There are many programs on the web which allow you to volunteer computing power for a range of scientific ventures, which they need a huge computational resource, powered by BOINC. Among these, there are two programs that I feel responsible to invite you to take part.

The first one “is the largest experiment to try and produce a forecast of the climate in the 21st century”, as they say. If you are interested in using your idle computer to help calculate global warming then log on to www.climateprediction.net .

The second one is the D-Wave’s AQUA (Adiabatic QUantum Algorithms). Whether you believe they have a quantum computer or not you can take part in this very low cost but important project. Once D-Wave collects the results of the simulations and processes the information, it will compare the simulation against an actual run of its latest quantum computer, which should be completed in the next few months. If the figures match up, then D-Wave will have shown that it really has a quantum machine. “Either the hardware will agree with the prediction or it won’t,” Mr. Rose said. “If it doesn’t agree, then you don’t have a quantum computer. On the other hand, if the data tracks the predictions, you have smoking gun evidence that what you built is a quantum computer.”

What the hell is that in Geordie’s blog?