There are some things in this world that are far more dangerous than terrorists. These things kill more people per year than would have died had we had an entire week of days like September 11.
What are they? Diseases.
Every year, an estimated 21,500 people die from leukemia, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Another 20,000 people will die from Alzheimer's disease.
If you want to do the morbid math, then you will find that over 35,000 people will die this year from only two different diseases. And there are many other diseases out there that are just as deadly.
Personally, I think that 35,000 is 35,000 too many, and I hope that many people will agree.
However, a lot of people may be thinking that there isn't much they can do to help. A common excuse is that one has no time or money to support various institutions that work to end disease.
Personally, I think such excuses are a little weak, but that's not to say I don't accept them.
After all, most people our age are generally busy with work and school, and after paying for tuition and textbooks, the money isn't exactly just lying around all over the floor.
But what if I told you that you could help fight these diseases without spending a dime?
"Uh oh," you might be thinking, "Here comes the request for volunteers."
Well, what if I told you that helping to fight these diseases would probably only cost you a few hours, not of your time, but of your computer's?
All you need is a personal computer and Internet access, and those few hours of time are a one-time thing, as opposed to once a week or once a month. Would you be interested in saving lives then?
The Intel Corporation's website offers a free program called the Intel Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program.
It is a program dedicated to what Intel is calling PC Philanthropy, which it defines as "the sharing of your unused computer resources, such as computing power and hard disk space, for the benefit of charity."
Basically, what this program does is link your computer through the Internet to a virtual supercomputer, which makes a huge amount of "processing power available to medical researchers, thus accelerating the development of treatments and drugs with the potential to cure diseases," according to Intel's site.
All you have to do is download the program and your computer can actually be involved in developing medicine for diseases such as leukemia, Alzheimers and even anthrax.
You can download the free program at http://intel.com/cure.
"That's all fine and dandy," you might be saying, "but I don't want my computer to be running slower than molasses while this program is running."
That's the beauty of it all. This program operates in the background and only uses unused computing resources on your computer. Therefore, according to Intel, you shouldn't even notice that it is running.
The only catch is that the program only works while your computer is running and connected to the Internet. Now I know some people just can't be on the Internet all of the time, but at least they can download the program and use it when they are online.
As for the people in the dorms with their high speed Internet access and their ability to leave their computers on all the time, this shouldn't be a problem at all.
Some people might be a little weary of connecting their computer to a supercomputer that has millions of other computers connected to it. What about potential computer viruses, for example?
Well, the danger of computer viruses is prevalent no matter what you do on the Internet, but Intel offers complete protection of each separate medical research program it offers. The danger is negligible and the potential rewards are priceless.
For those of you who still feel ambivalent about diseases such as leukemia, know that this year, an estimated 30,000 people will discover that they have this cancer.
A person can never really know whether he or she or a close relative will contract these diseases. These diseases know nothing of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation — no one is truly safe from getting them, and the causes of them are not well known.
You can help researchers learn more about the diseases just by donating your computing resources. Intel claims that with the help of computers like yours, researchers will be able to make serious headway into understanding these diseases in an estimated four years.
So the question I have for all of you is, "Why not?"
If you download the program and it slows your computer down, then just delete it and send me a nasty email complaining that it didn't work.
I use the program though at my house, and it hasn't been a problem so far for me. Why not give it a try?
Go to http://intel.com/cure and find out more for yourself.
Who knows? Maybe statistics like 35,000 deaths will finally become a thing of the past.
Jonathan Winkler is a mathematics sophomore. Reach him at jonathan.winkler@asu.edu.
