Search Results for: cache work
How do I set up my device so that it will download enough work to keep my device working for several days?
You may set up the BOINC agent so that it will keep a cache of work units to keep your device busy. You can do this on the website by going to your Settings page, and then selecting Device Manager. This screen will show you a list of your active devices. Associated with each device is a device profile. Click on the device profile associated with the device you want to cache additional work units on. On the Device Profile screen select 'Custom Profile' and then find the field labeled 'Work Unit Cache Settings', change the fields to meet your requirements and save the profile. Please do not use values longer then 4 days, as the scheduling algorithm in the client may prevent you from getting as much work as you would like.
May I download and process multiple work units, then return all of the results at one time?
The software used by World Community Grid does allow you to download multiple work units. It is unlikely that you will return all the work units together unless your device is disconnected from the internet while it completes the work units. For more information on cacheing workunits, please refer to this FAQ.
What is a Work Unit?
A work unit consists of data that represents a small part of an overall problem that the research project is trying to solve. Work Units are also referred to as Results.
Why were there not as many work units for the Help Defeat Cancer project?
The data images used in the Tissue Microarrays took a lot of computer processing themselves to assemble into work units. The preprocessing alone required for the generation of the work units was quite sizable. The Cancer Institute of New Jersey had as many computers as they could spare working on creating work units for this project. Unfortunately, there was no way to put the work unit creation process on our grid, but we added the new work units to our grid as soon as they were generated.
Why do some work units remain on the Results Status page for a long period of time after they have been validated?
When more than one work unit for a particular research project shares the same input files, they are removed from the database in a different way than normal work units. All the work units that share the common input are left in the database until all work units that share the input files have completed successfully. If there a few work units in that group that error out, we then discuss with the research scientists how they would like the work units handled. In those cases, the work units will not be cleared from the database until we have agreement with the research scientists on how to proceed. This can cause some work units to stay in the database for an extended length of time.
If I re-install the software, will the work that I am doing be lost forever?
No. When the BOINC version of our software is reinstalled it will stop the current work unit(s) that your device is processing, install the new version of the BOINC software, and continue to process the same work unit(s).
Will work unit deadlines be different for Android devices?
No. For now, all work units for projects that run on Android have been made smaller for all platforms, and are small enough to compute on an Android device in a reasonable amount of time. There are future plans to size work units dynamically based on the device a task is being computed on.
Is the agent continuously connected to the internet?
No. The agent connects to the internet when it finishes a work unit to upload the results as well as download a new work unit. This should take 2-3 minutes on a broadband connection and 10-15 minutes with a modem.
Why do some validated work units remain on my results status page for a long period of time?
When different work units share input files, then they are deleted in a different way than normal work units. All the work units that share the common input are left in the database until all work units that share the input files have completed successfully. Sometimes there will be a few work units in that group that error out and we need to discuss with the researchers how they want them handled. In those cases, the work units will not be cleared from the database until we have agreement with the researchers about how to proceed. This can cause some work units to stay in the database for a very long time.
Why are my results marked 'too late' or 'server aborted'?
The BOINC software allows us to set limits for each work unit. Below are some examples, but please note that the numbers used below are just examples and not actual:
- Max number of results (example 9)
- Max number of error results ( example 5)
- Max number of success results (example 5)
Please note: number of max successes means that the results are not validating against each other. For example all 5 copies have different results.
What are points?
Your device's contribution is shown in three measures: points, total run time and results returned. The term points is simply used as a way of measuring the amount of computation your device has contributed. For instance, if your device works for three days on one work unit, or in those same three days completes five work units, you will accumulate the same number of points assuming that your device worked at about the same level of effort in each scenario.
What is an intermittent project?
Intermittent projects are projects that will only periodically have work available to download. This could be because the project has finished but the researchers may not be finished analyzing all the results, and as such, may discover that they have to run a few more work units through the grid. This could also be because the project team may have periods where they cannot produce work as fast as the members are able to process their work.
I have a result that the BOINC Manager reports as being "Ready to Report." What does that mean?
The BOINC client returns a completed work unit to the server in a two-step process. The first step is the uploading of the calculated data (called the result file). The second step is for the BOINC client to contact the server and report that the work unit is complete and to provide additional information, including how long it took to process the work unit. The BOINC Manager will report a work units status as 'Uploading' as soon as the work unit has completed. Once the file has been uploaded, then the BOINC Manager will report the work unit as 'Ready to Report'. More information about work unit status messages may be found here.
