Cycles for Science

Scientists collect massive amounts of data. In fact, the biggest challenge of science is sifting through all the data to come to correct and fascinating conclusions. This is where you come in: If you want to help with the march of science, you could give your life to NASA or a large university, or you could just contribute some cycles from your home computer. One of the easiest ways to contribute to science is to let your computer crunch the numbers for ongoing scientific experiments.

It all started with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). SETI scientists built a radio telescope to scan the skies for radio signals that could come from civilizations like ours. The big problem quickly became obvious; analyzing the data takes immense amounts of computing power. To address this problem, the team adapted the software they use to analyze the signal to run on a PC. Then they came up with a brilliant idea: make small work packages that anyone can compute in any order. Users can download the packages and analyze the data off-line. This client was then shared on their website, the best part: they designed it so users could use the software as a screen saver.

The popularity of the project exceeded their expectations, and the team quickly realized that the system could work for other projects also. However, other projects such as medical research and astronomy needed other mathematics. The solution was Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, BOINC [1].

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Fighting COVID-19 with BOINC

    Linux and the BOINC distributed computing platform help researchers fight the COVID-19 virus.

  • BOINC

    Grid computing lets little PCs work on big problems. You can use the grid system of the famous SETI@home project to build your own grid computing solutions.

  • Science on a Crypto Rig

    Lots of retired Bitcoin mining computers are showing up on the second-hand market for cheap. Could these once-impressive machines have a second life in scientific computing or machine learning?

  • Free Software Projects

    The free high-end game, Yo Frankie, in which players steer a flying squirrel through a colorful 3D world, is almost finished. KI Research still faces major issues, but FreeHAL, a dialog program, gives users a behind-the-scenes look at the current state of affairs.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News