IBM throws a paddy

The World Community Grid will help tackle famine by developing a new form of rice

The University of Washington is to take on the global hunger crisis, by using IBM's World Community Grid to create a more resilient strain of rice.

The Nutritious Rice for the World project will use "donated" processing power from the grid's users to study rice at an atomic level.

This data will then be combined with established harvesting information, with a view to creating a new kind of rice that yields large crops, even under harsh conditions.

"The computational revolution allows scientists around the world to tackle almost unimaginably complex problems as a community, and in real-time,” said Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute.

“While there are no silver bullets, rice production can be revitalised with the help of new technologies. The world community must invest now and for a long time to come.”

Users of the World Community Grid download a client programme which carries out minor calculations while their computer is idle. The combined activity of the grid's global community creates processing power equivalent to 167 teraflops – as fast the world's third most powerful supercomputer.