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upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

So What Is Protein Folding, Anyway?:

The current COVID-19 pandemic is rife with problems that hackers have attacked with gusto. From 3D printed face shields and homebrew face masks to replacements for full-fledged mechanical ventilators, the outpouring of ideas has been inspirational and heartwarming. At the same time there have been many efforts in a different area: research aimed at fighting the virus itself.

Getting to the root of the problem seems to have the most potential for ending this pandemic and getting ahead of future ones, and that's the "know your enemy" problem that the distributed computing effort known as Folding@Home aims to address. Millions of people have signed up to donate cycles from spare PCs and GPUs, and in the process have created the largest supercomputer in history.

But what exactly are all these exaFLOPS being used for? Why is protein folding something to direct so much computational might toward? What's the biochemistry behind this, and why do proteins need to fold in the first place? Here's a brief look at protein folding: what it is, how it happens, and why it's important.

]...] Protein folding research is central to our understanding of so many diseases and infections that even once we figure out a way to beat COVID-19, the Folding@Home network, which as seen such explosive growth over the past month, will not go idle for long. The network is a research tool well-suited to exploring protein models central to dozens of diseases that are related to misfolded proteins, such as Alzheimer's and variant Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, often incorrectly called mad-cow disease. And when the next virus inevitably comes along, all that horsepower, and all the experience being gained in managing it, will be ready to go again.

I thought I had a good general idea of what protein folding was. And then this article made clear that there was much Much MUCH more to it than I had imagined! I found it to be written at just the right level to convey information without going into the weeds with too much detail; highly recommended!

For those who haven't heard of it before, folding@home is a way for people to donate unused CPU cycles towards protein folding calculations. If you decide to participate, soylentnews even has a team that you can join!

Original Submission