Even the fastest computers in the world can’t analyze every piece of data scientists have to wade through to make discoveries. At least, not without taking years or even centuries. Thankfully, using a form of crowdsourcing known as distributed computing, researching are able to harness the power of thousands—sometimes even millions—of computers around the globe. By simply installing a small piece of software, volunteers can let their computers analyze data in the background, sharing the computational effort with the primary researchers and other participants. While you sleep, you can literally be contributing to scientific breakthroughs…or, at least, your computer can. Stanford University is using distributed computing to help find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and many types of cancers.