Seti@home project asking for donations

The most popular and largest grid computing project to date faces closure because it is rapidly running out of funds.

The Seti@home (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project needs to raise $750,000 by the end of the year.

If it doesn't, according to author Sir Arthur C Clarke and the project's chief scientist Dan Werthimer, it may have to close down. The pair have sent out a letter asking for donations.

The Seti@Home project, which has set up a special website where donations can be made, was launched in 1999. It processes data from the Arecibo Observatory in its searches for evidence of possible radio transmissions from extraterrestrial life.

It was the first software to use the grid (sometimes called distributed) computing concept on a large scale.

It allows scientists and researchers to harness the spare capacity of ordinary PCs to process data that would usually be done by supercomputers. 

Seti@home is not alone however as the number crunching benefits that grid computing gives researchers means there are a number of other projects; most of which have a more down-to-earth goal.

There is the Folding@home project being run by Stanford University in the US which looks at the role proteins play in keeping us healthy or making us ill.

Plus the University of Oxford’s cancer project. It is currently analysing 3.5 billion molecules to work out their cancer-fighting potential.

IBM has also set up the World Community Grid, with a stated mission of creating the world's largest public computing grid benefiting humanity.

The programmes vary in size – Oxford University’s, is only 1.5Mb for instance, and doesn't require a broadband connection for people to download the software. The software doesn't interfere with what the user wants to do and connection to the project is automatic when a person is online.

The only indication that the PC is working on a chosen project is a special screensaver.

People interested in 'donating' their space PC power to one of these projects can get more information online about current active grid computing projects as well as links to download the software.