For years, World Community Grid has been using the idle processors of volunteers' personal computers to further humanitarian projects. The concept of grid computing is pretty brilliant: individual users install a software agent onto their hard drives and let it run in the background. The agent uses the computer processor to run computations that contribute to scientific research on things like cancer, AIDS and muscular dystrophy. The network of agents installed on personal computers essentially creates one big supercomputer capable of researching how molecules fit together. It allows scientists to do massive amounts of math without needing their own supercomputers at their disposal.

Anyone with a computer can participate in the World Community Grid. It doesn't cost anything and is probably one of the easiest and most effective ways to contribute to causes like disease research. It considerably speeds up the process of important humanitarian work. Lately, the World Community Grid has been lending its technology to developers of clean energy. 

The Clean Energy Project is just now entering its second phase. The project involves researching potential new materials to be used in solar cells and other innovative green energy sources. Scientists at Harvard University have been relying on the Word Community Grid for many of the molecular calculations needed for phase one. Phase two of the Clean Energy Project will require quantum calculations as the software tests the physical and optical properties of proposed solar materials.

This research may prove to be vital to the future of global energy as we know it. It's become clear that we can't depend on fossil fuels to power our civilization forever. The development of more efficient solar energy may actually be necessary to saving the world. And now you can directly aid Harvard scientists in their clean energy research by donating a fraction of your computer's processing power. 

In honor of Earth Day, World Community Grid will host a live webcast on the past and future of the Clean Energy Project on April 22nd. The webcast will be hosted by Professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University. Dr. Aspuru-Guzik will answer viewer questions via live chat after his presentation. Tune in this Friday at 11:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time to learn more about the project and how you can contribute to it. I can't think of many better ways to celebrate Earth Day than by helping green energy researchers crunch ridiculous numbers on your own PC.