Scientist in the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) installed a computing network to discover an impending cure for avian flu. Scientists are now analyzing results from the computer screening. It will be helpful to envisage which chemical fragments will be most effective to block the virus if it mutated!
It is part of the international collaboration including UK and Asia. Almost 2,000 computers from different research laboratories put in 100,000 hours of time probing for possible drug mechanism to work against avian flu. It analyzes about 30,000 different compounds for a potential virus inhibitor.
The entire computing power used during the four weeks of experimentation was similar to the power used more than 100 years on a single PC!
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