Project to Use Home Computers for Global Climate Predictions

Hundreds of thousands of personal computer users are participating in the search for extraterrestrial life by allowing their computers to be used for processing radio signals when they are not in use by the owner (www.setiathome.com). Now, British climate scientists would like to harness more of that untapped computing power to make climate predictions.

Myles Allen of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot writes in today’s Nature that he wants to hear from anyone interested in running a full-scale model of the world’s climate on their home computer as part of an attempt to predict the climate for the next 50 years. To join up, contact www.climate-dynamics.rl.ac.uk.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II