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[已翻译,待校对] [BOINC]外星生命的探索和癌症的治疗:美国行星协会帮助引...

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发表于 2013-5-12 08:54:31 | 显示全部楼层
本帖最后由 SaintLaser 于 2013-5-14 10:06 编辑

来打个酱油。

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The Birth of BOINC
BOINC的诞生


Although both SETI@home and folding@home are highly successful and engage many thousands of people and machines around the world, the projects also exposed the limitations of the volunteer computing concept. Each research group, working separately, had to design its own project from scratch, write and test its own software, and purchase and maintain its own servers. This is a challenge even for computer scientists, not to mention for scientists in fields such as biology, physics, or medicine, who might have little knowledge of how to design and operate a computer network. Although both the Berkeley and the Stanford group succeeded in designing and maintaining their respective projects, as long as conducting a volunteer computing experiment was in itself a major feat of engineering, not many scientists would follow this road.
尽管当时SETI@home和folding@home的运作成功的占据了全世界数以千计的电脑,在此过程中也暴露了志愿计算的一些局限性。每一个研究团队分头工作,没有配合,不得不从零开始设计他们的计算项目,独立编写、测试软件,单独购买并维护服务器。这些任务对计算机科学家来说已然是一个挑战,更不要说生物、物理、医药领域的研究人员了,他们不了解如何设计运行电脑网络。虽然伯克利大学和斯坦佛大学的团队成功的设计并运行了各自的计算项目,开展志愿者计算试验本身也是一项工程壮举,但是其他科学家能否复制他们的成功还是一个未知数。


David Anderson, project director of SETI@home, thought he had a solution. What if volunteer computing was made easy and user-friendly? Then many reluctant research groups could take advantage of its remarkable potential. With this idea in mind, and with the experience of operating SETI@home, Anderson founded the Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing, known by its catchy acronym, BOINC.
SETI@home的项目主管,David Anderson想到了一个好办法,那就是把志愿计算变得简洁易用,这样可以为许多处境艰难的研究团队带来更多的可能性。Anderson抱着这样的理念,结合他运行SETI@home的经验,建立了伯克利开放式网络计算平台(Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing),看他的首字母缩写就知道这就是BOINC。


Unlike SETI@home or folding@ home, BOINC is not in itself a volunteer computing research project. It is, rather, an easy-to-use computer code available to anyone who wishes to launch such a project. With relatively minor modifications, the BOINC code can be used for projects in almost any field.
与SETI@home、folding@home不同,BOINC本身并不是志愿者计算研究项目,而是一个运行志愿者计算的计算机代码,只要做些许调整,BOINC代码就可以运行几乎所有领域的志愿者计算。


The project to lead the way in launching BOINC was SETI@home. In June 2004, users began downloading the BOINC version, which is more powerful and flexible than the original project. By the end of the year, SETI@home’s transition to BOINC was complete, and the project’s “classic” version shut down.
首先在BOINC平台上运行的是SETI@home。2004年6月,用户开始下载BOINC版的SETI@home,他比原始版本更强大,适应性更强。那一年年末,SETI@home向BOINC平台迁移的工作结束,同时,SETI@home的“经典”版本关闭。


SETI@home’s conversion was an important milestone because BOINC allows PC users to run more than one project easily on their machines. Any volunteer can, for example, decide to run SETI@home 70 percent of the time and a biology project the other 30 percent. As a result, SETI@home’s legions of users are available for other BOINC projects that are just starting out.
SETI@home向BOINC的迁移是一个重要的里程碑,因为BOINC允许个人电脑用户运行并管理多个志愿者计算程序,举例来说,一名志愿者可以指定计算机用70%的时间运行SETI@home,剩下30%的时间运行一个生物项目,这样SETI@home的用户军团就可以为其他刚开始运转的BOINC项目提供支持。


Soon after, numerous other projects launched their own BOINC programs. Among them was predictor@home, run from the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. Like folding@home, it investigates protein folding, but whereas the Stanford project attempts to determine the sequence of foldings over time, predictor@home focuses on the internal architecture of the folded protein. Two other BOINC projects use distributed computing to decipher the structure of proteins: Rosetta@home, out of the University of Washington, and Proteins@home, based at the Ecole Polytechnique in France.
没过多久,数个其他项目发布了他们自己的BOINC程序。他们当中有predictor@home,由圣地亚哥的斯克里普斯研究所运行,他像folding@home一样研究蛋白质折叠,但是鉴于斯坦福大学的项目试图推测蛋白质折叠的的时间顺序,predictor@home把重点放在折叠后蛋白质的内部结构上。另外还有两个项目使用分布式计算来解释蛋白质结构:华盛顿大学的Rosetta@home,和法国的巴黎综合理工大学的Proteins@home。


Altogether, according to David Anderson, 40 different projects have now joined the BOINC family and use its brand of volunteer computing. Primegrid.com is a privately run mathematical project that searches for very large prime numbers and has already found more than 100 new primes. Einstein@home is based at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and searches for pulsars in the sky based on data from the gravitational wave detectors LIGO and GEO. LHC@home simulates the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator being built at the CERN facility in Geneva, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. By simulating particles traveling through the accelerator, LHC@home helps with the extremely precise design required for the LHC.
总而言之,感谢David Anderson,40种不尽相同的项目加入了BOINC家族,吸引了大批的的志愿者提供免费算力。
Primegrid.com是一个私人运行的寻找大质数的数学项目,目前找到了超过100个新的质数。
Einstein@home的总部位于密尔沃基市的美国威斯康星大学,通过激光干涉引力波观测站(Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, abbr. LIGO)和GEO收集的数据在天空中寻找脉冲星。
LHC@home的任务是模拟大型强子对撞机中粒子通过加速器的过程,帮助欧洲核子研究中心(European Organisation for Nuclear Research)的大型强子对撞机进行精确设计。


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发表于 2013-5-12 19:33:42 | 显示全部楼层

The BBC Comes on Board BBC来参与项目

本帖最后由 shmetrofans 于 2013-5-16 12:04 编辑

The BBC Comes on Board
BBC来参与项目


The most popular and high-profile project, except for SETI@home itself, is climateprediction.net, a BOINC project based at Oxford University and the Open University in the United Kingdom. As its name indicates, climateprediction.net investigates one of today’s most pressing concerns for both science and public policy: Earth’s future climate.
最流行和高调的项目,除SETI@Home本身外,是climateprediction.net(气候预测),一个基于在英国的牛津大学和公立大学的BOINC项目。顾名思义,climateprediction.net调查了当今对于科学和公共政策都最紧迫的问题之一:地球未来的气候。

“It all began,” explained Co-Principal Investigator Bob Spicer of the Open University, “in the late 1990s when Myles Allen of Oxford noticed the SETI@home screen-saver on a colleague’s computer.” After the concept was explained to him, he began to wonder, “Would it be possible to model the Earth’s climate in this way?”
“这都开始了,”公立大学联合首席研究员Bob Spicer解释道,“在20世纪90年代末,当牛津大学的Myles Allen注意到在同事的计算机上SETI@Home的屏幕保护程序。”在概念由他解释之后,他开始好奇,“应用这种方法是否有可能模拟地球气候?”

