Despite admitted at the beginning of the pandemic error, humanity took the initiative, and simultaneously with the direct suppression of coronavirus sets new records. A project to create medicines from the coronavirus Folding@Home reports about the growing number of participants to 700 000, and its total computational capacity now is 2.4 exaflops. This is more than a supercomputer, because now the capacity of the project exceeds the capabilities of the top 500 supercomputers of the world combined.
Eager to find a cure for coronavirus motivates people to help the project. Fortunately, make it possible for the owner of any laptop or PC. A month ago, in late March, when COVID-19 only has hit Western countries, the project Folding@Home then received tangible support. To 30 000 regular participants joined by another 400 000, and the network capacity has been increased to 470 petaflops. Since then, the number of participants nearly doubled, while capacity increased by 6 times.
On what is spent such power? Now the work is focused on modeling the properties of the cusp of the virus SARS-CoV-2 – structure of the three proteins with which the virus attaches to the cell ACE2. This object got the name “Demogorgon”, by analogy with the monster from the TV series “Very strange case” because of the visual similarities. The task of scientists and their assistants from the project Folding@Home is to find a way to block this spike.
In other words, the most powerful computing network in the history of humanity working to make the virus “toothless”, and progress is already noticeable. Moreover, the project administration is confident that soon the number of participants will exceed 1 000 000. It’s time to dream about what useful things can be used such awesome power once we can handle COVID-19.
Source — Folding@home