How can I prevent the BOINC client from receiving new work units, but still finish the work units that are in progress?
You may complete the work units currently in progress, and prevent the BOINC client from downloading any new work units by taking the following steps:
- Open your BOINC Manager window (make sure that you are in 'Advanced' view and not 'Simple' view)
- Click on the 'Projects' tab
- Select the BOINC project you no longer wish to receive work units for
- Click on the 'No new tasks' button on the left hand side
What is contained in the files I send back to the World Community Grid servers?
When the software has completed processing a work unit, it will create a file containing the results which will be sent back to the World Community Grid servers. If a work unit was aborted due to an error, a report of the occurrence may be submitted in place of the result file.
Are the results produced by World Community Grid part of a commercial venture?
No. This is a philanthropic project, not for profit. The direct results of work done by the World Community Grid will be in the public domain.
How does this phase of the project build on the progress already made with FightAIDS@Home?
Significant new aspects of the biology of HIV have been discovered over the past 10 years. The research team's work on HIV protease has discovered new sites on the protein that represent targets that may result in new classes of drugs. Their work on HIV Integrase is exploring new chemical compounds that target a newly discovered mechanism to inhibit HIV infectivity. Again, this work may result in a new class of drugs that will work to defeat the virus and its ability to evolve drug resistance. The BEDAM approach being used in Phase 2 will help move us closer to the discovery of such drugs.
Why were there so many copies of a work unit sent out for AfricanClimate@Home?
Each computer that receives a work unit for AfricanClimate@Home will compute a two week period for the climate model based on the same starting conditions as other computers that receive a copy of the same work unit. The result data for AfricanClimate@Home is very large (greater then 100MB). Very few computers are able to return a result of this size. Therefore the result file is divided between each computer computing the work unit and each returns a unique section of the result file. Additional information is returned as well to ensure that the section of the result file returned is correct.
Why do I lose my work and have to download a new work unit if Windows crashes?
This occurrence is not unique to the software, though it is visible because of the way that the software works. When the Operating System completely freezes and power to the computer must be cut (a forceful/hard boot is performed) open files are mishandled and often corrupted. This occurs in virtually all operating systems, and can lead to corruption of open program files, or even of the operating system itself. The software performs a check of its files when it is started and if they have been damaged, for example during a hard reboot, then it will discard them and download a new work unit.
Why do I have to opt into AfricanClimate@Home in order to participate?
The AfricanClimate@Home downloaded work unit size is anticipated to be approximately 77MB, which means it is approximately 150 times larger than a typical FightAIDS@Home or HPF2 work unit. Thus, a 756kbps network connection will take approximately 12-15 minutes to download the work unit. We have estimated that only about 33 percent of registered computers have enough bandwidth to be eligible to participate in this project.
How are points calculated?
Points are calculated in a two-step process which attempts to give a consistent number of points for similar amounts of research computation. First, the computational power/speed of the computer is determined by periodically running a benchmark calculation. Then, based on the central processing unit (CPU) time spent computing the research result for a work unit, the benchmark result is used to convert the time spent on a work unit into points. This adjusts the point value so that a slow computer or a fast computer would produce about the same number of points for calculating the research result for the same work unit. This value is the number of point credits "claimed" by the client. More information about that formula is available here.
Second, research results returned to the servers are validated in a manner which depends on the research project. Then the claimed points for valid results are examined for anomalous (excessively high or low compared to other machines computing the same or equivalent work unit) values and adjusted accordingly. The servers assign the resulting adjusted point values to the member (and team) for each of the returned work units. This process eliminates the ability for malicious users to tamper with results and artificially claim higher points for their work.
Do I have to leave my device on all the time for this to work? Or always be online?
The software can run only when your device is on. The software doesn't need to be connected to the Internet to work its task, but once finished, it needs to reconnect to return data and to get a new task to work on. We do not ask our members to change their normal habits and schedule for using the device. The software will adapt to your usage patterns and only utilize the device's processing power when you don't otherwise need it.
Is there any way to express how close a project is to completion as a percentage? Can the progress bars show that a project is X% complete?
