This from today's UK Daily Telegraph:
"In another move, more than a million PC owners across the world are being asked to help in the hunt for an effective treatment for Anthrax.
Computer owners from more than 200 countries have already assessed the anti-cancer potential of 3.5 billion molecules in a project run by Oxford University's Department of Chemistry.
There are now plans to extend the effort to hunting for drugs to treat Anthrax in the wake of developments published this week in the journal Nature said Prof Graham Richards, Chairman of Chemistry at Oxford and Director of the Centre for Drug Discovery.
From the Internet, the PC owners downloaded a screensaver which used the 'idle time' of PC's to screen for anti-cancer drugs.
Since the project was launched last April the computers have completed a combined total of more than 50,000 years of work, screening molecules to see how well they disrupt six protein targets in tumours to identify anti-cancer drugs.
Discussions are under way to change the emphasis of the project after an advance in the understanding of the way that the toxin secreted by the Anthrax bacterium kills people was reported this week by British Scientists."
This from a story about the FBI suspecting the Anthrax letters were the work of a USA based individual rather than one of Bin Laden's lackeys.
And 50,000 years of work so far? That's you and me, my bruvs, so feel proud
If the UD project looked set to close at end of year, maybe this development will enable it to carry on.
Hope so, finding a cure for Anthrax sounds like a goodie to me.
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