As the Arctic is 30 degrees Celsius (50 F) warmer than what it should be right now, finding local solutions to cool down the poles suddenly doesn’t seem this far-fetched anymore.
Harvard
How I helped make better solar panels, and how you can
As you might perhaps have read in an earlier blog post, I am giving part of my computer calculation capacities to scientific projects close to my heart such as cancers, AIDS and of course, solar energy via the World Community Grid.
As I was wondering if all this energy – and thus money – had been wisely invested, I went to the World Community Grid official website and found news that made me quite happy as The Clean Energy Project data has been published !
” Thanks to World Community Grid volunteers, Harvard has published data about the suitability of 2.3 million organic compounds for converting sunlight into electricity. “
The Oath Project, CSR at work
For my 1,400th post on this blog, let’s talk about corporate social responsibility. If Medical Doctors have their Hippocratic Oath and lawyers have their equivalent, isn’t it high time for managers around the world to have their own ?
Corporate social responsibility – CSR for short – is more needed than ever as our planet is warming, our ecosystems are collapsing, our societies are suffering and our economies are crumbling.
Given both my management and business educational background and my passion for sustainability it was with interest that I read about The Oath Project.
Giving some of my computer time for science
A post from TreeHugger got me thinking : why wouldn’t I give some of my computer time to help advancing research ? I had written about this almost three years ago, and being looking for a job, I often have a computer running.
So, a month ago, on August 2nd, I started gathering information on The World Community Grid, how it works and how I can help. One of the thing that got me considered this was that IBM is sponsoring the project.
My two-year old computer (based on an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400) is now running calculations that will help finding better solar panels, better water filtration systems and fight cancers and AIDS.
Help in finding new solar technologies
If you let your computer idle while you are away or asleep, you might consider to allow Harvard and IBM to use it to do calculations for the Clean Energy Project, which is part of the World Community Grid.
Due to find new ways to create more efficient solar photovoltaïc panels and later of batteries, this project already has over a million people donating some of their computer time.
This could shorten an estimated calculation time of 22 years to only two. So, if you want to join this most interesting project, read on.