Over the years, we've found that most research teams don't load a certain number of work units into World Community Grid, let them run, and then declare the project complete. Rather, they create work units based on their initial research questions, then make adjustments to future work units based on their findings on World Community Grid and on outside research findings. This makes it impossible to accurately express project completion as a percentage.
The software installer keeps giving me an error and asks me to check my Proxy settings.
You need to be connected to the Internet at the start to have the agent connect to the server to get work. Check to see if you can get to some web page with your browser. If your Internet connection is working, it might be that you have a software firewall which is blocking access to the www.worldcommunitygrid.org site. If you have one, try turning it off temporarily and see what happens. If it starts working, then add the www.worldcommunitygrid.org address as a trusted site to your firewall.
How do I set the software to close the internet connection after downloading a work unit?
The software does not attempt to control your Internet connection. Establishing and closing the connection is done by the operating system.
Is World Community Grid working with any cryptocurrency organizations?
World Community Grid does not currently have relationships with any organizations that create or distribute cryptocurrency.
Do I have to do anything on a daily basis?
No. Once you have downloaded and installed the agent, there's nothing that you have to do. The agent will run on your device whenever it determines that there is unused processor capacity available. When it finishes with a calculation, it will send the completed work to the grid server and then ask the grid server for more work.
Which GPUs can participate in OpenPandemics - COVID-19?
GPU work units for OpenPandemics - COVID-19 are designed to run on OpenCL version 1.2 and above. However, there are certain cards that still have issues due to having GPU drivers that aren't 100% compatible with OpenCL 1.2. Most of the issues are with cards that were released before 2016. Please check our GPU forum for a list of GPUs that are known to not work.
Why is my device uploading result data (intermediate upload files) while a research task is still in progress?
We are using a mechanism called intermediate uploads whereby at certain processing milestones, your device would send us back partial results for the research task your device is currently working on. This allows us to validate the work you have completed up to that point and helps the researchers examine and interpret the results being returned by the volunteers.
How long did it take to finish work on a protein?
Task execution progress increased slowly. We tuned work units so that they took an average of about a week of wall clock time to complete. However, if you had a very fast computer it might have finished much sooner. In addition, the time to complete depended on the difficulty of folding a particular protein and on how long the computer was running.
What is validation?
World Community Grid is a volunteer computing grid. This means that work is being sent to computing devices that are outside the control of World Community Grid. Most devices that perform this work are reliable. However, there are a few devices that are not reliable due to things such as users over-clocking their machines, memory errors, disk errors, CPU errors or viruses being present. This means that the results returned need to be validated to make sure that they represent the correct answer.
We perform three different types of validation at World Community Grid:
- Redundant Computations: In this type of validation, two copies of the work unit are sent to members devices. Once both results are returned, they are compared to ensure that the results are identical. If they are, then the result is accepted. If they are not identical, then additional copies are sent until several devices agree on what the result should be. This policy establishes a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. Mapping Cancer Markers and Uncovering Genome Mysteries are examples of projects that use this technique.
- Single Validation - Type 1: In this type of validation, only one copy of a work unit will be sent to a device if the device is "trusted", that is, if it has been participating long enough and returning good results. If the device is not trusted, then it will still be assigned the work unit, but a second copy will be sent to another device and the rules for redundant computation above apply. As a precaution, the research code computes certain items that allow us to quickly check on the server if the computation is likely to have finished correctly. Additionally, trusted devices are randomly sampled to have their results double-checked. These techniques provide a very high level of confidence in the reliability of the results. FightAIDS@Home and Outsmart Ebola Together are examples of projects that have used this technique.
- Single Validation - Type 2: This is similar to Single Validation - Type 1 except that due to the fact that different results are generated each time the work unit is run (due to the research techniques applied in the application), we send out many copies of each work unit. We currently do not have any research projects utilizing this technique.
Is there any way to estimate an end date for projects running on World Community Grid?
There are many variables with each project that determine how long it will last and how much work it will run on World Community Grid. These include:
- Change in research direction or project scope (e.g., results from work on World Community Grid that takes the project in a new direction)
- Increase or decrease in lab resources such as funding, staffing, etc
- New research findings from collaborators or other scientists in the same field
- The pace at which computational work is being performed on World Community Grid
Researchers rarely know if or when these variables will come into play during their projects, which makes it challenging to estimate a project end date with any level of accuracy.
