How my PS3 helps to cure Cancer, Alzheimer, ALS and Parkinsons...

Bear with me:

If you suffer one of the diseases mentioned in the title, you have a good chance it was caused by what are called "badly folded proteins". An error in the formation-process of proteins result in "bad" proteins, which lead to a chain-reaction that cause the disease. If scientists can find out how the folding goes wrong, they might find a way to detect or reverse these "bad" proteins, and thereby stop the disease.

Scientists have modeled this folding process to be simulated on computers. But because proteins are very large (complex) molecules, this folding process takes very long (years and years) to simulate, even on the fastest computer.

Some smart people at Stanford University have developed a way to pick apart the complex folding-process, and to distribute the simulation over many machines. This is called "distributed computing". So instead of one machine that takes years and years, thousands of machines now only take months to accomplish the same task. A research team contributes a "folding" problem (usually some enzyme identified with a cryptic name) which is then distributed over many computers that participate in what is called the "folding @ home" network.

With the latest update of the PS3's software (1.60), a new program was added that takes part in this folding@home project. There are a few very cool things about letting you PS3 join this project:

1. When not playing games, your PS3 is used for a good cause. You feel you're donating something to science, without actually paying more than your electricity bill
   
2. The enzyme which is being simulated is shown in animated 3D. The program also shows who else in the world is using folding@home. Seeing all the dots light up on the black earth gives you a feeling you are part of something big. This even translated to my wife who said "wow" (always the ultimate approval of something-nerdy-but-cool).
3. The ranking of the PS3 in the folding@home project is now 3x higher than that of all PC's combined. It will be very likely that folding@home's PS3's will become "the worlds fastest computer".
   

Sony is often depicted as "evil" because of the restrictions they put on using their machine (makes sense because they're also a media company who have to protect their investments).
But adding the folding@home to the PS3 is surely a "good" thing. How cool would it be if one day the PS3 will be known as "the machine that cured cancer"?

Fingers (and enzymes) crossed.

By the way: Sony's latest update also solved the PAL playback (it can play my entire DVD collection now) . One more points for my PS3!