Send a droid

Sometimes, Science runs up against a brick wall. This tends to happen quite a lot in biology, what with their "high-level non-linear" jazz.¹ Let's say you want to know which combinations of protein folds and seasonings cause or cure, say, AIDS or cancer or whatever. Hey, I have an idea! Let's just try 'em all and check each one!

Back in the day, we had obsessive men of science like Tycho Brahe and that Napier guy. They advanced the cause of human endeavour by doing the same calculations over and over in minutely varying circumstances and making enormous tabloes of numbers. Today, we have robots to do the work of OCD aristocrats.

The idea is to let your computer do serious work instead of runnin' a screensaver. If the "good of humanity" angle doesn't strike a chord, think of it as an MMO: a series of slowly-filling progress bars that earn you arbitrary numbers of meaningless points. And there are no recurring fees!

In the last few days my computer has done about 30 hours of computation, in between me watchin' old episodes of Johnathan Creek and reading internet forums² about toast. Coincidentally, in that time I've worked 24 hours. Blarggh.

1. Honestly guys, it's much easier when you're trying to work out the properties of a single proton and a single electron in an infinite empty universe. Make a note of that.
2. Fora?