It wasn’t easy. Climate models are extremely complex, dividing Earth’s surface into small square regions, then dividing these in turn into separate layers of the atmosphere. The model operates over time, taking into account such factors as the increasing effect of human-generated greenhouse gases that can heat up Earth and sulfur that cools the planet by blocking sunlight.
这并不简单。气候模拟极为复杂,将地球的表面分成小块地区,并将这些地区转换成单独的大气层。该模型的工作随着时间的推移,考虑到人类产生的温室气体会加热地球,以及那些通过阻挡阳光来冷却这颗星球的硫磺。

Then there’s the effect of the oceans, which account for around 50 percent of any climate change. To further complicate things, the atmosphere and the oceans operate on different time scales: the atmosphere can respond to climate change factors in a matter of days, but the oceans can take centuries to change their patterns. All this makes for a very challenging computational exercise requiring the most advanced and fastest computational resources available.
再有就是对海洋的影响,这交代了周围50%的任何气候变化。使事情更为复杂的是,大气层和海洋在不同时间尺度上操作:大气层能在几天之内回应气候变化因素,而海洋能花费几个世纪的时间来改变它们的模式。所有的这些塑造了一个极具挑战性的计算演习,需要最高级的和最快的可用计算资源。

In September 2003, Allen, Spicer, and their colleagues launched climateprediction.net. The first version was simplified and did not account for the oceans. It took on the easier problem of determining what effect a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere would have on Earth’s climate. Even simplified, climateprediction.net was already doing better than competing models: by January 2005, when the first article appeared in Nature, climateprediction.net had run 2,570 simulations of Earth’s climate, compared with only 127 by the supercomputer at the Met Office, the British government agency responsible for monitoring weather and climate.
2003年9月,Allen、Spicer和他们的同事运行了climateprediction.net。第一个版本非常简易,并没有考虑到海洋(对于气候的影响)。这用了更简单的问题,即确定在大气层中二氧化碳(CO2)的加倍会在地球气候模拟时有什么影响。甚至更简易的是,climateprediction.net已经比竞争模拟做得更好:2005年1月,当在《自然》中的第一条报道出现时,climateprediction.net已经运行了2,570个地球气候的模拟运算,这强大的计算能力与英国政府气象局只有127个超级计算机的情况形成了鲜明对比。

In the second stage of the project, Oxford and the Open University were joined by a surprising new partner: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Eager to engage the public in the debate over climate change, the BBC was planning a series of documentaries on global warming and its effect, due to air in 2006. It offered to make climateprediction.net an integral part of its plans, promote it in its documentaries, and invite the public to take part. It was an offer that Allen, Spicer, and their colleagues could not pass up.
在项目的第二阶段,牛津大学和公立大学同时与一个新的令人惊奇的合作伙伴合作:英国广播公司(BBC)。为了急于让公众参与对气候变化的辩论,自2006年起,BBC正计划一系列关于全球气候变暖和其由于空气造成的影响的纪录片。它提供了使climateprediction.net成为其计划的一个整体的组成部分,在纪录片中推动它,并邀请公众参与。这是Allen、Spicer和他们的同事不能通过的一项议案。

The new version of climateprediction.net, also known as “the BBC experiment,” was far more complex than the earlier one. A realistic ocean was now an integral part of the model, and rather than compare distinct states (current levels of CO2 vs. double those levels), the program followed the evolution of the climate by tracking the contributing factors. Unlike the early version, the new climateprediction.net was a member of the BOINC family.
climateprediction.net的新版本,被成为“BBC实验”,比早期版本复杂得多。一个实际海洋现在是项目的一个整体部分,并且甚于比较不同的状态(二氧化碳目前的水平对战这些水平的两倍),程序根据的是通过跟踪气候因素的演变。不像早期版本,新的climateprediction.net是BOINC家族的一个成员。

The BBC, meanwhile, did its part. To inaugurate the project in February 2006, it aired an hour-long documentary, titled Meltdown, on climate change. The documentary invited people to take part in the BBC experiment, and the project was an overnight hit. Within 10 days of the airing of Meltdown, 100,000 people in 143 countries had downloaded the software and were running climateprediction.net on their computers. Within a month, that number had doubled.
与此同时,BBC也在做它的那部分。为了发动在2006年2月的项目,它播出了长达一个小时的纪录片,标题为“崩溃”(Meltdown),关于气候变化。纪录片邀请人们参与BBC实验,并且项目是一个通宵的版本。在“崩溃”纪录片上映十天内,在143个国家的100,000人次已经下载软件(BOINC)并在他们的计算机上运行climateprediction.net。一个月内,数字已经翻倍了。

According to Spicer, climateprediction.net demands far more of a computer than does SETI@home. A typical PC can process a SETI@home work unit in a few days, but completing a single climateprediction.net simulation could take months. Nevertheless, by the end of 2006, more than 50,000 simulations had been completed and sent back to the project’s headquarters. To mark the completion of the BBC experiment, the network aired another documentary, titled Climate Change: Britain Under Threat, hosted by respected British broadcaster David Attenborough.
据Spicer所说,climateprediction.net需要远超过运行SETI@Home的一台计算机。一个典型的个人计算机能在几天内处理一个SETI@Home工作单元,但完成单个climateprediction.net模拟运算需要花好几个月。即使这样,到2006年末,超过50,000个模拟运算已经完成并发送回项目总部。为了标记BBC实验的完成,网络上映了另一个纪录片,标题为“气象变化:威胁下的英国”,由尊敬的英国广播员David Attenborough主持。

Although the BBC’s involvement has ended for now, climateprediction.net is still going strong. Its ultimate goal is to run several million simulations to fully explore the effects of all 23 parameters included in the model. “This is genuine science that cannot be done any other way,” said Spicer. “It uses a state-of-the-art model, and it feeds into an ongoing public debate.”
虽然BBC的参与现在已经结束,climateprediction.net仍然发展壮大。其最终目标是运行几百万模拟运算来完整地探索所有在模型中包括的23个参数的影响。“这是不能通过任何其他方式完成的真正的科学,”Spicer说。“它使用一个国家最先进的模型,并且它展开了一个持续的公开辩论。”

图片信息:http://www.equn.com/images/3/3f/Katrina3D.jpg
Hurricane Katrina as seen from space, August 28, 2005
Although the jury is still out on whether climate change is responsible for the increase in the number and ferocity of hurricanes, we definitely need improved methods of climate prediction to better prepare for these devastating storms. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
2005年8月28日,从太空看到的“卡特里娜”(Katrina)飓风
即使陪审团对于是否气候变化造成飓风的数量和严重程度的不同的问题仍然不明确,我们直接需要改善气候模拟的方法来更好地对这些破坏性的风暴做好准备。来自:美国国家海洋和大气管理局

图片信息:http://www.equn.com/images/b/b1/Globes.jpg
Possible screens for Climateprediction.net
The globe on the left is modeling temperatures, the globe on the right in modeling clouds. Credit: Climateprediction.net
Climateprediction.net可能的屏幕
左侧的地球仪模拟温度,右侧的地球仪模拟云层。来自:Climateprediction.net

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参与人数 1维基拼图 +16 收起 理由
昂宿星团人 + 16 翻译辛苦~~(另,最后一句欠考虑,建议有.

