There are many university and medical researchers and others in need of heavy computational power. But the computers necessary to analyze research data can be prohibitively expensive. You can help by donating your desktop's surplus data processing power.

The concept that makes this possible is called distributed computing. Your computer's unused power is pooled with others' around the world. The result is a giant virtual research supercomputer.

The research involves fields from medicine to cryptology. Your contribution gives you a part in advancing health and technology for everyone.

You download a program that runs on your PC. When you are not using your PC, the program runs. It sends you data to crunch and returns back to the organization when done.

Here are some organizations that you can help. Each offers a program that links you into its network. The programs are free.

1. Folding@Home
Folding@Home allows you to help researchers studying protein folding. The research may help fight Alzheimer's disease, cancer and Parkinson's disease. The Folding@Home project is backed by Stanford University. The program is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
folding.stanford.edu