Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

About

BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) lets you help cutting-edge science research using your computer. The BOINC app downloads scientific computing jobs and runs them invisibly in the background. According to the site, it is easy and safe, and about 30 science projects use it to investigate diseases, study climate change, discover pulsars, and conduct other types of scientific research.

You can contribute in two ways. Science United lets you choose science areas such as biomedicine, physics, or astronomy, and your computer will help current and future projects in those areas. Alternatively, you can download BOINC and select specific projects yourself. Choosing specific projects also lets you take part in competitions and systems like Gridcoin.

The BOINC and Science United projects are located at the University of California, Berkeley and are supported by the National Science Foundation.