materials by 'touching' molecules in virtual reality
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday July 17 2018, @01:43AM
I imagine this will be quite informative for exploring the behavior of proteins, which are often far too large to build a viable physical model - the shear weight of the thing would cause it to deform in unintended ways, unless I suppose you made a neutrally buoyant model and worked with it underwater. There've been computer simulations for a while, but trying to interact with a 3D structure through a 2D interface is usually an exercise in frustration.