Spinning off from an experiment at Google Labs (http://labs.google.com), Google Compute allows users to donate the unused processing power of their computer to worthy causes, in this case complex analysis of how DNA proteins 'fold' in an extension of Stanford University's Folding@home project. Google is, of course, itself a spin-off from an earlier Stanford University research project.
It hoped that a better undersatnding of how complex protein molecules interact in 3D space will lead to advances in medical science, with applications in everything from stopping the common cold to curing cancer.
This isn't the first so called 'distributed computing' project - the most famous is probably the SETI@Home seach for extra-terrestrial intelligence, but it is the first time a Search Engine has involved itself in such a scheme.
For more information, visit:
http://labs.google.com /
