Helping While Gaming

It's always been easy to glamorize the video game industry .. it's fun, sexy, remarkably profitable, and truly one of the few pasttimes that span all ages and both genders.

But finding something truly helpful to come out of gaming? Well, unless you're a shareholder of Electronic Arts (ERTS), that might be hard to come by .. until now.

Much like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project started about eight years ago, the idea of linking computers that aren't being used, and having their combined power go towards helping scientists find things, is back in vogue. But this time, instead of linking all of your Dell and HP machines, a group of researchers at Stanford wants to link your Sony PS3s.

The PS3 is, of course, famous for letting you play video games that look great. Aside from that, it has super-fast chips that have caught Stanford's attention. These Bay Area researchers came up with an idea that would take the PS3's power (when you're not playing games on it), and give it to doctors looking into ways to fight diseases like cancer and Parkinson's. Get enough game consoles linked together, and, the researchers guess, you'll have a ton of power to test new ways to combat disease.

It's fascinating to know that this is even being tested .. it'll be fascinating to also track its progress, and see if anything comes of it.