The BBC, in association with the Met Office, has launched a screensaver experiment that lets you observe changes in the climate, whilst helping top climate boffins predict future weather patterns. The experiment uses a technique known as “distributed computing”, which harnesses the spare CPU power of those who have download the program. This effectively creates one big, super computer, and the BBC calculates that only 10,000 users would be needed to exceed the world’s fastest processors. Once installed, the programme runs calculations in the background, sending the results back to scientists in Oxford, who then combine everyone’s results. It requires no action on the user’s part, and the results will be aired on BBC 4 in May.

Do your bit and download it here.

15 Feb 2006