Do nothing—and fight terrorism. A new computer screensaver from Oxford
University, United Devices and Intel will borrow your computer’s processing
power to search for potential anthrax cures when you aren’t using your machine.
The project follows in the footsteps of the popular SETI screensaver, which
looks for signs of alien life in radio signals. The anthrax screensaver will
hunt for molecules that could form the basis of a therapy, by testing billions
of molecules as potential inhibitors. The computational power required is so
huge that the problem needs to be divided into small parts and distributed.
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