3 ms·
I spoke to some researchers about this while working for a Science and Technology Research center affiliated with the regional supercomputer center. I was told
by timschmidt 10mo ago
I spoke to some researchers about this while working for a Science and Technology Research center affiliated with the regional supercomputer center. I was told that there are still far too many molecules in a single cell to simulate fully, but that simulations had been run with state of the art quantum physics simulation software for some dozens or hundreds of molecules over several femtoseconds. The researcher told me that this took several weeks of supercomputer time, and that when the results were examined one take-away was that "around biological molecules, water seems to behave in an exceedingly ordered manner" as if the water molecules themselves are an integral part of the machinery, not just a medium they're suspended in.
- the__alchemist 10mo agoSo cool! I can see how a cell is far too complicated to contemplate at this time. But, if focusing on the video of the DNA replication complex. (DNA strand + a few enzymes), I wonder if it could be in the realm of doable within the coming years or decades. Re water... yea... I suspect explicit solvents are the way to go. So, you are not just simulating the protein and DNA molecules, but also each water.
- timschmidt 10mo agoI believe the simulation I spoke to the researcher about was around 100 atoms cubed. So 1,000,000 atoms. Numbers vary wildly with cell size, but a typical cell might contain 100 trillion atoms. So, a factor of 100,000 difference in scale. Which would be between 16 and 17 doublings. Around 25 years given Moore's law. The conversation happened probably 8 years ago, so only 17 years to go! lol