US Air Force telescopes have spotted an asteroid. They pass
the data to NASA. A dramatic increase in the asteroid's brightness suggests a
40% chance
that
it
will impact
the Earth within 36 hours... with the force of a one megaton bomb! Scientists
feverishly work to plot an accurate trajectory, but heavy clouds move in and
obscure the sky.
Who will they turn to?!!!
The public. In this case, an amateur astronomer named Brian Warner. Warner was able to get a clear view of the sky just long enough to confirm that the people of Earth would be safe.
Scientists need your help, too. There's just not enough of them to track,
collect and analyze all of the data they need to solve problems or tell us what's
happening
in our world. In most cases, you don't even need to have special skills!
DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING
An easy way to help is through distributed computing. All you need is a computer.
You download software that analyzes data while your computer is on, but isn't
being used to full capacity. The results are then sent back to scientists,
and new data that needs to be analyzed is downloaded into the software.
Here's some examples:
ClimatePrediction.net: Help
scientists predict the climate of the 21st century. This data is critical to
convince governments to take action on global warming.
Compute Against Cancer: Help scientists analyze cancer cells, screening methods for new drugs and ways to reduce chemotherapy side effects.
Distributed Hardware Evolution Project: Help create artificial evolution for self-testing circuits, which have numerous technological applications.
Einstein@Home: Help space scientists catch gravitational waves in action so that we can better understand the forces that impact our universe.
Grid.org: This group runs more than one distributed
computing project at a time. Current projects include cancer research and the
Human Proteome Folding Project, whose goal is to find all the functions of human
genome
proteins.
FightAIDS@Home: Help scientists screen millions of drug compounds to discover new AIDS drugs.
Folding@Home: Help scientists analyze "misfolding" proteins that cause diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Mad Cow.
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search: Help mathematicians find previously unknown Mersenne prime numbers.
SETI@Home: The world's most
famous distributed computing project! Help scientists find extraterrestrial intelligence
by analyzing radio telescope data.
NEXT: How
to be a volunteer observer
