Question

Studying the folding patterns of protein molecules can help microbiologists better understand cellular processes as well as some diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, that are caused by proteins that have misfolded. The folding of these complicated molecules can be simulated on computers, but it takes a lot of processor power and time for even expensive supercomputers to do this. A group of researchers at Stanford University developed software that can be used to distribute the processing of data to anyone who is willing to donate time on their idle personal computers. As a result, the researchers have been able to achieve protein-folding simulations that are far better than those other computing methods have done. Which statement best describes the work

Answer 1

The researchers applied creativity to solve a problem in running an experiment.

Answer 2

The missing options are:

A. The work is not scientific because the data are not processed in one location.

B. The work is not scientific because the simulations are not reproducible.

C. The researchers applied creativity to solve a problem in running an experiment.

D. The researchers used only well-established scientific techniques.

The correct option is C. The researchers applied creativity to solve a problem in running an experiment.

• C is the correct option because the scientists developed a software that distributes the data processing for anyone who wants to lend their computer for the research. In other words, they found a creative way to solve the problem of time and money that the simulation of these proteins folding had.

• The work is scientific since the data can be reproducible with the software, and data not being processed in one unique location does not make work not scientific.

• The researchers did not only used well-established scientific techniques. The software idea for anyone who can donate time from their computer is not a well-established scientific technique.

To sum up, the correct option is C. Scientist used creativity to solve a problem; otherwise, it would have taken time and money to slow the research or stopping it.