This is the best summary I could come up with:

Distributed computing erupted onto the scene in 1999 with the release of SETI@home, a nifty program and screensaver (back when people still used those) that sifted through radio telescope signals for signs of alien life.

SETI@home was a prime candidate for distributed computing: Each individual work unit was a unique moment in time and space as seen by a radio telescope.

Another major effort came from IBM; its Corporate Social Responsibility division was involved with the creation of the World Community Grid, a series of life science projects searching for treatments for AIDS, cancer, and Alzheimer’s.

But in 2021, IBM transferred the World Community Grid assets to Krembil Research Institute, part of the University Health Network (UHN) of Toronto.

With the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, there was a new darling in the distributed world: Folding@home, a simulator trying to understand how proteins adopt functional structures.

But the site’s operator, Kirk Pearson, says he hasn’t abandoned the project; he’s just been busy with real-life matters.

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