Discover a prime number, cure AIDS and more.
Recently a new prime number was discovered — one with just under 10 million digits. How was this accomplished? The GIMPS project (The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search) — where millions of PCs share in processing data over the Internet — creating what is essentially a massive super-mega-duper computer.
Distributed computing is almost as old as the Internet but newer projects are being developed all the time. An example of one that’s been around for awhile is SETI@Home — (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) — download a screensaver, and while you’re away or your computer is idle the screensaver will kick in, download radio-telescope data from a server and analyze it — as of last week, the project has joined forces with BOINC to analyze climate models and cures for diseases.
From nature.com
If you already have SETI@home or want to start contributing, you will have to download and install software from BOINC. You will then be given the option to donate various percentages of your machine’s time to any or all of the projects. Users can chose, for example, to donate 70% of their unused computer power to finding curing disease, 20% to looking for aliens, and 10% to predicting the future climate.
GRID.ORG is another project helping in cancer, anthrax and smallpox research. Maybe you could make your computer useful and help humanity a bit, eh?
You know, computers aren’t just for videos of guys falling off ladders or lesbian cheerleaders.
