CERN are the multi-national keepers of the Large Hadron Collider, which is the most powerful particle accelerator on the planet. But they need your help in their quest to find the Higgs Boson particle, otherwise known as the God Particle.
CERN is tapping into the BOINC distributed computing project (which crowdsources computing power to create supercomputer for processing vast amounts of data) to release LHC@Home 2.0. Those who install the client (available here) will lend their spare computing power to help CERN simulate data sets based on theoretical physics models.
LHC@Home had been previously available to a select few within the Physics community who had machines powerful enough to run the simulated experiments. But now, the average new computer is up to the task. The data gleaned from LHC@Home will then give them results they can use to compared to the experimental data reported to them by the LHC in hopes that it will lead to a quicker discovery.
Previously used to try and cure cancer and find aliens, you can now use BOINC’s platform to help solve one of physics’ big mysteries. Will you do it? [LHC@Home via DailyTech]
Image via Lucas Taylor