Sources: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment 10th September 2010
IBM have set up a ‘global community of personal computers’, called the Worldwide Community Grid, to help tackle the global water crisis. The hypothesis behind the idea is that scientists will be able to use the idle processing power of computers left connected to the grid in order to develop ‘water filtering technology, research into treatments for water-related diseases and clean up polluted water sources’. Academic institutions from the USA, China, and Australia (among may others) can tap into the network and perform simulations, tests, and hypotheses quicker than was previously possible. For example: scientists from Brazil are using the WCG to seek a cure for waterborne disease schistosomiasis.
Users can register their computers onto the network by visiting www.worldcommunitygrid.org and downloading a small sized software program.
