You can do all this and more… The only prerequisite is a PC and a Net connection.

Thanks to 'distributed computing' you can indirectly help further a lot of global projects that help make the world a better place. Right from your desktop.

For those unfamiliar, distributed computing is defined by Search WebServices as: Any computing that involves multiple computers remote from each other such that each have a role in a computation problem or information processing.

Programming and data are located on different computers. The machines don't even need to use the same operating system. So, various components of a project or application can run on several different machines, located all over the world.

It doesn't take much to get involved in these projects. All you do is download a software programme that works like a screensaver. The software only regulates project-specific information and makes use of your PC's idle resources. This, of course, does not hamper your machine in any way.

Now, here's a closer look at some of the things you can do:

1) Fight AIDS at Home: This computational research project between Entropia and The Scripps Research Institute uses your computer's resources to help in AIDS research. Your machine will be part of a worldwide online computing grid that runs research applications on PCs. The computing power derived from several users will enable scientists to trace the evolution of drug resistance and design anti-HIV drugs to fight AIDS. Numerous drug compounds will be tested against models of evolving AIDS viruses with the resources of your PC. The site calls it "an accomplishment previously impossible without expensive supercomputers". This page enables you to download the software. After that, whenever you are online, your computer will 'call in for a homework assignment'. After completion, it will turn it in and request another.

2) Cancer Research Project: This Intel-United Devices project allows you to volunteer your PC to help in molecular research conducted by the University of Oxford and the National Foundation for Cancer Research. Once you download screensaver-like software, it runs when your computer is idle and processes research data until you get back. Your PC will screen virtual molecules that are potential cancer remedies. After analysing them, it sends the results back for further research.

3) The Anthrax Research Project: Based on the same methodology as the Cancer Research Project, it processes molecules that may have the potential to inhibit the anthrax disease. Distributed computing speeds up a process that could otherwise take years. Each individual molecule is virtually screened for "binding capacity on a protein known to have a role in anthrax's toxicity to humans". The project aims at developing "a drug that can be used in the advanced stages of the disease". Results will be given to authorities for further research. These FAQs will give you more information.

4) SETI At Home: A scientific experiment that conducts a search for extraterrestrial intelligence through distributed computing. You can participate by downloading software that runs during idle time and analyses data captured by the world's largest radio telescope. There are also a number of polls you can participate in. Not surprisingly, most voters are of opinion that there is life outside Earth, and favour government funding for research. These graphs summarise the progress currently made. Learn more about the project here.

5) PiHex: If you don't think these concepts work, here's one project that has already been successfully concluded. The aim of PiHex was to "set three records for calculating specific bits of pi." To achieve this, they took advantage of idle time slices on almost 2,000 computers. Making use of Bellard's formula, they arrived at a calculation of the five trillionth bit, the forty trillionth bit, and the quadrillionth bit of Pi.

All these projects would not have been accomplished without powerful supercomputers. But thanks to ordinary people and their ordinary PCs, distributed computing has worked wonders.

We have the power.