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发表于 2013-5-12 22:14:16 | 显示全部楼层

The Future 未来

本帖最后由 shmetrofans 于 2013-5-17 22:03 编辑

The Future
未来


SETI@home and climateprediction.net offer glimpses of the power and potential of volunteer computing. This technique is providing projects with enormous computing resources and connects science with the public in ways never before possible. Projects such as climateprediction.net, said Bob Spicer, “give members of the public a sense of ownership of a genuine scientific project, in which they fully participated.” Volunteer computing is what makes it all possible.
SETI@Home和climateprediction.net提供对志愿计算的能力和潜力的瞥见。这项技术正提供给项目巨大计算资源并使用前所未有的方式来连接科学和公众。例如climateprediction.net的项目,Bob Spicer是这样说的:“对于那些他们充分参与的项目,给公众成员一个真正科学项目的所有权的感受。”志愿计算是使其变为可能的方法。

Anderson is still looking for ways to improve volunteer computing, including expansion into the computer gaming world. Although he considers this a promising direction, most projects are not as compatible with game consoles as is folding@home. For example, climateprediction.net will never run on a PlayStation 3, Anderson explained, because it requires too much memory. Projects like SETI@home probably can run on a game console, though the improvement over conventional computers will likely not be as spectacular is it was for folding@home. Nevertheless, Anderson and his team are in discussions with Sony about launching a PlayStation 3 version of BOINC.
Anderson仍然在寻找改进志愿计算的方法,包括将其扩张入计算机竞争的世界。虽然他考虑到这是一个有前途的方向,但是大多数项目对游戏机并不兼容,如Folding@Home。例如,climateprediction.net从不会在PlayStation 3上运行,Anderson解释道,因为这需要过多存储空间。例如SETI@Home的项目能在游戏机上运行,尽管在传统计算机上的改进将更有可能不像在Folding@Home上那么壮观。尽管这样,Anderson和他的团队在与索尼公司关于运行BOINC的PlayStation 3版本上进行讨论。

BOINC boasts 40 different distributed computing projects, but Anderson is far from satisfied. He has estimated that “ninety-nine percent of scientists who could profit from volunteer computing are only dimly aware of BOINC’s existence.” The reasons, he suggested, are not so different from those that prompted BOINC in the first place: scientists in other fields are rarely knowledgeable about computer science, and their IT (information technology) experts often want to retain control of a project, which is not always possible with this new approach. As a result, volunteer computing is rarely considered by researchers.
BOINC拥有40中不同的分布式计算项目,但Anderson表示极为不满意。他估计“99%的通过志愿计算能得到好处的科学家对BOINC的存在性只是隐约了解。”他所表示的原因,与那些把BOINC放在首位的不是很不同:其他领域的科学家极少对计算机科学很精通,并且他们的IT(信息技术)专家经常想要对这种新途径的实施不完全可能的项目进行控制。结果,志愿计算很少被研究人员考虑到。

To overcome these barriers, Anderson is proposing what he calls “virtual campus supercomputing centers” in universities. They would be university-wide volunteer computing centers that would offer hosting services and technical advice to any research group in search of computing resources. The centers would seek out researchers who could make use of their services. A university could appeal to its alumni and ask them to contribute time on their computers to benefit the virtual computing center. Graduates eager to remain part of their alma mater’s community and contribute to its scientific prowess would be happy to oblige.
为了克服这些障碍,Anderson正提议在大学中他称作的“虚拟校园超级计算中心”。它们将是全校范围内的志愿计算中心,将提供托管服务和技术性建议给任何对于计算资源搜索的研究小组。这些中心将寻求能够利用它们的服务的研究人员。一个大学能够呼吁校友并请求他们在他们的计算机上贡献时间,来得益于虚拟计算中心。毕业生渴望留下他们母校社区的一部分并贡献给其科学力量,这种逼迫实际上很令人高兴。

Anderson takes heart from the success of the “World Community Grid”—an IBM-run program that hosts and runs volunteer computing operations for selected scientific projects. In Anderson’s vision, the virtual computing supercomputer center will do much the same but on a grander scale. In the future, he hopes, each university campus will have its own center. Somewhere down the line, Anderson believes, a tipping point will be reached, and distributed computing projects will become so common that they will always be considered as a viable option for complex and time-consuming calculations. Then the volunteer computing revolution will be complete.
Anderson用心引领“世界社会框架”(World Community Grid)的成功——一种主办并运行志愿计算操作的IBM运行项目,这是对于选定科学项目的志愿计算。在Anderson眼中,虚拟计算超级计算机中心将做的更多是相同的,但规模更为宏大。将来,他希望每个大学校园能拥有其自己的中心。在某一处确定的路线,Anderson相信,一个爆炸性的目标将会达到,并且分布式计算项目将会变得如此常见,以至于他们将总是考虑一个对于复杂和耗时的计算可行的选择。这样志愿计算革命将完成。

What of SETI@home, the granddaddy of them all? Eight years after its launch and three years after its conversion to BOINC, the project is still going strong. With hundreds of thousands of users, it accounts for about half of BOINC volunteers. Nowadays, explains Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer, thanks to a new multibeam receiver at Arecibo Observatory and the project’s increased computing power, SETI@home is more powerful and more sensitive than ever before.
SETI@Home的哪个方面,是它们所有的头领?在它运行的8年后与其转变到BOINC的3年后,项目仍然在发展壮大。凭借成百上千、成千上万的用户,它占据了约一半的BOINC志愿者。现在,首席科学家Dan Werthimer感谢在阿雷西博天文台的一个新的多波束接收器,并且项目提升了计算能力,SETI@Home相对于之前更加强大与敏感。

As ever more projects follow the path it blazed for volunteer computing and public participation in science, SETI@home continues patiently in its course, crunching data and seeking that signal from outer space. Somewhere in the vast globe-spanning SETI@home network, the elusive sign from E.T. could still be waiting to be discovered.
对于甚至更多的项目按照它开辟给在科学领域志愿计算和公众参与的路线,SETI@Home继续耐心地在其进程中,即分析数据和寻找来自外层空间的信号。在广阔全球的某些地方——跨越SETI@Home网络,来自外星人的难以捉摸的迹象,仍然能够等待被发现。

Was our investment worth it? How can anyone say no? SETI@home and its spin-offs demonstrate The Planetary Society’s faith in the future and our belief that by pursuing discovery and understanding of the universe, we can make this small world of ours a better one. Be proud that you helped make it happen.
我们的投资值得么?怎么能说“不”呢?SETI@Home和它的分布表明未来行星协会的信念,以及我们的通过追求发现和对宇宙的理解的信念,我们能使这个微小的世界变为一个更好的世界。对于你帮助(项目)使其能够发生(一系列令人惊异的结果),这值得骄傲。

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参与人数 1维基拼图 +13 收起 理由
昂宿星团人 + 13 这篇量略大啊。。辛苦啦(*¯︶¯*).

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发表于 2013-5-13 18:31:06 来自手机 | 显示全部楼层
shmetrofans 发表于 2013-5-12 19:33:42
本帖最后由 shmetrofans 于 2013-5-12 22:13 编辑

The BBC Comes on Board
BBC来参与项目

The most popular and h

并没有提到海洋→并没有考虑到海洋(对于气候的影响)
当在自然中的。。。。→自然加书名好不谢。
这与……形成了鲜明对比→这强大的计算能力与英国政府气象局只有127个超级计算机的情况形成了鲜明对比来自: Android客户端
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发表于 2013-5-17 22:05:01 | 显示全部楼层
好了,全文翻译完成 @昂宿星团人  

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昂宿星团人 + 5 希望今后每篇文章完成后都像这样提醒一下我.

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发表于 2013-6-1 16:56:15 | 显示全部楼层
shmetrofans 发表于 2013-5-1 17:59
Searching for E.T. and the Cure for Cancer: The Planetary Society Helps Trigger a Computing Revoluti ...

