Is your PC running 24/7 and sometimes just doing nothing like when you are sleeping? Did you know that there's a way to let your PC do scientific research in its idle time. How would you like your PC to search for a cure for cancer or even find out if there aliens sending a message to us? Your idle computer/s can do this and more. All you gotta do is install a nearly unobtrusive program that will do these things.
Now, by itself the process of searching for a cancer cure is no easy task. Otherwise we would already have the cure. The work is a humongous matching of possible drug molecules and testing for favorable reactions. Here is where your idle PC comes in. You are given a certain molecule to test, afterwards the results are sent back to a central server and you get a new molecule to test and so on. The technology behind this is called distributed computing or grid computing wherein there is an infinitely huge amount of work that is chopped into itty-bitty pieces that can be distributed to available machines the does the work. In reality this means that a certain work that would have taken 1 super-computer 10 years to finish can be finished much more quickly when the work is distributed between 1000 small PC's like the one you are using right now.
The program I'm running right now is the one for the United Devices grid. Currently, I'm testing for drug candidates for a cancer cure but you can choose which type of work your computer will do. You can find more information on United Devices grid here: United Devices Website
If looking for E.T. is your cup of tea, you can instead install the SETI@Home client that analyzes radio signals from space for possible Extra-Terrestrial messages. Go here: Seti@Home Website
There are lots of other distributed computing programs out there. Go google them sometime : )
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