You can run BOINC software (free software) to use your CPU cycles when it's not busy doing work.
and add project like Rosetta@home or World Community Grid
to help researchers/scientist help with their research.

Like for example the rosetta@home project does protein folding.


I think it's great that anyone with no knowledge about diseases can just run this softwaer and help.

In winter, if you have electric heating, it's basically free (the heat from you computer is just adding to the one from your radiators and the thermostat compensates for this)(*). In summer, you are burning at least 100W if you have a desktop and may have to turn on the air conditioning, so it"s more expensive.

(*) https://www.nerdalize.com/

I looked at that site and there doesn't seem to be a program that i can run to help.
It looks like you sign up with them if you are a researcher yourself which i am not.
Am I wrong? did i miss something?

Hi trandoductin.
I think the intention of rosetta@home is commendable but I question the logic. "Knowing how proteins fold and interact with other molecules and determining their functions may ultimately lead to drug discoveries and cures for human diseases."

So why wouldn't we first cure diseases by reducing the massive quantity of toxic chemicals entering our environment and our bodies? Is this now too hard?

Also, isn't the planet already grossly overpopulated? Human beings are getting born faster than people are dying, so why would we make the overcrowding of planet Earth worse than it is now?
Just a couple of reasons why not to buy-in to sharing your CPU cycles.

Still better than having a hidden Javascript using your browser to mine bitcoins behind your back.

I don't know much but toxic chemicals are usually a byproduct of the manufacturing process.
So maybe having more knowledge about proteins folding might lead to turning those toxic chemicals non toxic somehow.
The world might be currently overpopulated although with better technology we increase things such as crop yield and support more people, but I think a world with less diseases is better then more disease.
I just imagine if someone i know or myself getting a deadly disease in a short period of time, and if i run a simple program to help them find the cure then that would be personally more meaningful to me.
There are more projects too, not just rosetta@home and world community grid.
I think IF you run it, you can pick the project that's most meaningful to you.
Indirectly you help all other projects too because the sooner they finish with research the sooner they can move on to other research projects.

Same old, same old! "Advancement" causes more diseases and problems and then seeks more "advancement" to find cures which leads to more problems etc etc. What's wrong with trying not to exploit the planet and its resources so aggressively instead? We don't need half of the things we manufacture.

Great idea, I remember something like this a few years ago to detect mutations in DNA or something. Very interesting, however, I don't know what it's doing to my computer, how I'm supposed to interact with it (if at all) and why the university doesn't do something about the protesting by off-campus individuals that seems to plague that place at the moment..

While i agree with you about we don't need half of the things we manufacture. The problem is people will always want different things. Like for me I'd like to have a computer, other might want the latest Iphone X. Unless we all stop wanting things it's pretty hard to stop the manufacturing process because the demand is there. We all demand something.