Want to help fight the battle against COVID-19 from the comfort of
your own home? Scientists need your computer's help running an application in the background when your not using it.
The University of California at Berkeley has developed
Rosetta@home t
o "help determine the 3-dimensional shapes of proteins in research that may ultimately lead to finding cures for some major human diseases" including COVID-19. While that is probably crazy and complicated, the gist is that they don't have enough computing power on their own to get it done. By having Citizen Scientists like us loan our computer processing power to them, they can hopefully develop solutions and a cure to these diseases faster!
To get this safe process going, have an adult in your family go to https://boinc.bakerlab.org/, and click the orange "Join Rosetta@home" button shown in the above picture. You'll need to download the BOINC software and run it on a computer (Mac or PC). When you first run BOINC, you will be asked to choose a project: select "Rosetta@home". When you create your profile, it should be an adult's name. Make sure and join the "Davidson County 4-H" team.
Read through their website to learn about all of the cool work they're doing. Feel free to email me (Andy - alantz@utk.edu) with any logistical issues with Rosetta@home.