I've recently set up my personal computer to run Folding@Home, the distributed computing platform dedicated to medical research – specifically, modelling the different ways protein molecules can "fold", which is a big part of finding ways to stop a variety of diseases including a rather urgent one I needn't mention.

Protein folding simulation turns out to be the sort of brute-force problem at which computers excel. Furthermore, it's the sort that a graphics processor is much better at than a general CPU. So my setup is such that the software ignores my laptop's processor (it has enough heat issues, thank you very much) but when my system's at home – and lately, that's almost all the time, go figure – I leave it hooked up to an external GPU that Folding@Home can use to grind away. Thus, my studio (yeah, let's call it that) almost always sounds like there are four small fans running because that's the total of the graphics card and the enclosure. Also, the room's been a couple degrees warmer than usual, because at full blast the setup is basically a 100W infrared light bulb.

But when the fans spin down because a work unit has been completed, I get a tiny little rush of satisfaction. In one more way, I helped. I contributed to solving a huge and difficult problem that's actually important.

And you know what? There's another little rush when the fans spin back up, because I know that work's getting done again.

If you have hardware – especially an AMD or nVidia GPU – and you don't mind heating up a room with some heavy math, check out https://foldingathome.org/ and set things up. Be patient, as it can take a bit for a work packet to show up... but once it's going, you'll be helping too.