There are a number of distributed computing projects in the pipeline. One, in nanotech has interesting goals:
“Nano@HOME has several obvious benefits:
It ‘popularizes’ nanotechnology research. That may translate into increased general interest and possibly support in areas such as research funding. Nano-widget screen savers showing the ’state-of-a-design’ would buy more interest in nanotechnology than millions of dollars of advertising.
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It functions as a bridge to interest people in the science & engineering. Currently, it is very difficult for most people to do Science@HOME. The fact that you could design molecular parts, then potentially assemble them, then send them off to a supercomputer lab where they would actually be run, lets individuals, even children, become actively involved in scientific development. The trick of letting the computer do most of the hard work (design layout) and letting the people do the easy work (yes, no, good, bad, here why don’t you try this…) allows people to approach this from a self-educating aspect. Discussion communities such as mailing lists, newsgroups, chat rooms, etc. would develop and evolve, sharing goals, ideas, strategies, successes, failures, etc.
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There are thousands of engineering students in schools around the world that currently have no nearby nanotechnology centers or access to nanoengineering courses. Nano@HOME provides them with a way of learning about nanotechnology.”
Distributed computing is not only about giving the scientists cheap CPU cycles. Such projects are also important in the public understanding of science and can have implications for the disciplinary status of a field. Hence, they ought to be studied by the STS field. That is just what I am about to do.
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