Your computer sits idle or using little of its full potention for much of the time it is switched on. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way that you, I and everyone else could contribute this idle time to help advance the biomedical research revolution? As it turns out, there is: Folding@Home, a long-running project that devotes spare processor time from hundreds of thousands of personal computers in order to better understand our biochemistry.

People collaborate to donate processor time in teams - so join the Longevity Meme team and compete in the Folding@Home rankings! Competition is a good thing, inspiring us to do better: in early 2008, we broke into the top 200 ranked teams, for example. Also in 2008, we teamed up with the Immortality Institute to offer quarterly incentive prizes to team members. Why not give it a try?

What is Folding@Home?

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project run under the auspices of the smart guys at the Stanford University Chemistry Department. They rely on the contributions of millions of hours of spare computing time by people like you and I. This processing time is used to solve the hardest, latest and most pressing problems in protein biochemistry. The understanding gained by the Folding@Home team speeds up the search for therapies and cures for a number of important degenerative conditions of aging. Currently, Alzheimer's is one of those at the head of the list. By downloading a small, unobtrusive client to your computer, you can participate in cutting edge biomedical research! Visit the Folding@Home Website Download the Folding@Home Client

Our team number is 32461 and we continue to work our way up the rankings with great vigor. Enter this in the "Team Number" box when installing Folding@Home. If you are using Windows, you can always update this number and other options by right-clicking on the Folding@Home icon in your system tray and choosing the "Configure..." option.

• Longevity Meme Team Stats (at Extreme Overclocking)
• Longevity Meme Team Stats (at F@H Stats)

You can introduce yourself to other members of the team and keep up to date on the latest tricks and targets in the Longevity Meme team discussion thread at the Immortality Institute:

• Longevity Meme Folding@Home team discussion

Find Out More About the Project

Why is protein folding so important? The Folding@Home site includes some introductory pages to explain the science behind the work, and how the results are making a difference. Protein Folding Basics The education page is aimed at teachers and students, but it is very information. It includes basic information on the program, on proteins and distributed computing and other relevant topics. Very useful. Educational Pages

So come on, step up and do something to help your future health and longevity! Researchers are working on understanding the diseases that you will eventually contract as you age - this understanding is the first step towards targeted, effective cures. The more we can do now, the longer, healthier and better our lives will be.

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Last updated March 20th, 2008