Gaming for the Greater Good: Folding@home

By J. Cosmo Cohen
Monday, 21 September 2009

Editor's Note: Did you know that video games are helping to cure cancer? Cosmo reminds us about Folding@home, a program available on the PS3 that uses distributed computing to help scientists better understand diseases that afflict millions of people. If you own a PS3, fire up Folding@home, join the Bitmob group Cosmo has created to track our progress, and start saving lives. -Brett

folding_at_home

Right before I purchased my PlayStation 3, my friend began telling about Folding@home. When I finally purchased it and got home, one of the first things I did was click on the Folding@home icon. That's when I entered the world of protein folding.

Now, I'm not claiming to know exactly what that even means, but I do know that by running this free program via my PS3, I can help scientists do research to gain knowledge about diseases and the process of protein folding, something they admit they actually know very little about.

Folding@home is one component of Life with PlayStation, a little-known icon found at the bottom of the Network section of the Xross Media Bar. Life with PlayStation allows you to read news, check the weather, and do other productive things while Folding@home crunches numbers in the background.

For more information, I highly suggest you check out the official Folding@home Web site, but here's an excerpt from the site in case you don't want to click the link:

Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.

Now that we've got the basics out of the way, I'll get to what I want to talk about here: starting a Bitmob Folding@home group.

All that really means is that we will be ranked as a team. We'll also be able check out statistics on what we've helped accomplish, as well as see who among us spends the most time folding.

Worried about your electricity bill? Based on my own use of Folding@home, there has been only a $13 difference between using Folding@home regularly and not using it at all. Think of it as a small donation to help fight disease. (Does that sound too much like an infomercial?)

To join the team, press triangle while in the Folding channel, then select Current Channel > Identity > Join an Existing Team and input this number: 171408.

By the way, even if you don't have a PS3, you can still download the PC or Mac version. Although I'm not sure how to join the team if you go the PC route, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Our official page can be found here: Team Bitmob. I hope you guys join.

Comments (18)

My first thought is that this is a great idea - Bitmob has an official Folding Home page? Is some poor sap going to pay the $5.99 so Bitmob can have a Home Club too? smilies/grin.gif

My second (and more paranoid) thought is that what if @Folding Home is a lie? What if what they are actually doing is accessing our PS3s for all of the vital information that it contains. They could also be accessing my PlaystationEye and LOOKING AT ME!!! I think when I go to Folding Home I will unplug my Camera - but what if they can use it without being plugged in? Does the PS3 have powers that the governments of the world are keeping secret? Will one day all PS3s grow legs and arms and destroy the world? smilies/shocked.gif

Lance Darnell , September 13, 2009

Me and my baby just finished watching Battlestar Galactica. That said, this is going to eventually kill us all!

Tommy Ingallinera , September 13, 2009

@ Lance

Will one day all PS3s grow legs and arms and destroy the world?

We can only hope!

J. Cosmo Cohen , September 14, 2009

I have not looked at my PS3 the same since I thought of that. I am hoping the 360 is designed to transform and defend me against the PS3. smilies/grin.gif

Lance Darnell , September 14, 2009

Folding is really popular in PC enthusiast circles. Alot of people and alot of sites compete in folding, often using extremely overclocked PCs to do it. Pretty interesting concept overall, where basically all of humanity are contributing with their computing power to help cure cancer.

Christian Rydberg , September 14, 2009

@ Christian - Oh nice! I'd actually never really heard anyone talk about it except my friend.

J. Cosmo Cohen , September 14, 2009

I'm glad that the PS3 is being put to a more positive use. If Sadaam were still around, the PS3 would most certainly be used to launch nuclear weapons, just like the PS2.

Brian Shirk , September 14, 2009

I'm in. A great idea.

Jesse Bowline , September 17, 2009

done and done, ive been looking for a new team ever since i got a new PS3.

Philip Boosey , September 17, 2009

Congrats on the Front Page Cosmo!!!

This article actually inspired me to leave my PS3 on with Folding@Home

Good stuff!

Lance Darnell , September 21, 2009

@ Lance - Thanks! I'm glad you're folding and I hope more people do too.

J. Cosmo Cohen , September 21, 2009

http://bitmob.com/index.php/mo...ghome.html

If you wanna know a little more about Folding@home.

Frank Anderson , September 21, 2009

My only concern with this is that it requires your PS3 to be on at all times. Many of us leave our PCs on at all times, and while folding on a PC will use more energy due to the processor having a constant load, I cannot imagine it is the same as having your PC and PS3 on. Both the Xbox and PS3 are known for being incredible energy hogs and having yours on 24/7 to fold@home, while seeming to be a positive, might actually be counter productive in the grand scheme of things.

David McGregor , September 21, 2009

@ David - Actually, you can turn it off and on as you please. I usually see how long each protein takes, leave the PS3 for that amount of time, then come back and shut it down.

J. Cosmo Cohen , September 22, 2009

that's great stuff! I've been folding on my own, but joining the team means we can fold more proteins quicker. My partner works in cancer research and she was impressed and surprised to see sony's ps3 be involved with this programe.

so why fold? well in the labs, its called crystalography. By helping fold protein we are helping scientist catalogue different proteins in its actual 3-d form. what happens (read on if you are interested) is that in a lab, the scientist crystalize a protein to create 3-d models using machines. It helps people like my partner because when they need to look at how the protein functions etc, they can upload a folded protein and look at the 3-d structure to find the catalytic centre (also known as active centre) and because they can see the structure they can recognize if a cell is mutated or not etc. In the end, by folding protein, we are giving scientists and medical physicians the ability to look at the protein in its true form and infer its role and function and what might happen if the protein is mutated (which is a sign of illness). Sorry to bore you, but I thought you might want to know how you can help out. smilies/grin.gif