BOINC is a platform that allows computers all round the world to contribute their spare computing capacity to run distributed applications. Several of those involved with TheChels.org contribute their computers in such a way.
This is the permanent homepage under thechels.uk domain and is hosted on GitHub
Distributed applications are largely run by Universities to research fields such as Biology & Medicine, Earth Sciences, Mathematics or Physics & Astronomy. To cut a very long story short, there are two projects we'd like to talk about; Rosetta and World Community Grid.
Rosetta - Rosetta is described at About Rosetta with useful Wiki links that give an indication of what Protein folding is and how it relates to disease. Rosetta doesn't attempt to look for cures, but tries to replicate how proteins fold (or mis-fold) so that it can seek to improve on nature or find binding proteins that may be able to neutralise disease in the body.
Disease related research includes work that will help Malaria, Anthrax, HIV, Herpes, Alzheimers, Cancer, Prostate Cancer. More recent work has been targeted toward Bird Flu and Influenza.
World Community Grid - World Community Grid (WCG) does similar work, but is an umbrella project for several areas of research, currently Muscular Dystrophy, Childhood cancer, AIDS, Cancer, Human Proteome Folding and intermittently Dengue Fever, Influenza, Clean Energy and Nutritious Rice.
The software is 100% safe, and will not intrude on your normal computer use as it utilises it when you're not.