STARDUST - new interesting distributed computing application [Archive]

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DotNetWebs

15th January 2006, 13:38

ink4-u

15th January 2006, 13:57

i have seen this about a long time but never understand how a cure for cancer can be found by me running a programe. perhaps someone can tell me more about this?

easyasit

15th January 2006, 14:53

You may know a group of us are running the "Cure for Cancer" distributed computing application:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5654

This is one of several distributed computing applications that have appeared following the success of SETI@home.

The latest such project is "STARDUST". You can help to analyze cometary interstellar samples on you home PC.

See here:

http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

And here:

http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

You never know you might be able to solve the Evolution Vs Intelligent Design argument once and for all. :lol:

Personally I have decided to bow out of the argument and I will carry on looking for a "Cure for Cancer"

Yes allow me to help clarify what that is about

i met one of the main UK scientists a few weeks ago who has worked on this.
What it is, is the probe that went was designed to collect interstella samples from both space and the comet.
main reason being that this is virgin matter
What i mean by virgin matter is, its been unchanged since the creation of the solar system.
All matter u know of, including u has been around since the creation, but its also bee recyled, so the oringal blueprints are now lossed.

The samples are collect in a polymer called aerogel. what happens is that tiny particles have been collected in this. No wen nasa sent this probe it has no idea as to how it was going to find the samples, let alone extract them.
This is how it is in space science, they design things the cannot do yet, thinking by the time it happpens we will be able to.

Now where you come in
A micriscope will take up to 30,000 tiny photos, which this time the human eye will need to analyse as opposed to the compter.
The idea is that the particles will penetrate the medium leaving a carrot shaped path. With tha particle at the end.
you decide which pictures have this, and submitt it back. The same pic is then sent to others for verification b4 being looked at by one fo their team.
To make sure u are savvy with it, out of the bundle of piccies will be sent to you, some will contain portions with known samples. Can u spot those as well.

Unlike the computer we are subject to human error!

in time scientists will hope to find some clude at to what the beginning of the solar system was like.

This is the process of it anyway :-)

Al

ps, yes u have come into contact with this dust urself as well, everytime you hoover, space dusts gets hoovered up as well, did you know that?!

confused

15th January 2006, 21:58

I used to run seti, then a group of us used to run genome@home, I havnt checked your links yet but with seti and genome there are tables rather like a league, does this have one? maybe we could form a UKBF one - I'd be up for it, I only have 2 pc's here and one at work now (used to be net admin so had genome running on shedloads lol), but theres plenty of people here, and assuming its the same as the aforementioned ones, then there is no reason for people to be concerned, it just sits there on your pc and you wont notice it running. I think its a good idea anyway.

CALV

easyasit

15th January 2006, 22:10

Perhaps i did not explain fully

This Stardust one is not about leaving a program to run 24/7, this is about studying thousands of piccies by eye.

The aerogel they bring back has tens of thousands of microscopic particles from the comet and outer space.

The name of this game is to find them, then extract them. You the user have to find them, by eye :-)

but yes you could a a ukbf league on it if you wanted.

Al

confused

15th January 2006, 22:12

Im sorry, I misunderstood, I assumed it was the same as the ones I mentioned

CALV

easyasit

15th January 2006, 22:25

Im sorry, I misunderstood, I assumed it was the same as the ones I mentioned

CALV

no reason to apologise :-)
I only kno becuase i was drinking with one of the top uk scientists who was working on this project only a month or so ago :-)

Al

DotNetWebs

16th January 2006, 10:17

Confused:

We already have a UKBF team for the "Cure For Cancer" project it would be great if you could join us:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5654

Easy:

Thanks for the interesting info on STARDUST. I must admit that when I posted the link I too assumed it was a "set up and forget" type project like SETI etc. I didn't realise it would involve manual work. I have read a lot more about it now, it sounds interesting, I think I will give it a go after all.

Ink:

The way most of these "distributed computing applications" work (STARDUST aside) is that a problem that would take an infinite amount of time on a single computer is broken down in to millions of smaller problems that are "distributed" amongst millions of smaller computers "our PCs"). The actual calculations are normally carried out by a screensaver. After you have downloaded the screen saver it will automatically download a small sample of data. When you screensaver is activated it will automatically begin analysing the data. When it had finished it will upload the results and download a new set of data. It is really quite simple, after installing you can basically forget it is there.

The "Cure For Cancer" project analyses potential drug molecules for their effectiveness against proteins known to cause cancer. You download a set of data for a group of molecules. When the screensaver is activated it begins analysing the molecules to see how effective they would be against a group of target proteins. When it has finished it uploads the data and downloads a new set. Its that simple.

The BBC website has a simple explanation:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1255804.stm

Confused mention league tables. This is where it can become fun and quite competitive. Although obviously it is the taking part the matters. The amounts of data returned are logged and the number of results you have returned are compared with other members.

Here are the UKBF results for example:

http://www.grid.org/services/teams/team_members.htm?id=2319F9FB-F235-4A28-92D5-A789F5D3D990

And here are my individual results since joining at the start of the project.

http://www.grid.org/stats/members/compare.htm?un2=Gavin+Hewins

Regards

easyasit

16th January 2006, 14:09

i would give it a go
The exciting thing here is that u get to be a part of real scientific research.
Far more hands on and meaningful than getting your computer to process several thousands of bits of data.

And where else other than in astronomy do you get this chance.

Can i just canvass my interest for a second?

Astronomy still remains one of the only sciences where the non paid astronomer can still do some decent scientic work.
non paid (i do not like to use the term amatuer) astronomers do things like
spot supernovae (dying stars)
Discover comets.
Their names if successful are imortalised for all the remember.
Some even work with professionals.
If anyone is interested in this, drop me a pm, i will help point you in the right direction.

Allow me to point out though

You cannot pay to get a star named after you. Any companies offering this are fraudulent.