I’ve been involved in the Folding@Home project for several years now. It’s a Stanford program that takes the unused cycles on your computer and uses them to do science, analyzing proteins to see how they tick. Scientists will then use that information to cure diseases. Every work unit is assigned a point number, so it’s the kind of thing that you can be vaguely competitive about with friends.
Today I hit a million points. Take that, cancer! In honor of the achievement, I was recently feted by my teammates from Maximum PC.
If you are interested in helping out, join team 11108. There are clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, and even PS3. Every little bit helps.