Since proteins play such fundamental roles in biology, scientists have sequenced the human genome . The genome is in a sense a "blueprint" for these proteins -- the genome contains the DNA code which specifies the sequence of the amino acids beads along the protein "necklace." However, only knowing this sequence tells us little about what the protein does and how it does it. In order to carryout their function (eg as enzymes or antibodies), they must take on a particular shape, also known as a "fold." Thus, proteins are truly amazing machines: before they do their work, they assemble themselves! This self-assembly is called "folding." One of our project goals is to simulate protein folding in order to understand how proteins fold so quickly and reliably, and to learn how to make synthetic polymers with these properties. It's amazing that not only do proteins self-assemble -- fold -- but they do so amazingly quickly: some as fast as a millionth of a second. While this time is very fast on a person's timescale, it's remarkably long for computers to simulate. In fact, it takes about a day to simulate a nanosecond (1/1,000,000,000 of a second). Unfortunately, proteins fold on the tens of microsecond timescale (10,000 nanoseconds). Thus, it would take 10,000 CPU days to simulate folding -- i.e. it would take 30 CPU years! That's a long time to wait for one result! To solve the protein folding problem, we need to break the microsecond barrier. Our group has developed a new way to simulate protein folding which can break the microsecond barrier by dividing the work between multiple processors in a new way -- with a near linear speed up in the number of processors. Thus, with 1000 processors, we can break the microsecond barrier and help unlock the mystery of how proteins fold. How can I help? First, go to the Folding@home website and download the latest client. The client comes in a variety of flavors. For the graphically minded, there is a screensaver client that will run whenever your screensaver is engaged, ensuring that the client won't run when you're using the computer. There is also a graphical client ("GC") available that will fold whenever the computer is on; it runs during the CPU's idle processing time. The GC puts an icon in the systray with an option to display a simulated picture of the protein as it's being folded. Finally, the newest addition to the F@h client family is a command-line version that you can set up to run as a system service under Windows NT/2K/XP, so that the client will run even if the machine in question is not logged in. The F@h client is designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. The screensaver version runs only when the screensaver kicks in. The graphical and console versions run at a very low priority, and only consume CPU cycles which would otherwise be unused. You should not notice any significant impact on application performance of your system when running F@h. I've started a new folding team for Transform the Planet. Each work unit returned is assigned a point value to create a fun, competitive aspect. On my native teah, The Tech Report, I'm the #48 folder in the world out of about 300,000 and climbing. Transform the Planet's fledgling team is, at the writing of this article #8593 of 68891. Come join our team and watch us rocket through the standings! After downloading your client of choice simply enter your username, and our team number: 53564 Come join the competition and fun, and let's see if any of you can dethrone me! You can check out team's stats here: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=53564