蓝色是修改过的,红色是觉着有问题但还没想好怎么改的。。



卷首语
We couldn’t say no to the opportunity: being part of an experiment in which members of the public could truly contribute to science and have a chance to make a world-changing discovery. That’s what SETI@home promised when David Anderson and Dan Werthimer of UC Berkeley brought the project to The Planetary Society and asked for our help in getting it launched. With our members’ support, we leaped on it, and nearly six million participants later, SETI@home is a landmark in the history of scientific computing.
译:我们不能对机会说“不”:市民能真正为科学做贡献,成为实验的一部分,并有机会做出改变世界的发现。那就是当来自UC伯克利的David Anderson和Dan Werthimer把项目带到行星协会并在它运行时请求我们的帮助时SETI@Home所承诺的。随着我们成员的支持,我们参与了它,并且当项目已达将近六百万参与者,SETI@Home在科学计算的历史上成为划时代的项目。

校:如果一个实验能够保证“让公众真正为科学做出贡献,使人们有机会改变整个世界”,那么我们绝不会错过亲手推动它发展的机遇。当UC Berkeley的David Anderson 和 Dan Werthimer将SETI@home介绍给行星协会,并请求协助启动SETI@home的时候,我们知道:机会来了。在我们行星协会成员们的支持下,我们欣然加入,之后,在近六百万志愿者的共同参与下,SETI成为了科学计算的历史上划时代的项目。



A prime reason we supported SETI@home was the project’s potential to advance the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), an endeavor intimately connected to The Planetary Society since our founding. But there was more to it than that. SETI@home would also pioneer a new mode of computing, in which packets of data would be distributed among a network of personal computers, creating a virtual supercomputer that could dramatically decrease the money and time scientists spend on knotty calculations.
译:我们支持SETI@Home的根本原因是项目的潜力来促进“寻找外星生命”(SETI),自从我们创建以来密切连接到行星协会的努力。但对于那件事来说,这件事更重要。SETI@Home也会首创计算的一个新模式,在其中的数据包将会被分发给个人计算机的网络,创造一个虚拟的超级计算机,那可以戏剧性地减少这些科学家们花费在棘手的计算上的金钱和时间。

校:我们支持SETI@Home的根本原因是项目来促进“寻找外星智慧生命”(SETI)的潜力,“寻找外星智慧生命”这一目的自行星协会创建以来就与我们紧密相连着。但其意义远不止如此:SETI@home还将首创一种新的计算模式。在这种模式中,数据包将会被分发给个人计算机的网络,这相当于创造一个虚拟的超级计算机,那可以戏剧性地减少这些科学家们花费在棘手的计算上的金钱和时间。



The potential for “spin-offs”—applications that serendipitously follow original research—was obvious from SETI@home’s birth, but moving from potential to reality is never guaranteed. One can only hope. In the case of SETI@home, that hope has been realized spectacularly.

译:我们支持SETI@Home的根本原因是项目的潜力来促进“寻找外星生命”(SETI),自从我们创建以来密切连接到行星协会的努力。但对于那件事来说,这件事更重要。SETI@Home也会首创计算的一个新模式,在其中的数据包将会被分发给个人计算机的网络,创造一个虚拟的超级计算机,那可以戏剧性地减少这些科学家们花费在棘手的计算上的金钱和时间。

校:偶然的原有研究的应用程序 SETI@home的“副产品”,其潜力从它的问世之初便已十分明显,但自潜力向能力的转化是从来都没有保证的。人们只能寄予希望。在SETI@Home的情况下,希望已经引人注目地实现。



In applications ranging from British television to video game consoles, SETI@home spin-offs just keep coming. Planetary Society members truly have helped pioneer new techniques in the conduct of science. Our initial investment has returned amazing results that will continue to deliver benefits over years to come.

译:在归类于从英国电视到电子游戏控制台的应用中,SETI@Home的分布只是滚滚而来。行星协会成员真的已经帮助首创在科学行动中的新技术。我们最初的投资已经带来了不可思议的结果,那将继续年复一年带来好处。

校:在归类于从英国电视到电子游戏控制台的应用中, SETI@Home的副产品只是滚滚而来我们行星协会成员真的已经帮助首创在科学行动中的新技术。我们最初的投入已经带来了不可思议的结果,那将继续年复一年带来好处。




spin-offs 是 副产品




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arthur200000 + 8 吐槽欢乐!

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发表于 2013-6-3 14:02:20 | 显示全部楼层
arthur200000 发表于 2013-5-10 20:40
接@shmetrofans 大坑
Scientists conducting complex research projects depend on computers to help t ...

参考意见:

Scientists conducting complex research projects depend on computers to help them process the masses of data collected by modern instruments. Existing computer technology has constraints: large and fast computers are expensive, and processing time on the few existing supercomputers is scarce. Research groups vie for the precious time available on each machine. Furthermore, some of the most intriguing scientific riddles involve calculations so elaborate and complex that they require not hours or days but years or even decades of computing time to resolve. If science was to make full use of the computing revolution in SETI research, a different approach would be needed.
译:科学家依赖在计算机上进行复杂的研究项目,以帮助他们处理现代仪器所收集的大量数据。现有的计算机技术有以下的约束条件:大而高速的计算机是昂贵的,现有的几个为数不多的超级计算机的处理时间十分有限。研究小组甚至可在每台机器上都争夺宝贵的时间。此外,一些最有趣的科学谜题涉及的计算如此精细复杂,要解决他们需要的不仅仅是几小时或几天,而是数年,甚至数十年的计算时间。如果科学研究,例如SETI需要计算革命,科学家们将需要一种不同的方法。
校:科学家依赖使用计算机来处理现代仪器所收集的大量数据,以进行复杂的研究项目。现有的计算机技术有以下的局限:大而高速的计算机是昂贵的,现有的几个为数不多的超级计算机的处理时间十分有限。研究小组甚至可在每台机器上都争夺宝贵的时间。此外,一些最有趣的科学谜题涉及的计算极其精细复杂,要解决他们需要的不仅仅是几小时或几天,而是数年,甚至数十年的计算时间。如果科学研究,若想对SETI带来的计算革命的成果进行充分利用,科学家们将需要一种不同的方法。


A solution arrived in unexpected form: the Internet. In the 1990s, millions of computers, isolated in offices and homes, became linked to one another through the magic of the World Wide Web. Suddenly, with the click of a mouse, users could instantaneously communicate across borders, continents, and oceans. Could this suddenly interconnected world make it possible for computers to join in pursuit of a scientific goal?
译:一个解决方案依意想不到的形式出现:互联网。在20世纪90年代,数以百万计的彼此在办公室和家庭互相隔绝的电脑,渐渐成为彼此相连的整体,这一切都离不开神奇的互联网。在一瞬间内,只需点击鼠标,用户可以跨越国界,大陆和海洋即时沟通。这一下子变得相互关联的世界能否使计算机加入到科学的研究和探索?
校:一个解决方案意想不到的形式出现:互联网。在20世纪90年代,办公室和家庭中数以百万计的彼此隔绝的电脑,渐渐成为彼此相连的整体,这一切都离不开神奇的互联网。忽然间,只需点击鼠标,用户可以跨越国界,大陆和海洋即时沟通。这一下子变得相互关联的世界能使计算机加入到科学的研究和探索


In 1995, in Berkeley, California, a group of scientists decided to find out. The idea, hatched by computer scientists David Anderson and David Gedye, along with SETI scientist Dan Werthimer, was brilliant in its simplicity. Most personal computers use only a fraction of their computing capacity, spending much of their time running screensavers. If those wasted processing CPUs and megabytes of computer memory could be harnessed to process the mass of data collected in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, the resulting network would dwarf the computing power of the fastest supercomputer in existence.
译:在1995年,美国加州大学伯克利分校的一组科学家决定一探究竟。SETI科学家Dan Werthimer,由计算机科学家David Anderson 和 David Gedye以其简约的完美实现了他们的想法(开发[[SETI@home classic]])。大多数个人电脑都只会使用他们一小部分的计算能力,或是花了很多时间运行无用的屏幕保护程序。如果这些 CPU 的处理能力和成 MB 的内存(RAM)消耗可以利用来处理SETI项目的收集的大量数据,这个网络虚拟超级计算机甚至可以使世界上最快的超级计算机都望尘莫及。
校:1995年,美国加州大学伯克利分校的一组科学家决定一探究竟。SETI科学家Dan Werthimer,计算机科学家David Anderson 和 David Gedye,,以其简约完美实现了他们的想法(开发[[SETI@home classic]])。大多数个人电脑都只会使用他们一小部分的计算能力,或是花了很多时间运行无用的屏幕保护程序。如果这些 CPU 的处理能力和成 MB 的内存(RAM)消耗可以利用来处理SETI项目收集的大量数据,那么这个网络虚拟超级计算机甚至可以使世界上最快的超级计算机都望尘莫及。

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发表于 2013-6-3 23:14:04 | 显示全部楼层
所以把“否”删掉了呢,这句子句尾没语气词有点别扭。。
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发表于 2013-6-5 13:54:47 | 显示全部楼层
vincentdark 发表于 2013-5-11 02:41
接楼上
The Birth of Volunteer Computing志愿计算的诞生
The idea was brilliant, but not one for which  ...