Is there a work unit limit set per core?
Yes. The current limit is 70 per core.
The reason for this limit is that in the past, we have had results with wild estimations which could cause a machine to download more days worth of work than what the deadline allowed for, which was causing many results to go into a too late state and required reliable hosts to pick those up after the fact. This also caused many reliable hosts to become unreliable.
With multiple projects, the estimations to BOINC can vary even though we try our best to prevent this event from happening. This work unit limit has helped to prevent this type of event from happening again.
How will statistics be updated for GPU participation?
World Community Grid will award run time based on the elapsed time from when a work unit is started and when it finishes running. Credit and result counts will be awarded in the same manner as CPU participation.
What does the screen saver show?
The right portion of the screen saver shows both the target and candidate compound molecules, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.
Why are my work units failing with exit code 233 “ERROR: Kernel execution time estimate too high, exiting”?
At the beginning of each work unit run on your graphics card, a small portion of the workload is run to estimate the execution time of a single kernel execution on the graphics card. If this estimate is too high, the application will exit to reduce the risk of Windows restarting the display driver due to the Timeout Detection and Recovery feature of Windows. If this occurs, the above error message will be written to the stderr log. If this occurs multiple times, it is likely the graphics card is not capable of running the project. Please refer to the "What graphics cards are not able to participate in the Help Conquer Cancer research project?"FAQ for a list of graphics cards which are not supported.
If it occurs occasionally but not on every execution, it could be that other graphics intensive work is interfering. We recommend that you set your preferences to not allow World Community Grid to run while you are actively utilizing your computer. This option is available on the Device Profile page under the custom options section. This option is labeled "Do work on my graphics card while computer is in use?". Select "no" and save.
What does the screen saver show?
The right portion of the screen saver shows both the cell wall molecules and surrounding molecules, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.
What does the screen saver show?
The right portion of the screen saver shows both the target protein and drug candidate molecules, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.
What does the screen saver show?
The right portion of the screen saver shows both the target protein and drug candidate molecule being evaluated, depicted as a collection of small spheres that represent the atoms of each molecule. These are the specific molecules that your device is currently working on.
What was the difference between run time reported by the United Devices version and the BOINC version?
It is important to note, that the time reported to the server doesn't mean that the UD version was doing more work then the BOINC version. The UD version simply overcounted the actual time that was contributed to the project. In fact, the BOINC version actually contributes more time to the project because it is able to take advantage of multi-core processors or multi-processory systems. The UD version could only use one core or processor. The BOINC version will start up a science application on each core or processor and thus be able to get two or more times the work done.
What do the progress bars for each active project on the Research Page mean?
Every project on World Community Grid is at one of the following four stages:
- Just Launched - The project was launched on World Community Grid within the last few weeks.
- In Progress - The project is running regularly on World Community Grid and is not close to completion.
- Nearly Completed - The project is within a few weeks of finishing its work on World Community Grid.
- Completed - The project has completed its work on World Community Grid.
How are project updates created?
We work closely with each research team to create project updates. Since the scientists are detail-oriented and want to provide good updates for the volunteers, they often take a few weeks to create just the first draft of updates.
World Community Grid generally adds any explanation or background to the updates to make them easier for the general public to understand, which can take additional time. Also, we often work with the scientists to create graphics, videos, presentations, or to find photos for the updates.
What is trickle messaging?
Trickle messaging is a capability that allows your device to communicate with us while working on a research task to report the progress being made by your device. This allows us to determine whether work should continue on that research task or whether insufficient progress is being made and therefore that task should be handed over to another volunteer for processing.
This capability is particularly useful to a project like FightAIDS@Home – Phase 2 because of the nature of its research tasks, which may require more processing time to complete and can therefore be started by one volunteer and completed by another, without losing the progress made by the first volunteer.
How does the FightAIDS@Home software work?
At any one time, the project uses one of two software docking tools to automatically download small pieces of work to your device and performs calculations that model how drugs interact with various HIV virus mutations. After your device processes the information, the results are sent back to World Community Grid and then sent on to The Scripps Research Institute where they are analyzed by the Scripps research team. The process takes an enormous amount of computing time, which is why World Community Grid needs you (and your friends!) to participate in FightAIDS@Home project.
