I was wondering how many people here have heard of Folding@home?
I think it's an excellent way to contribute to scientific research whilst I read or write.
Here's the link:
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/MainAnd here's an excerpt:
What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease?
Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.
Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.
If you're interested in letting your computer work away in the background while you type away, here's a link to all the available software for most computer systems:
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadAnd if there's enough people interested, we can create our own Simplyscripts team.
What do you think?