P is for Protein in PS3

My three brothers wanted the Play Station three since forever (read: late 2006). their sales pitches have spanned the spectrum and ranged from "cousin X is only five years old and he has a PS3!" to "it can do protein folding!" The former was quickly shot down as it was the eight year old who made it. But the latter, merited a reaction from me: "steer." seeing that it piqued interest, the med student followed it up saying that there was a research effort in Stanford University which focused primarily on understanding the process of protein folding or how molecules structure themselves into their functional stage. The effort needed supercomputers to do the computations - resources that would be impractical for a single institution to invest in. The idea of distributing the computation to computers all over the world was thus born. As a Play Station user, the contribution takes place by simply keeping the console running. The program harnesses your unit's processor and literally just "folds away." The technology later on allowed users to play music while folding and even to view and zoom into a 3D map of the world where other protein folding activity was taking place. It was a move towards maximizing the computing power of your computer.

We eventually got them the PS3 but for different reasons:
Dad wanted a blu-ray player.
The boys wanted Solid Snake to kick Screaming Mantis butt.
I wanted to save on birthday presents - they considered it a cumulative gift.

As for my mom...

She thinks that the recent spike in our electric bill is the PS3's fault. "Why is it turned on when no one is using it?!"

She says that she'll just pray for the sick people of the world.