Why is no task executing after I complete a work unit?
It is normal for the software to spend a couple of minutes preparing to send data to the server. During this time, it is running some final calculations and formatting the results for transmission. If you still do not have a task after more than five minutes, it could be due to one of the following reasons:
- If the software is unable to detect network connectivity, the software will continue to retry until it is able to send results.
- If we are experiencing very heavy traffic on our servers, you may see delays in the distribution of new work.
Why did my device stop processing a research task? And what is a trickle down message?
Using the information your device intermittently sends to us during the processing of a research task, we determine the likelihood of your device finishing the task before the completion deadline. If we determine that you are very likely to miss that deadline or you have already missed the deadline, we would send your device a trickle down message to instruct it to stop working on that research task and we then pass it along on to another volunteer.
There are two types of trickle down messages:
- Soft stop: Instruction for your device to continue until the next milestone before stopping the computation of the current research task. This happens when your device is not making sufficient progress on the current calculation. We would then hand over your partial result to another volunteer to continue working on.
- Hard stop: Instruction for your device to stop working on the current research task immediately. This happens when you have already passed the processing deadline without sending in the final full result or that there may be a communication error in sending us your progress. In this case, we would hand over the research task from the point of your last intermediate milestone to another volunteer to resume working on.
In either case, you will be awarded credit for the work you completed up to the point of the last checkpoint.
This mechanism allows work to be completed quicker and for the researchers to receive valuable results sooner.
Why do I receive tasks / work units for research projects other than the projects I have selected on "My Projects" page?
On the server, there is a daemon called the 'feeder' which loads tasks into a shared memory segment every second. The shared memory segment can store up to 1000 tasks. When the scheduler receives a request from a client to fetch new tasks to work on, the scheduler only looks at this shared memory segment for tasks that it considers for sending. This is done because at any given time there are up to 1 million tasks available to send for a project. If the scheduler hit the database directly to search for tasks to send on each request, then the load on the database would be overwhelming.
The shared memory is divided into 'slots' that are allocated to the different projects that we have active. Only a task for that project can be assigned to a specific slot.
There are certain times each day when the slots for a given project in the shared memory segment become "full" of tasks that are designated for a particular platform (Linux or Windows). These usually only last a few minutes or seconds, but can sometimes last up to 30 minutes.
If for example, you are running Linux and the slots assigned to your selected research projects are full of tasks that are already assigned to Windows, then the server will treat it as no work is available for your selected research projects for you. (This is what triggers the 'tasks are assigned to another platform' message). If you have the 'send other' work preference checked on your preference settings, it will then look for other projects to send you tasks.
At this time, the best option for you is to uncheck the 'send other' preference if you do not want to receive work from other projects when the events described above occur.
Will I be able to select to run work units only on my CPU, or only on my GPU, or both?
There are separate and independent settings for World Community Grid to run on either your CPU or on your GPU.
By default, World Community Grid is set up to only run work using your CPU and not using your GPU. The CPU preference is available on the Device Profiles page under the custom options section. This option is labeled "Allow research to run on my CPU?" You may select either "Yes" or "No."
To run World Community Grid work units on your GPU, refer to "How do I configure my settings so that World Community Grid uses my device's GPU?" for details.
I changed the schedule on the Device Profiles page but it does not seem to work?
This schedule change affects the grid agent running on your computer. For security reasons, no information is pushed to the grid agent while it is running on your computer. Only when your grid agent communicates with the grid servers does anything change with the grid agent. When your grid agent finishes its current unit of work, it will initiate communications with the grid server, and then your new schedule will take effect.
To update your preferences immediately, double click on the World Community Grid, or BOINC icon, in your system tray and select Advanced View. Then select the “projects” tab and click on World Community Grid. From the left hand menu, select “update”. This will retrieve your preferences. Please note: Local preferences set at your computer will override preference settings on the website.
How do I set the software to not run while I am using the computer?
To change your preferences for all computers under your member name, sign on to our website and go to your “Settings” page. Select “Device Manager”, then “Device Profiles" from the left hand Navigation. Click the Profile Name that you want to update and select custom profile. Under "Advanced Options" change your settings as follows:
The new settings will take effect when the software next communicates with the servers.
