Computer Simulations

Imagine you can build cellular membranes using a string of 0 and 1. Then imagine that you can send the long 0011010010 string to a computer called BigRed. This BigRed is good doggy. It will crunch the 0's and 1's for weeks in a row, and then give you back another string of 0's and 1's. You will hardly know what to do with this unusual collection if it wasn't for computer engineers. From them we have the user friendly interfaces like the one you are using right now. This text is also a bunch of 0's and 1's, although you might never tell from how it looks. So with the simulations of molecular systems. You can handle brightly colored molecular structures in 3D and visualize their dynamics using a model of atomic interactions. Note though that the conservation of happiness theorem* requires that you will also have to work hard to start the simulation and to keep it running. Things can go wrong and they will. But you'll fix them and feel really good about it.