Google has a very useful toolbar that you can install in your browser. The toolbar lets you enter a Google search without going to the Google web page. Very useful and a good timesaver, and a no-brainer to install; just click.

But I am not posting this because it it useful. I am posting this because the toolbar also has a feature that allows you to "donate" your computer's idle time to help scientific research. I have been running it at home for a month or so no and have noticed no slow-downs or problems. It only runs when you are not using your PC. It all happens behind the scene and is transparent to you. There is a status page were you can see how many "work units" your computer has completed. There are thousands of computers running this program, and it is a cheap way for universities to get mainframe-like computing power.

It is currently set up to help the Folding@Home project at Stanford University. It has to do with simulating how proteins fold. The results will help develop new drugs, understand diseases better, etc.

(You may have heard of Seti@home, which uses the same concept to comb through radio-telescope data looking for signals from life in outer-space, but I think the Folding@Home program has a more immediate benefit to humanity.)