IP: Researchers Recruit PC Users for Anthrax Project

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Now will the state of Georgia allow this ?  Dave


> X-Sender: mom () mail netmom com
> Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 10:43:36 -0500
> To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
> From: Jean Armour Polly <mom () netmom com>
> Subject: Researchers Recruit PC Users for Anthrax Project
>
> Dave-- a new entry in an increasingly popular genre. The Intel site also 
> offers clients for curing cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
> Alas, Mac owners don't have a way to participate in these (unlike 
> SETI@Home and others http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/download.html)
> It would be nice if Intel stepped up to the plate and created ways for Mac 
> cycles to be utilized, too.
> JP
>
> http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20020122/tc/attack_anthrax_computers_dc_1.html
> Tuesday January 22 6:21 AM ET
> Researchers Recruit PC Users for Anthrax Project
>
> AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A group of scientists and major technology 
> corporations asked people around the world on Tuesday to use their 
> personal computers to help develop a treatment for anthrax.
>
> Members of the Anthrax Research Project, including chip maker Intel Corp. 
> (Nasdaq:INTC - news), software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), 
> computing services provider United Devices Inc., the National Foundation 
> for Cancer Research and Oxford University, announced the effort in a press 
> release.
> Individuals can participate in the project by downloading a screen saver 
> at http://www.intel.com/cure and donating their personal computer's spare 
> resources to build a virtual supercomputer capable of analyzing billions 
> of molecules in a fraction of the time it would take in a laboratory, the 
> group said.
>
> The screen saver runs whenever computation resources are available. Once 
> processing is complete, the program sends the results back to the United 
> Devices' data center and requests a new packet of data the next time the 
> user connects to the Internet.
>
> The United Devices program incorporates a comprehensive system of security 
> and privacy technologies to protect user privacy, the group said.
>
> Anthrax was used in tainted letters through the U.S. mail in the aftermath 
> of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, killing five people and 
> infecting 13 others since early October.
>
> The initiative is modeled on the Intel-United Devices Cancer Research 
> Project, which utilized the computing power of 1.3 million personal 
> computers around the world to provide scientists access to a virtual 
> supercomputer more powerful than the world's 10 largest supercomputers 
> combined, the group said.
>
> The anthrax project will draw upon the same distributed computing 
> technology to help scientists screen 3.5 billion molecular compounds 
> against the fatal anthrax toxin protein.
>
> Results of the project will be made available to the United States, Great 
> Britain and other governments for further development and research.
>
> ``Without this technology and support of the coalition, there would be no 
> other way to tackle such a tremendous task.'' Graham Richards, scientific 
> director of the project at Oxford, said in the press release.

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