My machine is working away and shows those twisting, turning, molecules as it does it.

Which is very nice.

But I understand nothing of what it is doing beyond that.

I mean I know it is helping to find the shape of molecule, a protein, but I know no more:

what calculations it is doing and how they help, what molecule it is working on and what it does....

nothing.

And I initially signed the machine up for working on rare diseases or something and after a few days it appeared to me it was doing nothing. So I signed it up for this, rosetta@home.

Now I'm unaware of the current situation. Is it still working on that other thing or is it not? Was it ever?

There's the question of tasks. I see screen messages that there's no tasks sometimes. I don't know the significance of that, whether I should take some action.

Is there some place where I can see an overview of what is going on with my machine and where I can perhaps learn more about particular activities it participates in?

My machine is working away and shows those twisting, turning, molecules as it does it.

Which is very nice.

But I understand nothing of what it is doing beyond that.

I mean I know it is helping to find the shape of molecule, a protein, but I know no more:

what calculations it is doing and how they help, what molecule it is working on and what it does....

nothing.

And I initially signed the machine up for working on rare diseases or something and after a few days it appeared to me it was doing nothing. So I signed it up for this, rosetta@home.

Now I'm unaware of the current situation. Is it still working on that other thing or is it not? Was it ever?

There's the question of tasks. I see screen messages that there's no tasks sometimes. I don't know the significance of that, whether I should take some action.

Is there some place where I can see an overview of what is going on with my machine and where I can perhaps learn more about particular activities it participates in?

Right-click on your name here in this message area and open in a new tab. On the next screen click on Computers View. On the next screen click on tasks. You should see the tasks you're yet to run followed by the tasks you've completed (reverse chronological order). You seem to be doing very well. Well done.

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I'll just briefly offer that what you are contributing to depends on how much you wish to know. The short version is on the home page, you are helping scientists at the University of Washington to better understand how proteins work. The slightly longer version is that you are helping scientists at the University of Washington to learn how to cure disease and create vaccines. The somewhat longer version is that once scientists understand the "conformation" (shape) of a given sequence of amino acids, they can design other proteins and enzymes that will bind to them and prevent them from working normally. In the case of cancer proteins, for example, having something bound to it might prevent it from spreading (self-replication); in the case of renewable energy, it might mean gaining an understanding of how to design an enzyme that is able to break down materials, that are more difficult than starches, in to ethanol.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense