SETI, biotechnology and grid computing

The key to grid computing is the ability to break up work into small, independent chunks that can be worked on by different computers - this actually is a difficult task, and most scientific or business processes cannot be broken up into independent parts. But some tasks - like analyzing radiotelescope data, or protein folding, are perfectly suited to be broken up into independent units. Thus SETI scientists became pioneers of the grid computing field. SETI screen saver was the first widely used grid computing application.
Volunteers downloaded a screen saver, their machines started processing a chunk of work. When the computations were completed, their computer connected to the main server, uploaded results of the computations, and downloaded another chunk of work to be done - all in the background, without bothering the human owner of the machine.

Mathematical computations performed on signals received by radiotelescopes are a perfect fit for grid computing - they also are quite time consuming to process, and the amount of data received each day is staggering. SETI scientists quickly ran out of computer time to process all the data. They thought about all those millions of personal computers in the world - most of them sitting idle most of the day... and decided to see if they could harness all that wasted computing power (in aggregate, greater than the most powerful supercomputers). Originally, SETI @ Home produced a screen saver - so that they would only use the computing power when the machine was idle - whenever a screen saver started up - instead of drawing little patterns on the screen, the computer performed mathematical analysis of radio signals received by the 1000 ft Arecibo radiotelescope. Individual computer users would download the screen saver, and whenever their computer was idle, the SETI screen saver would perform scientific calculations.
Over time, the program was expanded so it could work not only as a screensaver, but also run in the background, so even why the user was actively working on his or her machine, some (small) amount of computing power was used to do calculations.
Since humans are notoriously slow compared to computers, the machine actually had plenty of time to switch to the math calculations, then come back and respond to the input from the human - all so fast, that the human user never noticed any slowdown in the performance of her machine.
Of course, the choice to run the program in the background, or as a screen saver always belongs to the user of the machine.
Today, this program has been expanded into a platform that allows other scientists, not just SETI, to use the donated power of millions of personal computers to work on a variety of scientific problems. You can read more about this project (and join if you so desire) at University of California Berkeley SETI @ HOME

Well, biotechnology also needs a lot of computing power. In particular, one task, protein folding, can be easily broken up into small chunks of work - perfectly fitting the grid computing paradigm.
So Stanford University scientists copied the Berkeley concept and applied it to protein folding - creating Folding @ Home program - to use donated computer power to try out different ways that proteins can be folded. Such analysis can be helpful, for example, in drug discovery.

I think getting toys that make kids happy is one of the best things anyone can do - remember - they will never be kids again.

Here is a link to a whole bunch of electronic toys for little ( and not so little ) kids.

Electronic toys

For older kids and adults, check out the Lego Mindstorms NXT robotic kit:

Lego Mindstorms NXT robot

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