Diagram of the geometry of cyclohexane, which potentially has promise as an anti-HIV drug. Research on this molecule is being assisted by the World Community Grid. Image: Michael Sanner, Scripps Research Institute, Molecular Graphics Lab

Please join Peacework readers to help solve some of humanity's most significant problems -- cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, prepare for natural disasters, and reduce hunger. It's easy, safe and free - and all it takes is your computer, a relatively high speed internet connection, and less than 10 minutes of your time.

Peacework has set up a team within the World Community Grid, where Peacework readers can donate idle time on our computers to nonprofit research projects.

When idle, your computer will request data on a specific project from World Community Grid's server. It will then perform computations on this data, send the results back to the server, and ask the server for a new piece of work. Each computation that your computer performs provides scientists with critical information that accelerates the pace of research.

World Community Grid is making technology available to public and not-for-profit organizations to use in humanitarian research that might otherwise not be completed due to the high cost of the computer infrastructure required in the absence of a public grid. As part of the Grid's commitment to advancing human welfare, all results will be in the public domain and made public to the global research community.

Today, hundreds of thousand of volunteers around the globe are donating processing time when their computers are on but not in use. World Community Grid is using this computing power to conduct research on promising humanitarian projects, reducing research time from years to months. As more and more individuals donate the unused capacity of their computers, World Community Grid will be able to complete more critical research.

For example, the FightAIDS@Home project allows idle computers to contribute the processing power necessary to virtually dock large numbers of different small molecules to HIV protease (and thus find substances which might inhibit the replication of HIV).

Molecules which show potential can then be tested in the laboratory for efficacy against HIV. By joining forces, The Scripps Research Institute, World Community Grid, and its growing volunteer force can find better treatments much faster than ever before.

Become a member of World Community Grid today. To learn more and join, go to World Community Grid's web site at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org [6] and download a small software program onto your computer (Linux, Mac, or Windows). You can then join the PeaceworkReader team [7] within the Grid to show how much we care about cooperative computing to save lives.