[M203M4]

There are groups trying to simulate brain function, and there are other groups trying to use biological tissues themselves to perform fast calculations (biocomputation, including DNA computing and neurocomputers aka "wetware").

On a much smaller scale, another "complementary pairing" is the use of computation to simulate atomic, molecular, surface, and bulk physics and chemistry (quantum Monte Carlo, density functional theory); the flip side, if you will, is the use of atomic/molecular systems themselves to perform calculations (quantum computation).

[texas booster]

FR has a group of about 200 FReepers that run the Folding@home protein simulation.

It is amazing to watch the jmol simulator work with F@H. On a fast system such as the PS3, you can actually simulate Brownian motion and watch a protein fold before your eyes.

A nanosecond of folding a medium size molecule can take months to complete.

Current thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1817941/posts