One More Reason To Leave Your Computer On All the Time

David Baker wanted to research AIDS vaccines or cancer cures, but lacked the money to buy or rent the massively powerful computers necessary to depict how proteins unfold at the atomic level.  Baker is a biochemistry professor at the University of Washington, and was dimly aware of how the SETI Foundation had recruited volunteers in their efforts to detect intelligent signals from outer space.  Using the same software, Baker has created a similar volunteer effort for biochemistry that he calls Rosetta(at)home.   Technology Review recently published an article on Baker’s work, and it’s pretty clear that the idea of a network of volunteer tech heads practicing distributed PC computing is going to expand into other areas rapidly.