Levinthal paradox
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The Levinthal paradox in molecular biology is the observation that proteins fold into their specific three-dimensional conformations in a timespan that is much shorter (on the order of milliseconds) than would be possible if the molecule actually searched the entire conformation space for the lowest energy state. The Levinthal paradox is named after Cyrus Levinthal.
It has been argued that the paradox can be settled if one views each atom as independently computing in its neighbourhood; that is, the atoms compute in parallel whereas the theoretical calculation assumes a sequential search.