Use Your Computer to Help Scientists Solve Problems
You can help solve major science problems while your computer’s idling! While exploring the science library at Planet Science, I found links to the following sites where you can download free software that will put your computer to work while it is idling:
Fight Aids at Home: Download a program to help with AIDS research. Folding Proteins Experiment: Help by using your PC to solve the protein folding conundrum. Compute Against Cancer: Explains in great detail how it goes about utilizing your computer to work on cancer calculations. Numbers and Codes: Use your computer to help crack cyphers and mathematical problems.
How do these programs work? To give you one example, FightAIDS@Home, “processes information (in this case using the drug design software AutoDock) and evaluates prospective candidates for drug discovery…when your computer has finished a FightAIDS@Home computation, the FightAIDS@Home results are packed up and sent back to The Scripps Research Institute, ready for Scripps researchers to collect and analyze them.“