The Birth of Volunteer Computing
志愿计算的诞生

The idea was brilliant, but not one for which investors were willing to give money to develop. Anderson and Werthimer beat the bushes looking for startup funds, but aside from a few in-kind donations, no visionary sponsor stepped forward—until they called The Planetary Society. Using the Carl Sagan Fund for the Future and a donation from Paramount Pictures, we provided the first $100,000 needed to get the project under way.
译:这个主意非常棒,但是却没法吸引投资者腰包中的钱。Anderson和Werthimer 竭尽全力寻找启动资金,但是除了一些热心的捐助,再没有其他有远见的赞助了,直到他们请求行星协会的帮助。通过卡尔萨根基金和派拉蒙电影公司的捐款,我们筹得了项目步入正轨所需的最初的十万美元。
校:这个主意非常棒,但是却没法吸引投资者腰包中的钱。在Anderson和Werthimer请求行星协会的帮助之前,他们曾竭尽全力寻找启动资金,然而除了一些热心的捐助,并未得到其他有远见的赞助。通过卡尔萨根基金(Carl Sagan Fund for the Future )和派拉蒙电影公司(Paramount Pictures)的捐款,我们筹得了使项目步入正轨所需的最初的十万美元。
  
And so SETI@home was born. Launched in 1999, it became an international sensation. Within a few months, millions of personal computers were displaying the dynamic power bar graphics that have become the iconic image of SETI@home. It was a startling success on a scale that even the most optimistic of SETI@home's founders never imagined. SETI@home users made possible the most sensitive search for extraterrestrial intelligence ever conducted; they also demonstrated the power and potential of volunteer computing. SETI@home became—by far—the largest and most powerful computer network ever assembled, accomplishing within months calculations that normally would have taken decades.
译:于是SETI@home就这样诞生了。在1999年项目上线后,它引起了一次全球性的轰动。在短短的几个月里,数百万个人电脑上就显示着动态能量条的图像,这也成了SETI@home的标志性画面。在规模上这是一个令人吃惊的成功,即便是最乐观的SETI@home的发起人也没有料到。SETI@home的志愿者使得这个对地外文明研究中最敏感的研究项目成为可能,他们的参与也展示了志愿计算的力量与潜力。SETI@home也成为了到目前为止最大最强的计算机网络,通常需要几十年来完成的计算在短短数月间就完成了。
校:于是SETI@home就这样诞生了。在1999年项目上线后,它引起了一次全球性的轰动。在短短的几个月里,就已经有数百万个人电脑上显示着动态能量条的图像,这种图像也成了SETI@home的标志性画面。在规模上这是一个令人吃惊的成功,即便是最乐观的SETI@home的发起人也没有料到。SETI@home的志愿者使得这个对地外文明研究中最敏感的研究项目成为可能,他们的参与也展示了志愿计算的力量与潜力。SETI@home也成为了到目前为止最大最强的计算机网络,通常需要几十年来完成的计算在短短数月间就完成了。
  
Scientists in other fields quickly took note and searched for ways to take advantage of the remarkable resource. A Stanford University group trying to decipher the mysteries of protein folding thought their project was ideally suited for volunteer computing. Proteins are long strings of amino acids—the building blocks of life. To fulfill their functions, proteins cannot remain as simple strings, or “necklaces,” but need to fold into specific and complex shapes. One of the most amazing mysteries of life is that proteins perform that task reliably, efficiently, and quickly. Modeling this process on the atomic scale proved to be one of the most difficult challenges of computational biology. Resolving it not only would help scientists better understand the processes of life but also could help fight some of the most crippling diseases afflicting humanity—Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, BSE (“mad cow disease”), and certain types of cancer.
译:其他领域的科学家们很快意识到了,并想尽一切办法来获取这个非凡的资源所带来的好处。斯坦福大学的一个尝试破解蛋白质折叠奥秘的小组也认为他们的项目能完美地适应志愿计算。由一连串氨基酸组成的蛋白质是生命的构成材料,为了实现它的功能,蛋白质不能只是保持简单的条状或是如“项链”一般,而是需要通过折叠形成特殊的而且是复杂的形状。生命最令人惊奇的奥秘之一就是蛋白质在稳定地、高效地和快速地进行着折叠。模拟这种分子水平的运行过程被证明是计算生物学中最困难的挑战。分解这种过程不仅能帮助科学家更好地理解生命的运行,而且能帮助对抗那些折磨人类的严重疾病——帕金森综合征、老年痴呆症、疯牛病以及某些类型的癌症。
校:其他领域的科学家们很快意识到了,并想尽一切办法来获取这个非凡的资源所带来的好处。斯坦福大学的一个尝试破解蛋白质折叠奥秘的小组也认为志愿计算十分适用于他们的项目。由一串串氨基酸组成的蛋白质是生命的构成材料,为了实现它的功能,蛋白质不能只是保持简单的条状或是如“项链”一般,而是需要通过折叠形成特殊的而且是复杂的形状。生命最令人惊奇的奥秘之一就是蛋白质能够准确、有效、快速地进行折叠。模拟这种分子水平的运行过程被证明是计算生物学中最困难的挑战。解析这种过程不仅能帮助科学家更好地理解生命的运行,而且能帮助对抗那些折磨人类的严重疾病——帕金森综合征、老年痴呆症、疯牛病以及某些类型的癌症。
  
The chief difficulty in simulating protein folding is time, explained Vijay S. Pande of Stanford University. Proteins fold on a time scale of microseconds (millionths of a second), but it takes an average computer about a day just to simulate the folding over a single nanosecond (one billionth of a second). At that rate, it would take almost three years to simulate a microsecond of folding and perhaps a decade or two of computer time to analyze the folding of a single protein. This is hardly a practical way to resolve the problem.
译:在模拟蛋白质折叠中首先遇到的困难是时间,来自斯坦福大学的Vijay S. Pande解释道,蛋白质折叠是在微秒(百万分之一秒)级别的时间内进行的。但是平均每台电脑要花费一天的时间才能模拟出一纳秒(十亿分之一秒)的折叠过程。按照这种速率,要模拟一微秒的折叠过程几乎要花费三年的时间,而要分析完一个蛋白质的折叠过程可能需要十到二十年的时间,用这种方法来研究这个问题基本上不现实。
校:在模拟蛋白质折叠中首先遇到的困难是时间,来自斯坦福大学的Vijay S. Pande解释道,蛋白质折叠是在微秒(百万分之一秒)级别的时间内进行的。但是平均每台电脑要花费一天的时间才能模拟出一纳秒(十亿分之一秒)的折叠过程。按照这种速率,要模拟一微秒的折叠过程几乎要花费三年的时间,而要分析完一个蛋白质的折叠过程可能需要十到二十年的时间,可见仅靠几台研究者的电脑来研究这个问题基本上不现实。
  
