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March 16, 2007

Can 'PlayStation 3' Help Cure Cancer?

Topics: Medical Science News

What do you get when you add 10,000 $600 PlayStation 3s or computers running high-end graphics cards to a network with 200,000 computers that are currently linked together?

If you use Stanford University's Folding@Home project, a seven-year-old endeavor that harnesses computers around the world to perform complex computations needed in the research of proteins, you get the ability to process 1 quadrillion (that's 1,000,000,000,000,000) operations per second. According to MTV.com, although it was never proven, 5 years ago rumors circulated that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling PS2s in an effort to use the parts to launch missiles. Now there is scientific proof that the "PS3's cell processors run on some special juice" which when used with Stanford's project, ""allows connected, or "distributed," computers to simulate the complex ways protein molecules fold,"" and can help scientists unlock the key to curing many diseases:

[...] Scientists believe that the improper folding of proteins can result in cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other incurable diseases. Better understanding of how the protein folding process occurs -- and why it sometimes goes awry -- could help combat those afflictions.

Find out how how gamers can join in here.

(Via Hyscience)

Posted by Richard at March 16, 2007 6:49 AM

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