Can work on related diseases help fight Zika?
Closely related viruses may give clues that could help researchers fight Zika. This is one of the reasons why OpenZika includes “template” crystal structures of targets from related viruses in our virtual screening experiments against the Zika models. However, although Zika may look like dengue, subtle changes on the virus surface and in the viral enzymes could impact how antivirals or even vaccines may work. The mechanism for these viruses getting into cells and their effects can vary dramatically. The top computational results from OpenZika will thus be tested in “wet lab” experiments with the actual Zika virus, to verify which compounds can help fight Zika.
How do I uninstall the World Community Grid Software?
Right click on the World Community Grid icon in the lower right corner of your screen and select "Exit". This will stop the agent. Then use your Add/Remove programs feature to remove the World Community Grid software. If that does not work, use the task manager to stop the processes starting with WCGrid. Then you should be able to delete the C:\Program Files\WorldCommunityGrid directory and its contents. After that remove the corresponding start menu items.
Why does the Linux version not have a traditional screensaver?
Linux does not have a traditional screen saver for the BOINC client. However, if a member would like to see what their computer is working on they may go to the Advanced view of the agent and click on a task that is running. On the left they will see a "show graphics" button that will allow them to view a graphic for that specific task .
How do I configure my settings so that World Community Grid uses my device's GPU?
By default, World Community Grid will not use your device's GPUs. To allow World Community Grid to use your GPUs:
- Go to Device Profiles and select the relevant profile. (If you're not sure which profile relates to the device on which you want to run GPU work, refer to your Device Manager list).
- Ensure that the selected device profile is a Custom Profile.
- Scroll through the Advanced Options to the 'Graphics Card Usage' section.
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In order to get GPU work, select "Yes" for the type of GPU card (AMD/ATI, Intel or NVIDIA) you wish World Community Grid to use. You can set all three types (AMD/ATI, Intel, NVIDIA) as "Yes" if you do not know what card you have or wish to run GPU work on all cards available in a computer.
Another option is "Do work on my graphics card while computer is in use?". This is an advanced option and is set to "No" by default, as in some cases choosing "Yes" can cause the device performance to appear sluggish while the GPU is used for mouse movements and other system operations.
Will you make GPU processing available for other research projects?
Not all algorithms are suited to general purpose computing on GPUs and may not receive performance improvements. Additionally, general purpose computing on a GPU is a complex process, requiring numerous modifications and optimizations to the underlying algorithms of an application to realize performance increases.
We will work with the research scientists to make projects available on GPU if feasible and applicable to advancing the science application. However, it is up to the research scientists to enable their application to utilize GPU technology.
Does the GPU application include a graphic screen saver showing what is running?
No, the GPU application does not include a screen saver. If you have selected to run work units on your GPU, which is the primary display card, we recommend that you select the least intensive screen saver available, such as the "blank" screen saver option.
I have completed a result, but I have not yet received credit for it. What is going on?
BOINC does not award credit to users until the work they have performed has been successfully validated. This means that users may experience a delay in being granted credit while BOINC waits for enough results to be returned in order to perform validation.
Why is my computer not getting as many work units for the Africa Rainfall Project as I want?
Due to the large file sizes of the input and output for this project, the number of tasks sent out per day will be much less than typical projects. For launch, we started out slow, and while the total number of tasks sent out per day may increase some as we get further in to the project, at this point we anticipate those increases to be minimal.
Are there plans to continue work on Phase 1 simultaneously?
Yes, we plan to continue to do virtual screens of large chemical libraries against a number of HIV targets. As the biology of the HIV life-cycle continues to be researched by the HIVE Center, and other efforts around the world, new targets and variations of existing targets are discovered and can be used in our Phase 1 activities. We are still currently screening many variations and sites from HIV Protease, Integrase and Reverse Transcriptase.
How do you understand an organism's function from a DNA sequence?
In the first step we convert the DNA sequence into an amino acid sequence. This amino acid sequence then defines the properties of a protein. By comparing the amino acid sequence with other known sequences in databases, we can use the information about previously studied proteins to predict the functions of new proteins being investigated. If we know the function of all the proteins encoded by a genome, then we can ultimately understand how a cell or microorganism works.