Then came SETI@home, and Pande and his colleagues took notice. Within a year, SETI@home had logged not a decade or two but millions of years of computer time. This kind of computing power would go far toward solving the difficulties in simulating protein folding. After a year designing their own volunteer computing platform, the Stanford group launched folding@home with spectacular results. Within two years, the project's first scientific publication appeared in Nature. Although much of the long road to curing disease still lies ahead, as of this writing, the project has resulted in the publication of 49 peer-reviewed articles in established scientific journals.
译:这时候SETI@home的出现,Pande和他的学校也注意到了。在一年之内,SETI@home记录了不止十年或二十年,而是上百万年的计算机时间。这种计算能力将大大有助于解决模拟蛋白质折叠中的困难。经过一年的时间,他们设计出了自己的志愿计算平台,斯坦福一上线folding@home这个项目就取得了惊人的成果。只花了两年时间,这个项目第一篇系统的科学的文章就发表在了《自然》杂志上,尽管在治愈疾病这方面还有很长的路要走。截至写本文的时候,这个项目已经在各种科学类期刊杂志上发表了49篇经学界认可的论文。
校:这时候,Pande和他的学校也注意到了SETI@home的出现。在一年之内,SETI@home得到了不止十年或二十年,而是上百万年的计算机时间。这种计算能力将大大有助于解决模拟蛋白质折叠中的困难。一年后,斯坦福大学自己设计开发的志愿计算平台—folding@home——上线了。这个项目取得了十分惊人的成果:仅用两年时间,该项目就在《自然》杂志上发表了它的第一篇学术文章尽管在治愈疾病这方面还有很长的路要走,但截至写本文的时候,这个项目已经在各种科学类期刊杂志上发表了49篇经学界认可的论文。
  
Folding@home has now reached beyond the community of PC users to volunteers in other regions of cyberspace. In late March, computer gamers using Sony's PlayStation 3 were given the chance to combine entertainment with scientific research by running folding@ home on their machines. More than 100,000 users downloaded the folding@home software within two days after it became available, with around 35,000 participating at any given time. The powerful processors at the heart of the game consoles are designed to conduct extremely fast calculations, 10 to 50 times faster than an ordinary personal computer. Thus, although PlayStation 3 consoles account for only one fifth of machines running folding@ home, they account for two thirds of the project's computing power.
校:现在,Folding@home已经不再局限于个人电脑用户,甚至已经扩展到网络上使用其他设备的志愿者了。三月底,使用索尼PlayStation 3的玩家通过在他们的主机上运行Folding@home能够将娱乐与科学研究结合在一起。仅仅在PS3版的folding@home发布两天内,产生了超过十万的下载量,任何时候都有约三万五千台PlayStation 3在参与计算。这种游戏主机里的强大处理器被设计成具有极快的计算速度,比普通个人电脑快10到50倍。这样,虽然只有五分之一的PlayStation 3主机运行了folding@ home,但它们却贡献了整个项目三分之二的计算能力。

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参与人数 1基本分 +6 收起 理由
vincentdark + 6 嗯,校对辛苦了,确实更通顺了~.

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发表于 2013-6-6 13:36:49 | 显示全部楼层
SaintLaser 发表于 2013-5-12 08:54
来打个酱油。

接楼上

The Birth of BOINC
BOINC的诞生


Although both SETI@home and folding@home are highly successful and engage many thousands of people and machines around the world, the projects also exposed the limitations of the volunteer computing concept. Each research group, working separately, had to design its own project from scratch, write and test its own software, and purchase and maintain its own servers. This is a challenge even for computer scientists, not to mention for scientists in fields such as biology, physics, or medicine, who might have little knowledge of how to design and operate a computer network. Although both the Berkeley and the Stanford group succeeded in designing and maintaining their respective projects, as long as conducting a volunteer computing experiment was in itself a major feat of engineering, not many scientists would follow this road.
译:尽管当时SETI@homefolding@home的运作成功的占据了全世界数以千计的电脑,在此过程中也暴露了志愿计算的一些局限性。每一个研究团队分头工作,没有配合,不得不从零开始设计他们的计算项目,独立编写、测试软件,单独购买并维护服务器。这些任务对计算机科学家来说已然是一个挑战,更不要说生物、物理、医药领域的研究人员了,他们不了解如何设计运行电脑网络。虽然伯克利大学和斯坦佛大学的团队成功的设计并运行了各自的计算项目,开展志愿者计算试验本身也是一项工程壮举,但是其他科学家能否复制他们的成功还是一个未知数。
校:无意见


David Anderson, project director of SETI@home, thought he had a solution. What if volunteer computing was made easy and user-friendly? Then many reluctant research groups could take advantage of its remarkable potential. With this idea in mind, and with the experience of operating SETI@home, Anderson founded the Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing, known by its catchy acronym, BOINC.
译:SETI@home的项目主管,David Anderson想到了一个好办法,那就是把志愿计算变得简洁易用,这样可以为许多处境艰难的研究团队带来更多的可能性。Anderson抱着这样的理念,结合他运行SETI@home的经验,建立了伯克利开放式网络计算平台(Berkeley Online Infrastructure for Network Computing),看他的首字母缩写就知道这就是BOINC。
校:无意见

Unlike SETI@home or folding@ home, BOINC is not in itself a volunteer computing research project. It is, rather, an easy-to-use computer code available to anyone who wishes to launch such a project. With relatively minor modifications, the BOINC code can be used for projects in almost any field.
译:与SETI@home、folding@home不同,BOINC本身并不是志愿者计算研究项目,而是一个运行志愿者计算的计算机代码,只要做些许调整,BOINC代码就可以运行几乎所有领域的志愿者计算。
校:与SETI@home、folding@home不同,BOINC本身并不是志愿者计算研究项目,而是一个对每个项目发起者来说都十分简单易用的一旦代码(校注:也就是一个平台啦),只要做些许调整,BOINC代码就可以运行几乎所有领域的志愿者计算。

The project to lead the way in launching BOINC was SETI@home. In June 2004, users began downloading the BOINC version, which is more powerful and flexible than the original project. By the end of the year, SETI@home’s transition to BOINC was complete, and the project’s “classic” version shut down.
译:首先在BOINC平台上运行的是SETI@home。2004年6月,用户开始下载BOINC版的SETI@home,他比原始版本更强大,适应性更强。那一年年末,SETI@home向BOINC平台迁移的工作结束,同时,SETI@home的“经典”版本关闭。
校:首先在BOINC平台上运行的是SETI@home。2004年6月,用户开始下载BOINC版的SETI@home,他比原始版本更强大,适应性更强。那一年年末,SETI@home向BOINC平台迁移的工作结束,同时,SETI@home的“经典”版本正式下线


SETI@home’s conversion was an important milestone because BOINC allows PC users to run more than one project easily on their machines. Any volunteer can, for example, decide to run SETI@home 70 percent of the time and a biology project the other 30 percent. As a result, SETI@home’s legions of users are available for other BOINC projects that are just starting out.
SETI@home向BOINC的迁移是一个重要的里程碑,因为BOINC允许个人电脑用户运行并管理多个志愿者计算程序,举例来说,一名志愿者可以指定计算机用70%的时间运行SETI@home,剩下30%的时间运行一个生物项目,这样SETI@home的用户军团就可以为其他刚开始运转的BOINC项目提供支持。


