This stuff has been around for years now and there's all sorts of projects going on, I remember trying seti out for a short while back in the day but even ignoring stuff like seti and less useful projects, i've never heard of any real achievements, has it actually advanced our knowledge or added anything tangible at all?
What good has come from distributed computing?
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Soldato
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http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Papers Have a read of some of the discovery's made. 
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Remember that DC isn't only useful for the clearly defined direct goals (e.g. in F@H's case, to find cures for diseases) but also indirectly, to help us understand how to use resources more effectively. A lot of units were folded purely to improve algorithms so that future work could be done more efficiently, I'd imagine this progress is applicable to other areas too.
As above, a lot of research papers have used work done by the F@H project, I did also read about an Alzheimer's drug developed using results from F@H that was due to market fairly soon. Also, remember that work on new drugs does take a long time so the work being done right now by F@H may not come to fruition in terms of actual usable drugs for 5-10 years or more.
As above, a lot of research papers have used work done by the F@H project, I did also read about an Alzheimer's drug developed using results from F@H that was due to market fairly soon. Also, remember that work on new drugs does take a long time so the work being done right now by F@H may not come to fruition in terms of actual usable drugs for 5-10 years or more.
Rosetta@home journal lists achievements http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/forum_thread.php?id=1177
By the way, what good has come from gaming?
By the way, what good has come from gaming?
Something like F@H may end up actually achieving something one day i guess but it sounds like so far little real world usefulness has come out of all this processing, i actually think that in the short term something like rendering may be of more value to people.
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Rosetta@Home is close to designing drugs that can help fight AIDS and influenza and is also looking at effective molecules for carbon sequestration.
The SIMAP project is a massive database of protein sequences that researchers can use to infer the purpose of similar proteins.
CPDN has contributed millions of hours of simulation time to climate change predictions.
Einstein@home has discovered something like a dozen new pulsars.
LHC at home contributed simulations which guided the construction of the of the collider at CERN.
The SIMAP project is a massive database of protein sequences that researchers can use to infer the purpose of similar proteins.
CPDN has contributed millions of hours of simulation time to climate change predictions.
Einstein@home has discovered something like a dozen new pulsars.
LHC at home contributed simulations which guided the construction of the of the collider at CERN.
When I was really into DC, I switched from SETI to F@H because of the feeling that I'd be doing some good.
Plenty of papers have been published based on F@H research. Whether or not they'll ultimately be of great benefit to humankind is probably unknown, but that's the nature of scientific research - you never know what is going to contribute to a breakthrough in 10 or 20 years time, and what is a dead-end!
With SETI, I couldn't justify the use of electricity because it's such an 'all-or-nothing' project. The original SETI ran up about 2 million years of CPU time and produced (as far as I can tell) nothing in terms of concrete achievements. Clearly if the breakthrough does come it will be profound, but the chance with current technology just seems too small.
Plenty of papers have been published based on F@H research. Whether or not they'll ultimately be of great benefit to humankind is probably unknown, but that's the nature of scientific research - you never know what is going to contribute to a breakthrough in 10 or 20 years time, and what is a dead-end!
With SETI, I couldn't justify the use of electricity because it's such an 'all-or-nothing' project. The original SETI ran up about 2 million years of CPU time and produced (as far as I can tell) nothing in terms of concrete achievements. Clearly if the breakthrough does come it will be profound, but the chance with current technology just seems too small.
Dammit. I've been running hotchicks@home for ages with no results and was beginning to wonder if it was just another useless program, but you must have been lucky enough to snaffle all the good WUs* Biffa.
*Women 'umans. Admittedly not the best acronym, but it was the best I could come up with at short notice.
*Women 'umans. Admittedly not the best acronym, but it was the best I could come up with at short notice.