Talk:1430: Proteins

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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If this comic has motivated anyone to join in with the Folding@Home project, you can get started here. --Pudder (talk) 09:28, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

I've been folding for about a year now. Before that it was the SETI@Home project - but I decided to switch to something that could have more direct and beneficial results. Jarod997 (talk) 13:58, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
Is there an xkcd team on any of the distributed computing projects? Or does someone want to put one together? Nealmcb (talk) 22:02, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

This comic has some similarities to 1425: Tasks. It can be difficult for the public (or experts for that matter) to grasp the complexity of a task for a computer. --Pudder (talk) 09:13, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Surely if you were folding yourself a crane out of paper then you would need to fold yourself a pair of scissors in order to be able to make cuts. --141.101.99.49 10:27, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Surely the "pull the tail" is referring to the flapping bird origami, which is similar to the crane but lacks one set of folds that make the figure narrower. 108.162.219.116 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Thanks for adding that "your actually donating your electricity" part - I had not considered it to that extent. I realized that the program is using more CPU/GPU "loading" while the screen saver is active, but for some reason I didn't translate that into more money out via my electricity bill. :) Jarod997 (talk) 13:58, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

No mention yet of the fact that Megan (and Randall) thinks this is the hardest problem! I have added some where it only aims at other science questions. But she did not say anything about science. Solving all human crises like overpopulation, climate, pollution, hunger, war and death could also be seen as either several or just one (unified) problem. She would then still think her problem harder... Should that be added as well in some form? I will leave that for others to decide. Kynde (talk) 18:31, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

I think it is clear that Megan means computational problems - unifying gravity or solving human crises have not been reduced to computational terms - so the comparison is not appropriate and the comment in the explaination is unwarranted. 173.245.52.157 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

The Title Text made me think of Rembrandt's painting The Anatomy Lesson, where the lecturer was pulling a tendon in a cadaver's forearm, making a finger move. It might make an appropriate metaphor: Today's scientists are taking baby steps in learning the "anatomy" of proteins through trial and error, much like the scholars of the past deciphering the basics of the human anatomy. Aiw (talk) 21:38, 6 October 2014 (UTC)