Soon after, numerous other projects launched their own BOINC programs. Among them was predictor@home, run from the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. Like folding@home, it investigates protein folding, but whereas the Stanford project attempts to determine the sequence of foldings over time, predictor@home focuses on the internal architecture of the folded protein. Two other BOINC projects use distributed computing to decipher the structure of proteins: Rosetta@home, out of the University of Washington, and Proteins@home, based at the Ecole Polytechnique in France.
译:没过多久,数个其他项目发布了他们自己的BOINC程序。他们当中有predictor@home,由圣地亚哥的斯克里普斯研究所( the Scripps Research Institute)运行,他像folding@home一样研究蛋白质折叠,但是鉴于斯坦福大学的项目试图推测蛋白质折叠的的时间顺序,predictor@home把重点放在折叠后蛋白质的内部结构上。另外还有两个项目使用分布式计算来解释蛋白质结构:华盛顿大学的Rosetta@home,和法国的巴黎综合理工大学的Proteins@home
校:没过多久,数个其他项目发布了他们自己的BOINC程序。他们当中有predictor@home,由圣地亚哥的斯克里普斯研究所运行,他像folding@home一样研究蛋白质折叠,但是鉴于斯坦福大学的项目试图推测蛋白质折叠的的时间顺序,predictor@home把重点放在折叠后蛋白质的内部结构上。另外还有两个项目使用分布式计算来解释蛋白质结构:华盛顿大学的Rosetta@home,和法国的巴黎综合理工大学的Proteins@home


Altogether, according to David Anderson, 40 different projects have now joined the BOINC family and use its brand of volunteer computing. Primegrid.com is a privately run mathematical project that searches for very large prime numbers and has already found more than 100 new primes. Einstein@home is based at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and searches for pulsars in the sky based on data from the gravitational wave detectors LIGO and GEO. LHC@home simulates the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator being built at the CERN facility in Geneva, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. By simulating particles traveling through the accelerator, LHC@home helps with the extremely precise design required for the LHC.
译:总而言之,感谢David Anderson,40种不尽相同的项目加入了BOINC家族,吸引了大批的的志愿者提供免费算力。
Primegrid.com是一个私人运行的寻找大质数的数学项目,目前找到了超过100个新的质数。
Einstein@home的总部位于密尔沃基市的美国威斯康星大学,通过激光干涉引力波观测站(Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, abbr. LIGO)和GEO收集的数据在天空中寻找脉冲星。
LHC@home的任务是模拟大型强子对撞机中粒子通过加速器的过程,帮助欧洲核子研究中心(European Organisation for Nuclear Research)的大型强子对撞机进行精确设计。


校:总而言之,感谢David Anderson,40种不尽相同的项目加入了BOINC家族,吸引了大批的的志愿者义务提供免费算力。
Primegrid.com是一个私人运行的寻找大质数的数学项目,目前找到了超过100个新的质数。
Einstein@home的总部位于密尔沃基市的美国威斯康星大学,通过激光干涉引力波观测站(Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, abbr. LIGO)和GEO收集的数据在天空中寻找脉冲星。
LHC@home的任务是模拟大型强子对撞机中粒子通过加速器的过程,帮助欧洲核子研究组织(CERN )进行对大型强子对撞机的精确设计。



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SaintLaser + 6 校对大人辛苦了。

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发表于 2013-7-11 10:06:48 | 显示全部楼层
The most popular and high-profile project, except for SETI@home itself, is climateprediction.net, a BOINC project based at Oxford University and the Open University in the United Kingdom. As its name indicates, climateprediction.net investigates one of today’s most pressing concerns for both science and public policy: Earth’s future climate.
译:最流行和高调的项目,除SETI@Home本身外,是climateprediction.net(气候预测),一个基于在英国的牛津大学和公立大学的BOINC项目。顾名思义,climateprediction.net关注的是当今对于科学和公共政策都最紧迫的问题之一:地球未来的气候。

校:最流行和高调的项目,除SETI@Home本身外,是climateprediction.net(气候预测),一个英国的牛津大学和公立大学发起的BOINC项目。顾名思义,climateprediction.net调查了当今对于科学和公共政策都最紧迫的问题之一:地球未来的气候。



“It all began,” explained Co-Principal Investigator Bob Spicer of the Open University, “in the late 1990s when Myles Allen of Oxford noticed the SETI@home screen-saver on a colleague’s computer.” After the concept was explained to him, he began to wonder, “Would it be possible to model the Earth’s climate in this way?”
译:“这都开始了,”公立大学联合首席研究员Bob Spicer解释道,“在20世纪90年代末,当牛津大学的Myles Allen注意到在同事的计算机上SETI@Home的屏幕保护程序。”在概念由他解释之后,他开始好奇,“应用这种方法是否有可能模拟地球气候?”

校:一切从这里开始:”公立大学联合首席研究员Bob Spicer解释道,“在20世纪90年代末,牛津大学的Myles Allen注意到在同事的计算机上显示SETI@Home的屏幕保护程序。” 在同事将志愿计算的概念介绍给他之后,他开始好奇“应用这种方法是否有可能模拟地球气候?”



It wasn’t easy. Climate models are extremely complex, dividing Earth’s surface into small square regions, then dividing these in turn into separate layers of the atmosphere. The model operates over time, taking into account such factors as the increasing effect of human-generated greenhouse gases that can heat up Earth and sulfur that cools the planet by blocking sunlight.
译:这并不简单。气候模拟极为复杂,将地球的表面分成小块地区,并将这些地区转换成单独的大气层。该模型的工作随着时间的推移,考虑到人类产生的温室气体会加热地球,以及那些通过阻挡阳光来冷却这颗星球的硫磺。

校:这并不简单。气候模拟极为复杂,需要将地球的表面分成小块地区,并将这些地区转换成数层相互独立的大气。模型模拟气候随时间的变化,并且考虑到诸如正不断加剧的温室效应(使地球温度升高)和硫的遮光作用(使地球温度降低)等因素的影响。



Then there’s the effect of the oceans, which account for around 50 percent of any climate change. To further complicate things, the atmosphere and the oceans operate on different time scales: the atmosphere can respond to climate change factors in a matter of days, but the oceans can take centuries to change their patterns. All this makes for a very challenging computational exercise requiring the most advanced and fastest computational resources available.
译:再有就是对海洋的影响,这交代了周围50%的任何气候变化。使事情更为复杂的是,大气层和海洋在不同时间尺度上操作:大气层能在几天之内回应气候变化因素,而海洋能花费几个世纪的时间来改变它们的模式。所有的这些塑造了一个极具挑战性的计算演习,需要最高级的和最快的可用计算资源。

校:再有就是海洋的影响,每次气候变化的原因都有一半是海洋造成的。使事情更为复杂的是,大气层和海洋在不同时间尺度上演变:大气层能在几天之内气候变化因素作出响应,而海洋能花费几个世纪的时间来改变它们的模式。所有的这些塑造了一个极具挑战性的计算演习,需要最先进和最快的可用计算资源才能完成



In September 2003, Allen, Spicer, and their colleagues launched climateprediction.net. The first version was simplified and did not account for the oceans. It took on the easier problem of determining what effect a doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere would have on Earth’s climate. Even simplified, climateprediction.net was already doing better than competing models: by January 2005, when the first article appeared in Nature, climateprediction.net had run 2,570 simulations of Earth’s climate, compared with only 127 by the supercomputer at the Met Office, the British government agency responsible for monitoring weather and climate.
2003年9月,Allen、Spicer和他们的同事运行了climateprediction.net。第一个版本非常简易,并没有考虑到海洋(对于气候的影响)。这用了更简单的问题,即确定在大气层中二氧化碳(CO2)的加倍会在地球气候模拟时有什么影响。甚译:至更简易的是,climateprediction.net已经比竞争模拟做得更好:2005年1月,当在《自然》中的第一条报道出现时,climateprediction.net已经运行了2,570个地球气候的模拟运算,这强大的计算能力与英国政府气象局只有127个超级计算机的情况形成了鲜明对比。

校:2003年9月,Allen、Spicer和他们的同事运行了climateprediction.net。第一个版本非常简易,并没有考虑到海洋(对于气候的影响)。他们选择了一个比较简单的问题,即确定在大气层中二氧化碳(CO2)的加倍会在地球气候模拟时有什么影响。climateprediction.net轻易地超越了它的对手:2005年1月,当在《自然》中的第一条报道(校注:我想这里大概是论文的意思,不过不确定)出现时,climateprediction.net已经运行了2,570个地球气候的模拟运算,这强大的计算能力与英国政府气象局 只运行了127个模拟的超级计算机形成了鲜明对比。



In the second stage of the project, Oxford and the Open University were joined by a surprising new partner: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Eager to engage the public in the debate over climate change, the BBC was planning a series of documentaries on global warming and its effect, due to air in 2006. It offered to make climateprediction.net an integral part of its plans, promote it in its documentaries, and invite the public to take part. It was an offer that Allen, Spicer, and their colleagues could not pass up.
译:在项目的第二阶段,牛津大学和公立大学同时与一个新的令人惊奇的合作伙伴合作:英国广播公司(BBC)。为了急于让公众参与对气候变化的辩论,自2006年起,BBC正计划一系列关于全球气候变暖和其由于空气造成的影响的纪录片。它提供了使climateprediction.net成为其计划的一个整体的组成部分,在纪录片中推动它,并邀请公众参与。这是Allen、Spicer和他们的同事不能通过的一项议案。

校:在项目的第二阶段,牛津大学和公立大学同时与一个新的令人惊奇的合作伙伴合作:英国广播公司(BBC)。为了鼓励公众参与对气候变化的辩论,自2006年起,BBC开始计划一系列关于全球气候变暖和其由于空气造成的影响的纪录片。它提供了使climateprediction.net成为其计划的一个完整的组成部分,利用纪录片推动它,并邀请公众参与。这是Allen、Spicer和他们的同事绝不会拒绝的一项议案。



The new version of climateprediction.net, also known as “the BBC experiment,” was far more complex than the earlier one. A realistic ocean was now an integral part of the model, and rather than compare distinct states (current levels of CO2 vs. double those levels), the program followed the evolution of the climate by tracking the contributing factors. Unlike the early version, the new climateprediction.net was a member of the BOINC family.
译:climateprediction.net的新版本,被成为“BBC实验”,比早期版本复杂得多。一个实际海洋现在是项目的一个整体部分,并且甚于比较不同的状态(二氧化碳目前的水平对战这些水平的两倍),程序根据的是通过跟踪气候因素的演变。不像早期版本,新的climateprediction.net是BOINC家族的一个成员。

校:climateprediction.net的新版本,被为“BBC实验”, 比早期版本复杂得多。一个实际海洋现在是项目的一个整体部分,替代之前比较不同大气状态的方式(二氧化碳含量与实际含量相等的大气、二氧化碳含量加倍的大气两者比较),程序通过观察各种气候因素来跟踪气候的演化。不像早期版本,新的climateprediction.net是BOINC家族的一个成员。



The BBC, meanwhile, did its part. To inaugurate the project in February 2006, it aired an hour-long documentary, titled Meltdown, on climate change. The documentary invited people to take part in the BBC experiment, and the project was an overnight hit. Within 10 days of the airing of Meltdown, 100,000 people in 143 countries had downloaded the software and were running climateprediction.net on their computers. Within a month, that number had doubled.
译:与此同时,BBC也在做它的那部分。为了发动在2006年2月的项目,它播出了长达一个小时的纪录片,标题为“崩溃”(Meltdown),关于气候变化。纪录片邀请人们参与BBC实验,并且项目是一个通宵的版本。在“崩溃”纪录片上映十天内,在143个国家的100,000人次已经下载软件(BOINC)并在他们的计算机上运行climateprediction.net。一个月内,数字已经翻倍了。

校:与此同时,BBC也在做它的那部分。为了发动在2006年2月的项目,它播出了一部长达一个小时 的关于气候变化的纪录片,标题为“崩溃”(Meltdown),关于气候变化。纪录片邀请人们参与BBC实验,成功地使这个项目一夜爆红。在“崩溃”纪录片上映十天已有143个国家的100,000人次下载软件(BOINC)并开始在他们的计算机上运行climateprediction.net。不到一个月,数字已经翻倍了。




According to Spicer, climateprediction.net demands far more of a computer than does SETI@home. A typical PC can process a SETI@home work unit in a few days, but completing a single climateprediction.net simulation could take months. Nevertheless, by the end of 2006, more than 50,000 simulations had been completed and sent back to the project’s headquarters. To mark the completion of the BBC experiment, the network aired another documentary, titled Climate Change: Britain Under Threat, hosted by respected British broadcaster David Attenborough.
译:据Spicer所说,climateprediction.net需要远超过运行SETI@Home的一台计算机。一个典型的个人计算机能在几天内处理一个SETI@Home工作单元,但完成单个climateprediction.net模拟运算需要花好几个月。即使这样,到2006年末,超过50,000个模拟运算已经完成并发送回项目总部。为了标记BBC实验的完成,网络上映了另一个纪录片,标题为“气象变化:威胁下的英国”,由尊敬的英国广播员David Attenborough主持。

校:据Spicer所说,climateprediction.net需要的计算机数量远超过SETI@Home 所需要的 一台普通的个人计算机能在几天内处理一个SETI@Home工作单元,但仅要完成一个完整的climateprediction.net模拟运算需要花好几个月。即使这样,到2006年末,也已有超过50,000个模型已经完成模拟并发送回项目总部。为了纪念BBC实验的完成,网络上映了另一个纪录片,标题为“气象变化:威胁下的英国”,由尊敬的英国广播员David Attenborough主持。




Although the BBC’s involvement has ended for now, climateprediction.net is still going strong. Its ultimate goal is to run several million simulations to fully explore the effects of all 23 parameters included in the model. “This is genuine science that cannot be done any other way,” said Spicer. “It uses a state-of-the-art model, and it feeds into an ongoing public debate.”
译:虽然BBC的参与现在已经结束,climateprediction.net仍然发展壮大。其最终目标是运行几百万模拟运算来完整地探索所有在模型中包括的23个参数的影响。“这是不能通过任何其他方式完成的真正的科学,”Spicer说。“它使用一个国家最先进的模型,并且它展开了一个持续的公开辩论。”

校:虽然BBC的参与现在已经结束,climateprediction.net仍然发展壮大。其最终目标是运行几百万模拟运算来完整地探索所有在模型中包括的23个参数 对气候的影响。“这是不能通过任何其他方式完成的真正的科学,”Spicer说。“它使用一个国家最先进的模型,并且它展开了一个持续的公开辩论。”




图片信息:http://www.equn.com/images/3/3f/Katrina3D.jpg
Hurricane Katrina as seen from space, August 28, 2005
Although the jury is still out on whether climate change is responsible for the increase in the number and ferocity of hurricanes, we definitely need improved methods of climate prediction to better prepare for these devastating storms. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
2005年8月28日,从太空看到的“卡特里娜”(Katrina)飓风

译:即使陪审团对于是否气候变化造成飓风的数量和严重程度的不同的问题仍然不明确,我们直接需要改善气候模拟的方法来更好地对这些破坏性的风暴做好准备。来自:美国国家海洋和大气管理局
校:即使陪审团对于 气候变化是否对飓风的数量和强度增加负有责任的问题仍然不明确,我们确实需要改善气候模拟的方法更好地这些破坏性的风暴的到来做好准备。来自:美国国家海洋和大气管理局



图片信息:http://www.equn.com/images/b/b1/Globes.jpg
Possible screens for Climateprediction.net
The globe on the left is modeling temperatures, the globe on the right in modeling clouds. Credit: Climateprediction.net
Climateprediction.net 中可能出现的图像
左侧的地球仪模拟温度,右侧的地球仪模拟云层。来自:Climateprediction.net

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