A newfound pulsar, the dense remnant of an exploded star, was discovered via the volunteer computing project Einstein@Home. It is depicted here in an artist’s illustration. courtesy of F. Mokler
Devil schmevil. Idle computers are doing scientists’ work, helping researchers make all kinds of advances in fields from epidemiology to nanoscience to mathematics. Now home computers crunching away in Iowa and Germany have helped astronomers discover a neutron star known as a pulsar, a research team reports online August 12 in
Science