Putting Playstation to work for science
A team of scientists has enlisted the help of Playstation 3 owners to help themcrack the code for prostate cancer.
Brian Vest, a professor in computer science at the University of Copenhagen,realised that the lightning fast processor in Playstation 3 can double as ahome computer. Together with specialists at the Bioinformation Research Centreat Aarhus University, he developed a method for applying the gaming machine'sprocessor to help crunch data about prostate cancer.
'The machine is ten times faster than a normal computer so by using its enormouscalculating powers we can lighten our work considerably,' Vest told Nyhedsavisennewspaper.
Playstation owners involved in the project simply install a program, link theirconsole to the scientists' network via the internet and then let the machine dothe work. While the owners rest their hands and fingers for the next round ofArmored Core, the machine searches a DNA chip that contains genetic materialfrom 2000 people. The goal is to locate the gene that causes prostate cancer.
Some 100 Playstation owners have participated in the project since January.
Dr Jørgen Kvist Kristensen at State Hospital's Urology Department is hopeful theproject can give insight into who develops prostate cancer, which is the secondmost fatal form of cancer among Danish men.
'That would give us the possibility to manipulate the disease so it neverdevelops,' Kristensen said.
Stub from http://www.cphpost.dk/get/101009.html
1 comment:
Those PS 3's do pack a serious punch. I was involved with installing an IBM P575 at the University of the North to do some serious number cruching. The scientists were amazed at how fast it worked, running SLES 9.
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