You Can Make a Difference Effortlessly or By Playing a Game

I was listening to the Naked Scientists Podcast yesterday and Joe Jasinski talked about the World Community Grid. Basically, people all over the world donate their computer's downtime to help science. Here is Joe explaining how it works:

The World Community Grid is a group of researchers and a group of ordinary citizens who have combined their efforts to build what is in fact in some sense, one of the world’s largest supercomputers to solve problems that we believe are beneficial to mankind. Anybody can join. It’s using your own PC or computers to join a network of computers [around the world] and those computers are used by the scientists who are doing projects with the World Community Grid to do computations that would otherwise be impossible for them to do because they don't have enough computing power.

So the way it works is you go to worldcommunitygrid.org and you can sign up your machine or machines and we download a screensaver to your machine, and when you're not using your computer, which is most of the time actually even if you have it on and you're sitting in front of it, we can do some computations. Then we send the results back to a centralised computer which we call the head node.

After we’ve done enough of these computations, we present the data to the principal investigators, the scientists who are exploring things on the World Community Grid, and they can then understand their problem and hopefully discover something new like a new drug to treat HIV/AIDS or for dengue fever, or maybe finding new kinds of plastic materials that would make cheap solar cells available.

So you, little ol' you, can make a difference almost effortlessly. This is a great way to be a Citizen Scientist. By the way, WCG is non-profit.

I signed up and downloaded the screensaver. I changed my preferences so that WCG gets 10 GB of hard drive space, and can have 20% of RAM when I'm using the computer, then 75% when I'm away from the computer (I didn't want it running at 100% because I don't want my computer to stay too hot).

I read that it uses about the same electricity as turning on a light, so the cost to me is negligible. But as I write, my computer is working on solutions to AIDs and cancer, and I'm also computing for the LHC (see below) and folding proteins. Yesterday, it worked on solutions for clean water, clean energy and a drug search for some nasty parasite called Leishmaniasis.

You get to pick which projects you want to contribute to. You can choose to work on all of them, which is what I did. Here is the active list right now:

• Drug search for Leishmaniasis, a parasitic tropical disease which infects over 2 million people in 97 countries


• Computing for Clean Water


• The Clean Energy Project Phase 2 - solar cells and energy storage device calculations


• Discovering Dengue Drugs Phase 2 - Dengue is a viral disease


• Help Cure Muscular Dystrophy Phase 2


• Help Fight Childhood Cancer - finding drugs that disable 3 particular proteins associated with neuroblastoma


• Help Conquer Cancer - improve the results of x-ray crystallography in order to increase understanding of cancer and its treatment


• Human Proteome Folding Phase 2


• Fight AIDs at Home - using computation methods to identify candidate drugs to block HIV protease (structure-based drug design)

Here are the 9 projects that have been completed.

You can also join a Team! I recommend Rational Atheists United for Science, which is what I have joined. If you form a team, let us know so we can join it.

They are on Facebook at World Community Grid. They are also the founders of a group called People for a Smarter Planet. This page has several groups that you can participate in, such as CityOne (a game you can play to help science), Creek Watch (a nifty smart phone app), World Community Grid and the Goldstine Fellowship.

Suppose you want to do even more for science? How about Foldit! You can play a game that could make a huge difference. In fact, it has already! Foldit is a protein folding game that you can download and play on your computer. Here is the science behind the game.

Here is where it gets supremely cool. A protein causing AIDs in rhesus monkeys that hadn't been solved for 15 years was resolved by Foldit players and confirmed by x-ray crytallography! Here is the paper.

Don't have time to play a game? Rosetta uses distributed computers (like WCG) to compute protein folding. You install a screensaver and it does computations when you are idle.

Both WCG and Rosetta run the same program, BOINC. SETI@home, Climateprediction.net, LHC@Home (you can help the Large Hadron Collider!) and others also use this system so you can connect to whatever projects you like (this link has a big list!).

Once you have BOINC installed, go to Tools > Attach to project or account manager > then select which projects you like. Super easy to do!

If you join and get started, let us know! And if you join a team or form one on any of  the projects let us know that too.

More Groovy Science 4

Hello everyone! Here is more science to tantalize your synapses and neurons!

• Keep Your Fingers Crossed: How Superstition Improves Performance


• More Than Half the World's Population Gets Insufficient Vitamin D, Says Biochemist


• Low Vitamin D Levels Associated With Cognitive Decline


• Team Develops Non-Toxic Oil Recovery Agent


• Smoking Mind Over Smoking Matter: Surprising New Study Shows Cigarette Cravings Result from Habit, Not Addiction


• Light and Moderate Physical Activity Reduces the Risk of Early Death


• New Antibacterial Material for Bandages, Food Packaging, Shoes


• A Blood Test for Depression?


• 3-D Gesture-Based Interaction System Unveiled

Keep Your Fingers Crossed: How Superstition Improves Performance: New research shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve your performance -- by increasing your self-confidence. ...Volunteers who had their lucky charm did better at a memory game on the computer, and other tests showed that this difference was because they felt more confident. They also set higher goals for themselves. Just wishing someone good luck -- with "I press the thumbs for you," the German version of crossing your fingers -- improved volunteers' success at a task that required manual dexterity.

~Of course, this is still a form of delusion. Everyone tested in the study was superstitious and had a lucky charm. I'd like to see a study or two that involved people who don't rely on superstition as well. I think if a person understands the delusion of superstition, they will therefore not need the "lucky" feather in their cap. They will have appropriate self-confidence based on their actual abilities. Still, it's an interesting study.

