IBM throws a paddy

The University of Washington is to take on the global hunger crisis, by using IBM's World Community Grid to create a more resilient strain of rice.

The Nutritious Rice for the World project will use "donated" processing power from the grid's users to study rice at an atomic level.

This data will then be combined with established harvesting information, with a view to creating a new kind of rice that yields large crops, even under harsh conditions.

"The computational revolution allows scientists around the world to tackle almost unimaginably complex problems as a community, and in real-time,” said Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute.

“While there are no silver bullets, rice production can be revitalised with the help of new technologies. The world community must invest now and for a long time to come.”

Users of the World Community Grid download a client programme which carries out minor calculations while their computer is idle. The combined activity of the grid's global community creates processing power equivalent to 167 teraflops – as fast the world's third most powerful supercomputer.

See also:

Grid computing to study African climate change

Cape Town project to establish more accurate weather predictions  03 Sep 2007

Scouts are prepared for grid computing

The project will use spare computer processing time to contribute to research  02 Aug 2007

Grid project to help cancer research

Charities get access to supercomputing level power  03 Aug 2006

The humble PC joins search for smallpox cure

The power of home PCs is being combined to help laboratory researchers fight disease  15 Oct 2003

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!