If you're not already a member of our folding team please consider becoming one.

For those of you that don't know what folding is or don't understand it, the easiest way to describe it is to say that you're basically just letting Stanford University "use/borrow" your computer when you're not using it. It really helps if you can leave it on all the time so more work gets done, but even if you can't leave it on all the time it still helps.

All you have to do to contribute is download a small program and let it work in the background. Once you get it set up it's mostly good to go and doesn't require much attention. It will only use spare CPU cycles that aren't being utilized by any other programs to simulate a protein "folding". It will not degrade the performance of your computer in any way.

How it works is after you download the program it will fetch a protein. You simply let it run (while you go about your normal usage) and when it's finished it will send the results back to Stanford. You will get points for each "WU"(work unit) you complete and send in.

You can download the client here---> http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html (if you want to join our team make sure you enter team #11286 and whatever name you want to be shown in the stats, when you first run the program it will ask you for this information, just remember team 11286)

You can see what the current projects (proteins) are here---> http://folding.stanford.edu/psummary.html

Check your stats (points) here---> http://folding.stanford.edu/teamstats/team11286.html
here---> http://folding.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/teampage?q=11286
or (my personal favorite) here---> http://www.statsman.org/folding2stats/html/11286.html

Join up and help out. If you've ever wondered what you could do to help and couldn't quite think of anything (especially anything that requires much work) this is for you.

This is all being done in the name of science and will eventually benefit everyone on this planet. Some forms of cancer, "Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, and Parkinson's disease" are believed to be related to proteins "misfolding". The goal of the project is to sort it all out.

If you have any questions at all please do not be afraid to ask. We will be more than willing to help you get it figured out in the unlikely event that you have a problem.

Your not going to like this then

I am going to be away from home for the next 8 weeks (going bush for the job) so my machines will not be producing The good thing is that with the field LAN and sattelite connection, I can still check emails and forums So I may be away from home but not quiet by any means

Sorry to hear that fxr91 , but I'm sure you'll return when you're able.

This is just my attempt to get more people to join the team. Whether or not it will do any good I've no idea.