WolframAlpha and Google "Fun" While Fixing Computers

Ok, this will be relatively short because I'm very tired and I really have to go downstairs and devote myself to fixing Butch's computer today. You know how it happens, one thing leads to another, and suddenly I am doing a clean install of windows xp for him. Let's hope it fixes most of his problems and he'll be a happy camper again. (He has no internet connection. That's just not bearable these days, you know? Everyone needs and deserves fast internet access!)

So, if you haven't heard, WolframAlpha, the latest, coolest "computational knowledge engine" is out and ready to play with. It still has a long way to go with adding more functionality, but there's a lot in there. I was asking it questions regarding religions and that wasn't really an option yet. Go over and try a few questions, watch the video, and see if you won't at least bookmark the site. It's geektastic, if you ask me. :)

One question I asked it was how many people per church are in my town? Unfortunately it didn't know how many churches were here, so that didn't work. But it told me the population, so that was a start. Also it has handy links down on the right. One was to Wikipedia which had an even newer figure for my town's population. So then I went to Google Maps and asked it to tell me where all the churches are in my town. Here is a summary of what I found:

• Population: 19,096 people


• Area: 8.2 sq. miles


• Churches: 6302

That's 3 people per church. WTF? That can't be right!?

Now, I think some of those 6,302 churches are in the surrounding area outside of town. So I redefined my search to be near the main street of downtown. I got 6,296 churches. Within 8 miles of downtown, I would say the first 10 pages of results would be a fair estimate. That's about 100 churches. Whew.. that's much better. I was freaking out there for a minute.

That still means 191 people per church. That makes more sense, I guess. But seriously, driving through our sleepy little town, there's a church on every corner, it seems. The major denominations competing for the sheeple are catholic and methodist. We have a pentacostal church near our house too.

Well, now that I've wasted an hour of my day, and a few minutes of yours, I'll go work on Butch's computer. Which reminds me, if you're a geek, I'd love to be your new BFF! :D I know just enough about computers to get myself deep into trouble and not be able to get back out of it again. So wish me luck. I'm diving in headfirst!

A Happy, Frustrated Atheist

Hey everyone! First, let's catch up.

• Comments: Thanks for the great comments recently! I promise to reply to each of them but I am falling behind. I realized some of them really require a post devoted to them instead of just a reply. So please don't think I'm ignoring you. I will comment soon.


• Computers: It's true. Ask my poor long-suffering husband Butch, I am missing the Patience gene. My computer has been doing strange things since I reinstalled windows (which I do every 6 months to a year to keep things fresh and in working order, as every past geek friend of mine has recommended) and I found out through Lifehacker that Windows 7 beta is freely available for download. Well, of course I had to do it. I have waited as long as possible, but the ADD, Shiny-Loving Geek in me had to have it. I'm such a sucker for the shiny when it comes to geek stuff. (Luckily for Butch, I couldn't care less about diamonds and that kind of nonsense. Unfortunately though, I need gadgets and computers and stuff like that.) It's my kryptonite, I guess. So I just had to have windows 7, and now, of course, I'm having problems with the virtual memory. Sigh. So bear with me, it's taking me quite some time to try to figure out the issue and see if I can find a fix. On a completely unrelated note, I'm interviewing geeks to be my new BFF. Please apply within. :P

Ok, now, I want to talk to you briefly about happiness. Are you an atheist? Are you happy? This lingering idea keeps wandering around that all atheists are curmudgeonly, grumpy, miserable, fatalistic and depressed.

I've been an atheist for 9 years, and for many years before that I was basically an agnostic. I have to say, I think discarding religion was a huge relief. I think I felt better. Once I finally learned to think critically, I think I started really seeing rationally and really appreciating the natural wonders of the universe. If anything, this process has left me more happy, more fascinated by the world of science and discovery. I think I'm happier and calmer, yet always eager to learn and grow.

But I think I probably come across under certain circumstances as a furious cynic. Why would that be? Which is the real me? The happy atheist is who I think I'd identify with best. But my bullshit meter has become increasingly sensitive. So when someone says something that screams of ignorance and a total lack of thinking for oneself, I just tend to get irritated, frustrated and grumpy.

It seems that wherever I go I'm surrounded by sheeple people who let others think for them. They spew forth the rubbish and lies that had been told to them by people in some strange version of authority (whether that be their minister, the pope, the government, or a slick marketing campaign) and that's good enough for them. They wallow in their ignorance like it was some sort of universal remedy. Thinking is endangered and that pisses me off, and worries me.

Anyway, other than that, I'm quite a content person overall. Are you an atheist? Or a believer? Are you happy and content? Or are you angry and bitter and curmudgeonly? If you're happy, do you still get really angry over certain things? I look forward to your comments! Oh,and have a great evening! :D

The Men In My Life

Hey everyone. How are you today? This post will be about the 2 guys in my life. Coincidentally, they both have done something recently that I wanted to share with you. So here you go:

First, my husband Butch, who happens to be awesomely smart (and pretty damned rogueishly handsome too! hee hee). He doesn't blog often, but when he does, I just love to see what is bouncing around in his brain. Usually it's a bit on the angry/ranting side of things. Ok, not usually, almost always. :P

The other day he wrote about Things Every American Needs To Know. It's a bit on the "angry diatribe" kinda post, but it's good stuff and I wanted to share it with you. Basically it's the difference between rights and privileges. I hope you find it interesting.

Free Online College Classes

College is expensive. But if you look around, you might find that education can be free. We live in a world full of information, but sometimes you just have to know how to search for it.

A friend of mine wrote about MIT and their free classes online. It sounds great. The only catch is, you don't get credits for the classes you take, so it can't get you towards a degree, but it's Free Information. It's pretty hard to beat.

While looking into MIT, I found a lot of other great colleges and universities are now doing the same thing. Here's a brief list. I'm sure there's much more out there if you look: