3 ms·
That would be awesome, but it is unlikely with current software and hardware. Even small scale simulations (nanoseconds to microseconds of a single protein mole
by daveguy 11y ago
That would be awesome, but it is unlikely with current software and hardware. Even small scale simulations (nanoseconds to microseconds of a single protein molecule) require hours of sim time (on large clusters).
- saalweachter 11y agoTo elaborate, time is the problem. The number of atoms in the smallest viable cell is actually reasonably small, less than a billion atoms, such that you could hope to store it all in memory on a single beefy computer. Meanwhile, you need something like picosecond resolution in the simulation, while you need seconds of simulated time to see interesting macro-level things happen. If you want to see cell division, you're probably talking a minimum of thirty minutes of simulated time.
- ealloc 11y agoNot to mention that the molecular dynamics simulations you're describing can't actually simulate chemical reactions. (the covalent bonds can't change in the sim, unless you do a much more intensive QM calculation and even that's iffy).